Library rebuild

Basically I had the hard drive go down on me that held 80% of my iphoto library, I got the drive up and running with disk warrior and moved the photos to a new drive, but now ( obviously ) non of the thumbnails match the pictures.
Now I could find them all manually but there's 7000 odd photos here so I deleted all of the original thumbnails and tried batch re-importing the photos but... I get this message for every photo I'm trying to import and I'm really not in the mood for clicking it 7000 times.
!http://i.imgur.com/urSlp.png!
FTR I've booted iPhoto using cmd alt to rebuild the library, but I'm still getting the same message.
How can I stop iPhoto from pointing at the drive that is no longer there?
Thanks.

Sounds like you're running a Referenced Library, where the files are not copied to the iPhoto Library Folder on import, yes?
My reading of your description is that you were and, also, the library is on one drive and the actual photos are on another.
IF so, then this is a real problem as iPhoto has no tools to reconnect with originals where the path to the original has changed.
As you know, iPhoto creates an alias in the iPhoto Library Folder/ Originals to the actual location of the files. WIth this alias-broken issue some folks have managed to repair the aliases using an app like [FileBuddy|http://www.skytag.com/filebuddy> . If that fails then your only option is to reconnect them aliases manually, one at a time.
It's the single greatest reason why I would not use iPhoto in this way.
However, you seem to have exacerbated the issue somewhat:
so I deleted all of the original thumbnails
How did you delete the thumbnails? By going into the Library Folder and trashing them?
Don't change anything in the iPhoto Library Folder via the Finder or any other application. iPhoto depends on the structure as well as the contents of this folder. Moving things, renaming things or otherwise making changes will prevent iPhoto from working and could even cause you to damage or lose your photos.
Now you have a real problem. The database is hopelessly confused. I'm afraid you've trashed it beyond repair.
Make a new Library and start over.
Regards
TD

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My iPhone library says library rebuilding I cant fix this I am trying to recover my photos and video please help.

My grandfather recently passed away. I have photos of our last moments together and i went to upload them to computer and Iphone says library rebuilding. I cant see the photos on the harddrive or anything. I am really nervous I lost these i had a video and everything I am really lost for words.....if anyone can give me any help on how to fix this i read something saying get the Iphone browers but it wont install.

Image Capture will only import photos and videos from the camera roll, not from photo stream. In order to import them with Image Capture, you would first need to save the photo steam photos to his camera roll by opening his my photo stream album, tapping Edit, tap all the photos, tap Share, tap Save to Camera Roll. You can then import them with Image Capture. After doing so, delete them from his camera roll by opening his camera roll, tap Edit, tap the photos you want to delete, then tap Delete.
If you did this carefully, he would never know. The risk is that you accidently left one or more photo stream photos in his camera roll and he noticed it.
Before doing this, check to see if the photo stream photos are already in his camera roll. The may be as all photo stream photos originate from the camera roll. Unless he subsequently deleted them, they would still be there and could be imported with Image Capture without needing to change anything on his phone.

IPhoto '09 library rebuild has no "Repair Library" option

Recently I've given in to doing some cleanup with regards to my iPhoto library. Looking around on the forums some people gave some tips on how to go about this, some suggested apps for purchase and some free scripts people made themselves. For some reason one app I was using couldn't find all of the dupes and would only find some, and the script I found would get interrupted and stopped at a point basically saying that a certain file isn't where it's supposed to be, probably due to a few times that I just manually deleted the photo from it's location instead of deleting it in iPhoto and having iPhoto do its job. So it seems the iPhoto Library isn't updated, and isn't updating. Attempted to do the library rebuild as a possible solution and the first option in the screenshot isn't available when i hold command + option keys as instructed
instead, this is what i get
re: automatic backup, my external drive that I normally backup to is currently out of commission so that's not an option. Thanks.

The top screenshot is from iPhoto 11, the lower one is from iPhoto 09. That's why they are different.
Here's a thing: if this is the case
... due to a few times that I just manually deleted the photo from it's location instead of deleting it in iPhoto...
Your library is not fixable by iPhoto. You've corrupted it beyond repair.
Options now:
1. 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 and keywords back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.
Depending on how much damage you've done this may or may not work. But it's free and worth a try.
2. Restore from a back up created before you damaged the Library. (BTW "my external drive that I normally backup to is currently out of commission" means "I don't have a back up", doesn't it?)
3. Create a new Library, recover your masters and start over from scratch.
Regards
TD

During a library rebuild, 'Restoring Faces' continues endlessly...I have no faces identified in my pictures.

During an Aperture Library rebuild, process hangs at RESTORING FACES for hours, rebuild does not progress beyond this stagnation. My library contains no identified faces to restore.
Rebuild was indicated when I attempted to update my vault.

Try an All Images Search:
In the Finder:
Command - f
Kind: Images
Size: Greater than 300kb (This is to avoid all the thumbnails, icons and so on.)
Set it to search the Mac.
As to why? The most likely answer is user error, I'm afriad. It does point up the importantce of always having a back up.
Regards
TD

Hanging during library rebuild

I was finding way too many black triangles in my 135 GB library.
So I decided to try and rebuild the library using options 1,2, and 6 in the rebuild library option screen. The library is on a 500 GB USB external drive with nothing but the iphoto library on it. It is connected to a Intel Core Duo Mini running 10.6.8 and iphoto 9.1.5
I started in Wednesday October 5th.
The screen show:
"Examining photo library..."
and another window:
"Rebuilding library: 26560 Version restored."
The grey wheel is still spinning.
It has hung on this screen for 71 hours and counting...
I have a screenshot at this link:
/___sbsstatic___/migration-images/162/16299336-1.png
QUESTION:
1. Since my database is 135 GB with 26,560 photos/videos is it expected to take this long?
2. If not, then what can I do differently?

That's way too long. Quit iPhoto, use Force Quit if you have to. Then try rebuilding just the preferences option (#6) to see if you can get thru that. If you do then try #1 and #2.
I don't have a library that large but for a 2,500 photo library rebuilding only takes about a 40 seconds using those three options. So by scaling I would expect your library should take around 5 minutes. However, with the library on an external USB drive it will take longer. Don't know what the speed difference will be.
After #6 I'd try #1 next. The automatic backup of #2 may be damaged.
If none of the iPhoto rebuilds fix your library you're next step is this:
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
Click on the Add Library button, navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the File ➙ Rebuild Library menu option
In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
Click on the Create button.
Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments but not books, calendars or slideshows. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.
OT

HT3805 If I have 500,000 images, how long should a library rebuild take?

I have close to 500k images and had to do a library rebuild. It took over 10 hours, but never stopped. Now that it has processes all the photos, it is still saying processing and I'm just waiting. How long should I wait?

40 hours.
Seriously.
It will finish.
There's not much else you can do. If you stop the process, you just have to start over.

Iphoto 9.3 and Mountain Lion Problems : Cant access my library : rebuilding doesn't work just hangs for hours

My Macbook Pro running Snow Leopard, had hard drive failure so I had to borrow a friends similar machine to access my iPhoto library ( 523 GB) on a 1TB drive after editing the photos and after exporting one folder of images the program quit and then asked me to repair which I tried hung up at 99% and would not open the event thumbnails . I have tried everything even trying to transfer the particular event from that library to a new library using iphoto manager just so I can export my project and send but still no success as it is telling me that it is getting no info from the library, I changed permissions on the drive ..still no success . I restarted Iphoto and it took hours to show the images but all events thumnails said "0" and it shows all the event cover photos as a gray photo with a palm tree in it or something . I tried rebuilding again this morning and the new library says "0" photos and a library size of 7.3 mb
I got my own Macbook 17in back yesterday and downloaded Mountain Lion to my machine and Iphoto 9.3
I tried to open the library which is 523 GB of images that used to work fine before getting an error message saying it needed to be repaired. I tried opening it with Iphoto 9.3 via I photo manager which told be that there were inconsistencies in the library and it needed to be repaired I chose that option and it is now the following day still "rebuilding thumbnails" since last night . This is a huge problem I have missed project deadlines and my income is severely affected by this situation of not being able to access my work. What can I do to fix this, access my files and export my overdue project at this point ?

Terence I find it surprising that you would say use Iphoto Manager after saying that I used it to rebuild using it took me to 99% of the way and just hung. I even spent my $20 and got the latest version 3.8.3 which was supposed to remedy these issues. See below my email to Fat Cat software the makers of Iphoto Manager:
"Email to Fat Cat Software : Re Iphoto problems:
My Macbook Pro running Snow Leopard, had hard drive failure so I had to borrow a friends similar machine to access my iPhoto library ( 523 GB) on a 1TB drive
after editing the photos and after exporting one folder of images the program quit and the asked me to repair which i tried …it hung up at 99% and would not open the event thumbnails .I have tried everything trying to transfer the particular event from the library to a new library using Iphoto Manager just so I can work on my project but still no success as IPLM is telling me that it is getting no info from the library, I changed permissions on the drive ..still no success .
I opened it using IPLM and it took hours to show the images but all events said "0" and it shows all the event cover photos as a gray photo with a palm tree in it or something . I tried rebuilding again this morning and the new library says "0" photos and a library size of 7.3 mb . There
really seems to be a serious problem with Iphoto 9.3 as it
asks you to rebuild or repair the library then IPLM stops at 99% leaving
the thumbnails
unviewable and just hangs up after that or wont open and there the problems start.
Please advise and give me some viable options on this issue."
Its days later and the support at Fat Cat software emailed me asking a question and are apparently just as floored as I am with this malfunction ..I hope they are working feverishly to address this as my conclusion and solution is as follows :
Using the older version of Iphoto Library Manager when my machine asked me to upgrade and rebuild instead of the first aid function in Iphoto 9.3 did not help but actually corrupted my library and downloading the latest version did not help remedy it either. What I should have done and am now doing is using the Iphoto first Aid function in Mountain Lion and Iphoto 9.3 using option command to rebuild the entire library. So far it is working with no hangups ...it is now rebuilding image version number 6715 and counting with 33000+ images to go ..if this solution really rebuilds then that is the ONLY way to go with this issue which has cost me a lot of time and money in missed deadlines , lost income and lost business . Iphoto and Iphoto Library manager are normally great in what their purposes are and in ease of use and function but whenawry with compatibility in version software issues arise things go terribly awry and the tedious painstaking fixes available that go for days on end just do not cut it.

ITunes Library Rebuild From Apple TV After Hard Drive Crash

I had my iTunes library and content on an external firewire hard-drive. I synched all of content, music, photo's and movies to my apple TV. My external hard drive completely failed -its dead.
Is there a way to create a new itunes library and rebuild it by importing content from the Apple TV essentially reverse synching.

stickmanpar wrote:
Is there a way to create a new itunes library and rebuild it by importing content from the Apple TV essentially reverse synching.
unfortunately, there isn't. see this user tip.
JGG

RAW thumbnails missing after iPhoto library rebuild

iPhoto would not open for me shortly after upgrading to Lion. I rebuilt the library using command + option with all checkboxes checked. All JPEG thumbnails were present, but all RAW thumbnails just showed a black box with a dashed line. When I double click the missing thumbnail, the image does appear in iPhoto.
I then rebuilt the library a second time, but the problem is the same. The iPhoto library is in the normal place on the startup drive.
RAW photos were generated with a Canon Digital Rebel and Canon 40D cameras. I do have Aperture on the system as well.

As I say, I've seen it take 4 times to work.
Other than that:
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 and keywords back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.

Hung the iPhoto library rebuild

Intermittently, iPhoto synchronizes all my events to my iPhone 4 or iPad 2 in random order. The events are not in alphabetical order (like I have the on the computer), or apparently even time-ordered, expect that the most recently created event does seem to appear at the very bottom of the list. This makes finding the events I want on the phone/pad agonizing, since there are many events and many thousands of photos. To make matters worse, when I plug the device into the computer, and look at the synchronization details in iTunes, the list of events appears random there too. Albums and Faces are always in order. I've deleted all photos from the device, then re-synced. That seemed to help once and failed about 9 times. Occasionally the problem seems to fix itself for a while. Right now it's fine on my iPhone and messed up on my iPad. Suspecting library corruption, I tried to rebuild the iPhoto Library after making a backup. It gets to 98% then hangs forever when I ask for the first option (rebuild) with or without other options selected. If I ask for the rebuild from automated backups option, it gets to "Rebuilding Library: 14625 Versions restored" then hangs forever. If I only ask it to rebuild thumbnails (either of the 2 options) it has no trouble.
I'm stumped. Anyone have experience with this issue???
--Scott

I've got the same problem with iPhoto. Hangs at 69% when rebuild; hangs at a large number of items when rebuilding from backup. If I try to rebuild from backup, wait for the hang, and then force quit, the library is corrupted and iPhoto opens up with nothing. I have to use Time Machine to rebuild.

Aperture 3 Library Rebuild - Not getting the option..

Hi,
I'm very frustrated. Running 3.01 and unable to export anything - all my photos are locked into Aperture!! I am trying to Rebuild my library. I have tried Command+Option when double-clicking on the Aperture Library yet it just starts as normal and immediately goes into "processing". I twice managed to get the option to repair/rebuild etc but that's in about 50 attempts. I just have tried this at least 20-30 times and still nothing. Is there another way of getting this option up??
My first ever post - you are my only hope!!
Thanks,
Stuart.

If this isn't working for you (not sure why as it worked for myself and most others who have posted the SHIFT key solution...) try this:
Locate which project is being processed for photos, count from the end backwards to locate the 31st photo if this is the photo number where your processing activity hangs. You can verify by individually generating a new thumbnail for each photo until the hang starts again. After locating the troublesome photo: remove the photo to your desktop. Reimport the photo to the project. See if this works. I too had one bad photo in a mobileme gallery having a problem generating a thumbnail. While I could use the shift key to boot into Aperture and work, to fix the problem I had to remove and then reimport the photo to make a proper thumbnail and stop the process loop each time I wanted to publish my specific gallery. I did, however, notice that my photo was a panorama. Sometimes wonky things happen with panos and I think it has something to do with the EXIF data. Perhaps it was the name of the master file. Not sure...good luck and post any developments.

Library rebuilds but iPhoto won't close on its own

I recently had to restore my entire system from a backup and when I did, the largest of my libraries, 1945 photos, would not load up without doing a rebuild. The rebuild completes fine and all the photos are restored but when I try to close iPhoto, it just hangs. If I Force Quit it, it's as if I never did the rebuild at all and the library is inaccessible again.
Is there anything I can do short of reimporting all those photos into a new library?
PowerMac G4 1.25GHZ MDD iPhoto 5

Had to reimport whole library folder, delete thumbnails.

Library rebuild on startup - what is missing ?

I rebuilt one of my smaller libraries and it ran without error. It did however reduce the library size by approximately 500MB. The library is only 70GB and has never been rebuilt before and is ~18-20 months since its creation.
Q. What has been deleted in the rebuild ? 500MB seems like a lot of eDust and iChaff for a rebuild.
Found nothing in the manual or my two aperture books to explain this reduction which is not clever. Did I loose images ?
Since getting a MacPro i've had a LOT of Aperture and two system-level panics.

Allen,
You may well be right. After i discovered the library compression i immediately copied the previous evening's backup library. I opened both pre and post rebuilt libraries and after an initial mismatch of 6 images made me think the worse, on checking the rejects, 6 were sitting on the cliffside. So i can confirm no apparent dataloss in the image count - phew. 0.7% is proportionately , but i'd still like to read in the Apple manuals that this sort of compression is normal. It help prove the Aperture team have thrashed the pants-off it in testing and written it up confidently. "To know" vs. "to have faith".
Recent crashes are around the x1900 video card. Permissions and hardware are fine. Crashing was evident before 10.4.11, only now worse in 1.5.6 with more video issues and some other new minor bugs in Aperture. Not convinced 1.5.6 and 10.4.11 have been through the test grinder sufficiently before release.
Have climbed the applecare support levels, on my third x1900 video card and chasing the alleged rev2 version. I'm not convinced it exists, if it does its not identifiable! Too busy working around issues currently. Will take time-out next week to climb applecare again.
This issue is though closed. No apparent image data lost. Suggestion to add write-up around rebuilds in manuals submitted.
Thanks.

How long should library rebuild take?

I realize this would be a relative answer depending on config. but just looking for some point of reference.
Running AP 2.1.4 on iMac 2.8, 2G, unfortunately library is on HD (but not for long). AP library is about 200 GB and 25000 images.
Forced to rebuild library, started about 28 hrs ago and the progress bar hasn't moved since. It rushed to about the 75% point and has been there for 28 hrs. BTW, the the dialog/progress box is labeled "Checking library consistency" and the status is "Running VACUUM on database"
I don't believe it's stuck because the Activity Monitor shows some activity under the Aperture process name.
I just want to know (based on this data), am I almost there? Do I have another hour, another day, another week. Is the "risk" of force quitting as bad as I'm picturing it?
Would really like to get back to work.
Any help would be appreciated.

Adman_Rob wrote:
Same issue here. My Library got damaged when a drive was disconnected without being properly unmounted. Aperture gave me an error saying is could not read the Library and quit.
I then launched Aperture holding Command and Alt and selected Rebuild in the Library First Aid panel. Over 12hrs later I had to force quit the process as I had to move the Machine.
OK, I'll take a SWAG at this. I rebuild my Library of about 10,000 images (150 GB) about once a year (whether it needs it or not). Rebuilt it prior to upgrading to AP3 and then, once again, after AP3. A full on rebuild takes about 20-30 minutes. This is internal or on Firewire of some form. USB is painfully slow, but it still should not take more than twice the time. I would say that something is wrong. (Sorry for stating the obvious.)
Looking at the quote above, I must ask, did you try to repair the disk first, with Disk First Aid, Disk Warrior, or similar? If not, I suspect that that is your problem. If your disk is broken, the library may never get rebuilt. An Aperture Library is simply a pile of files, but if the operating system can't keep them straight, then Aperture will never be able to rebuild the pointers.
Not much, I grant you, but I hope this is helpful.
But looking at

Lost photos after iPhoto library rebuild - what happened?

After noticing that there were albums entitled Recovered photos in my iPhoto library, I deleted those albums. As expected, i got a message that i was not really deleting the originals, just getting rid of such albums. There were about 5 of those "recovered albums": one contained about 30 photos; three had zero and another had over 1000 photos. Subsequent to that, thinking of making this library totally clean, I decided to do a "libraty rebuild" using the option-command rebuild procedure of iphoto. I checked all the options presented for that procedure. To my surprise, when the process was finished I had less events, and less photos. A careful visual check of the display pane of events and photos confirmed that i had lost actual photos. I tried to reclaim those lost photos with another rebuild -- this time using iphoto library manager, but without success. What happened? Is there any way to reclaim those lost photos?
I do have a backup, but would prefer to correct the problem in the original library to avoid having to assemble and clean up duplicates that i had before.
I'm using the newest version of iPhoto: 8.1 and OS X 10.5.8 on a MacBook 2.4 Ghz - 2Gb Ram - 250 GB HD, 42 GB available. My iPhoto library has over 12000 photos

Why these things happen is always difficult to answer. My experience with iPhoto is using it since v1 on with a single library that's upgraded each new versions and migrated from G4 iMac to G5 iMac to Intel iMac and then a second Intel iMac. I load photos in, my wife does and my 12 year old does too.
And never had a problem.
The database gets corrupted when the app is interrupted when writing to it. The usual causes of this include a crash, a force quit or a lost connection to the Library on an external disk. More rarely minor disk or directory damage might be a cause.
I wondered when I read your report
Subsequent to that, thinking of making this library totally clean, I decided to do a "libraty rebuild" using the option-command rebuild procedure of iphoto. I checked all the options presented for that procedure.
The options presented for that procedure include various items that require the app to read the database file plus this one
Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.
+I Wonder+ - I stress, I wonder, no more - if reading to rebuild various thumbnails from a file that is being vacuumed +while at the same time+ is being replaced by a backup is what caused the issue.
If it is, then the Rebuild from Back Up option should be sandboxed and not possible while the other events are going on.
But that's just a guess.
Regards
TD

Library rebuild failure

My problems started with the big grey multi-language box appeared asking to Restart computer appearing a couple of times – kernel panic? I just optimistically carried on. (What happened next may suggest my iPhoto software is damaged and that this resulted in kernel panic?)
Then a message about upgrading thumbnails appeared when opening iPhoto 5.0.4 – I tried both options (Upgrade and Later) but just got the spinning wheel for ages. So I read a previous post here which suggested a Rebuild of iPhoto. I backed up, copying from Pictures folder to Desktop. The Rebuild progress bar appeared briefly, but then disappeared and I was left with ‘No photos’ in iPhoto – so now I have a bigger problem!
What I do not want to do is rebuild the library manually, as I have 4000 photos - many of which are captioned, and a structure of numerous folders and albums, also slideshows – months of work which would be lost! I’m quite distressed about this prospect.
I have Canon’s EOS Viewer Utility 1.1, EOS Capture v1.1 and PhotoStitch 3.1 and Adobe’s Photoshop Elements 2.0 installed – I could uninstall these, in case they’re interfering? I could also download and reinstall iPhoto 5.0.4? The library contained approx 7.5GB of photos – could iPhoto be overloaded? I have 1GB RAM, do I need more? Are iPhoto Library Manager or File Salvage worth downloading?
Does anyone have any comments / ideas, please?
iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Thanks for the tips guys...have done steps 1 to 4 as outlined in the troubleshooting guide by X-Lab which Rick (JMEH) suggested. These included 1.running Apple Hardware Test, 2.checking SMART diagnostics, repairing Startup Disk, repairing Permissions, performing cache cleaning, 3.confirming sufficient RAM and disk space, 4.doing a Safe Mode check on Login/Startup items...everything OK!
Have retrieved a 3.2MB Album.xml file, from the pre-rebuild Library backup I made. Hoping that I could do an iPhoto Rebuild using iPLM on the original library using this Album.xml file. However, I received this message...
"This library cannot be rebuilt. The album data file for this library is malformed. Conversion of data failed. The file is not UTF-8, or in the encoding specified in XML header if XML. See iPhoto Library Manager Help for troubleshooting information."
I've recently been using lots of Special Characters for captioning photos using German and French place names - should this be a problem? Sent the .xml to Brian Webster just in case he can decipher a clue in it, cos I can't even open it. So looks like I'm stuck with a manual rebuild and losing months and months of cataloguing work!
Just for reference, here's how events leading to corruption of photos and Album.xml file occured...Monday - mistakenly hit Power button when computer unplugged at wall, flicked mains switch then hit Power button again = first kernel panic and loud fan humming, then downloaded photos OK...Wednesday - edited Last Roll OK, put on Sleep mode, reboot from Sleep = kernel panic, continued editing (the photos which became corrupted), half hour later = 'Upgrade Thumbnails' and hung up, all attempts to Rebuild failed...Saturday - reboot from Sleep mode (not been using iPhoto at all) = kernel panic.
So I'm hoping the kp's are over now. But if I go back to using iPhoto I'm left with no folders, albums, captions or slideshows - and really don't want to risk this scenario again! Suppose I could frequently back up the Album.xml file. Failing that, are there any other, more reliable photo cataloguing/management systems out there? Maybe just organise them in Finder - seems a pity when iPhoto can do some nice stuff and is so easy to use...
Interested to hear any comments on the way forward.
Rossy
iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.7)
iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Library rebuild

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