Missing rolls after restoring backup

Question

I recently restored from a backup, my entire Photo folder. When I launched iPhoto, only photos up to a certain date (4/20/07) we displayed, and nothing after. I looked in the directories, and the pictures are there in their Roll folders, both in "Original" and "Modified". I would like to get these back into iPhoto without too much fuss, without duplicates, and maintaining any editing that was done to modify them.

Answer 1

Copying the file made no difference. The same rolls were not visible in iPhoto.
Then your back up was corrupted. It's important not just to make back ups, but to test them too.
My plan was to re-import the rolls from April 2007 onward and then rebuild the library, which I assume will create a fresh library file.
You'll be re-importing to a damaged file whose stability cannot be guaranteed. Rebuilding the library (by holding down the apple and option keys?) does not create a new library file.
Your secondary suggestion above led me to believe that I would create a fresh library and re-import EVERY photo, losing any metadata, adjustments, etc. that I have made to the first 8000 photos.
That is correct. That's why I say
Note this will give you a working library with the same film rolls and pictures as before, however, you will lose your albums, keywords, books, calendars etc.
What might be worth trying is to create a new library and use iPhoto Library Manager to move rolls, albums and their associated metadata to the new library. It's the only way of doing it while preserving metadata. I'm not sure it will work on the damaged library, but you can download a free trial from the link above and see.
Regards
TD
Message was edited by: Terence Devlin