Searching library by missing photos

I would like to be able to search my entire library for missing photos and be able to narrow the search by date, type, etc, which I can already do. The only way I can think of to find missing photos besides looking at each one to see if there is a question mark is to rename them or export them. Then lightroom will bring up a list of missing photos that cannot be renamed, exportorted, etc. What would also be nice is if the text in that list of missing photos could be selectable so i could copy the file names and paste them to my notepad so i can proceed to search for them.
Im a professional photographer and these features would be really helpful.
Thank you.

I may be misunderstanding what you are wanting to do, but the find missing photos command from the library menu will find all missing photos in the entire catalog.

Similar Messages

Best strategy for dealing with a mixed library and missing photos

Looking at the package contents of my iPhoto Library, it appears that I have a "mixed" library (i.e. part managed and part referenced). I'm not sure how this happened--I originally created this library about three years ago when I first bought my Mac with iLife '06, then later upgraded to iLife '08 which I'm currently still using. Maybe the default setting was to have a referenced library in iPhoto '06? Don't know. I don't recall ever changing this setting.
Anyway, I was starting to manually recover some missing photos but it just occurred to me that iPhoto is simply updating the aliases to point to the photos I'm telling it to use, and not actually copying the photos into the library (I'm guessing that only happens when you import a photo). This is not what I want. I want my library to be completely managed. I understand that, as my current Preferences settings dictate, any new photos I import now will be copied into the iPhoto Library. But for the existing photos that I am able to recover, I don't want to have to keep the originals outside of iPhoto.
I read in another topic about an application called AliasHerder and I'm thinking of trying that. The problem is, I no longer have original copies of all of the missing photos. I can recreate the folder structure for some of them but not all. I'm not sure what this will do to my iPhoto Library (I have emailed the vendor for clarification). I'm wondering if I'll still end up with a mixed library containing aliases that point to a non-existent file. Perhaps someone who has some experience with the tool could enighten me.
Based on suggestions given to me in previous posts I made, I tried both rebuilding my iPhoto Library and using the iPhoto Library Manager tool. Neither of these produced the results I had hoped for. Am I better off just starting off from scratch and creating a whole new library? And if so, what's the best way to get all of the existing photos from my current library to the new one? Do I export them out and then import them into the new library? Is there any way to salvage events, albums, etc. from my existing library or will I have to recreate these in the new library?
Thanks in advance!

First check iPhoto's Advanced preference pane to make sure you're running a "managed" library.
Click to view full size
Since you don't have the "source" photos available to relink to your best bet, IMO, would be to continue using your current library and delete those missing photos from it whenever you come across them in day to day use. If you click on the thumbnail of a missing photos and drag it to the iPHoto trash and empty it that will delete it from the library. This way you will retain all of your organizational efforts, i.e. albums, books, keywords, etc.
When you rebuilt with iPhoto Library Manager what did the resulting library contain? If it contained your photos without the missing photos you could use it. You would retain your albums, keywords, faces, places and other metadata. You will lose any keepsakes, i.e. books, slideshows, cards, etc.
Or, you could start over as follows:
Creating a new library while preserving the Events from the original library.
1 - Move the existing library folder to the desktop
2 - Open the library package like this.
3 - Launch iPhoto and, when asked, select the option to create a new library.
4 - Drag the Originals folder from the iPhoto Library on the desktop into the open iPhoto window.
You will end up with all your photos (no missing photos) in the same events as in the original library. But there will be no albums, metadata or keepsakes. It's for this reason I made the original suggestion of continuing with your current library above.
OT
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 versions) 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. There are versions that are compatible with iPhoto 5, 6, 7 and 8 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. Just put the application in the Dock and click on it whenever you want to backup the dB file. 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.
NOTE: The new rebuild option in iPhoto 09 (v. 8.0.2), Rebuild the iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup" makes this tip obsolete.

Project in iPhoto library is missing photos

I am using an iphoto library for photos in both iphoto and Aperture 3.5. My O/S is Mavericks on a MBP Retina laptop.
Sometime after a recent upgrade--not sure it was the Mavericks, iphoto, or Aperture--I noticed that I was unable to edit picture in one of my favorite events/projects. This was a collection of JPEG and RAW files in PEF (Pentax) format. The thumbnails and metadata are present but the photos are missing.
I have already tried all of the options available in rebuilding the iphoto library using the option/command keys with no success.
Any help appreciated!

First of all, try to save at least the previews by dragging the thumbnails from the aperture Browser window to a folder on your Desktop.
Then check, if the original image files are really missing from the library, or Aperture only has lost the connection between thumbnails and original image files.
Select your Aperture lbrary in the Finder and ctrl-click it. Select the option "Show package contents". In the window that will open, select and open the folder "Masters". open the subfolder of the year > month > day you imported the project to Aperture. Are the original images still there?

Photos tells me it is connecting to Library for shared photos. It's been saying this for about ten hours. I can't stop it from searching or get it to do anything else. I can go back to my photos but I can't get Photos to find the shared items.

Photos tells me it is connecting to Library for shared photos. It's been saying this for about ten hours. I can't stop it from searching or get it to do anything else. I can go back to my photos but I can't get Photos to find the shared items.

Be sure Safari does not have the Block Pop-Up Windows preference set.
Where I work now there are several unencrypted VLANs that require authentication, and Safari promptly pops up a window for me to register every time.

IPhoto Library Manager hasn't managed to find missing photos after rebuild

I'm trying to repair what I assume is my pal's corrupted iPhoto Library. There are over 8000 images in the Originals folder, which is the number of photos expected to be in iPhoto but he suddenly discovered there were only 1200.
Having tried to rebuild the library with iPhoto Library Manager it is still only showing 1200 photos and I therefore wondered whether anyone can recommend any other solutions for trying to recover the missing photos?
As always, any help most appreciated
Kind Regards
Bernard

Did you try to rebuild with iPhoto with "Find orphans" option selected? If that doesn't work you'll have to start over with a new library as follows:
Creating a new library while preserving the Events from the original library.
1 - Move the existing library folder to the desktop
2 - Open the library package like this.
3 - Launch iPhoto and, when asked, select the option to create a new library.
4 - Drag the Originals folder from the iPhoto Library on the desktop into the open iPhoto window.

"Missing Photos" in Library section of Library

Hi,
Mac OS X 10.5.2, Lightroom 1.3.1.
Somehow, I have an entry in the Library section of Library (this is not in the Folders section) which says I have about 6,000 missing photos. I'm trying to understand what this means. The photos are there, and I can right click on them and see the photos in the Finder.
What do these 6,000 "missing files" refer to? Are they missing from the catalog? I was recently tinkering with the "Synchronize Photos" function as it looks like I have some cruft in the library where I tried to delete rejected photos, but only deleted them from the library and not from disk (I'd love to be able to easily doing this now... but I can't find how to do that either).
Note these are NOT files that were moved outside Lightroom. These are not red folders... the files are there but Lightroom is calling them "Missing" for whatever reason. I can't see any reference to it in the documentation... but I haven't purchased a LR book so don't know where a good document for this is.

Have a look at these two threads:
http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3c06476f/0
and
http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3c05eed5/0
It looks like this is a database problem/bug; the files are not really missing but Lightroom thinks that they are! If all the files reported as missing, still exist then you can correct the problem by removing them from the catalog. (If you try to re-import them (or a few of them), and check "Don't re-import suspected duplicates" on the Import Photos screen, Lightroom should not import any files; instead it should give you message saying that they already exist in the catalog.)

Missing Photos and jumbled library and sub folders

Hi. I am having trouble opening photos in iPhoto. The thumbnails are squashed out of shape and when I double click on the image, a different photo appears. There are also blank squares in place of some thumbnails. All the photos in my library are also out of order, most of my subfolders are now empty and if there are photos in a subfolder, they do not correspond to the folder name. Everything appeared to be okay two weeks ago.
Any help in retrieving my lost photos and resetting the subfolders would be appreciated.

Hi Ben,
First try a rebuild:
Try this:
Before doing a rebuild make sure iPhoto's trash bin is emptied. You can do this by control clicking on the trash bin, or from the menu bar under iPhoto.
Close iPhoto
Duplicate the iPhoto Library folder
Drag the duplicate to the desktop (hopefully you have enough room on your hard drive for the duplicate.)
Launch iPhoto holding down the Command and Option keys until you see the rebuild options screen.
Choose the first three options. If you were missing photos in your library, also choose the last option. Be advised that you will get a roll of orphaned photos and it might be quite huge. Most of them will already be in your iPhoto library, but use caution when deleting anything from this roll until you are sure the photos are still in your library in another place. It might be a good idea to share/export this roll of photos just in case you need to import them again.
Back to the rebuild, depending on the size of your library it might take some time. When it is done, hopefully your photos will be there.
You might see some unexpected results as I did when I did a rebuild. Photos had been moved to wrong dates, video clips had lost their duration info and some were even orphaned from the jpg pointer file. It took me some time to straighten it out again.
This is the reason to make a duplicate before you rebuild, in case you do not like the result. If you don't like the result, close iPhoto, then delete the rebuilt library and drag the duplicate back into the Pictures folder making sure the name is iPhoto Library. Launch iPhoto and it should open the library in the Pictures folder.
iPhoto 4 or later: Rebuilding the iPhoto Library
If that doesn't work, create a new library:
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 "import" 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!

Missing Photos from my Iphoto library, Please Help!

#1 Woke up yesterday and noticed there are many pictures missing from my Iphoto library.
#2 The folders are still there but there are NO picture in some of them EVEN though my total picture count remains the same. About 25k pics.
#3 I do a google and some forums suggest "rebuilding" the photo album THROUGH my Iphoto Photo Library.
#4 I go ahead and start the rebuilding process which seems conceivably at the rate its going, it might take maybe a full day or more!!
#5 My laptop FREEZES for some mucked up reason at about 5500 photos rebuilt so far. I am forced to force quit Iphoto and RESTART the whole process.
#6 Now during the "rebuild" process. The process stops at and ONLY recognizes up to the 5500 photos.
#7 Now my library ONLY says 5500 photos instead of the 25k
#8 All of my photo FOLDERS still remain.
#9 A little tidbit, I don't know why but my external 2tb hd is somehow connected to my Iphoto, where if my EX HD is not connected I will be missing many photos from my mac laptop Iphoto Library while disconnected.
#10 2 things, I have not backed up my library since Dec 2010, BUT i also have added very little photo since then.
PLEASE HELP ME KIND MAC PEOPLE, What can I do? Where have all my photos in my library gone? Why will it only rebuild now only to 5500 photos. Please shoot my some ideas and help if you can. Thank you very much for your kind advice and help! Humbly "Devastated" for these photos are work and family irreplacable :[

It is unlikely that your problem is a corruped preference file - the correction for that is
A good general step for strange issues is to renew the iPhoto preference file - quit iPhoto and go to "your user name" ==> library ==> preferences ==> com.apple.iPhoto.plist and trash it - launch iPhoto which creates a fresh new default preference file and reset any personal preferences you have changed and if you have moved the iPhoto library repoint to it. This may help
This does not affect your photos or any database information (keywords, faces, places, ratings, etc) in any way - they are stored in the iPhoto library - the iPhoto preference file simply controls how iPhoto works - which is why renewing it is a good first step.
It is likely that you have a corrupted library - and backups are NOT just to protect against hardware failures
Note - things fail - software - computers - people - and if you do NOT always have a current backup you will lose all of your photos and other data sooner or later
And the managed library has NOTHING to do with the library you have selected - it has to do with iPhoto preferences you have selected -
Were the "missing" photos only missing when the EHD was no tavailable as you implied?
and do you have a default "managed" library (the iPhoto preference to "copy imported items to the iPhoto library is in its checked state) or a referenced library - if htat option checked or unchecked?
LN

Yosemite and iphoto upgrade missing photo library

While painfully transferring one user acount to another mac, my external hard drive died with all back-ups. After I sucessfully and with great trevail migrated the account , I found that I had neglected to upgrade both computers to Yosemite. When I did so, along, I believe, with iphoto, my photos all disappeared. It opens up to the screen with the yellow sticky note. When I try to access the library under Finder, Photos, it still opens up the to menu with the yellow sticky note, and no photos (oddly enough, the trash in iphot is filled with the many many photos that I have deleted and never gotten rid of).
Help....

Have a look at this discussion - iPhoto Upgrade and Library Issue
It may be the same problem.
Select your iPhoto Library in the Finder. By default the iPhoto Library is in the Pictures folder. Ctrl-click or right click the iPhoto Library. From the contextual menu that will pop up select "Show Package Contents". Are there folders "Masters" and "Old Masters"? If there is a folder "Old Masters" the upgrade of your iPhoto library has failed.
Copy both folders - Masters and Old Masters to a drive, where you have enough space. The Old Masters folder will probably contain most of your missing photos. We do not know any method right now, how to fix a library, that has been corrupted in this way. If you cannot restore from an earlier backup, since your backup drive failed,
backup the corrupted library,
create a new, empty iPhoto library,
then try to recreate the iPhoto library by importing the photos from Old Masters into a new iPhoto library. also, import any photos from Masters.
And send feedback to Apple. This bug needs attention urgently. http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphoto.html

LR5 Find missing photos - search nearby won't work consistently

LR5 seems to work inconsistently when locating missing photos and selecting "find nearby photos".
It has succeeded in finding nearby files but now will only locate one file at a time....a very annoying and time consuming exercise!
Any suggestions please?

Hmm, I'm still not sure about your situation. But if the entire folder was missing (before you started finding individual pics), then it's easy to find the whole folder. You can see if the folder is missing by looking in the Folders pane on the left -- it will have a "?" on it:
Right-click on the folder and select Find Missing Folder.

"your photo library is missing"

Hi there!
I've got MacBook pro and when I try to open iPhoto i get message:
Your library is missing, please make sure disk is mounted...
I can't say which iPhoto version it is, because I cannot run it.
In my Pictures directory there is iPhoto Library folder, so I don't know what the reason can be.
Does anyone have any idea?
Thanks in advance
Adam Mscisz

problem solved..
I've noticed it's an alias to directory that doesn't exist...so I created it...
thanks anyway

Albums folder in iPhoto Library folder missing

The Albums folder in iPhoto Library folder missing. This means when I try to sync photos to my iPod (video) in iTunes, none of my photo albums show up (though I can seclect a specific folder useing year, month day, etc.). It also mens that I must navagate through the date folders to find photos when trying to attach them to e-mails.
I am running a G5 with the latest version of OSX, iPhoto, iTunes.
How do I recreat this folder?
Thankd for any help.
Cheers__ Heath

Hi Heath,
iPhoto 5 now stores the Album information in a data xml file. The Albums folder within the iPhoto Library folder is no longer used. At some point, usually after a rebuild, you will no longer have that folder in the Finder.
If you need to access photos from an album it is very difficult for a third party application to navigate the iPhoto Library in order to find the photo you need. You will have to know the date of import in order to find the photo.
There are some third party applications that can read the xml file and can navigate the iPhoto library and show you the Albums. Hopefully more applications will be revised to read this file.
Until then you will have to Share/Export the photos to the desktop. You can then navigate to the desktop to use the photos (example: web uploading from online photo site)
If your application supports drag and drop, you can drag the photo from an open iPhoto Library window into your application.
For email you can also use the email icon within iPhoto to open a message with the highlighted photo attached.
You can also use spotlight to find images in an Album...
This is what I have done using Spotlight to find my images that are in iPhoto albums without opening iPhoto..
In iPhoto, select the album, then select all, go to Photos/batch change.
Change the comments to text. In the text field I put the name of the Album.
Do this for each album.
Close iPhoto.
Open Spotlight and put in the name of the Album ( you have to remember the names of the albums or have then written down)
In the spotlight search results. click on "show all"
Under "Images" click on the "xx more" to show all the images in the album.
Make sure you have it in icon view, the icon view box is the last one on the blue images line.
Now you can control click on the image to "reveal in finder", open in iPhoto or Mail, etc.
I am not sure if this is going to make you happy and it is a little more work, but you can find images in albums and even view them in a slideshow (by clicking the play arrow at the end of the Images highlighted blue line) using Spotlight, all without opening iPhoto.
One important thing to know is you can set up a graphic program to be an external editor (when you double click an image in the library} such as PhotoShop or PS Elements. You set up that within iPhoto Preferences. Just make sure you save the image flattened and with the same name. The edits will then be relected in iPhoto when you hit "save".
Two Apple kbs for you to read
Don't tamper with files in the iPhoto library folder
About the iPhoto Library folder
Also, when you choose a folder to sync for your iPod, choose iPhoto in the drop down menu in iTunes, then choose the Album you want to sync. Do not choose a folder on your hard drive and then the Albums folder in the iPhoto Library folder.
Lori

Missing photo links - changing name of external Hard Drive location

I have searched for the answer to this high and low without success if someone can help...
I have a large collection of photos that I store on an external firewire hard drive (too many to store on my macbook pro). My iphoto library is on my Mac and when importing photos to iphoto I did not import the files so the originals remain on the external hard drive and are therefore linked to in iphoto.
I did it this way, rather than storing the library database on the external drive, so that I could access the information and thumbnails when travelling and not connected to my external drive.
I've upgraded my external hard drive and it will have a different name. I need to transfer all the photos across to the new hard drive.
Is there a quick way to reconnect all my original photos when transferred to the new hard drive or a better way to transfer them? Having tried to copy them across manually, obviously as expected I get a missing photo exclamation mark and am asked to browse to the file to relink. This is OK to reconnect one or two photos, but would take me forever with 17,000.
I remember Adobe Photo Album had a command reconnect missing files, and it would go off and search for the files you may have moved location (or changed the directory name in which they were held). Is such a function available in iphoto? I've tried the iphoto re-build functions, but this doesn't look in other attached volumes for the photos.
Alternatively, is there a way to edit the iphoto library database to do a search and replace of the Volume name to the new name and reconnect the link to then photos? e.g. Can you manually edit the albumdata.xml file (and would this be the file to edit) for example, and rebuild the database with Photo Library Manager?
Can you re-import all the photos from the new location, and rebuild the links that way, or does this create duplicate entries and not merge album, keyword event data etc for each photo?
My last resort is re-importing all the photos again, but of course I'd loose all my keywords, albums, events and other info I've spent a long time entering into iphoto.
Thanks
Phil

I just wanted to close this off to say that my solution worked fine and my iphoto libraries are up and running in perfect order again. And to summarise the solution so you don't have to read the entire post above.
This solution is for those wanting to have the iphoto library on your Mac and store the original photos linked elsewhere on an external / network drive (i.e. not imported into the iphoto library). Then you want to change the location where the originals are stored (say for example you get a new bigger external Hard Drive - like I did), and that new location will have a different name. Most people recommend importing the photos into the iphoto library, keeping everything together, and this can then be moved anywhere and accessed.
So to summarise, if you are moving original photos linked into iphoto:
1. Back up everything you can first...
2. First try moving the files (not copying and deleting) - the aliases may reconnect, especially if they are on your main HD. You may need to manually reconnect one file in each sub-directory.
3. Move your photos to your external HD / network drive. Note if the new place has the same name as your old external HD then the aliases probably won't need to be fixed.
4. Download and install File Buddy or similar Alias 'fixer'
5. Go to your iphoto Library, right click, "Show Package Contents"
6. Copy the "Originals" directory to another location so that file buddy can read it.
7. Run File buddy, fixing the aliases in your copy of the Originals folder, pointing to where you've moved your photos too (restrict the directories as much as possible where you point file buddy to search for the missing files to speed it up). You will only have issues if you have multiple copies of the same file - i.e. that have the same file name and creation date, and file buddy will give you a list of these. This in itself is a good check to see you don't have the same file in two places - I only had issues with folders of photos that I'd been given from family in which there were multiple copies of the same photo. I've now cleaned these up, saved space and ran file buddy again to finish the job off.
8. Finally, move this now fixed "Originals" folder back into your iphoto library (package contents) - writing over / replacing the original "Originals" directory.
All being well, should be fixed!
Just to share with you the benefits I find of having my photos stored on an external HD and the iphoto library on my Macbook:
-- Saves space on my limited internal HD
-- others can access the photos, set up and manage their own iphoto libraries pointing at the same originals, and we don't need two copies of the original files
-- I can access the iphoto library and manage albums, add keywords, titles, etc when not connected to the External HD, though you're limited to viewing the (not too small) thumbnail pictures iphoto stores in its library
I'm loving iphoto even more now, it makes managing and viewing my 1000's of photos a pleasure.
Cheers
Phil

?s about restoring library, recovered 800+ photos with File Salvage

I made two errors that caused me to lose the photos I'd imported to my new internal hard drive. I was determined to start off right and stick to good rules of organization I've learned on this forum. The errors were that I deselected in advance preferences to have iPhoto import the original (thanks again Old Toad, for solving that mystery for me) AND then I emptied the trash and of course the originals got dumped. OT pointed me to File Salvage and I decided to pony up with the purchase. Last night I pulled out huge groups of jpegs onto my external hard drive.
There seemed to be no way in File Salvage to focus only on the jpegs in the already emptied trash. I think it was showing me all jpegs on my computer. I started finding a photo I wanted, hitting restore and then looking for my next photo. I quickly realized that each photo was then appearing on my ex HD in two layers of folders and each was called jpeg 1. There is no way I wanted to open all those individual folders to get to each photo. There is no apparent way to select some of the photos as you preview them in File Salvage to do a mass export of only the ones you selected. I decided I'd rather transfer huge bunches of them and use Preview to cull out all the backgrounds, and tons unwanted jpegs. This would not be an acceptable solution if I didn't have a brand new HD. I cannot imagine wading through years' worth of jpegs or larger libraries.
Now I have a few photos of hundreds of images. I have a few questions about when I get ready to re-import to iPhoto:
Is there anyway to reunite the photos with the PICT title assigned to it when taken? I want them to show the time and date they were taken too. I don't know how I'll sort them back into rolls without that aid. Right now they are a completely jumbled mess sorted by size so I could rule out the thousands of jpegs in the small KB size and zero in on the 1-4 MB size my camera produces. (Strangely I found a few in the 18-20 MB size???)
I will be putting the originals into folders to regroup them with the subjects or events they were taken from but that still leaves me hundreds of photos in each category in some cases. I'm so used to using iPhoto to sort by name, title, date and I don't know if all that gets masked with the recovery and makes it look like all these photos were taken on the same day.
I still have my thumbnail aliases neatly organized in iPhoto from when I thought I imported all the missing photos. When I reimport do I get more thumbnails? Should I empty my iPhoto library completely before I bring the originals in? Remember that I'm working with a brand new HD and these mistakes affected everything I have in iPhoto. Right now iPhoto only contains the thumbnails, metadata information, and the modified photos that were rotated in my camera.
I'm looking at hours of tedious work to restore my photos and any suggestions that will streamline my efforts would be welcome.

MacLoyal:
I know of two ways you can rename them, temporarily, sequentially so you can get them into a single or a few folders.
1 - create a "container" folder and put all of the other folders into it.
2 - download and launch the iView MediaPro demo.
3 - in the new catalog window drag the "container" folder.
All of the files will be imported into the catalog. You can check to see if the capture date in the files has been preserved by selecting a photo and clicking on the Info button at the top. Then in the Photo EXIF section you can see if the capture date is intact. If so then you can sort on the capture date to get them in chronological order. (If needed click on the house button in the tool bar to see all photos in the catalog).
Now select all and go to the Action->Batch Rename menu item. There select Date and the number from 1. In the #### field put in 3. That will make the last part of the file name -001.jpg, -002.jpg, etc. so they will list correctly in the finder. The old and new names will show in the bottom like this. If you have more than 999 files to rename make that #### field = 4.
Once they have been renamed you can group them as desired and select and drag them to new folders on the desktop that you've created for that purpose. Of drag directly into an open iPhoto window to create a roll of those particular images. To indicate which ones you've moved hit the 1,2 ...9 keys to assign a color label to them after moving.
The other way is, after putting all of those folders into a container folder, open the container and type Command-F. Then in the Search window select the following criteria:
File type = image
File size is greater than 100 KB
That will find all of the full sized image within all of those folders. Do a select all and drag into an open iPhoto window. The files will be copied and will be titled jpg 1.jpg, jpg 1_2.jpg, jpg 1_3.jpg, etc.
You can then do your arranging however you want, batch change the title, sort by date if the the capture date is still there. If you want to physically rename the files you'll have to export them to the desktop using the Use Title option. Then reimport to the library and delete the first set.

IPhoto Missing Photos, Unique Situation

Hi everybody,
I am in what I believe to be (after a bit of Googling and forum searching) in a unique position with my iPhoto Library. The library in question used to be maintained without keeping copies in the actual library (by using the relevant option in iPhoto Preferences), as I like to maintain my own folder hierarchy for the actual photo file storage. However, after a hard drive upgrade and the move to iPhoto '08, I decided I'd like to change this. Before moving to '08, though, I needed a way to get all my then-aliased photos into the library itself. So, I used a program called Synk (basically a backup program) which was able to resolve all the aliases to photos elsewhere and replace them with the actual photos in my iPhoto library.
The old system and paths have since been replaced (due in no small part to a hard drive crash), and I'm now having an issue with those photos whose links no longer work. Apparently, said links weren't working during the resolution of the aliases, and so a number of broken links made their way into the new library and are now still there. And, unfortunately, those photos were stored on a drive which no longer exists, meaning anytime I try to click on one of those photos, iPhoto gives me the spinning beach ball of death for a minute or two (per photo) as it tries to connect to that drive. When it finally fails, it brings up the "Could not find this photo" dialogue box and gives me the option to find it, but to do this for all the missing links (as there are quite a few) would be extremely tedious.
So, I'm wondering what ideas people have as to go about restoring my library. I still have all (or at least most) of the missing photos in question on disk; they're just not properly linked. And I'd really like to keep all my tagging, renaming, and comment info for the photos that are there, given I've done extensive work in these areas. Thanks for any help.

CyberMonk:
I hope you didn't use Synk on the entire library package. Because it cannot parse the database file's contents which is the heart and soul of the library. I'm afraid you may not be able to resurrect the library.
Since the links for the alias files are broken unless you can re-link each file you'll have to start over from scratch by creating a new, empty library and importing the photos again. I don't know of any application that can do that.
Do you get a warning window when double clicking on a thumbnail indicating that the original file cannot be found and asks if you'd like to find it? If so, if you can find and re-link one photo in an event it may re-link all of the photos in that event as they are all in the same folder. But you have to be able to get to that warning window.
If the above fails I strongly recommend you setup a "managed" library to prevent this type of problem again.
You could run a managed library of all your photos on the external HD and have a smaller library on the laptop for the most current and those you need. You can use the paid version of iPhoto Library Manager to manage the multiple libraries and copy files via albums or event between the two while maintaining the keywords, comments and title.
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), 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.

Searching library by missing photos

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