Photos corrupt in main library

When I scan through my iphoto library, the photos jump about so that I can only see the real picture if i enlarge it by double clicking. Does anyone know why/what I can do to stop this?
Alannah

Alannah:
Sounds like the database has been messed up in regards to the thumbnails. Try the following after making a copy of your iPhoto Library folder.
1 - move the Data folder from the iPhoto Library folder to the desktop along with the ThumbJPGSegment.data, Thumb32Segment.data, Thumb64Segment.data files.
2 - launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys depressed and follow the instructions to rebuild the library. Select the two options regarding the thumbnails and the option to rebuild the database.
That should get your thumbnails straightened out. If all is well, you can delete the copy of the iPhoto Library folder and the folder and files that you moved to the desktop.
Do you Twango?
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.

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How to create an Album but not have the photos in the main library

We have some personal pictures of our kids birth and want to create a private folder and place the photos in that folder and then delete them from the main library. So when we show friends etc our photo collection they don't see these private photos.
However when we move photos into our private album they re-appear in the main library!!... how do we get around this?
Thanks for any help!
Power Mac Dual G5 2GHz Mac OS X (10.4.1)

Steve, it sure is possible.
First gather up all the photos and put them in an album, then Share>export the album to newly created folder on the desktop.
close iPhoto.
Hold down the Option key and launch iPhoto. Keep the Option key held down until you see a message window.
Choose to create a new library and name the library.
Now import the album on the desktop.
to switch between libraries use the Option key at at launch.
When you launch iPhoto holding down the Option key this is the window you will get.
Create a new library or choose a library to open
Choose to create a new library if that is what you want to do, or choose a library to open by clicking the "choose" button.
If you click the "create library" iPhoto will open with a brand new library for you to import images to. If you click "choose" then you will get this window.
Open library
Navigate to where the library is on your computer, highlight it, then clcik the "open" button.

Moving folders to ext. drive--photos still showing on library page

I've moved a couple of years of photos to an external drive to make more space. However, when I open Iphoto, I'm still seeing these photos on the main library page. When I double click on a photo, I get a blank image with a question mark, which I know means a source can't be found.
My questions are: Should I delete the photos showing in the Iphoto library that I have moved to the external drive to prevent confusion? Or is there a certain file with this information that I can delete and rebuild from the photos now on my Mac HD?
If I move the photos from the external drive back to the computer hard drive, will they reappear in the library again?
Thank you!

There's no need to post again, and it's only important because the answers vary for different versions - for instance it's perfectly possible to have a referenced library in v6.
Here's what I would do now. Because you've moved these files around and putting them back isn't working, we have to regard the database as corrupted. I would rebuild the Library and then import any that are still missing after the rebuild.
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords 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

I have 2 Macs - an iMac that holds my entire iPhoto library and a Mac Book Pro that I use to hold a subset of the main library - how can I transfer photos and their metadata from the main library of the iMac to my Mac Book?

I have 2 Macs - an iMac which holds my main iPhoto library and a Mac Book Pro which holds a subset of the library. How can I transfer photos and their metadata from the main library to the smaller 1 on the Mac Book Pro?

Link the two Macs together and use iPhoto Library Manager
Regards
TD

Deleting photos from main library while in Smart Album.

anyone know of a key sequence to delete a photo from the library when viewing the photo in a smart album?
I have over 1700 photos. Sometimes I want to delete all photos within a smart album but you can not do that by just selecting delete; that only deletes it from the album and not the library. as of right now the easies way I have found to do this is to perform a batch change and rename all files the same name, then perform a search within the main library for those files and then delete them. I refuse to think Apple didn't think about creating a "delete from main library" shortcut.

Option Command Delete works for Smart albums also. At least that is what it says in the iPhoto Help/iPhoto keyboard shortcuts in the menu bar.

Moving photos in the main iphoto library

Hi there,
I import photos from different sources (scans, digital cameras, panoramic images created in PS) and they often end up in an odd order. A sequence of photos taken on one day will be separate from a PS panoramic made up of photos taken on the same day. I would like to be able to move photos around within the main library, grouping them together, but they don't seem to drag and drop. I do NOT want to have to create an album in order to group photos - I want to have control over the main window. Is this possible?
J

I did
View menu -> Sort Photos -> Manually
and all the folders in the Photos library (the one under Events) vanished. Can I get them back? Is the Photos library effectively been replaced by Events?

I've lost my photos (crashed hdd, iPhoto library on Time Machine corrupt too). Is there a way to create a picture from the thumbnail that remains in iPhoto? The quality is obviously poor, but better than nothing.

I've lost my photos (crashed hdd, iPhoto library on Time Machine corrupt too). Is there a way to create a picture from the thumbnail that remains in iPhoto? The quality is obviously poor, but better than nothing.

Time machine should have a good copy - how are you determining that it is corrupt
If you want the thumbnails as photos right click on the iPhoto library and make a copy of the data folder and then import it into a new iPhoto library - it contains your thumbnails
LN

How do I stop itunes from corrupting it's library on almost a daily basis?

How do I stop itunes from corrupting it's library on almost a daily basis? It's actually becoming infurating to use, and what's happening is I am losing my downloads since the last automated itunes backup (having to rename & replace the current corrupted library with the last backup which is usually a day or two old). What can cause this? Is there ANY alternative to using itunes for Apps (which is the sole use I have for it)? If not, APPLE PLEASE REMOVE THE NEED FOR THE DATABASE SO IT DOESN'T HAVE THE ABILITY TO CORRUPT ITSELF... :'(

Things you see in iTunes are stored in various sub folders in your main iTunes folder as in:
Image of folder structure and explanation of different iTunes versions (turingtest2 post) - https://discussions.apple.com/message/13025536 and https://discussions.apple.com/message/17457605
Start iTunes and immediately hold down the option key. Create a new library somewhere. Go to your old iTunes folder and drag items to the window for the new library. Maybe only grab a folder or part of one at a time. It will copy these items to the new library (so you need lots of extra room on your computer).

The iPhoto library is a Time Machine backup, and so cannot be used as the main library. Reopen iPhoto with the Option key held down to choose another library.

I recently tried to look up my pictures on my time machine back up on an external hard drive. As soon as I try to open it I get the following message.
"The iPhoto library is a Time Machine backup, and so cannot be used as the main library. Reopen iPhoto with the Option key held down to choose another library."
I have tried holding down the option key but still couldn't few the photos.
I want to know if there is anyway I can actually view these photos. I have over 85gbs of photos on the hard drive. I have tried googling and looking at pervious forums with the same problem but nothing is working.
Please help!

Select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu. Search for "Restore items backed up with Time Machine."

I just purchased Aperture and have 20,000 photos in my iPhoto Library. Can I import only certain events from iPhoto into Aperture or do I have to merge the whole iPhoto library?

I just purchased Aperture and have 20,000 + photos in my iPhoto Library. I see that I can create a unified library between the two. I am wondering if I can import only certain events from iPhoto (like only 2014 events) into Aperture or do I have to merge the whole iPhoto library? Are there any benefits to bringing the whole iPhoto library over to Aperture (iPhoto is SO SLOW for me, I wonder if it is because I have so many photos). Or, any detriment to only bring a few events over?
And, if I don't merge the two libraries, I assume that means I cannot do it at a later date?
Help. My local Apple store has had very few Aperture workshops, and the next one is like 2 months away.

Thank you so much for this information. Here are some responses/comments:
Disk space - it says 114.43 GB out of 499.25 GB free. I have no idea if that is enough.
iPhoto version is 9.5.1
Again, I am not sure how to know if I have 3rd party software...but I don't think I do. Is 3rd party software anything non-apple?
I will try rebuilding the library. if that doesn't help, maybe I need more memory...? That is what Apple suggested, but that, of course, means buying something else. I've already bought APERTURE, on their recommendation...
It wasn't, and they told me it was slow because I had too many photos for iPhoto to handle and that I should buy Aperture. Which I did.
What is your iPhoto version? Are you using the most recent version 9.5.1?
iPhoto can handle 20000 photos, no problem. Your computer can be slow for several reasons:
The most common problem for slowness - insufficient disk space. Don't let your free disk space drop below 20 GB of free space, better more. If the operating system does not have enough working space and the applications you are using, you will notice a very lagging behaviour.
Older or incompatible softweare can cripple your mac. Do you have any older third-party software installed, that might have installed incompatible kernel extensions?
Aperture might be slow or keep crashing, if you imported a corrupted image or incompatible video, that cannot be processed. Then Aperture will try over and over again to create previews and never succeed. You could test for this situation, by launching Aperture with the Shift-key held down. This will defer the generation of previews. If Aperture will launch and work better this way, you probably have some bad media in your photo library.
Another problem to check for is a corruption of your Aperture/iPhoto library. You have run the First Aid Tools to repair the iPhoto Library, but have you ever tried to rebuild the library? See this post by Old Toad: Rebuild iPhoto Version 11

Error Message: Photos found in iPhoto Library that were not imported

BACKGROUND: I recently migrated my iPhoto'07 library of around 12,000 photos over to iPhoto'08. I reorganized all my albums as events. After that, I've been adding some old photos to my new iPhoto'08 library. Currently I have around 15,000 pictures in my iPhoto'08 library.
PROBLEM: Recently, iPhoto gives me this message "990 photos have been found in the iPhoto Library that were not imported". The number (990) has been growing with more pictures I add to the library.
OLD POSTS: Searching for prior posts related to this error in this forum, I came across a suggestion to delete the library and reimport the photos. Given my large library size (15000 photos, 60GB - all organized as events, no albums), this solution will take a lot of manual work.
QUESTION: If anyone out there has a suggestion for how to fix this, it'll be deeply appreciated. Thanks!

periyar:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. Open the iPhoto library package and look for any folders names Import or Imported or something like that. Here's what normally would be in the package. If you find any folders like that them move them to the desktop, open iPhoto and import.
If there are no pending import folders try rebuilding the library and select all the options. If they are true orphans they should be imported at that time.
Don't start over with a new library quite yet. If you have to there are ways we can preserve the keywords and comments. Also, with the paid version of iPhoto Library Manager you could copy all of the "known" photo from the old library to a new one including the albums, comments and titles. Then you can do some comparing of the two library packages and see where these left out files are.
Do you Twango?
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've written an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 08 libraries. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

IPhoto 11 - keeping pictures in an album but not the main library

Hi there,
My main iPhoto library contains all my images which I am happy with, I have created another folder so I can put all my videos in there to separate them from the main library.
However whenever I delete the video from the main library it also disappears from the album which I have placed it in if that makes sense?
My aim is having an album just for the videos and using the 'library' for all my photos.
Is there any way to stop this happening? Or will I have to create two albums i.e. one for images and the other for videos and the library will have everything?

iPhoto works on a Library principle.
Every time - photo or video - is in the Library.
Albums are a subset of the Library.
This is similar to iTunes, where every song is in the Library and every Playlist is a subset of the Library.
So, you cannot have something in an album that is not in the Library.
Want to make a fast Album of all your movies?
File -> New -> Smart Album
Keyword -> is -> Movie
Regards
TD

Photos scanned to iPhoto Library can't be found!

I scanned some photos from my new Canon CanoScan 8800F, using both the PhotoStudio and Photoshop Elements 4.0 programs that came with the scanner. I saved them to my iPhoto Library, but when I go to iPhoto they are nowhere to be found, in the Last Import or anywhere else. When I try to import them using File>Import feature, they show up but are grayed out, as they are if I look for them in the Finder. However, I can still open them up in both PhotoStudio and Photoshop. So, I then copied them to my desktop from those programs and tried to drag them into iPhoto - whereupon iPhoto says they are already there! I scanned them as jpegs, and the first 4 or 5 photos I scanned worked just fine. Shut down and reopened iPhoto - no dice. ARGHHHH! Please help! Thanks.

Tuco
Welcome to the Apple user to user assistance forums
I scanned some photos from my new Canon CanoScan 8800F, using both the PhotoStudio and Photoshop Elements 4.0 programs that came with the scanner. I saved them to my iPhoto Library, but when I go to iPhoto they are nowhere to be found, in the Last Import or anywhere else. When I try to import them using File>Import feature, they show up but are grayed out, as they are if I look for them in the Finder. However, I can still open them up in both PhotoStudio and Photoshop. So, I then copied them to my desktop from those programs and tried to drag them into iPhoto - whereupon iPhoto says they are already there! I scanned them as jpegs, and the first 4 or 5 photos I scanned worked just fine. Shut down and reopened iPhoto - no dice. ARGHHHH! Please help! Thanks.
Rule 1 - Never, Never, Never modify the content of the iPhoto library - doing so will not work and may corrupt your library
Since you have places photo in the iPhoto library that it does not know about you must remove them from the iphoto library - backup first and be extremely careful not to make any other changes - and then import them to iPhoto.
iPhoto is a database and for it to know about photos they must be imported into iPhoto - and you can not import photos from within the iPhoto library into the iPhoto library
LN

Photos in my iPhoto library will not enlarge when double clicked on. they fill the screen and then screen goes black. hasn't happened before. thanks--

photos in my iPhoto library will not enlarge when double clicked on. they fill the screen for a second (or less) and then screen goes black. hasn't happened before. thanks--

There are several possible causes for the Black Screen issue
1. Permissions in the Library: 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. Include the option to check and repair permissions.
2. Minor Database corruption: 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.
3. A Damaged Photo: Select one of the affected photos in the iPhoto Window and right click on it. From the resulting menu select 'Show File (or 'Show Original File' if that's available). (On iPhoto 11 this option is under the File -> Reveal in Finder.) Will the file open in Preview? If not then the file is damaged. Time to restore from your back up.
4. A corrupted iPhoto Cache: Trash the com.apple.iPhoto folder from HD/Users/Your Name/ Library/ Caches...
5. A corrupted preference file: Trash the com.apple.iPhoto.plist file from the HD/Users/ Your Name / library / preferences folder. (Remember you'll need to reset your User options afterwards. These include minor settings like the window colour and so on. Note: If you've moved your library you'll need to point iPhoto at it again.)
If none of these help: As a Test:
Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Create Library'
Import a few pics into this new, blank library. Is the Problem repeated there?

How can I get iPhoto backup to open as main library?

This is probably my first mistake- I only copy and pasted my iPhoto icon to my external drive- and it opened and I saw all my photo's and streams. So being a newbie I figured it worked.
I reinstalled OS X Mavericks because I wanted to start fresh. Now, using my external hard drive, I can't open the pasted "iPhoto"- a message pops up saying
"Caution: The iPhoto Library is a Time Machine backup, and so cannot be used as the main library. Reopen iPhoto with the option key held down to choose another library."
There is no other library I want, nor need- I need that one- it has my last year basically of my children- one of them who is going to pass from terminal cancer. I need a miracle. Nerds?! Geeks?! I NEED YOU!

certainly it allows you to restore a single file - or the iPhoto library package
the procedure is detailed in the link I provided
Basically you launch the Time Machine Application and go back in time to the time your want to restore from and using a finder looking window you select the iPhoto library in your pictures folder for that time and click restore
Restoring data from Time Machine backups
With Time Machine, you can go "back in time" to restore files, versions of files, or your entire system. Make sure your backup drive is connected and mounted. If it is not, Time Machine alerts you that "Your Time Machine backup disk can't be found."
Restoring specific files or folders
Choose Enter Time Machine from the Time Machine menu. The restore interface appears. You can literally see your windows as they appeared "back in time."
You can use the timeline on the right side of the window to reach a certain point back in time. The timeline shows the times of all backups on your backup drive. If you don’t know exactly when you deleted or changed a file, you can use the back arrow to let Time Machine automatically travel through time to show you when that folder last changed.
Note: Dates in pink indicate the data resides on your Time Machine backup device. Dates in white indicate the data resides on your Mac. In OS X Lion v10.7 and later, portable Macs include local snapshots.
You can also perform a Spotlight search from the Finder. Simply enter a search term in the Spotlight search field, and use the back arrow to have Time Machine search through your backups to find what you are looking for.
Before you restore a file, you can also use Quick Look to preview a file to make sure its the one you want. Highlight the file and press the Space Bar to bring up a quick look.
To restore, select the file/folder and click the "Restore" button. The file will automatically be copied to the desktop or appropriate folder. If the file you are restoring has another file in the same location with the same name, you will be prompted to choose which file to keep or keep both.
LN

Photos corrupt in main library

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