Sharpness Control Crashes my Mac after Snow Leopard Upgrade - Help!

Question

Hi everyone, I have a strange problem since upgrading to Snow Leopard.
Now, whenever I click on the sharpness control in iPhoto, for any photo, it immediately causes the screen to go haywire and the Mac completely freezes up. The only way I can continue is to hard reset holding the power button.
On restart, the Mac shows no sign of a crash, the crash reporter does not fire up and there is nothing to indicate a crash in the iPhoto log files.
All other iphoto controls seem to work fine. I can scroll through my library, everything there is perfect, tone controls, exposure, they all work just fine. As soon as I even touch sharpness, bingo I get an instant lock up.
Can anyone help as this makes my iphoto basically useless?
Regards
David

Answer 1

David:
A first fix attempt should be to delete the iPhoto preference file, com.apple.iPhoto.plist, that resides in your User/Library/Preferences folder. Relaunch iPhoto, reset your iPhoto preferences, background color, etc. and try again.
If that does't help launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys depressed and follow the instructions to rebuild the library. Select options #3 and #5.
Click to view full size
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.