IPhoto S-L-O-W & Crashes Routinely

Question

Let me start this post by saying that I have fallen in love with all things Mac since I made the switch from the Wintel world in May. However, I have had a dreadful experience with one piece of Apple software - iPhoto - which is, of course, the topic of this post. Virtually every action in this software package, from moving a slider bar, to clicking a button, to reducing a photo, to applying a modification, initiates a labored hard-drive spool-up, a l-o-n-g time lag and the spinning kaleidoscope of death. 80% of the time I attempt to download new photo's from my digital camera iPhoto crashes. I am using all new, top-of-the line Apple hardware/software, and a new Sony high end digital camera. I am open to the idea that my software preferences are not set correctly, or that I am somehow missing a big picture item. However, if this is not "pilot error", then I must say this software package is a piece of SH*T, and certainly not representative of the other Apple products I've purchased (and that list is long). Do the guys at Apple know what a slug this thing is? and how unstable? why can't this product be made to work FAST and reliable, like iTunes for instance? I'd appreciate any feedback or instruction which will move me down the road to iPhoto enlightenment. Thanks.

Answer 1

What camera are the photos from? Nikons and some others cause bloating of the Library.iPhoto file in the iPhoto Library folder and causes slowness. How much free space do you have on your HD? Since you just got it in May I'm guessing you have at least 15% free or more. Correct me if I'm wrong.
You can try clearing out the various caches and run the cron maintenance (unix) scripts with OnyX. Your first restart afterward will be slower but will get back to normal on the subsequent starts.
OT