Photos do not appear in iPhoto after upgrade

Question

Hi,
I have searched around and no one else seems to have encountered this problem. I upgraded my apple to a iMac with Leopard and iPhoto 08, from an old Tiger machine. I moved the iPhoto library into Pictures and then loaded iPhoto. I agreed to allow iPhoto to upgrade my library. I didn't notice at that point whether all the photos were in the library. I have imported 38 pictures from my camera and now, for some reason, these are the only photos in the library.
When I look inside the library package, it has all of my photos in various places, and is almost 5GB in size, so I know the data is there. I have rebuilt the library, using cmd-option-iPhoto, but this has not changed anything.
Does anyone have any idea as to what is happening, and what I might to do rectify the problem?
Many thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Do you still have a copy of the old library on the other machine? If so you can try the following;
1 - move your current library to the desktop.
2 - copy the old library into the Pictures folder.
3 - run iRepair on the library as described below.
4 - launch iPhoto and convert the library to the iPhoto 08 format.
If that goes correctly you can then locate those 30 photos in the library on the desktop and import them into the new library. This will let you maintain your keywords, comments, slideshows, etc. from the old library.
Here's how to run iRepair:
Run iRepair on your iPhoto LIbrary package as follows:
1 - download iRepair and launch.
2 - click on the lock and enter your admin password
3 - click on the Select button and navigate to and select the iPhoto library.
5 - set the owner to your short admin name with read, write and execute privileges.
6 - set group to staff or the current group with read, write and execute privileges
7 - set others to read only
6 - click on the Apply button.
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 created 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 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.