Lost photos around 10,000 from 2003 - 2008

Question

I am desperate!!! I was so fed up with opening up iphoto and the beachball from **** spinning around for hours while my 10,000 photos were loading that I decided to dump everything up to 31 December 2007 onto my hard drive, and delete them from the current library. I transferred the folders, and lo and behold, the new library (renamed as instructed in support) opened very quickly with the one photo I took in 2008. Hooray. However... I have to make a photo album for my 5 adopted children's birth parents, showing them how they have grown over the last year. There is nothing on the hard drive, and NOTHING ON THE MAC. Oh My God, I seem to have completely erased every single photo from 2003 to date. HELP ME PLEASE. I cannot take fake pics of the kids for the birth parents and I want them for myself too, as I was in the process of making an album, and it has all gone. My husband says nothing has ever really gone, and it can be retrieved if I know how (he is a pc guy so what does he know?) Can anyone help me?

Answer 1

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. I'm pretty sure your photos are save inside the iPhoto Library package. You can Control-click on the package and select the Show Package Contents Option. Then look inside the Originals folder to verify that your photos are in the subfolders.
You can try rebuilding the library as follows: launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys depressed and follow the instructions to rebuild the library. Select the first three options. I'm not confident this will work but it's worth a try.
Next try:
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
1 -Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
2 -Click on the Add Library button, navigate to your User/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
3 - 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
4 - In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
5 - Click on the Create button.
Note: It may take some time to create the new library if you have a lot of photos. Report back on how long it took and how many photos you have in the library so we can give other users an idea of how long it may take.
Lastly if the above don't resurrect your library you'll have to start over with a new library and import the originals folder from the old one as follows:
Creating a new library while preserving the Events from the original library.
Move the existing library folder to the desktop.
Open the library package like this.
Launch iPhoto and, when asked, select the option to create a new library.
Drag the Originals folder from the iPhoto Library on the desktop into the open iPhoto window.
This will create a new library with the same Events as the original library if you have the Finder checkbox unchecked in the Events preference pane.
To make it easy to recover from this type of problem, damaged/corrupted database file, in the future see the tip at the end of my signature.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 08 libraries and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.