My iPhoto photolibrary disappeared from external hard drive.

Due to its size, I keep my iPhoto on an external HD. I'm sure the photos are still there, but they do not show via my mac. I read a suggestion to delete the photolibrary from iPhoto Manager, but now iPhoto will not open. Ratherm I receive an error message, "The photo library needs to be upgraded to work with this version".
Help, we have 5 years of family pics on this library. I did back it up, but it's been a year or so ago.

Your problem is with the ED, then, isn't it?
And you canmot have an iPhoto Library on a Network share.
iPhoto needs to have the Library sitting on disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Users with the Library sitting on disks otherwise formatted regularly report issues including, but not limited to, importing, exporting, saving edits and sharing the photos.
See this article
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168
for more. Note also the comment:
“Additionally, storing the iPhoto library on a network rather than locally on your computer can also lead to poor performance or data loss.”

Similar Messages

IPhoto disappeared from external hard drive

My 3TB hard drive died recently, and I purchased a new iMac and attempted to restore all of my data from my external hard drive. This was successful EXCEPT that my iphoto library has completely diasppeared from my time machine/external hard drive. I have checked every back-up recorded for years and it has completely vanished. I know iphoto had been backing up correctly as I used it just 2 months ago to restore some photos. It would appear from the usage on my external hard drive that the photos are all still there, but I cannot find them anywhere. When I search for iphoto, iphoto.library, and even any jpg files, nothing comes up. Does anyone have any experience with a similar situation please?

Your problem is with the ED, then, isn't it?
And you canmot have an iPhoto Library on a Network share.
iPhoto needs to have the Library sitting on disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Users with the Library sitting on disks otherwise formatted regularly report issues including, but not limited to, importing, exporting, saving edits and sharing the photos.
See this article
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168
for more. Note also the comment:
“Additionally, storing the iPhoto library on a network rather than locally on your computer can also lead to poor performance or data loss.”

Entire iPhoto pictures missing from external hard drive.

Hello, I have already posted this problem but I'm not sure it was clear enough and not getting the response I needed. I had a Jan 2011 white laptop came with snow leopard, and I upgraded to Lion. A good few months ago, my daughter splashed a small amount of water on it, whilst it was turned on and open. I dried off the water I could see, and the mac was still working so I assumed it was ok. (At this time it had a very low battery and was not connected to a power source) Later on in the afternoon, forgetting about the incident, I did the unthinkable and plugged in the power lead. Result: nothing, the laptop would not boot up, I tried a few times, even holding down the power key for extended time but nothing. I eventually gave up and got myself a new macbook 10.9.2 then two days ago, took the old burnt out laptop to a place to get them to remove the hard drive and fit it in a case for me with a usb connection. They done this, I got home and connected the external hard drive off my old mac into my new mac, success I could see it but when I tried launching I photo from the external HD (old lap top) on my new mac. (I didn't realise there would be a software issue which is obvious now)The new mac with mavericks said it could not open iphoto. So I tried searching for the photo files manually on my external hard drive (but there was nothing) The user files were completely empty. It showed hardly any bytes (indicating I had nothing) My itunes files where gone too, and I could find no files I needed that were originally on my old (mac/ now external harddrive) The only items that were intact were the documents in the documents folder and the applications. I took the external hd back to the repair shop and they said they could not find them. They said they would charge me £100 for an attempted recovery of data which I 'm now not sure what to do, as I'm unsure what has happened. I desperately would like to get some of the data back, i;e (some files from desktop and photos) as frustratingly it was not backed up....
My questions are:
1.Would trying to open iphoto, and itunes from my external HD with earlier software in 10.9.2 Mavericks cause me to lose data (including desktop files) ?
2. Could the water damage be the issue for destroying the data? (although other data is still there)
3. Is it likely the files are still on my external hd and I just can't see them (although the low bytes seems to indicate perhaps not)
4. Is there a reliable data recovery program out there someone can recommend I can get and use that may recover the files, and do I download it on my new mac, and direct it to the external hd?
5. Would apeture locate the missing iphoto picture files from the external HD and integrate it into the library on my mavericks?
6. Could the problem be caused by leaving the HD in my old(water damaged) laptop for so long before I tried rescuing it?
Any light on situation much appreciated. Apologies if this issue already been aswered, I did scour but did not see help I needed.
Thanks in advance

Hi T,
Thanks again for reply. Just checked my mac for the first time without the external HD attached. I had a hard time trying to get back into this site on my new mac. Now I keep getting a pop up that says (https:// discussions.apple.com bad gateway) with ok button every every 30 secs or or something after that I can't type except if I click ok. Prior to that I had some message telling me something about proxy server gateway no access or something. Not happenign on other sites so perhaps just a random error, (hope I have now not picked up a bug or another insidious thing from some site whilst trying to resolve my old HD probs....)
Extremely annoying!!
Well I checked as you asked. This is the process.(if you can tell me how to take a screen shot I will do it, but at moment I don't know how to do that exactly)
At the moment I have got my HD showing on my desk top Top RH corner, like they used to in the good old days before it all changed. I do this, because everything is conveniently placed in one place. Call me old fashioned I guess..
(Not to change the thread but this pop up thing is driving me mad...)
If I doubleclick on that by default it opens with five folders in it, I;E applications, library, system, user information, users.
When I click on Users.
It is here I find the user file with a user name that I have NEVER entered into this new mac, (especially with old MAC HD attached as I did not want any confusion) I even re-named my old HD (OLD mac HD)
This new user file even has the icon of a HOUSE instead of a folder, which is something off older OS as far as I know, I never saw it in mavericks before attaching this encased contraption which is just a metal box as far as I see that holds my old HD, but annoyingly done by someone that may not have known what they were doing..
Why the heck is it there? It should not be there!
When I click on this old (home folder) as that is what it used to be, and that was the name of my OLD HD before it got the name (old mac HD) which now I think of it, was not changed by me by default... which is a thought.. I only added the word OLD to it..
Well it has all my default folders such as desk top, docs, movies, pictures ect.. When I click on pictures I have my new iphoto library and another folder called root which has the salvaged files I saved there from the recovery software Stellar Pheonix which I downloaded a couple of days ago but can't actually open with preview anyway. I tried to do it with an old version of CS 5 photoshop to see if that would work, but I could not get photoshop to open in mavericks even after java update)
The interesting thing is is: if I go to system preferences in my dock I click on users it only has the user folders I specified that should be there on my new mac.
now peeved. and this annoying pop up.....Situ does not seem to be getting any better!
Instructions please how to post screenshot..
PS sorry about LONG POST

All final cut events, projects disappeared from external hard drive

I had a re-start this morning and the event I was working on lost its purple box and its white star. Can't find the project, can't find the event.
Even more troubling, the Final Cut Events and Library folders on my external hard drive is also gone. Really need some help here. Any ideas?

It almost looks like all of the original media is gone.

I upgraded MacbookPro 2009 from 10.6.8 to Yosemite. Beforehand I made a backup copy of my Iphoto library onto an external hard drive. Lets call it BU. I also deleted half of my photos from the default library on my laptop, lets call it DE. I then in

I upgraded MacbookPro 2009 from 10.6.8 to Yosemite 2 weeks ago. My iphoto is now a nightmare. i went to our local apple retailer but they could not help either. Perhaps someone can help. Beforehand the OS upgrade I made a backup copy of my Iphoto library onto an external hard drive. Lets call it BU with 50GB. I also deleted half of my photos from the default library on my laptop, lets call it DE, now with about 20GB, to gain space. I then upgraded to Yosemite.
I have also installed since a long time Iphoto Library Manager 3.8.6. (this may be the cause of the problem as it was not upgraded and perhaps thus not compatible with iphoto 9.6 which I have now after the upgrade to Yosemite) It all worked fine before the upgrade, switching in iphoto between the two libraries DE and BU.
It also worked fine after the upgrade for a few days. At one stage Iphoto asked me to upgrade the iphoto version as it otherwise could not read the photos when I tried to load the BU library into iphoto. I did click yes to upgrade iphoto. As a result I became a brand new but totally empty library, no photos.
BU was still on the external disc, however the "Master" file was empty. We fortunately discovered all photos were in another file called Old Master, also under BU. We made another copy of the Old Master file onto the external disc. Lucky we did, because shortly afterwards we could not open anymore the BU file thus had no access to anything in there. Now I have 17000 photos in a file called Old Master on my external disc and another smaller library DE on my laptop. When I tried to import the photos from Old Master into a new iphoto library it was very messy. All events dates were mixed up, many photos were imported twice. I have no idea whether all my 17000 photos have been imported.
Can anyone suggest what is the most time efficient way? How do I best import my 17000 into a new library ensuring I don't loose any in the process. I do not wish sorting through 17000 photos for a week or so. Shall i also get a new iphoto library version now? Thank you for anything that may work.

Yes, the Old Master file has a folder for each year where I find all photos from that specific year. I am attaching a screen shot of the file.
In the meantime i have managed to download all photos (it did not download any video files though in mpg, avi, 3gp, m4v,mp4 and mov format) to a new iphoto library. Unfortunately the photos are quite mixed and often doubled up. I ma considering to purchase iphoto library which checks all duplicates in iphoto. this will save me a lot of time. What do you think?

Issues with using my iPhoto library on my external hard drive. Very slow to open and pictures disappear in thumbnail view.

I have recently transferred my iPhoto Library to my external hard drive (WD MyBook Live) and have some questions. Since I have done this and used the "alt + option" to select it as my default library I have been having some issues. When using the library on the external drive as my default drive it takes a very long time to load compared to when it was on my macbook's hard drive. Is this normal? Also, once it does load the thumbnails are only viewable when scrolling quickly through the photos and they are very blurry. However, if I were to select one randomly (because of this problem I have no way of knowing which one I'm selecting) it brings it up in the edit view and it is a crystal clear picture.
Is there a way to fix these issues? I'd love to be able to use the iPhoto Library off the external drive to free up space on my macbook but if it isn't going to work as streamlined as it would on my macbook hard drive. I have not yet deleted the original iPhoto Library from my macbook because I did not want to do so until I knew the new iPhoto library on the external drive was working properly. Does this make a difference?
Please help!

The problem lies with occasional dropouts that can corrupt the library's database files if they are being written to as the time of dropout. It's the nature of wireless networks. If you have a very strong signal throughout and are willing to take a chance then go for it.
But as for the speed, it must be iPhoto 11 and it's complexity causing the slowness. I had tried using a library on an EHD connected to my iMac from my laptop wirelessly with iPhoto 7 or 8 and it was pretty fast. I think it was 7 before faces and places came into being.
Send a feature request to Apple via http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphoto.html to improve wireless performance, etc.
OT

I am trying to transfer my photos from old mac to new mac. I copied the iPhoto library to an external hard drive, then imported it to the new iPhoto. It turned my 2000 photos into 12,000!! What happened?

And how do I turn off FACES?

I copied the iPhoto library to an external hard drive, then imported it to the new iPhoto. It turned my 2000 photos into 12,000!!
According to you youo did not do what I instructed - you said you imported the old library into th enew library which can easily take a 2000 photo library and turn it into 12,000 including two ro three versions of each photo pus all the face thumbnails
The correct procedure has NO importing involved
drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity from the old Mac to the pictures folder of the new Mac - launch iPhoto on the new mac
That is it
LN

I am having trouble on transferring photos from iPhoto to my Seagate External Hard Drive

Im new to Mac and I was doing fine with my new laptop but somewhere along the way I have reach to a point where I cant continue my work. I am having trouble on transferring photos from iPhotos to my Seagate External Hard Drive, even when the hard drive is compatable with my MacBook Air. Some how I have trouble trying to drag my photos to my drive and it is not letting me to do so. Pls. help me in my sistuation or derect me to a website that will answer my questions. I am getting really upset and frustrated; so I'm out of ideas.

even when the hard drive is compatable with my MacBook Air.
What is the file system on that drive? Is it formatted MacOS Extended (Journaled)?
And what is your iPhoto version? iPhoto 9.5.1?
Some how I have trouble trying to drag my photos to my drive and it is not letting me to do so
What exactly happens when you try to drag photos to your drive? Are you dragging from iPhoto's window to the drive?
Can you export your photos, when you select the photos on iPhoto and use the command "File > Export"?

Importing iphoto from external hard drive

I was wondering if importing 4 gigs of photos takes longer than 30 minutes to import from external hard drive. The iphoto status after importing still shows "working" as the bar graph "charges" continuously. Does this mean it is still importing? Should it show any other info such as the number and title of photos being imported? Should I stop it after awhile and try a new method of importing? Help.

maxus2:
What method are you using, the copy files or use aliases? I imported 14,000+ files from my second HD and it took between one and two hours, I don't remember exactly as I was doing it 10-12 folders at a time. I was using the alias method thus giving me an 8G library folder on my boot drive for about 25.5G (14,100) of image files. See my reply in this thread, http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=327144&tstart=0, more some more thoughts on the alias method.

I am not able to transfer pictures from my Iphoto file to my external hard drive. When I drag and drop to the external hard drive, I get the universal circle with a line through it.????

For some reason, my computer will not let me drop my pictures from the Iphoto location to my external hard drive.

The drive is formatted for Windows. To write to it from a Mac, you will either have to reformat it or install third-party software to enable writing to an NTFS volume (not recommended.)

Can't open iphoto library from external hard drive

I'm backing up my enormous iPhoto library to two external hard drives in order to free up space on my computer. Before deleting the photos permanently from the laptop, I wanted to double-check that the copies of the library I made on the two externals would actually work on another computer, should something happen to my laptop. When I plug my external hard drive into my laptop and use option+click on iPhoto to choose which library I want to use, it opens up the library from the external just fine, no problems. However, when I plug the same external into a different Mac computer and do the same process, I get the immensely frustrating message of "You can't open photo library blah blah blah changes have been made using newer version of iPhoto". However, both my laptop and the second computer are running the exact same version of iPhoto (the most recent), so that can't (or at least shouldn't) be the problem. I found suggestions to rebuild the library, which I did, but the same result occurs. I double-checked to be sure that neither computer needed updates (they didn't).
When I plug one of the externals into the second computer, though, I can open up the package contents of iPhoto library and all the photos are visible, so I know the information is all there. But I don't want to lose my albums, etc.
So do I just delete the copies of my library from the externals and try it all over again? I'd prefer not to, since I have 40,000+ photos, and that takes a while.

To reinforce what Larry pointed out both Macs must be running the same version of iPhoto. And the external HD must be formatted as shown in this screenshot:
and don't forget the ignore ownership.
OT

I'm trying to transfer my pictures from my iPhoto library to my external hard drive. I dragged the iPhoto Library folder into the drive and after waiting a while it says Error Code -36. I need to free up space asap, what should i do?

I'm trying to transfer my pictures from my iPhoto library to my external hard drive. I dragged the iPhoto Library folder into the drive and after waiting a while it says "Error Code -36 The finder cannot complete the operation because some data in 'iPhoto Library' could not be read or written". I need to free up space asap, what should i do??

Yes, the Old Master file has a folder for each year where I find all photos from that specific year. I am attaching a screen shot of the file.
In the meantime i have managed to download all photos (it did not download any video files though in mpg, avi, 3gp, m4v,mp4 and mov format) to a new iphoto library. Unfortunately the photos are quite mixed and often doubled up. I ma considering to purchase iphoto library which checks all duplicates in iphoto. this will save me a lot of time. What do you think?

I was trying to move my photos from the iPhoto library to an external hard drive. I now have a desktop display of thousands of cascading photos. How do I remove them from my desktop screen?

I was trying to move my photos from the iPhoto library to an external hard drive. I now have a desktop display of thousands of cascading photos. How do I remove them from my desktop screen?

Strangely enough we can not see you so it really helps if you share with use exactly what you have, exactly what you did and details about the problem
what version of iPhoto and of the OS? What exact steps did you do? where are you seeing these "thousands of cascading photos" now and using what software and what exactly did you want to accomplish
The correct way to move your iphoto library to an external drive is to verify the drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journal) and then drag the iphotl library intact as a single entity to is
The correct way to move some or all of your photos is to select them in iphoto and export 9file menu ==> export -- https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4921 ) to the external drive
LN

How do I export video files from iPhoto to a backup external hard drive for safekeeping?

How do I export video files from iPhoto to a backup external hard drive for safekeeping? Each time I try, the video will not play from the external hard drive.

Use the File ➙ Export ➙ File Export menu option with Kind = Original. That should get the original video file exported. Try to export one to the Desktop first and open it with Quicktime Player. If all goes well export the rest to a folder on the EHD. How is the EHD formatted? It should be OS X Extended (journaled).

Can't transfer iPhoto Library FROM external hard drive to iMac

I just bought a new iMac. Before I said goodbye to my old computer (a MacBook), I dutifully backed up my iPhoto library onto an external hard drive. Upon setting up my iMac, I easily accessed the iPhoto library on my HD, but I didn't import it. I was able to see all photos, albums, etc.
But when I went to import the entire iPhoto library into my iMac's hard drive (into the Pictures folder), it wouldn't import. A mesage comes up that says "Preparing to copy" and the blue-and-white bar just spins and spins, without actually copying anything. So, it's weird -- there's clearly communication between iMac and external HD, but I can't take the iPhoto library off the hard drive to make it my new computer's iPhoto library.
Any hints? Thanks.

Have you tried restarting your machine?

My iPhoto photolibrary disappeared from external hard drive.

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