Photo library size

Anybody know if there are plans to increase the max size of the iCloud photo library? I need 2.2+ Tb now. I was just able to upgrade my goog drive to an unlimited plan and not having to worry about whether all my stuff will fit is pretty nice.

Hi Ralph,
Here are two screenshots, one of an iPhoto Library folder and the next of an iPhoto 6 Library folder.
This is a view of how the iPhoto 5 Library looks in the Finder.
iPhoto 6 Library folder in the Finder
The Data folder you see is from an iPhoto 6 Library folder. It is a folder of all large thumbnails of all your photos.
The Albums folder is a leftover from an iPhoto 4 Library folder. This Albums folder is no longer generated in an iPhoto 5 or iPhoto 6 Library. The Albums folder contained aliases to the photos you had in each Album.
Depending on the type of backup you do, it will make a difference on what you see.
If you do a sync backup, the sync will delete on the backup what is not in the current Library you are backing up and add the files that are changed are added.
If you do a backup that just backs up changed or added files and does not do an actual sync, then you will still have leftovers from the old backups. (my guess)
You should only be able to open a library from an actual sync backup I am guessing as the files have to be exactly the same as the original.

Similar Messages

ICloud photo library size

Hi all,
I just have a quick question regarding iCloud photo library size.
What happens when the iCloud photo library is larger than the space on my iPhone?
My iCloud photo library size is 4gb (I am still within the free 5gb) however, the space on my phone is under 4gb.
All of my photos have been uploaded on the iCloud photo library beta for Mac/ Yosemite.
I'm aware that there are 2 options within the iCloud - Photos menu which are "Optimise iPhone Storage" or "Download and Keep originals"
Now I thought that regardless of which option you selected they would still store a local copy on your iPhone, but what happens when even the optimised versions take up more space than your phone can handle?
Sorry if I'm being a bit slow here, I'm just slightly puzzled by this one.
Thanks

http://www.imore.com/what-you-need-k...ut-photos-os-x
#macrumors
One lesser-known feature of iCloud documents (I can't speak for Photos quite yet) is that storage on your iOS devices is dynamically managed - if a document hasn't been accessed from the iOS device in a long time, it will automatically be removed if space is needed (the way RAM is managed on a Mac) - all you have on the iOS device at that point is document metadata (title, etc.). If/when you need to access it again, it'll be re-downloaded. Note that it's different on a Mac - every iCloud document is cached on your Mac - I guess the assumption is that you have the space, and that accessing documents while working offline/off the grid is more important to someone who's using a laptop.
I expect iCloud Photo Library will work similarly, if not identically: On iOS a thumbnail of everything, larger images of items that are actually opened and viewed. If available storage starts to dwindle, the higher-res versions of the least-frequently viewed items will be removed until they're called for again. On Mac, a complete cache of everything, at full resolution.

Can't backup: Photo Library size too big

Hey gang,
I've got about 20 pictures on my phone but it keeps saying that I've got 1.4GB of data in iPhoto when I go in to manage my backups. How can I get it to display the accurate photo information. My phone will NOT Back up and I don't have anywhere near 1.4GB. It's like it's trying to FORCE me to upgrade my iCloud storage and it's unfair.
Any input appreciated, thanks,
Dan P.

What version of iPhoto?

IPhoto 8.1.2 - Rebuilding Photo Library - Photo Library is unreadable

Hi,
I am using iPhoto 8.1.2 and have had no issues with iPhoto for many years. However, when I tried to access iPhoto yesterday I obtained the following message:
"You can’t open your current photo library using this version of iPhoto.
You have made changes to your photo library using a newer version of iPhoto. Please quit and use the latest version of iPhoto. QUIT"
I then tried to restart and re-install the iPhoto 8.1.2 update. Afterwards I got the following message:
"Your photo library is either in use by another application or has become unreadable
Shut down and restart your computer, and then open iPhoto again. If the problem persists, try rebuilding your photo library. To do this, quit iPhoto, and then reopen it while keeping the Option and Command keys pressed. You can also try restoring your photo library from a backup. QUIT"
I backed up my photo library and went ahead and restarted the computer again and then proceeded to try and rebuild my photo library. After looking at several discussion threads in this forum, I hoped for the best and checked the following boxes:
- Rebuild the photos' small thumbnails
- Rebuild all of the photos' thumbnails
- Recover orphaned photos in the iPhoto library folder
- Examine and repair iPhoto library file permissions
- Rebuild the iPhoto library database from automatic backup
It took a long time, however in the end it seems like iPhoto was once again able to access my photos. However, there are 3 things that make me feel concerned:
(1) I don't think all my photos were present. Originally, if I am not mistaken, there were around 22,000 photos and now only 20,000 are present.
(2) During the process of rebuilding the library, iPhoto gobbled up another 5GB of hard disk space. I don't know why, but I think iPhoto might have doubled at least some of my photos.
(3) Afterwards it seemed like iPhoto froze during "building thumbnails" (the blue bar was about 80-90% complete) - possibly because of lack of hard disk space - and after letting it work over night, I decided to force quit iPhoto this morning.
I then decided to throw away the new "rebuilt library" because of the missing photos and the extra 5GB. After throwing the library away, I placed once again my previous backed up photo library in the pictures folder. So, essentially (I think), I am back to square one.
I would appreciate any help and advice on what I should do. I am afraid of doing the wrong thing and irremediably doing damage to my photos and photo library.
Thank you in advance.

Hi TD,
Thank you for your quick reply and support.
My HD has a capacity of about 320GB. When I received the error message I had about 24 GB free space. The actual Photo Library is about 19GB in size.
I did the back up on my hard disk, after duplicating the Photo Library I had about 5 GB left over space during the Photo Library Rebuild.
However, after I did the rebuild, the Photo Library size jumped up to over 24GB! Leaving me with only 100MB of HD space left, at this point the thumbnail rebuild seemed to stall. This is when I decided to eventually force quit iPhoto.
Now that I have thrown away the bloated Photo Library and returned to the original one, I am back at about 25GB free space.
I think I know the source of my issue, I don't know if this will help you in advising me on how to get myself out of this mess. I foolishly did a clean up of my hard disk with a clean up / space freeing program. I think one of the little files that was accidentally cleaned up was linked to / related to my iPhoto library.
Thanks for the link to iPhoto Library Manager. I realize that this is definitely an option, but if possible for me only as a last resort (I would like to keep all the books, and calendars data, etc. if possible).
Are there any other solutions? Why did iPhoto double some photos during the rebuild? Why did my Photo Library bloat up in size during the rebuild?
Did I check too many check boxes? Can I attempt another rebuild and if so, what can I do to do it properly?
Thank you again for your help.

Reducing library size by deleting original photos

To save hard drive space, I have used the following method to get rid of unwanted originals:
1. crop a photo
2. export it
3. delete the original (command/delete)
4. import the cropped photo
5. delete trash
I've discovered that the cropped photo is often significantly smaller than the original (a 3mb file might be reduced to 300kb for instance, depending on the chosen quality).
Two questions:
1. Anyone know a better or easier way to do this?
2. How come I discover that some of the deleted originals are still in the library? (They do not appear in iPhoto but when I view the package contents, I see that many are still there thus defeating the whole purpose of doing this!)

For feature Requests:
IPhoto menu -> Provide iPhoto Feedback
But it's worth noting that Apple have had 7 iterations of iPhoto and never changed this way of working. Might make you think.
First off -
I disagree with some people here that being forced to save such "originals" is such a necessary blessing forever and for all users.
You are not being ”forced“ to do anything. You have multiple choices all over the place. The most basic is that you can always use another application that works the way you want it to. Claiming that iPhoto ”forces“ you to protect the original is like complaining that Excel ”forces“ you to work in Spreadsheet Cells.
IPhoto is a Digital Asset Manager. It is designed to work on the best principles of DAM and always treats the original file as a film photographer treats the negative. If you do not want this feature, why on earth are you using a DAM?
Next off: Learn how to use iPhoto:
For those who prefer editing in Photoshop but the photo library management in iPhoto, I did notice that when you drag an iPhoto picture to the Photoshop icon, edit and save it, iPhoto does not realize that the image is modified and that prevents the duplicated data. Note, however, that this also means iPhoto's previews in smaller sizes show the original image (e.g. dull sky that you may have brightened in Photoshop) and the item info attributes, including size, dimensions, etc. are also as embedded in the iPhoto library when the photo was first imported.
That is not how you use iPhoto and Photoshop together.
You can set Photoshop (or any image editor) as an external editor in iPhoto. (Preferences -> General -> Edit Photo: Choose from the Drop Down Menu.) This way, when you double click a pic to edit in iPhoto it will open automatically in Photoshop or your Image Editor, and when you save it it's sent back to iPhoto automatically. This is the only way that edits made in another application will be displayed in iPhoto.
Apple giving us the ability "Revert to Original" is a great tool - especially so newbies do not to damage or destroy precious photos. But, Apple should consider that over time people become power users and should be treated as adults who should have the facility to delete such wasted, unneeded originals which will never be seen again.
Love the disparaging reference to ”newbies“. Every professional I know always keeps the original file. Every single one.
The first thing an Adult might do is consider that a Spanner is not an appropriate tool for putting in a screw and go and get a screw driver. How ”adult“ would it be to persist in trying to insert the screw with the spanner and complain about it?
I'm not sure just what a ”power user“ is, but it wouldn't the definition include being able to distinguish between a Digital Asset Manager and a Photo Viewer? Or knowing how to use the app with an external editor? It's worth noting that all the professIonal apps - Lightroom, Aperture etc. - are DAM apps too. They all work to preserve your original. Must be something that ”power users“ want a lot.
So, I too use the method you use. Edit, export, reimport (if I am not in the mood to do Photoshop editing). Kind of silly to have to do these extra steps to get rid of useless files when on an OS that is all about convenience and user friendliness.
Kind of silly to be disabling one of the apps key features - non destructive editing - and making a whole lot of work for yourself when you could do what an adult ”power user“ would do: find an app that works the way you want.
IPhoto Diet trashed a whole lot of Libraries. Go back a few years and search the v5 and v6 forums.
Finally, if you are worried about disk space then simply run the Library from an external drive - and Apple don;t make those.
Regards
TD

Hi I currently have about 20,000 photos in I photo, which the 'info' displays as being 68GB's worth. However the I Photo Library with the Pictures Folder displays it's size as 341.21GB ... Why would that be? How do I look at what's in the I Photo Library?

Hi I currently have about 20,000 photos in I photo, which 'info' displays as being 68GB's worth. However the I Photo Library within the Pictures Folder displays it's size as 341.21GB ... Why would that be? How do I look at what's in the I Photo Library to figure out what's happening, and if there's stuff in there I need to delete?

Best to keep the terms clear.
You export photos from iPhoto.
You move the iPhoto Library to an external disk.
They're are quite different processes. Exporting means at the end you have a file outside iPhoto. Moving means the files are still inside iPhoto.
So if you say:
I'm currently exporting the library to an external drive
That reads like I''ve selected all the photos in iPhoto and am exporting them to a folder on this external drive, and at the end I'll have a folder full of photos outside iPhoto. Is that what you mean?
Is it best to have a 'master' I photo library on an external drive for all the thousands of pics Im never really going to look at often - and a smaller one kept on the HD for day to day usage ...
Best? Hard to know. It might make sense on a portable. But if you're on an iMac why do you need a smaller one on the internal? Why not just have the whole library on the external? There is no performace hit.

ICloud Photo Library Photo size

Hey, i started using the iCloud Photo Library Beta and its really good at increasing my storage space..
my question is this:
If i open a photo in my library How do i return the photo to the iCloud storage so its full size wont be at my iPhone but at my iCloud storage?
i tried waiting a while (a week already) to see if the original photo will automatically move to the iCloud storage space but no.. its still on my iPhone space
how can i control this or re-upload the full size resolution photo to my iCloud?
Message was edited by: AmirK390

Yeah i know, i am using this option
but im asking after downloading a photo in full size resolution.. how to i change it back to the small version of the photo to reduce space usage?
in the icloud library it says it changed which photos shown in full size depend on how much i watch them..
but those photos im talkign about wasn't been opened for a week now and they are still in full size..

IOS Photo library wrong size

Hi, I'm trying to restore some space on my 16GB iPhone 5s and I've already imported all the photos in my computer and deleted almost all the photos from iOS Camera Roll. Now I have only 80 photos in camera roll, total 72mb (just 10 photos are 2mb size, taken with the phone, others are downloaded from internet). The problem is that iOS says that photo library is still using 749mb!!! How come? I have only those photos. The Recently deleted folder is empty!
How can I restore that space without resetting the phone?

Hello svkrzn,
I'm sorry to hear you are having this issue with your iPhone. If you have unaccounted for data associated with your photos, you may want to try the following portion of this article (the article is addressing a slightly different issue, but the instructions may still be useful in this case):
If your device gets stuck during startup
When starting up, you might see the Apple logo or a red or blue screen for a long time, or your device might restart again. Try these steps:
Make sure that you have iTunes 12 or later on your computer.
Put your device in recovery mode.
When you get the option to restore or update, select Update. This will reinstall iOS without erasing your data.
If your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch doesn't respond or doesn't turn on - Apple Support
Sincerely,
- Brenden

After installing Aperture and leaving photos in iPhoto library, why did iphoto library size almost double?

I installed Aperture and chose to leave all my images in the iPhoto library until I became more comfortable/familiar with Aperture.
I was looking at my hard drive space and see that the available space went way down. In Finder, the Aperture library.ap library is 17.97 gb and the iPhoto library is 122.75 gb.
When I open iPhoto, it says that it contains 19349 images/87 gb.
What happened? Is that extra size related to the Aperture referencing the images? Should I delete and start over, and move all the images into Aperture so that they are managed there?
I'm just figuring my way around Aperture, and I'm trying not to over-think the organizational differences, but this size discrepancy seems a bit too much.

I wish I had more info for this but I'm stumped. As I said there is no reason Aperture would increase the iPhoto library size by importing iPhoto's library.
BTW how did you do the import, that might shed some light on the problem.
The image count between the backup and the live iPhoto libraries seems fairly consistent so why the jump in size I can't say. And as for the increase in the number of images in Aperture, you started with an empty Aperture library, correct? And did you import anything directly into Aperture since you did the iPhoto import?
I'm still a little confused on the whole thing where Aperture shows both original and edited versions of an image, and some show both RAW & JPEG versions of an image,
Well Aperture really doesn't show both the original and edited versions, all you ever see are the versions unless you specifically ask to see the master. When you import an image into Aperture a version of the master is automatically made and displayed. Because at this point the version is no different then the master (you haven't made any adjustments to it yet) the version looks exactly like the master but it is the version you are seeing.
As for the RAW & JPG thing, if you shoot both RAW + JPG's in your camera when you import them you have the choice of which to make the master or to make each one a master. Not sure if that is what you are referring to.
I'm wondering whether I would have been better off just moving the whole iPhoto library into Aperture at the beginning, and deleting the iPhoto library.
That is definitly one option and the option most users who switch eventually make. You're not going to want to have both programs handeling your photos. But you should probably hold off until you;re more omfortable with Aperture and make sure you have a good backup of the iPhoto library before you do anything.
Remember when you import the iPhoto library into Aperture you're only choice is to copy the images not move them. This is done so that you can make sure all went OK before doing anything with iPhoto.
If you have the room you could try bringing in the iPhoto library backup, and trying the import again into a new empty Aperture library.
regards

IPhoto crashed during file transfer. Cannot recover photos by rebuilding the library and there is library size discrepancies.

Hi,
I am using an iPhone 4S and running iPhoto '09 version 8.1.2 (204) on OS X (version 10.9.2).
I was transferring photos from my iPhone to iPhotos with the option of deleting the originals on the phone after transfer. IPhoto crashed at some point and I had to "Force quit" the application.
Now, 3/4 th of all my pics is deleted on my iPhone and they are not in iPhoto either! I tried repairing and rebuilding the library as suggested elsewhere on this forum but nothing has worked.
The library size is currently 11.6 GB but the rebuilt library is 5.6 GB. I think the library was around 5 GB as well before transfer. I also tried using the "iPhoto library manager" to rebuild the library. There is no difference between the pictures in the rebuilt library and the default library, but again the new, rebuilt one is 11.6 GB and the library it uses for rebuilding 5.6 GB! So, I think the pictures are there somewhere but I am not recovering it.
Any suggestions as to how to recover deleted photos from my iPhone or to restore the iPhoto library would be muc appreciated.
Many thanks,
P.S. I do not have a recent iTunes or iCloud backup.

If you sync photos between the Mac and other devices via iTunes there will be an cache folder created that will grow over time. That's what the new library doesn't include and, in part, is the reason for the size discrepance.
iPhoto 8.1.2 is only marginally compatilbe with Mavericks and, as Linc suggested, should be upgraded to iPhoto 9.5.1 to be completely compatible.
OT

Importing a photo folder just with references creates a photo library 2/3 of its size. crazy!

after ignoring iphoto for many reasons over the last years i thought i give it a try with the new photo app.
i imported a 70gb photo folder - turning OFF to copy it into the library first, just refering to them - and now it ate up all my space by creating a 41gb (!!!) photo library just with references alone. so now i have a 70gb folder plus an index file that is 41gb big. i am beyond baffled.
am i doing something wrong here or are they crazy?
they cannot possibly think this is a smart way to store photos with the small internal hard drives they give us nowadays can they?

it gets even worse. "photos" has created empty subfolders of almost every photo in my original photo folder.
thank you apple. good job.

Can I share an iCloud photo library between family members?

I am searching for a good photo and video backup solution for my entire family. Previously I was backing up photos to a Windows Home Server that did a weekly backup to Amazon's cloud storage; however, the system disk on the home server blew up, leaving me with the choice to rebuild the server or alternatively look for a more seamless, lightweight solution. I have large quantity of photos and video on a home server data drive, as well as a large number of photos that have been recently scanned to my MacBook pro. We have almost completely transitioned to Apple products and use Time Machine for Macbook backups, so that function of the Home Server is no longer useful.
I like the concept of Apple's iCloud Photo Library; however, I need a solution that allows photos from at least my wife's and my devices to be seamlessly backed up to the library. We use different iCloud IDs. The ideal use case would be that photos taken on any of our devices (across a set of iCloud IDs) would be shared within a single library.
Family Sharing allows you to share a number of things across family members, but currently the photo library doesn't appear to be one of them.
Any pointers on how to proceed? Will the OS X Photo app and the move to bring iCloud library to the Mac make any difference? Any alternative solutions?

Someone else can probably answer the family sharing question better than I can, but I wanted to respond with an alternate suggestion. I didn't find the features I wanted in family sharing, so I didn't give it much of a chance. It did seem like you'd have a separate album for each family member.
I just recently started using Flickr and it's great. I looked into it a few years ago and there were limitations on how many MB's you could upload per day and I don't remember being impressed by the amount of free storage. Now Flickr gives you 1000 GB for free and stores the image in the original quality and size. If you download the Flickr app on your phone, you can set it to automatically upload all of the new pictures on your iphone, ipad, etc. If you and a family member share a Flickr account, you can both auto sync your camera rolls into the same Flickr account.
Personally, I'm using Flickr as a way to automatically back up photos for free. I quickly ran out of free icloud storage and I haven't wanted to pay for more.In Flickr, the auto uploads from your phone are set to private by default, but you could use flickr to share albums with friends who don't own any apple products... unlike icloud photo sharing, that only allows your friends with an apple device to view shared albums.

"An error occurred while trying to save your photo library..."

Installed iPhoto6.
Started app. It said it would take a few seconds or minutes to upgrade.
About 6 hours later after churning on thumbnails it is now claiming this error over and over with some time that goes by in between:
"An error occurred while trying to save your photo library."
"Some recent changes may be lost. Make sure your hard disk has enough space and that iPhoto is able to access the iPhoto Library folder."
It says I have 22,759 photos in Library. The Library was a subset of my images, named "iPhoto Library 2005" and it was intentionally kept below the 25,000 limit of iPhoto5.
Since Steve claims iPhoto6 can easily handle 250,000 photos, I clicked on the upgrade button with confidence. This now appears to be a mistake. Last night I was working on an iDVD for the local school and the majority of that work has simply vanished. There were 320 photos. I spent hours adding keywords, ranking, adjusting temperature, focus, exposure, etc.
Of the 320, only 16 photos survived. They are 16 in a row from the middle of the roll near the end but not at the end. The roll name was lost. The name is now just "Roll 226" and none of the photos have keywords. I know at least one of the 16 should have the keyword "DUPE" and the ranking 2 STARS since it precedes a double that I ranked 2 during a slideshow, sorted by ranking, and dragged to the DUPE keyword. All 16 should have the ACROCK keyword which I initially assigned to all photos.
Again, 304 of 320 have vanished and the 16 that remain have no keywords or rankings.
I watched the slide show in iPhoto5 three times with different music candidates so I know the keywording and rankings evaporated in iPhoto6. I also clicked ACROCK and option clicked DUPE and POOR so that all of the music program photos except dupes and poor images would vanish. I only deleted one photo so there were not a lot of changes to the library in terms of photos in it. I cannot think of any reason why the 16 chosen survived. Only two were placed in a DVD dropzone and they are scattered amongst the 16 survivors.
Also, the ACROCK and DUPE keywords are also gone while the POOR keyword added in August is in the keyword table just fine.
I exported these 320 photos last night to iDVD and tried almost all of the different themes and I dragged about 10 different photos to the dropzones, hit play, hit motion, etc.
It seems very strange that 16 photos from the middle of the pack would survive.
It seems extra odd that iPhoto5 and iDVD treated these as "established" photos, not photos hanging in the wings somewhere ready to vanish in an upgrade.
I gracefully saved and quit iDVD and iPhoto5 and there were no crashes and nothing strange happened while making the DVD. I was hoping today to try out the new themes and maybe find one that is just right for the kids. Instead, about 300 of 320 photos of the kids went bye-bye along with all the work on the photos!
I'm nervous that many more photos are missing but I will need to do a ton of checking to see what else has been deleted by the upgrade.
The user message that iPhoto6 presents is nearly useless and strange. It offers little if anything to go on in terms of a repair procedure. After saying an error has occurred, it says some recent changes could be lost but doesn't expand at all on what they may be or why.
From my experience, recently added photos, keywords, keyword assignments, rankings and maybe more can all be lost. To compound matters, before the upgrade it says that you cannot go back to the prior (working!) library in iPhoto5. Beware!
It finishes by suggesting two vague steps to take. The first is to make sure your disk has "enough" space. How much is "enough"? It doesn't say something like X GB available, Y GB needed. A user would have no clue about how much space to free up. I have over 17 GB and assumed that would be enough. I sure hope it doesn't require double the space of the existing library. I would hope it has a smarter algorithm than that since 23,000 photos at about 3 MB each maps to about 70 GB. That's a lot of "temporary" space to require to perform an upgrade. Since the upgrade/error message provide no details (unlike package installers which supposedly tell you how much space you need), users like me would have no clue if 70 GB is plenty or not enough.
I found 24 GB secretly used by iPhoto 5 for an iPod Photo Cache and a tech bulletin saying this just grows and grows without control and it can be deleted SO I wouldn't put huge hidden disk usage past iPhoto6.
The last none-to-helpful suggestion is that a user make sure that iPhoto is able to access the iPhoto Library folder. Huh?!??!?
Wouldn't this be a great thing to confirm via software before setting about on 6+ hours of work, especially if there is an error message hard-coded in the software confirming that Apple knows the result may be losing valuable customer photos and hours of work on enhancing, keywording, creating DVDs, etc.?
Of course. This appears negligent. To know that customer file loss will likely result but not checking these things out in advance before taking that risk seems like putting the cart before the horse at customers' expense & pain and certain loss of irreplaceable family photos (for the, say, 80%+ of iPhoto users that "plan" to get a backup routine established?).
I got burned in the iPhoto5 upgrade as well, losing photos, so I was sure to have a backup so it wouldn't happen again. Most I fear won't be so fortunate so be advised of the risk and work with copies of your photos only.
Also, why would iPhoto5 have all the permissions it needs to store, edit, tag and otherwise work with 320 photos added last night? Why would version 5 have plenty of permissions to use the folders and the photos in them. Why would iPhoto 6 suddenly lose those permissions or not have enough? This hardly makes any sense. The only way the permissions were set, the iPhoto libraries got created and the albums got created was by dragging a folder of images onto the albums pane in iPhoto5. So, iPhoto5 set all the permissions, everything is under one user account and there should be no surprise permissions for iPhoto6 to deal with.
It seems unbelievable that iPhoto 6 couldn't do what iPhoto 5 was doing. I never changed permissions and never touched files in the iPhoto 5 structure.
I can only guess that recently added keywords, recently added photos and recently added rankings and keyword taggings linger in some at-risk staging area that a version 6 upgrade doesn't know how to deal with. This seems like a lame way to code this app so I don't consider this a good guess but what else could it be?
Anyone else have a better hunch at a root cause?
Anyone else have an idea of a cure?
Anyone else run into this?
It sure doesn't look like there was a test case for having near 25,000 photos (an iPhoto 5 documented requirement), working with the latest roll and then doing a version 6 upgrade because it failed miserably--user data loss--without any special effort to find defects. In a former life I tested software and released software was much more difficult to break than this.
I would appreciate any other user experiences/solutions related to this problem. I am reluctant to import another 22,000 photos from iPhoto Library 2004 only to find more photos go poof without any rhyme or reason.
Thanks in advance for your help and I hope this alerts others to a potential for valuable photo loss (i.e., back up before you upgrade, verify iPhoto Library permissions--whatever that means--and have scads of disk space available assuming there's any truth to the error message!).
--Sam
G5 Dual 2.7 GHz 2 GB DDR SDRAM Mac OS X (10.4.4)

I'll check if I have copies of copies of copies. This could take a while due to the number of files.
I picked up a brand new 300 GB Western Digital hard drive thinking 20GB or so was not enough for temp files for upgrading and/or importing.
I formatted it as a mac os extended, journaled drive, not case sensitive, one full-size partition. I started iPhoto6 with the option key. I had a CF in my other WD 300 GB (with media reader). iPhoto6 asked about the photos on the card. I told it not to download those (again). Because I was holding the option key down, iPhoto6 asked if I wanted to select a different library or create one. I created one on the brand new, 100% empty 300 GB drive. I'm not sure if/where iPhoto6 creates temporary/cache files (like iPhoto iPod Cache folder) as it sets up a new library. I was hoping the empty 300 GB drive would give it ample room to load an existing iPhoto5 library.
When I dragged an old iPhoto5 Library onto the new iPhoto6 Library Album pane. I saw the "Importing..." start and it went on and on and on and... I let it run for HOURS and HOURS. When I checked around midnight, it had crashed. When I started it again, it said it had run across some huge number of stray photos.
I have no idea why iPhoto6 would have trouble importing an iPhoto5 library that was below the 25,000 photo mark for 5. This is especially bizarre since iPhoto6 claims it supports 250,000 photos!
I'll be trying to figure out if these stray photos got imported as dupes, if they lost iPhoto5 keywords, etc. I fear something different but equally bad happened since the number of photos it came up with was like 79,000--again many stray photos that didn't make it into the first import for no known reason. Since libraries in iPhoto5 were around 25,000 or less, I'm not sure what's happening.
Maybe there's a cache or temp file still created on Macintosh HD and not on the empty new 300GB drive and a bug exists for imports when space on Mac HD is "low" (i.e., under 3.5 GB). Maybe it's seeing thumbs as files it should import? Maybe it's seeing Orig and Modified images as worthy of reimporting?
I had told it not to import dupes but who knows if it goes by file name, checksum, byte-for-byte comparison, etc.
I'm not sure if I can even pull up iPhoto5 and 6 at the same time now to scroll through the libraries to see if dupes, thumbs, original/modifies/etc. are showing up to boost the count from under 25K to 79K!
Ideas? At least I know I'm not the only G5 dual user with this problem!
--Sam
G5 Dual 2.7 GHz 2 GB DDR SDRAM Mac OS X (10.4.4)
G5 Dual 2.7 GHz 2 GB DDR SDRAM Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Can't open current photo library using this version of iPhoto 7.1.5

I have recently had to perform a disk repair due to the disk image not mounting. In this process I completed a full backup of my home folder and verify/repair/format of my harddrive. At this time I also added 4G RAM bringing the MacBook up to 5G RAM.
Since the reinstallation of 10.7.5 (Which took about 18hrs) I have none of the iLife package. I have reinstalled from the original disk that I recieved on initial purchase back in 2008. After installation I ran the software update and have updated everything (iTunes, iPhoto etc) I have been able to import all data from my backup via a simple drag & drop. I am now unable to open my iPhoto library (file size 105.43G). I have searched many forums and have been unable to find a solution that is suitable (rebuild library) because as soon as I launch this option it brings up the following message:
You can’t open your current photo library using this version of iPhoto. You have made changes to your photo library using a newer version of iPhoto. Please quit and use the latest version of iPhoto.
After this I must quit the application. What am I missing? I'm sure it is something quite simple... I'm hoping it is as easy as it was to find the recoveryHD during the reformat of the disk.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, Cheers.

It sounds like a damaged library. Try the 2 fixes below in order as needed:
Fix #1
Launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys depressed and follow the instructions to rebuild the library. Select the last three options.
Fix #2
Rebuild the library using iPhoto Library Manager as follows:
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: 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 untouched for further attempts at fixing or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.

Yet AGAIN! "You can't open your current photo library using this version of iPhoto"

I have read every thread on this topic I could find in these forums, and tried most solutions, and I still can't get iPhoto to work.
Equipment: MacBook Pro June 2010, OS 10.6.8. Bought a Macbook Air February 2012, OS 10.7.2
Not sure why, but I can't open iPhoto. Here's what I have tried.
Original message on MBPro: "You can’t open your current photo library using this version of iPhoto".
1. Tried to rebuild library as per this thread https://discussions.apple.com/message/8429269#8429269. I get the list of checkboxes, but when I hit "okay" I get the same "you can't open your current photo library ..." message again.
2. Ran software update - no sign that iPhoto is out of date.
3. Copied new version of iPhoto from brand new MBAir to MBPro, replacing older version . Got same "you can't open your current photo library ..." message again.
4. Tried to rebuild library using new version of iPhoto - guess what - same message.
5. Downloaded free trial version of iPhoto Library Manager as suggested in the thread referenced above. The dmg loads to my desktop just fine but nothing happens when I click on it -- this has never happened before. Perhaps it is looking for iPhoto, which of course I can't get to work.
So I have been unable to access my old iPhoto library with (sob) thousands and thousands of family photos in it. I run TimeMachine on to an external hard drive every hour so I hope that if my iPhoto library is corrupted, there is a safe copy on that external drive ...
Between this hassle -- hours of time wasted -- and recent debacle of upgrading iTunes which erased my library and all of my playlists, which also took hours and hours to restore ... my 25 year devotion to Apple products is taking a major hit. I'm getting very weary of heart-pounding fear every time a new software upgrade arrives ... but that's a topic for another time. ;-)
Thank you very much indeed for all suggestions.

I'm going to start from scratch as the link you references is very, very old.
Try this: launch iPhoto with the Option key held down and try to create a new, test library and import some photos. If you are able to then the problem lies with your current library. If you get the same message then maybe the iPhoto application is the problem.
Try the following again: make a temporary, backup copy (if you don't already have a backup copy) of your library and apply the three fixes in order as necessary.
Fix #1
1 - delete the iPhoto preference file, com.apple.iPhoto.plist, that resides in your HD/User/Home()/ Library/Preferences folder.
2 - delete iPhoto's cache file, Cache.db, that is located in your HD/User/Home()/Library /Caches/com.apple.iPhoto folder.
3 - launch iPhoto and try again.
NOTE: If you're moved your library from its default location in your Home/Pictures folder you will have to point iPhoto to its new location when you next open iPhoto by holding down the Option key when launching iPhoto. You'll also have to reset the iPhoto's various preferences.
Fix #2
Launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
Select the options identified in the screenshot.
Fix #3
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.
If all of these fail there's one more option:
Start over from scratch with new library
Start over with a new library and import the Originals (iPhoto 09 and earlier) or the Masters (iPhoto 11) folder from your original library as follows:
1. Move the existing library folder to the desktop.
2. Open the library package like this.
Click to view full size
3. Launch iPhoto and, when asked, select the option to create a new library.
4. Drag the each subfolder in the Originals folder (iPhoto 09 and earlier) or the entire Masters (iPhoto 11) folder from the iPhoto Library on the desktop into the open iPhoto window.
Click to view full size
This will create a new library with the same Events as the original library but will not keep the metadata, albums, books slideshows and other projects.
OT

Photo library size

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