Thumbnails & originals--restored iPhoto Library

Awhile back, I had to reformat my hard drive and before doing so backed up my iPhoto library by copying the Library folder to a DVD. When I then imported the folder back to iPhoto I ended up with my Originals and Thumbprints in the Library along with the photos (so 3 of everything!). I know now that I should have used the burn button but how can I safely get my library back to normal?
Also, I recently rebuilt my library hoping this would help. Can I drag the old library to the trash and get rid of it? All these extra photos are really slowing things down. Thanks for you help!

Hi sharon,
If you copied the ENTIRE iPhoto Library to DVD then to restore that library is very simple. Drag that iPhoto Library folder from the DVD into the Pictures folder. Launch iPhoto and it will open the library. No import is needed.
So yes, you can drag that old library to the trash (making sure there are no new photos in it that aren't in the backup library) If there are new photos in that library that aren't in the backup, then first share/export those images to a new folder on the desktop. these images can be added to the library after you replace the bloated library with the backup library.

Similar Messages

I have thumbnails in my iPhoto library but when I click on them the screen is black

I have thumbnails on my iPhoto library but when I click on them the screen is black. I have had my computer in 2-3 times for this issue and the library is corrupt, or so I was told. This doesn't make sense since the photos are obviously in my library some where. Any thoughts what is going on?

Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
Click on the Add Library button,
and select the library you want to add from those in the selection window.
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
In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
Click on the Create button.
Note 1: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments. However, books, calendars, cards and slideshows will be lost.
Note 2: Your current library will be left untouched for further attempts at a fix if so desired.

Restoring iPhoto Library from a backup

Hi, I recently bought the backup program "Backblaze" just in time! I few days ago I accidentally lost my entire iPhoto library. Luckily after a 12.4 GB download (which took about a day and a half - man backblaze is awesome!) I had my library back. There is one difference. Instead of a package with a cute icon called "iPhoto Library" the restored version has the same file structure except that the package is now just a folder named "iPhoto Library." This means that I can't simply drag it into the photos folder.
My question. Can I drag the contents of the restored "iPhoto Library" folder into my now empty "iPhoto Library" package?
In case that was confusing, here is a picture:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1347667/SnapNDrag66.jpg

I restored the library in a folder - not a package. You can not simply open the folder in iPhoto.
But, I decided to just try it and see what happens - it worked.
I held down option when starting iPhoto, then created a new library. Then I closed iPhoto, showed that package's contents and then dragged the contents of the backblaze backup into the new iPhoto library telling finder to replace everything. My iPhoto library is now fully functional.

Restoring iPhoto library from time machine

How does one restore iPhoto library from time machine. When I attempt to do so time machine downloads 2/3 of the library and then says: operation cannot be completed because you do not have permission to access iPhoto library. Any advice? I am using so 10.8.2

Try the methods pondini gives here.
http://pondini.org/TM/15.html
Look at the specifics for iphoto..
It is not easy as the versions have changed.. if you are trying to restore a version older than the OS.. not sure what willl happen.
You might also need to do a full restore to an external drive and pluck the library out of there.

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

Thumbnails but no originals in iPhoto library

I thought I backed up my library using time machine to an external drive but all I see are thumbnails & when I click on one a big question mark comes up instead of the full size original. I tried rebuilding the library from the external drive but now even the thumbnails are gone, even though when I search for the file it shows up in spotlight. I deleted files & then emptied the trash when my startup disc was full. Is it still possible the originals are there? How can I see where all the thumbnails are located? If I've lost the originals I'd still like to have the thumbnails all in one place. Thank you! Mac

Sorry but I have not idea what you have done
I thought I backed up my library using time machine to an external drive but all I see are thumbnails &
What exactly does this mean
when I click on one a big question mark comes up instead of the full size original.
Is this using iPhoto?
I tried rebuilding the library from the external drive but now even the thumbnails are gone,
Exactly what did you do? iPhoto does not rebuild from anywhere - it only will rebuild the library it is currently using
I deleted files &
Please explain
then emptied the trash when my startup disc was full
Again I have no idea at all of what you have done - but if you have deleted files from the iPhoto library using the finder and emptied the system trash then you library is toast and you will have to start over
Is it still possible the originals are there?
Of course - it is possible - if they are they will be in the Masters folder in your iPhoto library - right click on the iPhoto library and show package contents and look (BUT DO NOT TOUCH - NEVER make any changes to the structure or content of the iPhoto library using the finder)
How can I see where all the thumbnails are located?
They are in the previews folder - same warning as above
If I've lost the originals I'd still like to have the thumbnails all in one place.
Again not sure what you want - you can create a new library and import any image you want into it including the previews - but they are very low quality - almost unuseable
LN

Can't restore iPhoto Library from Time Machine. Faults halfway through.

POSTED EARLIER ON iPHOTO 9 DISCUSSION-recommended checking here.
My wife is running a Mac Mini with iPhoto 9. She has let her hard drive space drop to about 4gigs. This morning, she opened iPhoto and nothing came up. I looked at some of the posts here and did the following 1) ran disk utility to repair permissions 2) removed enough files to get her available hard drive space above 10gigs. Mostly by moving to her external hard drive. 3) Based on what I was reading, I copied her iPhoto library and related files to a folder on her external drive. I then deleted the iPhoto library file itself. 4) I went into TimeMachine and ran it back to the last backup yesterday and asked it to Restore that file.
The process went forward smoothly until it hit about 5.5gigs of the 46.5gig file. At that point it stopped and a dialogue box said "the operation can't be completed because you don't have permission to access iPhoto library". I ran it again---essentially it fails after restoring the thumbnails. I checked permissions for iPhoto and it shows 'read and write' as the settings.
Any suggestions? Is using Time Machine for this purpose not workable? Thanks in advance for your help.

Disk utility ran through the REPAIR disk function on the Time Machine drive and came back good. I then ran the VERIFY disk function on the Main disk and it also came back good. I was not offered a REPAIR disk option for the Main Disk.
No errors. Any other suggestions?

Can't restore iphoto library from time machine

I'm running iphoto 8 on 10.6.8. The iphoto library disappeared and I've tried numerous ways to restore it. Rebuilding the library didn't work. Neither did library manager's rebuild function. When I attempt to restore directly from time machine I get a permissions error. I tried to work around that by creating a disk image and restoring the time machine back up to that. It copies some of it, but then gives me an error 36.
"The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in “iPhoto Library” can’t be read or written.
(Error code -36)"
It did transfer enough data before quitting so that I could get my low res photos from the "data" folder, but I can not get to the originals folder.
Is there any other way to get that folder out of the time machine back up directly. The library on time machine shows over 20 gigs of data, but I can't seem to get to it.
I did upgrade to snow leopard a few months ago.
I appreciate any and all help. :-) shaeri

Thanks so much Terence. I tried some of the fixes from that page, but then discovered the suggestion to compress the Time Machine Back up of the original library and transfer it as a zip back to my computer as detailed here:
http://pondini.org/TM/E9.html
That worked like a charm. I really appreciate it.

What are the iphoto files I need to restore iphoto library deleted from drive

A few days ago my hard drive started making noises and I was getting all sorts of errors. I even got errors trying to do a time machine backup with the final error being "backup failed".
Earlier last week I imported a couple hundred photos of my kids from Christmas to present which also included our vacation last month. I deleted the photos from my camera after the import. Then foolishly, I didn't think to do any time machine backups between then and the time my hard drive started making noise.
I bought a new SSD drive. I could still access the bad drive so I moved my pictures directory from the bad drive to the new drive. It took nearly two hours. It appeared to have moved everything, but it did not move the iphoto library. The pictures directory is gone from the old hard drive.
I purchased FileSalvage and recoved thousands of deleted jpg files from my old drive, but none appear to be the pictures I lost.
It appears that FileSalvage will recover specific file types. There doesn't seem to be a way to just tell it to recover the deleted "pictures" directory or recover "iphoto library".
If I was able to specify specific file names to restore, what files would I even need to specify? I have iphoto 11.
I came across an article about iphoto library files from iphoto 6 and previous versions which explained the following iphoto files: library.iphoto6, albumdata.xml, Thumb32Segment.data, Thumb64Segment.data, ThumbJPGSegment.data, etcxxxxx.
mmm
Does iphoto 11 use similar file names? I'm not concerned with keeping my iphoto database in tact. I just want my pictures.
Maybe I'm asking the wrong question. Any advice on how to get my pictures back would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!!
MH

Simply, you can't recover the iPhoto Library. What you need to do is try recover the Photos that were in it. These will be saved as jpeg files* and that's what you need to search for. Recovering all the other files will do no good. You won't be alble to reconstruct the Library. Your aim is to get the Photos and then start over.
The search may find many files of the same name, try to recover the largest files - they are most likely to be your originals.
Regards
TD
*Assuming you're not shooting Raw. If you are shooting Raw then you'll know the suffix for your camera. If none of that makes sense then you're not shooting Raw

Restoring iPhoto library after hard-drive crash

I lost my entire hard drive on my iMac and had to physically replace it. I recovered all my files from Carbonite, but didn't notice until it was too late that there were errors restoring my iPhoto library. When I open iPhoto '11, the iPhoto library doesn't show any of the 43,000 photos (that includes thumbnails, "faces" files, etc. that were on my old library).
If I search my "Macintosh HD" drive for all ".jpg" files, I can see them all. They are all in a file path that is "Pictures/iPhotoLibrary/Masters."
But when I open iPhoto and select "import to library" and then search for the photos or the Masters folder, it doesn't see it. When I try to do a work-around by selecting the files individually and telling the computer to use iPhoto to open them, it says that I can't open the files because they're already part of the library.
I can't seem to find a solution to this exact question. Any ideas out there?

You can try 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.
But if this fails you'll need to accept that your back up is faulty and you'll need to make a new Library and start over from scratch.
Regards
TD

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

Cannot restore iPhoto library

My MacBook hard drive crashed and had to be replaced. I am now running iPhoto 11 (9.3.2) which is a more recent version than my old iPhoto library (but i am not sure what version it was). I am now trying to restore some old photos from an external backup drive. I thought that i had just copied a version of the iPhoto library to the Backup drive in the past, however, the backup drive has multiple files/folders on it (iPhoto Library folder with many sub-folders - attachments, caches, content, data.noindex, database, library.iphoto, library6.iphoto, masters, metadata backup, modified, originals, previews, etc), instead of a single iPhoto library. When I try to open iPhoto and connect it to the external drive, I receive the following messages:
"The photo library needs to be upgraded to work with this version of iPhoto."
I click Upgrade
"iPhoto is unable to open this Library. You have opened this photo library with a newer version of iPhoto. Please quit and use the latest version of iPhoto."
Is there another way for me to recover my old iPhoto library? I am concerned if i just reimport the pictures, I will lose all of the metadata (Faces, Events, Places, etc).

Jen,
Try the following (which Kmoi also suggested):
In finder, navigate to your iphoto library (via users, then selecting your username, then Pictures). Right-click (hold down control and click) the iPhoto Library. Select "Show Package Contents." The folder entitled "originals" should contain the photo files you had in your old iPhoto library. I copied this entire folder (make sure you select it and go to Edit<Copy instead of dragging it) into your Google Drive folder. I tried dragging the first time and it moved, not copied it. I then pasted into the Google Drive folder. This way I had a backup not of the iPhoto library (which is finicky in it's version compatibility, etc) but of the actual photos contained, and I wouldn't even need iPhoto to open them in an emergency. Them I dragged the photos by event folder into iPhoto once it was open, to import them and add them to the existing iPhoto library.
I came to all of this because when I tried to replace one library with another, even though they were from the same version of iPhoto, it said it wouldn't work. Problem solved, and I also have a more iron-clad backup of the photos now as well.
Good luck.

Can I use my iPod to restore iPhoto library?

The hard drive on my MacBook Pro recently "died" and I am unable to recover any files from it. I had a new hard drive installed and want to know if there s there any way to use my iPod, which has all of my photos on it, to restore my iPhoto library? I did transfer photo files from my iPod - a photo database and thumbs - but when i try to open using iPhoto i get a message that the files are unreadable?
I am afraid to connect my iPod to my computer now, in case all of the photos on my iPod disappear. Any instructions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

When you copied the pics to the iPod did you include the full sized pics? It is a deliberate decision you have to make when syncing with the Library. If you didn't then all that's on your iPod are tiny thumbnails.
Regards
TD

How to restore iPhoto Library

Hi
I've had to do a full system restore so need to put my iPhoto library together again.
I think I have a back up of the library and the photos in Time Machine. I also have an old iPhoto library on an old computer that I'd like to combine together with it.
What's the best way of doing this? Do I need to copy all the photos into photos or is there a way of using the iPhoto library file/folder to transfer all the photos? I'd like to be able to keep all of the albums.
I downloaded iPhoto library manager, but it couldn't find many of the photos. I'm not sure if I'm using it properly though. I can't tell if there is a way of combining libraries and whether you need to copy photos individually and whether it will maintain the albums and metadata.
I'm planning to upgrade from Snow Leopard to Lion in the next few days. Is there a difference in how fixing this may work on the different Operating Systems?
Please help,
Steve

No, the operating system makes no difference.
The version of iPhoto is what matters.
The only way to merge libraries is with the paid ($20) version of Library Manager. How to do this is covered in the Help and on their website:
http://fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/Help/merging%20libraries.html
Never import one Library to another. Every version and thumbnail is imported like a distinct photo, you lose all your Albums, Keywords etc., the link between Original and Previews is destroyed, the non-destructive editing feature is ruined and so on. In summary: it's mess.

Did restore iPhoto library from time machine remove all pictures?

I opened iPhoto '11 (in Lion/ iMac) today and noticed all the Faces tags I had were gone. I read in the support communities that you could restore from a backup which I did using Time Machine. I randomly picked a day from last week, hit restore, replace my current library and now there are no pictures. All the meta info is there... everything but the pictures (& maybe Faces). Any ideas how to get my pictures back?

Just because you don't see thumbnails in the Library doesn't mean they are missing. Try the following: make a temporary, backup copy (select the library and type Command+D) and apply the two fixes below in order as needed:
Fix #1
Launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
Select the options identified in the screenshot.
Fix #2
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
Click on the Add Library button, navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the File ➙ Rebuild Library menu option
In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
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

Thumbnails & originals--restored iPhoto Library

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for