Metadata missing from iPhoto

I've just been forced to change from iPhoto to the Photo app and can I say I'm less than impressed. It is so much more difficult to navigate to start with. Half my photos have come across without their metadata such as titles. I spent hours sorting my photo library and naming photos and now I have photos that are missing everything. Is there any way to get it back? Why did this happen to some and not all? Very disappointed that the transfer wasn't seamless. Now I suppose I'll be spending hours again trying to relabel everything. Any solutions?

You weren't forced. Just launch iPhoto and keep using it if you want to.

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Photos Missing from iPhoto with Maverick Upgrade

I have recently upgraded to the Maverick OS and noticed that all my photos are now missing from iPhoto however I can see them under Preview when I use the Finder application. Also, when I open iPhoto it prompts me to enter personalized settings as if I am using it for the first time (ie: Face recognition, etc.) How can I get my photos back into iPhoto? I am worried I may lose them.

Have you upgraded iPhoto after your Mavericks upgrade?
Be aware after updating iPhoto save your iPhoto Library before you open it in the new version of iPhoto Library. If you don't and you have other Macs running eariler versions of iPhoto, they won't be able to open the Library.

All my old photos are missing from iPhoto on my Mac- any one have ideas on how to retrieve?

All my old photos are missing from iPhoto on my Mac- any one have ideas on how to retrieve?

Do you have a Time Machine backup or any backup of your Mac? Then you could try to restore from the backup.
If your photos are very important documents, you could also try data recovery software. Usually the trial versions are free, but if you want to safe the recovery photos you have to pay. Disk Drill works well to recover jPEG photos, see: http://www.cleverfiles.com/
It is still not obvious what might have happened to your iPhoto Library. Have you searched for different iPhoto Libraries?
You can search everywhere with FindAnyFile, where Spotlight will not search.
I learned this from Old Toad , see his post here:
Re: My iPhoto Library disappeared...how do I get it back?
Download and run Find Any File to search for a file with "ThumbJPGSegment" in the file name. These are files common to all versions of iPhoto libraries.
FAF can search areas that Spotlight can't like invisible folders, system folders and packages. If there's a library hiding somewhere on your hard drive FAF will find it.

Now I'm just ****** off - original photos missing from iPhoto

Ok.
So I had this problem the other day after upgrading to iPhoto 6 (see here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=406534&tstart=0)
That seemed to get solved from the information provided.
OK, great. So today, I'm flipping through some albums, and I discover, much to my chagrin, that some photos (all of which appear to be from 2000/2001) have thumbnails, but no longer have the photos attached.
And before you say, "hey, do you have the apple support framework 1.4?" why yes, I've already checked.
And before you say, "hey, did you try rotating/exporting/dragging the photos to your desktop?" Why yes, I've already tried.
As a matter of fact, when I try to go into the iphoto library file structure itself, and open some of these older photos (after searching around for them because ever since the upgrade, I appear to have about 800 different files in my iphoto folder), I get a message that the image either doesn't exist or is corrupt.
Speaking of the file structure, This is a list of what I get now when I open the pictures folder in finder:
2000 (folder)
2001 (folder)
2002 (folder)
2003 (folder)
2004 (folder)
2005 (folder)
AlbumData.xml
bdayfun.jpg
Data (folder)
Dir.data
iPhoto.ipspot
iPhotoLock.data
iPod Photo Cache (folder)
Library.cache
Library.data
Library.iPhoto
Library6.iPhoto
Modified (folder - NOTE: THIS DOES HAVE AN INTERNAL FOLDER FOR 2006, BUT NONE FOR 2000 0R 2001)
Original (folder - same as "Modified")
Thumb32Segment.data
Thumb64Segment.data
ThumbJPGSegment.data
All of the photos (so far) that appear to not open are from 2001 and earlier. They are also photos that were taken with an old digital camera, and have file names such as "3 - 141" rather than the more current file naming conventions (but I didn't name these photos - iPhoto did, based on the original roll imports.
I'm finding it extremely frustrating that iPhoto wasn't upgraded in a way that took into account how previous versions of iPhoto itself worked!.
Nevermind that I've submitted multiple bug reports about the fact that iPhoto continues to crash every time I try to empty the trash folder, and have heard not a peep out of Apple.
iMac G5; PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Hi Samantha,
I know it must be frustrating. there is some info in the iPhoto Help files for missing photos:
"What to do about a missing photo
When you import or edit photos in iPhoto, they are saved in the iPhoto Library folder, located in the Pictures folder on your computer.
If you move, delete, or otherwise change a photo in the iPhoto Library folder, and then open the iPhoto application and try to edit or use that photo, iPhoto may not be able to find it. You will see the missing photo indicator instead (shown below).
To find or replace a missing photo:
If you have the original photo file, either on a CD or on your computer, just import it again into iPhoto. For more information, see Related Topics below.
If you don't have the original photo, or you are trying to find an edited version, try one of the following options.
Click your computer's Trash icon (not iPhoto Trash) and see if the photo is still in there.
Do a search.
To search within the iPhoto Library folder, open your Pictures folder and then open your iPhoto Library folder. From there, click Command-F, choose Images from the Any pop-up menu, and enter a search term.
To search all your files and folders, in the Finder, choose File > Find and enter a search term.
IMPORTANT: When you find the photo file, don't drag it directly into the iPhoto Libary folder. Save it to your desktop, then import it back into iPhoto from there.
If you don't know the file name, try going back to the original iPhoto Library folder and look at the other images. If one is missing in a numerical order, it may be the photo you're looking for and you can search for it. If that doesn't work, try searching on the date you think you moved the file, or the date you last edited it."
As far as your file structure, those loose year folders (if empty) can be deleted or dragged to the trash.
If the Year folders have photos in them that are missing from your library, drag them to the desktop and import the photos into iPhoto.
Here is how the library should look and what the folders contain.
iPhoto 6 Library folder in the Finder
As you can see the structure is now related to rolls. Rolls are created for each folder you import and each import session from a camera.
It is very easy to change the names of film rolls within iPhoto to make them easier to find images within. Open the info panel in iPhoto by clicking on the "i" icon. Once it is opened, click on the roll title in the viewing window.
Click on the word "title" in the info pane and type in your new title. I like to use a date and text format such as 12/25/05 Christmas at Mom's, 1/05/06 my birthday, etc. Once the roll names are changed within iPhoto, they are also changed within the Finder, making it easy to locate an image.
When importing from a camera, make sure you name the roll with a date and text before the import.
As far as the trash is concerned, move most of the photos back into the library and delete a few at a time, then empty iPhoto's trash.
Some people have found success on making sure the trash folder is highlighted then go to iPhoto>empty trash.

Photos missing from iPhoto/TM backup but with a twist.....

So, there is a challenging twist associated with this case of missing photos and I hope an expert can provide some advice. Note: This is not related to upgrading from iPhoto '09 to '11 thank goodness!
Here is the story in condensed form, with additional details below:
MBP stolen but backed up with TM
Used TM on the replacement MBP to browse backup of iPhoto backup of stolen MBP
Restored iPhoto library to new MBP
Open iPhoto on new MBP and browse library
Everything looks OK except *FIVE* Events which show in the Event viewer as blank grey squares. However, the Events have the correct titles and show the correct number of pictures in brackets in the title. In addition, using the trackpad to scroll over the Event there are no thumbnails visible. If I click on the Event all the photos are greyed out but they do have the correct titles and keywords below the grey boxes. If I click on an individual photo I get a black exclamation mark in a grey circle. Interestingly the LAST IMPORT folder in iPhoto DOES show the thumbnails for ALL the missing pictures, all arrange with the correct Event titles. Of course, clicking on any individual picture gives me the same exclamation mark detailed above.
After reading these support forums I have tried the following:
1) Viewed package contents ---> the blank Events DO NOT show up as folders in the Finder window
2) Used COMMAND & OPTION to launch iPhoto and checked the following boxes in the REBUILD DIALOG BOX: rebuild small thumbnails/rebuild all of the photos' thumbnails/recover orphaned photos/examine and repair permissions ---> Issue persists
3) Download iPhoto Manager and tried EXTRACTING all the photos from the library --> Photos from missing events still not showing up. Not really surprising given that the VIEW PKG. CONTENTS in #1 above didn't show them either.
4) Used iPhoto Manager to REBUILD LIBRARY --> still doesn't show them
5) Used TM to browse the backup directly --> missing photos have blank placeholders only.
It appears for what ever reason the photos have been deleted from the backup. I say "deleted", as opposed to "not backup up", because iPhoto has the remnants of the photos (i.e, Events, thumbnails, titles, keyword, etc.). Any suggestions on how to possibly recover these missing pictures. How about the thumbnail versions at least, even in their their low resolution form. Although, I admit I don't know how/where thumbnails are dealt with in iPhoto as they don't seem to show up in the Library package contents.
Additional info:
OSX 10.7.5, iPhoto '09 is version 8.1.2, and iPhoto library is 75GB, 139 Events, 28,000 pics
The day before the MBP was stolen I downloaded a number of photos and did some editing. That night plugged the MBP in and noticed that the Time Machine did a number of backups through the night, although the iPhoto library seems untouched but can't be sure. The following morning, the computer was used for a few hours and thus had plenty of time to complete any backups necessary.
The *FIVE* Events that are affected seem to be the most recent ones, worked on the night before the MBP was stolen.

I cannot say for certian but it is highly likley that YES, when the person finished editing they just closed the lid of the computer and didn't actually quit iPhoto. So would this explain why there are fragmenst of them in the backup (i.e. Events, keywords, thumbnails, etc.) but not the actual image files? Any way I can at least save the extremely low res thumbnail versions?
I'm also going to try Data Rescue on the camera memory card to try and recover them that way.
Thanks.

"events" is missing from iPhoto source list / left-hand menu

The "events" menu option is suddenly missing from the left-hand side menu of my iPhoto library. See screenshot:
Photos, Faces, Places, but no Events! It used to be there and now it's not, not sure what happened. When I open a different iPhoto library it is there, so it seems like a problem with my iPhoto library? I tried rebuilding the iPhoto database and that didn't fix it. The event data still seems to be there, when I browse the photos view pictures are still grouped by events. Anyone have any suggestions? I'm using iPhoto v 9.6 on Yosemite. Thanks in advance for your help!

Try the following:
1 - delete the iPhoto preference file, com.apple.iPhoto.plist, that resides in your
User/Home/Library/ Preferences folder.
2 - delete the contents the following folder: User/Library/Containers/com.apple.iPhoto
3 - reboot, launch iPhoto and try again.
NOTE: For Mavericks and Yosemite, go to your Home folder and use the View ➙ Show View Options menu to bring the this window:
where you can check the Show Library Folder checkbox.

IPhoto events and pictures missing from iPhoto after restoring new hard drive and upgrade to iLife11

My iPhoto events and pictures are ALL missing from my iPhoto Library after I tried restoring my programs on a new hard drive AND upgrading to iLife11! Over the last few months, I upgraded my 2008 Macbook Pro's hard drive from a 250 GB to a 500 GB hard drive and since then have been manually installing and restoring programs and software. I decided to do things manually because I had problems with doing Time Machine backups/restores in the past, so before I upgraded the drive, I manually saved everything to a Western Digital MyStudio 1 TB hard drive that I had just for the purposes of a second back up. Anyway, I tried importing the pictures onto the new library, but couldn't find the hard copies at first, so that didn't work. I then tried deleting the iPhoto Library that came with new operating system, then copying my old backup onto the new hard drive...that didn't work either. However, when I right clicked on the iPhoto Library icon on my external hard drive (the original) and clicked on "show package contents," the folder not only contained the originals, but they were still organized by year and event just as I had them originally!
So, then I thought "why don't I try just importing the pictures directly into the new iPhoto Library!"
I tested it out, and sure enough, it worked! I then tried importing an entire folder (which, was actually the name of the event), and again it worked! So, I literally clicked and dragged my entire 2007-2009 library of pictures (which was about 35 GB) back into my iPhoto Library! AND, this only took about 30 minutes to download, enough time for me to write this post and the following instructions to Recap:
          1. Open your new iPhoto Library
          2. Go to wherever your ORIGINAL iPhoto Library is saved/backed up, then Right-click (or Control click) on the iPhoto icon
          3. Click on "Show Package Contents"
          4. Go to the folder called "Originals" or "Master"
          5. Click and drag everything INSIDE the folder (not the folder itself) to your new iPhoto Library
          6. DO NOT try Importing from inside iPhoto! For some reaseon, iPhoto can't see these images, but I promise, they're there!
I assume this could work on other iLife programs, but luckily I have MobileMe and my iCalendar updated itself, though I did have to do some tweeking...
Hope this helps other people out, GOOD LUCK!

I'm re-posting the answer to this problem so I can show it has been answered:
Open your new iPhoto Library
Go to wherever your ORIGINAL iPhoto Library is saved/backed up, then Right-click (or Control click) on the iPhoto icon
Click on "Show Package Contents"
Go to the folder called "Originals" or "Master"
Click and drag everything INSIDE the folder (not the folder itself) to your new iPhoto Library
DO NOT try Importing from inside iPhoto! For some reason, iPhoto can't see these images, but I promise, they're there!
          GOOD LUCK!!!

File Missing from iPhoto when syncing to iOS devices

When trying to sync any iOS device with my MacBook, I get an error stating that a file is missing. It only happens when I'm trying to sync photos, so I believe that a file is missing on my MacBook from iPhoto. Has anyone encountered this issue before?

Open the iPhoto Library with the finder:
Click to view full size
and move the folder titled iPod Photo Cache Or iPhone Photo Cache to the Trash. DO NOTHING ELSE! Close the package, launch iPhoto and try syncing again.
OT

Web Galleries from before MobileMe missing from iPhoto

All of my web galleries from before the MobileMe upgrade are missing from the iPhoto left panel. They all show up online at gallery.mac.com and gallery.me.com and in iPhoto under Preferences>Web Gallery>"Albums you published as. The one gallery created after the MobileMe upgrade does show up in iPhoto left panel. Can I re-sync the galleries? or is this a bug?

All of my galleries that existed before the changeover are still in my library. Must be something other than just a changeover issue. Look in the iPhoto/Web Gallery preferences to see if they are still listed there.
Do you still have the albums you used to create the galleries? You might have to recreate and republish them with the same gallery name.
Do you have a backup copy of the library or of the library's database file, Library6.iPhoto?
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) 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 or later), 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 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger 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.
Note: There now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

Some videos missing from iPhoto event in iMovie'08

I recently took some pictures and 7 videos and imported them into iPhoto. I intended to edit them in iMovie'08. I find that 3 of the videos are missing in the Event Library/iPhoto Library pane. I tried deleting them from iPhoto and importing again to no avail. Strangely, thumbnail videos were added to the iPhoto LIbrary/Data/2008/{event_name} folder inside the library data package.
*Yes, that's right, the iMovie thumbnail videos are stored in the iPhoto data file!!!!! Go figure!*
How do I fix this?

Update:
The problem lies in iPhoto: iPhoto has a problem with very large movie files and regularly fails to import them. When that happens I have to use the finder to drag he movie into iPhoto. For some reason, unknown to me, imported movies do not always get a file creation date. When that happens, iMovie'08 assigns a default: Dec 31, 1903 I think. To fix this I had to find each movie inside the iPhoto Library package and set the creation date to the modification date using Super Get Info [http://www.barebones.com/products/super> manually.
BUG! BUG! please fix.

Photos missing from iPhoto 11

A random assortment of photos that I use to teach have gone missing from my iPhoto library. They were present when I showed them to my class last week, and when I tried to display the same photos again this week, they were gone. One big block of missing photos is from the same date; a few others are from different dates. I have tried rebuilding the library--no luck. The original files are not in the Masters folder, either. I know I didn't delete them manually because A) I have never emptied the trash from within iPhoto (everything I've ever placed in the trash is still there), and B) I know better than to mess with the Library package.
I'm guessing at this point that the photos are just plain gone, but can anyone explain how or why? Is there anything I might have done inadvertently to cause the disappearance? Is this a known issue with iPhoto? It's driving me crazy. Thanks.

Others have inadvertantly deleted photos via the Finder and the My Photos item in the left hand pane of each Finder window.
It's not an iPhoto issue. Those original photos were deleted from the hard drive somehow but not by iPhoto. You can get a library without those "missing" photo thumbnails as follows:
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 Library ➙ 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. However, books, calendars, cards and slideshows will be lost. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.
OT

'Subfolder format' option missing from iPhoto '11 (v. 9.2.3)

Hi all,
I am trying to export all 697 events (60,565 pics/videos) in my iPhoto library to an external hard disk. I want to export them in the same folder structure, retaining the event names. I am not so fussed about retaining file names. After researching how to do this on the web, it appears that I should be able to do this easily using iPhoto '11 export options, however, the 'Subfolder format' option is missing from my export options box, even when I have selected multiple events.
Can anyone help me out please?
Thanks,
Sarah

The sub folder feature is available in iPhoto 9.4.3. I don't know about the earlier iPhoto 9 (11) versions. If you installed iPhoto from the iLife 11 disk you will have installed iPhoto 9.0 or 9.1. You can use the following updaters to get to 9.4.3:
1 - update to iPhoto 9.2.1
2 - update to iPhoto 9.3
3 - update to iPhoto 9.3.2
4 - update to iPhoto 9.4
5 - and finally to iPhoto 9.4.3

Trash is missing from iphoto

So weird, the Trash folder is missing from my iPhoto left nav bar. Does anyone know why and where it could have disappeared?

See Terence Devlin's answer here:
Trash icon gone
Probably your iPhoto preference file is corrupted and removing it from your user library will fix the problem, but you will have to reset your preference settings.

Themes missing from IPhoto

I am on Mac OS X 10.8.2 on an IMac. I have IPhoto 11 version 9.4.1 which I got by upgrading to it. The IMac also was upgraded to Lion 10.8 from Leopard. I now cannot print photos from IPhoto and get a message stating there are no themes installed. There also is no link to get and install themes. The only disk is the original one when I purchased the IMac. I do remember when upgrading IPhoto there was a message that the photo library would be updated and no longer readable by earlier versions of IPhoto. If I have to delete and reinstall IPhoto will my library still be useable. If so I need detailed information on how to do all of this. I really appreciate any help.

To re-install iPhoto
1. Put the iPhoto.app in the trash (Drag it from your Applications Folder to the trash)
2a: On 10.5: Go to HD/Library/Receipts and remove any pkg file there with iPhoto in the name.
2b: On 10.6: Those receipts may be found as follows: In the Finder use the Go menu and select Go To Folder. In the resulting window type
/var/db/receipts/
2c: on 10.7 they're at
/private/var/db/receipts
A Finder Window will open at that location and you can remove the iPhoto pkg files.
3. Re-install.
If you purchased an iLife Disk, then iPhoto is on it.
If iPhoto was installed on your Mac when you go it then it’s on the System Restore disks that came with your Mac. Insert the first one and opt to ‘Install Bundled Applications Only.
If you purchased it on the App Store or have a Recent Mac you can find it in your Purchases List.

Photos missing from iPhoto after operating system update

I recently updated my Macbook pro operating system to OS X version 10.10.1 and iPhoto to version 9.6 (910.29). After the updates, most of my albums in iPhoto are empty and in the photos folder, all photos pre-dating 2010 are missing. How do I recover these photos?

Obvious: restore from the back up you made prior to upgrading.
If that's not possible:
Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Repair Database. If that doesn't help, then try again, this time using Rebuild Database.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. (In early versions of Library Manager it's the File -> Rebuild command. In later versions it's under the Library menu.)
This will create an entirely new library. It will then copy (or try to) your photos and all the associated metadata and versions to this new Library, and arrange it as close as it can to what you had in the damaged Library. It does this based on information it finds in the iPhoto sharing mechanism - but that means that things not shared won't be there, so no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your events, albums and keywords, faces and places 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.
Regards
TD

Metadata missing from iPhoto

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