Restoring iPhoto albums

I have a five year old iMac. I upgraded to Mtn Lion; then iPhoto 9.3.2. Something ate my albums.
I have tried restoring via Time Machine. I can find iPhoto at an earlier date OK, but when I restore iPhoto, I just end up with the current version with no albums. Am I right in thinking I have to restore individual albums? If yes, how do I find them?
When I upgraded my MacBook Pro, I didn't lose any albums.

What have you been restoring? The iPhoto application does not contain your albums - you need to restore your iPhoto Library.
By default your iPhoto Library should be located in your "Pictures" folder. do you see more than one Iphoto library in "Pictures"? Double click them in turn to lauch iPhoto on them. Maybe you are viewing a new, empty iPhoto Library right now.

Similar Messages

Restoring iPhoto from Time Machine. However iPhoto albums are not transfer

iPhoto albums are not transferring. I just have a bunch of photos with no albums/details/comments etc. I have done a few searches in support and have found similar problems but nothing like mine, which seems to be that I have a back up of all my photos in Time Machine but when I open Time Machine, I cannot simply select a previous restore date as I have been able to with everything else so far. I have tried dragging the whole iPhoto Library folder to iPhoto but again, end up with thousands of pictures with no albums... Any suggestions? Thanks.
It seems iPhoto is backed up but does not have several backups in Time Machine.
Using iPhoto '06
Message was edited by: BrMendez

I think you may need to post this one on the Time Machine forum.
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1227
In later versions you can restore +to the iPhoto Library+, but as v6 predates Time Machine it's not possible to do that. Hence you need to restore an entire Library and open it.
Regards
TD

All my albums on iPhoto have merged into one. Could anybody help me restore the albums as they were?

Hello,
I'm hoping anyone can help me with my iPhoto issue. I tried to select photos from a particular album and apparently by mistake I selected all existing photos in the library. What happened next is all albums merged leaving me with one single album consisting of all photos.
Could anybody help me restore the albums as they were?
Thank you,

Do you mean EVents or albums? In either case the only way to get them back is to restore your backup library created just prior to this occurring.
OT

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

Restoring iPhoto 5 backup to iPhoto 6

Hello,
I made a backup (version 3.0) of my iPhoto 5 library and now i've installed iPhoto 6 and restored my pictures from the 2-dvd backup. However, none of the files show up in iPhoto, but they are on my hard drive in the pictures folder.
How can i get my normal folder structure (and pictures) to show up in iPhoto 6?

Were all your photos in albums?
Did you have any photos in more than one album?
You could try iPhoto Album extractor.
iPhoto Album Extractor
Or you can create a new library route....I have not tested how this is done for iPhoto 6.
Close iPhoto
Rename your messed up iPhoto Library to "iPhoto Library_old"
Drag this library to your desktop
Hold down the Option key and launch iPhoto
This is the window you will get
Create a new library or choose a library to open
Choose to create a new library
Once this new empty library is open it is time to import the images from your old library
Go to File>add to library
Navigate to the old library on your desktop and highlight it in the window, then click the "open" button.
iPhoto will start importing the images from your old library
This is what to expect:
Your images will be imported in nice dated rolls. (make sure your view is set to sort by rolls to see it) There are a couple of caveats to this. You will get rolls named "Originals" These rolls will contain your video clips and your original images that you had edited. If you had RAW files they would be in those rolls too (I don't do RAW, so I don't know for sure) Delete what you don't want from those rolls. You will also get the jpeg pointer files to your video clips imported. They will just be jpegs and will not point to the video clips anymore as iPhoto made new ones when the clips were imported again. You can delete those. they should be in a roll right next to the newly imported video clips so they are not hard to find. The thumbnail files don't get imported as iPhoto makes new ones when the images are imported.
Once all you images have been imported, check through the library and make sure everything looks ok.
You can now start making your Albums, and do your keywords or any other organizational steps.
You can also delete the old library on the desktop.
It is also a good time to backup this new library to CD/DVD by burning the iPhoto LIbrary folder in the Finder, or copying the iPhoto Library folder to an external drive formatted for Macs, or copying the iPhoto LIbrary folder to an iPod.
Good luck!

How do I recover missing iPhoto albums and pictures?

A week ago, all my iPhoto Albums disappeared that normally would appear in the left iPhoto column under LIBRARY and RECENT. When I opened the iPhoto app from both the Dock and the Applications folder, an iPhoto window opens and asks if I would like to set up my iPhoto Library. The first few times this happened, I ignored the request and tried again with the same results.
I tried unsuccessfully finding and restoring the iPhoto Library Database from my external 3TB Time Machine hard drive. I couldn't find any full iPhoto Library Database backup and my backups go back a year. Instead, all I found and restored are photos and videos that were saved outside of iPhoto on the Desktop and in hard drive folders. Several months ago, there was a similar occurrence, but I was able to restore the Library Database. With no luck this time, I eventually allowed iPhoto to start up as if it was being installed for the first time and I never had the option to load an earlier backup Library Database or choose an automatic restore from an earlier version or backup.
While trying to go through various recovery choices with iPhoto, I started getting iCloud login popups asking for my Apple ID and password. I kept cancelling these because I had not previously set up iCloud. When iCloud messages persisted, I finally used my ID and password and the popups stopped. I'm clueless why this was happening and I remain clueless as to what occurred after I tried many cancellations, then finally entered my ID and password. Since then (two days ago), there has been no evidence of iCloud operating or requiring my attention.
After holding the command+option keys to start the iPhoto app, I've tried all the radio button options, one at a time, to Repair, Rebuild, Recover, Examine with no luck. Instead, all that is found are the same files I already mentioned. When I start iPhoto now after allowing it to start up from scratch, the Library Database shows iPhoto Library Recovered Photos (2 photos), Resources (176 photos), a CD backup, Desktop, and lots of short collections of media, resources, thumbnails, and other graphics images I don't recognize and are probably Invisibles. The only photos that appear when Photos is clicked in the left colum of iPhoto are photos that were apparently imported from backed up desktop and hard drive folders. All the photos that were previously imported to iPhoto and stored in iPhoto albums no longer appear individually or in albums in the left column of iPhoto.
I'm using a one-year old iMac running Mac OS X Version 10.7.5 with iPhoto '11 Version 9.2 (626).
I'm reasonably confident the phtoos and albums are recoverable somewhere, but I'm at a loss to find out where. I've been running Macs since 1984 and this is the first time I have been totally unable to explain or recover from an OS, hardware, or app-level problem.
Any help/ideas would be greatly appreciated. If absolutely necessary, I could pack up all my gear and take it to an Apple office 23 miles away for help.

My problem was not so much the loss of pictures, but the loss of their virtual association into albums I created because the albums were no longer appearing when iPhoto was started. I was reluctant to do any reinstalls of the OS, Tme Machine, or iPhoto because I was confident the existing installs were as they should be. Instead, I explored earlier Time Machine backups of iPhoto-related files and folders. I tried several different files/folders to see what I could find when I restored and opened them. To my delight, I found an earlier "iPhoto Library (original)" that, once I restored it to my desktop, iPhoto automatically found the virtual album-photo associations that existed prior to the earlier loss of albums; the restored albums appea as they should in the left column of iPhoto. This "fix" was not intuitively obvious to me, but I was pleased it worked.
A simple iPhoto explanation through iPhoto Help would have been very helpful if the explanation would have said iPhoto Album and Smart Album photo associations are logical, not physical, and the associations and album names are store in the iPhoto Library folder.
At this point, I'm hesitant to move the restored "iPhoto Library (original)" from the desktop, perhaps to the Applications folder, because I don't want to run the risk of undoing what seems to be working. Should I leave this on the desktop or move it?

Lost iphoto albums

I suddenly lost or seem to have lost all the pictures and photographs I had on my iphoto albums.
Wonder what happened.
I did not do anything.
How can I find the albums and retrieve my photographs that I had on my iphoto albums?

I have this exact same problem it started in early May all of my hundreds of albums disappeared for no reason,all of my pictures are still there and I can see the albums in my timemachine back up from April 26 but from my may 12 until now doesn’t have them, whenI restore they don’t come back all of the photos are already there in theevents unorganized but the albums are not This means hundreds of hours of workplease help thank you

IPhoto album won't sync?

I have an iPhoto album that won't sync to my iPad2 running iOS5. My Mac is OS 10.6.8 and iPhoto is v. 8.1.2. This particular album never had an issue syncing before. I just noticed it when switching from an older iPad. I did a restore from backup of old iPad to new iPad2, not sure if that is the issue. I also tried setting up this iPad as new and running the sync, but still have issues with this one album. It will sync without error, but the album does not appear on the iPad.Other albums sync without an issue. Just noticed than iTunes shows the album as having 0 photos, while iPhoto shows it as having 62 photos. Any ideas?

The file in the Library that governs sharing is called th AlbumData.xml file in 09.
Quit iPhoto.
Go to your Pictures Folder and find the iPhoto Library there. Right (or Control-) Click on the icon and select 'Show Package Contents'. A finder window will open with the Library exposed.
Look there for the AlbumData.xml file
Drag it to the desktop. Restart iPhoto. That will force it to regenerate the file.
Restart iTunes too and try again

Saving / backing up iphoto albums.

We are using iphoto 08 and backup using time machine.
Our query is, if things were to go pear shaped, and we had to restore iphoto, would all our albums be still in tact and able to restore.
ie. we have 42,000 photos, with over 80 albums sorting out the photos. If we ever had to restore iphoto, i know we would get the photos back but how about the albums.
I know in itunes you can export playlists which is essentially what albums are in iphoto.
Can anyone advise if time machine backs up the albums or if we can save them somehow.
Many thanks

Yes, a restore of your library would keep everything intact. You can restore individual photos, which will be added to iPhoto in a new event, but a restore of the entire library restores everything.
Occasionally there can be an interruption while iPhoto is writing to it's database file, Library6.iPhoto, which can damage/corrupt that file. When that happens you may open iPhoto to an empty library. If you have a current backup copy of the database file it can be used to replace the damaged one and get you back to where you were before the problem. See the tip at the end of my signature for how to make and keep current a backup of that file.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) 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 or later), 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 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger 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.≤br>
Note: There now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

HT4906 i have lost some of my iPhoto albums how do i get them back

how do i return iphoto albums that have just vanished from my iphoto page.

depends on what cased them to be missing
the most sure way is to restore your backup from before this happened
what version of iPhoto? What recently changed? what exacty does it mea at you "lost some of your album"?
LN

IPhoto crashed. When reopened, 70 some events were grayed out (no photos). Restored iPhoto library from Time Machine, fewer grayed events. Said yes to a msg on fixing library, 3K more photos. Still wrong. What next to do?

iPhoto crashed. When reopened, 70+ some events were grayed out (no photos). Restored iPhoto library from Time Machine, fewer grayed events. Said yes to a msg on fixing library, 3000 more photos. Still wrong. What next to do?

Do you still have the library that you were using when the crash occurred? If so apply the two fixes below in order as needed:
Fix #1
1 - launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
2 - run Option #4 to rebuild the database.
Fix #2
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
1 - download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
2 - click on the Add Library button and select the library you want to add in the selection window..
3 - Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the Library ➙ 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 left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.
OT

How do i restore photo albums from time machine backups without duplicates?

how do i restore photo albums without duplicates from time machine backups? thx

Worth updating? Totally a personal decision. For some it would be. For others it would not?
Upgrading, if there are no problems, does not affect your data. And since bad things do happen you always have a good backup. Especially when doing any upgrade.
Your password question has nothing to do with iPhoto. Try it in the OS forum
LN

Edited iphoto album but it deleted my edits and went to original album, any way to recover?

I edited an iphoto album. Macbook shut down and reverted to the original album. Any way to get the edited album back? About 3000 photos.

Go to your Pictures folder and select iPhoto. Enter Time Machine from the menu bar at the top. Once in TM go back in time (on the right side if the window) to the backup just before the problem happened. Select the iPhoto LIbrary and click on the Restore button.

How can I restore the albums?

I lost most of my photo albums when I recently updated the software on my iPhone. How can I restore the albums?

Did you ever get an answer on this? I'm trying to get photos back on the iPhone as well, and the best route i can come up with is to let iTunes "sync" photos, and manually recreating albums on the computer to try to add to the phone. It didn't seem to work on the first try, but after powering down the phone and rebooting it seems to be working so far. Very time intensive though, to find the desired pictures in iPhoto then "reveal in finder" and copy to the "Pictures" folder.

Videos in some iPhotos Albums do not show up on Apple TV.

Videos in some iPhotos Albums do not show up on Apple TV. Videos in other folders are there. For instance, one album has 43 videos and 1600 photos. Apple TV only shows the 1600 photos. Is there an issue with albums that have both photos and videos?

You can only view that rental on the iPad. For it to show up it has to be rented directly on ATV or through a computer and streamed via home sharing

Restoring iPhoto albums

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