Problems organizing iPhoto Library

I am fairly new to iPhoto and have learned the hard way not to manipulate the photos in the "Originals" folder in the iPhoto Library. Basically, I was taking pictures on vacation and each day I was naming the roll month/day/year appropriately. One day I accidentally named the folder innapropriately and then went back later to change the folder name. Now, iPhoto does not show my pictures from that folder in "Edit" mode or in a slide show. In edit mode, all I get is a gray box with a dotted outline and an exclamation point inside. I also rotated some of the pictures in a few of the folders in the "originals" folder with the previewer (not with iPhoto) and these photos appear in iPhoto with the same exclamation point. I have tried to rebuild the library with iPhoto's built-in Option+Command function but with no success. Also, iPhoto has been updated to the newest version. How can I fix this? Please help!
MacBook Pro 15" 2.16 duo Mac OS X (10.4.8)

jamison84
Here's the bad news: unless you can recall exacty what you changed in the iPhoto Library Folder and can undo those changes, you can't fix it. The ! or ? symbols show up because iPhoto has lost the link between the thumbnail and the photo it represents.
The good news is that your photos are safe, and it won't take too long to create and populate a new Library.
Some background: iPhoto is a database, and like any database it is necessary that you manipulate the data via the application itself rather than through another element such as the Finder. Therefore we tend to warn people: It is strongly advised that you do not move, change or in anyway alter things in the iPhoto Library Folder as this can cause the application to fail and even lead to data loss
To create a new library,
1. move your iPhoto Library Folder from Home/Pictures to the Desktop
2. Launch iPhoto. It will ask you if you want to create a Library, say yes.
3. From the iPhoto Library Folder on the desktop, go to the Originals folder. and drag each of the rolls to the iPhoto Window in turn. This will recreate your rolls in the new Library.
4. When you're sure that all is well, you can trash the iPhoto Library Folder on the Desktop.
Anything you need to do with in iPhoto can be achieved through the iPhoto window. I'm guessing that you named those rolls in the Originals Folder to make files easier to find. Well there's no need for that: There are three ways (at least) to get files from the iPhoto Window.
1. Drag and Drop: Drag a photo from the iPhoto Window to the desktop, there iPhoto will make a full-sized copy of the pic.
2. File -> Export: Select the files in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export. The dialogue will give you various options, including altering the format, naming the files and changing the size.
3. Show File: Right- (or Control-) Click on a pic and in the resulting dialogue choose 'Show File'. A Finder window will pop open with the file already selected.
I hope this helps. If you need any more info check out the Help menu or post back.
Regards
TD

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Organizing iPhoto library

I have iPhoto 2.0.1, and would like to rearrange my library to reflect my albums. ie: instead of pulling up rolls or dates in library, I'd like to access my photos based on my album names. Hopefully this would help me eliminate duplicates I've made over time while reworking photos.
can you tell me how to do this?
thanks,
gene

Paul,
Same problem? Seems like a different application you're after and you're using a different operating system. From the standpoint of organizing those folders, any tinkering you do with the organization that iPhoto has established in the iPhoto Library folder will surely lead to eventual disappointment.
Don't use the folders in the iPhoto Library folder -- they are there for the exclusive use of iPhoto. Instead, create a separate folder in the "Pictures" folder, then from iPhoto export the images you want in your desktop slideshow to that folder. Now you can identify that folder to be used by the Desktop control panel in System Preferences.
In versions of OS X after Jaguar, the "Desktop & Screen Saver" control panel has direct access to iPhoto albums for the purpose you describe.

Mac Mini wont start after power outage, and problem copying iPhoto library. HELP!

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I googled my drive problem and people said that I need a Disk Utility called DiskWarrior, but I cant seem to find how to to use it, I got a copy from a friend, it was the digital version of the boot disk which need to be burned to a dvd.
Any help would be appreciated, and sorry for the bad english

OK, we need more info about your Mac. Do you know how much RAM it has in it?
If you don't know the model, find the Serial# & use it on one of these sites, but don't post the Serial# here...
http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html
http://www.appleserialnumberinfo.com/Desktop/index.php
How to find the serial number of your Apple hardware product...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1349

Problems restoring IPhoto Library after hard disk crash

I had a terminal hard disk crash a couple of months ago. The drive was replaced and new (well older) OS was installed. I have since updated to the current versions of the OS and Iphoto to iPhoto'09. My Documents and Pictures folders had been backed-up separately using Apple's Backup 3. My Documents folder was restored flawlessly, but I have been unable to restore my Pictures folder.
I spent some time with MobleMe support and we were unable to resolve the problem. My iPhoto library was backed-up on 2 occasions: the first was a FullBackup and the second an IncrementalBackup. When I run restore I get the following message:
"Begin restore at 2008-12-02 20:06:45 -0330 An internal application error has occurred. The disk archive could not be attached. End restore at 2008-12-02 20:06:49 -0330"
The MobleMe assistant thought it may have something to do with my user name changing when the new OS was installed. We played with this for a while but got no joy.
MobleMe next suggested that I do a manual restore:
"At this point, it sounds like you will need to try to manually restore it. These errors, such as "An internal application error has occurred. The disk archive could not be attached," can occur if one of the increments in a backup has become damaged and cannot be opened. Here are instructions for manually restoring files:"
Using these instructions they provided I have been able to access most of my photos, but I have not rebuilt my iPhoto Library yet. I have read most of the related posts on this form and there are some helpful tips. The problem I have is that I'm not certain how to bring the pictures back into iPhoto while maintaining some of the organization. My photos are spread across 7 IncrementalBackup files (packages?). Within each of these packages there is an Originals folder. Within the original folders there are several subfolders, and some of these subfolders occur across 2 or more of the Incrementalbackup packages. For example Originals:2005 subfolder occurs in 6 of the 7 backup files.
Finally my questions:
1) I'm still hopeful that I might be able to restore from the backup.
2) If not, I need to know how to recompile the the Originals subfolder system so I can maintain some the the organization, and then how I reipmort back into iPhoto'09
Thanks
Scott

Scott
That Library is gone. What you need to do now is start over with a new Library.
There is no way to restore your Albums, keywords, modified versions, books, calendars etc. This is a completely new beginning.
Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Create Library' .
From each of the Originals folders in each of the Back Up packages drag the folders of images to the iPhoto Window. Iphoto will import them and make Event folders from them. It will ask you do you want to import duplicates. Say no.
Only import from the Originals folders. Otherwise you will get massive duplication.
Regards
TD

Condensing and organizing iPhoto library

I'm trying to figure out the best way to condense and organize my pictures that are stored both an internal and external hard drive. I've been reading some different posts and articles to figure out what to do but am still not sure.
I recently just started to keep closer track of the photos on my internal hd by changing their titles, assigning keywords, etc. and want to do that with my photos that are on my external as well. I don't have the hard drive space to import all of these pics back in to iPhoto but thought I could do this is in batches. Once I've imported and organized these as I'd like what's the best way to move these batches back to the hard drive?
I get confused with whether I should just drag the images straight out of iPhoto, drag from the data/original/modified folders (in the iPhoto library) or do I just copy the entire iPhoto library on to the hard drive each time? Would I simply copy over the older version each time I do this? Also if I've read correctly I should be able to choose which library I want to operate from upon start up of iPhoto.....so I could switch back an forth between my older and newer images? Hope this makes sense and thanks for any responses.

Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
As you are using iPhoto 6 it’s very easy to simply have 2 Libraries, one on your internal, one on your external drive:
Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Create Library' to make a second Library on your external.
Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' will allow you to choose which Library to open too.
As you are still using iPhoto 6 keywords added to Photos are not maintained outside of an iPhoto Library. (If you upgrade to a later version you can do this)
drag from the data/original/modified folders (in the iPhoto library)
Never, ever. Don't change anything in the iPhoto Library Folder via the Finder or any other application. iPhoto depends on the structure as well as the contents of this folder. Moving things, renaming things or otherwise making changes will prevent iPhoto from working and could even cause you to damage or lose your photos.
Managing Multiple Libraries - including moving pics/albums/rolls and metadata between them - is greatly facilitated by using iPhoto Library Manager
Regards
TD

Organizing iPhoto Library in Finder

I was wondering if someone could tell me how to better organize my iPhoto library in Finder. Right now, the automatic setting, it is organzing them by year, month, day. I dont know if there is a way to have them organized in Finder by the albums you create in iPhoto itself. The way it is in Finder makes it really difficult to reach them outside of iPhoto ( to send them thru attachments in alternative emails or AIM it is necessary to access the photos thru finder- if this is wrong maybe someone knows, but if its not, than the way the photos are currently set up makes it difficult to pull them out quickly). Thanks for the help,
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Oh I am using iPhoto 5
ibook g4 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

DO NOT ATTEMPT TO 'ORGANIZE' iPHOTO VIA THE FINDER!! You will corrupt your library and then have a big mess to get your pictures back. Do some more browsing in these discussions and you will find many tales of woe from people who messed with iPhoto via the Finder.
When you want to send attachments etc it is much simpler to export a copy of the picture to the desktop (which also allows you to make it a more email-friendly file size) and then navigate there to attach it. You can also make a selection in iPhoto and then hit the email button which opens your email program with attachments ready made.

Problems importing iPhoto library into Aperture 3

When I got my mac, I imported a collection of images on an external drive into iPhoto, and worked with them there. I also imported images from memory cards directly into iPhoto.
During the original import, I selected the "leave files in place" option. For the direct imports from memory cards, I just imported them. I didn't realize that it would bundle everything into a single file when I did that, and I wasn't expecting what I ran into next...
I finally purchased a copy of Aperture 3 for its more powerful tools and smoother workflow. After installing it, I imported my iPhoto library into it, with the leave in place option... and found that Aperture couldn't load most of the images. It shows placeholder frames instead.
I have tried reconnecting the masters, to no avail; their paths are correct, so they're not changing, and Aperture insists that the masters are missing before and after.
I tried repairing the database with the database first aid tool, and it had no effect.
I tried rebuilding the database, and the result was disastrous; after that I had *no* images in Aperture. None. Even the few that I'd imported directly from media into Aperture were gone.
So I restored my Aperture database from my TimeMachine backup which impressed me with how easy it was, and now I'm back where I started... most of the images imported from iPhoto are inaccessible in Aperture, so I can't use Aperture for most of my image editing, even though iPhoto reads them without any trouble.
Any suggestions?

Frank:
Yes, all of the images are available in iPhoto, whether they're in the iPhoto library, or on the external drive.
Aperture isn't showing any symbol other than the dotted line frame, at least none that I've seen yet. I thought at first that it was the images on the external drive that were missing, but it's actually showing some of them, and not showing others even in some cases ones in the same folder. If a screenshot would help, I'll capture one (I don't know how to do that in OSX yet, though I suspect it's just a matter of the right key combo?).
CalxOddity: It's an OSX volume, but I'm not sure how to determine which filesystem it's using, or else I'd be more specific.
leonieDF: It is a network volume, one of the Time Capsule drives. Though I knew it would slow down loading, I didn't expect any other problems, since iPhoto doesn't have any.
Thanks!

Problem synching iPhoto library with iPhone

I was using OS X Lion synching my iPhoto library with my iPhone 3GS with IOS 4 and everything was working perfect.
When I updated to IOS 5 start the problem, because doesn't sync all the photos. It's leaving around 100 photos without synchronization.
At the end of any sync process (regardless if I do it through wifi or USB) show a message saying that was unable to sync certain number of photos.
Any sugestions?
Thank.

Have you tried deleting some data off...may be some music/videos (as long as you have them backed up elsewhere)? I'd try clearing off a couple of GB & then try syncing the photos again. I had the same issue a while ago...it said that not everything could be synced...I was fairly low on HD space but not near zero etc.
Ben

Problems sharing iPhoto library across multiple users

This discussion here:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1690063?start=0&tstart=0
describes my problem exactly. Unfortunately, the solution presented there doesn't work. I've tried everything I can think of, does anyone have any ideas on how to solve this? I'm on Lion now.

Thanks for the reply. I do have an external drive but I'd rather not do that for a couple of reasons. (Please let me know if either of these are unfounded)
1. It's essential that I have a good backup solution for my photos. They're probably the most important data I have. My external drive has two partitions and one of them is for Time Machine. If I put the iPhoto library on the other partition, it will still be on the same physical drive and if it fails, I'll lose both the iPhoto library and its backup on Time Machine! I do have Backblaze too but I'm not sure whether it works with external drives - need to check that.
2. The second partition on the external drive is FAT 32 so that other windows devices in our house can use it. If I reformat to OS X Extended, I believe that will be a problem. Correct me if I'm wrong.
I could buy another drive but I'd rather not splash out the cash if I don't have to. Apple's instructions here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1198 are old and need to be updated for Lion but it should work, right?

Problems with iphoto library

I'm having problems with duplicate photo's showing up in my iphoto library. first of all how do i get rid of them. can i just go through them all and delete the dupes without them returning. second what caused them? i also have a few questions in how to use iphoto in general. how do i import existing photos to my iphoto library. if i have a folder of pictures and add it to my library, iphoto makes a copy of them in the iphoto library folder right? does that mean that after they get imported i can delete the original folder to avoid duplicates? also, say i have a folder named my pictures or imported into the iphoto library, if i add a few pictures to that my pictures folder, how do i add only those new pictures to the iphoto library? do i just add the whole folder again, and iphoto will know which ones are already there and which are new? oh and by the way, i messed up and moved stuff around in my iphoto library directory before knowing any better.

--First thing to know and remember is this...Do not drag any images, folder of images into the iPhoto Library in the Finder. Images have to be imported into iPhoto within the application. Do not scan images and save them into the iPhoto Library folder in the Finder. Save them to another location such as the Pictures folder or even the desktop. You can then import them into iPhoto.
--All images that you import are sown in the library view. You can choose how you want to view, by rolls, by date, by rating, etc. When you put images in an Album, slideshow, book, etc, you are actually just putting pointers to those images in the library. You are not adding more images. If you delete an image from the Album it will still be in the library. If you delete an image from the library it is deleted from iPhoto's database and your hard drive (unless you have it backed up somewhere else)
--You have a folder of images on your hard drive and want to import them into iPhoto. Drag the folder of images into an open iPhoto Library window and the folder of photos will be copied into the library, resulting in a new roll with the name of the folder. You now have two copies of those photos, the ones in iPhoto's database and the ones on your desktop. You can keep the ones on your desktop that you just imported as backup or you can delete that folder.
-- you scan a picture/pictures and save it in a folder. You cannot scan directly into iPhoto or the iPhoto Library folder in the Finder.
You want all your photos in iPhoto so you import them into iPhoto.
Now you have two copies of that picture/pictures, so you can delete the originals that were in the scanned folder and keep the one/ones that were imported into iPhoto.
-- You download pictures from your camera into iPhoto.
There is now one copy of each of the pictures.
You want to change something about a picture you imported, such as
cropping it or changing the size, or changing the orientation.
Once you do that to a picture, you now have two copies of the picture
in iPhoto, the original and the edited one. The edited one will be in the library organize view. The original is packed away in an Original folder in your iPhoto Library folder under the date of the roll. You can always revert to the original by control clicking on the photo and choose "revert to orginal" You will not have this choice if you used iPhoto Diet to get rid of the Originals.
(a quick note on cropping within iPhoto...when you are in edit mode, you automatically will be in the crop mode with cross hairs to highlight the crop area. To finish cropping you must click the crop button and then go back to library view and your cropped picture will be there.
3.You want to use Photoshop or another graphic program to edit a picture in your iPhoto library.
You can open up prefs for iPhoto and choose "when double clicking on
photo ..do" choose "other" and select Photoshop. Now you can edit all
pictures in your iPhoto library in PhotoShop by double clicking. If you save the photo with the same name and as a flattened file it will be saved right into iPhoto and you will see the changes. If you don't want to save it into iPhoto then do a "save as" and save to the desktop. You will then have the original photo still in iPhoto and your new edited photo on the desktop.
Or, with iPhoto open, you can drag a picture from the library window
to your desktop (you see a + sign on the pic you are dragging). You now
have two of the same picture, one in the iPhoto library and one on your desktop. You can open up the one on your desktop in any graphic program and work on it. The one in iPhoto stays the same. You can also share/export the picture/pictures to your desktop or folder to work on them or do batch processing, etc. You will still have the originals in your iPhoto Library.
Or, you can open up the ~/Pictures/iPhoto Library/folders and option drag any
picture out of the folder to your desktop.

Problems with iPhoto Library Browser

Whem I try to browsr my iPhoto Library from a Aperture File menu, I can only saw 177 events from 633 total events I have on iPhoto library.
I try delete the last one showed in the Aperture but the problems continues..
Any Help ?.

Whem I try to browsr my iPhoto Library from a Aperture File menu, I can only saw 177 events from 633 total events I have on iPhoto library.
I try delete the last one showed in the Aperture but the problems continues..
Any Help ?.

Organizing iPhoto library and Thumbnails

I am in the process of removing old photos in my iPhoto library. I've cleaned up the Modified and Original folders and I understand the Data folder contains the thumbnails. Is there a quick and painless way to delete the thumbnails from the Data folder of the original photos I deleted without going through every single thumbnail?
Thanks in advance.

Mike1961
Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
Huh?
Te correct way to remove photos from iPhoto is to do it in the iPhoto Window. Drag the pics to the iPhoto trash and empty the iPhoto trash.
That's the quick and painless way to remove pics.
Have you being doing this in the Finder? IF so, then you'll need to create a new library and start from scratch.
To create and populate a new library:
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.
Move the iPhoto Library Folder to the desktop
Launch iPhoto. It will ask if you wish to create a new Library. Say Yes.
Go into the iPhoto Library Folder on your desktop and find the Originals folder. From the Originals folder drag the individual rolls to the iPhoto Window and it will recreate them in the new library.
When you're sure all is well you can delete the iPhoto Library Folder on your desktop.
In the future, in addition to your usual back up routine, you might like to make a copy of the library6.iPhoto file whenever you have made changes to the library as protection against database corruption.
And remember It is strongly advised that you do not move, change or in anyway alter things in the iPhoto Library Folder as this can cause the application to fail and even lead to data loss
Regards
TD

Problem viewing iPhoto library

For some reason, whenever I try to view an enlarged picture in iPhoto, it will just appear black, although the thumbnail will appear fine. This happened to me after my computer got a large kernel panic attack, which caused my computer to get a kernel panic every time I booted up. (virus?) Eventually it stopped, but now most of my iLife apps are broken. Help?
In console, it shows the following message when trying to view an enlarged image:
iPhoto[271] Can't open movie: -2020
Message was edited by: -Shadow-

Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the apple and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild.
If that fails:
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

Urgent Problem: Transfer iPhoto Library from iPhoto 4.0.3 to iPhoto 8.1.1

On my G5-Desktop (OS-X 10.4.11 I had created with iPhoto 4.03 a very voluminous library (about 3.7 GB) with a large amount of albums. My attempt to transfer it to iPhoto 8.1.1, located on MacBook pro ( OS-X 6: Snow Leoparf) failed: I have followed the instructions of Terence (many thanks!) by copying the file "iPhoto library" from the "old" Mac to the folder "Pictures" on the "new" one. Clicking on it I got the message, that it cannot be opened and that I have to start a newer version of iPhoto. Starting directly iPhoto 8.1.1 showed me a lot of mpg-pictures spread all over storage-media, BUT NOT the albums and pictures of the original library. The library was still untouched in the correct place.
I cannot imagine that apple has not provided a transfer-method....
BUT WHO CAN HELP ME TO FIND IT ?????

I would guess that the copy from the old machine to the new one has gone wrong.
Try doing it again and then - on the new machine - Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and point it at the copied library.
Regards
TD

Problems transfering iPhoto library

Hi - I'm trying to transfer an iPhoto library from my laptop (Macbook, 2009) to an iMac (from 2008) by using an external hard drive. I copied my iPhoto library from the laptop onto the external hard drive and plugged the external HD into the iMac. I then copied this iPhoto library to the "Pictures" folder on the iMac. When I tried opening this library (I double clicked the library from finder), it opened an entirely different library... I then tried opening it straight from the external...same thing. I then plugged the external back into my laptop and tried opening the SAME LIBRARY, and it was the correct library i originally copied from my laptop. All the info for the file stays the same, it's just when I open it on the iMac, it seems to be a completely different library! (The library that does open on the iMac is one that was previously on it before I inherited it... which I thought had been deleted...) Help please! Thanks in advance!

When I tried opening this library (I double clicked the library from finder), it opened an entirely different library... I then tried opening it straight from the external...same thing.
Then you probably transferred the wrong library.
Look again on your laptop, which library you actually are opening on the MacBook.
Do you have the same iPhoto version on both machines? If the iPhoto library on your MacBook 2009 was created by a newer iPhoto version than you have installed on your iMac, the iMac may not recognize the Library and simply open aother library.
In this case, make sure you have compatible iPhoto versions on both macs.
Regards
Léonie

Problems organizing iPhoto Library

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