Library no longer found?

Question

All of a sudden my entire music library of 18,517 songs (85GB) cannot be found even my Options clearly point to the folder where all of the songs are saved.  The songs are still there, my iTunes pages has all the right enties, but they all have the little exclamation point indicating file not found.
Under options I tried switching to another folder and back to the good one and it seems it has "lost the key" to where everything is saved.
I am bit leery of rebuilding my entire iTunes database since many have CD covers I had to manually save and link in.
Ideas?
Thanks upfront.

Answer 1

Gregory
if its going to corrupt your library why not some warning.
If they thought it would corrupt your library then they'd hardly have released it now would they?
Of course before any update, you backed up right?
Try these in order - from best option on down...
1. Do you have an up-to-date back up? If so, try copy the library6.iphoto file from the back up to the iPhoto Library (Right Click -> Show Package Contents) allowing it to overwrite the damaged file.
2. Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums back.
3. If neither of these work then you'll need to create and populate a new library.
To create and populate a new library:
Note this will give you a working library with the same Events and pictures as before, however, you will lose your albums, keywords, modified versions, books, calendars etc.
In the iPhoto Preferences -> Events Uncheck the box at 'Imported Items from the Finder'
Move the iPhoto Library to the desktop
Launch iPhoto. It will ask if you wish to create a new Library. Say Yes.
Go into the iPhoto Library (Right Click -> Show Package Contents) on your desktop and find the Originals folder. From the Originals folder drag the individual Event Folders to the iPhoto Window and it will recreate them in the new library.
When you're sure all is well you can delete the iPhoto Library on your desktop.
In the future, in addition to your usual back up routine, you might like to make a copy of the library6.iPhoto file whenever you have made changes to the library as protection against database corruption.
Regards
TD