Updating thumbnails and the disappearing iPhoto library

i was greeted with a message asking if I wanted to updated my thumbnails in iPhoto 08 earlier today. When I selected "yes", every photo I had vanished. I can still find them on my hard drive, but, I recently spent a good amount of time creating events.
When I click on my iPhoto library, iPhoto simply launches. If I search for the name of an event I created, say "vacation" for instance, the folder shows up in finder. Also, I backed up my home folder yesterday, and tried to restore the library without any luck. I do have an iLife backup from 2 weeks ago, however, I have spent a fair amount of time organizing and don't particularly want to do it again. Anyone know if there is a way to recover?

Robert
Sounds like you have a corrupted database file.
Do you have an up-to-date back up? If so, try copy the library6.iphoto file from the back up to the iPhoto Library (Right Click -> Show Package Contents) allowing it to overwrite the damaged file. If not, then you'll need to create and populate a new library.
To create and populate a new library:
Note this will give you a working library with the same Events and pictures as before, however, you will lose your albums, keywords, modified versions, books, calendars etc.
In the iPhoto Preferences -> Events UNcheck the box at 'Imported Items from the Finder'
Move the iPhoto Library to the desktop
Launch iPhoto. It will ask if you wish to create a new Library. Say Yes.
Go into the iPhoto Library (Right Click -> Show Package Contents on your desktop and find the Originals folder. From the Originals folder drag the individual Event Folders 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 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.

Similar Messages

  • How does an "iPhoto Library Copy" folder get created? It has an icon that looks like a stack of photos with a pink flower.  It contains all my photo's (as far as I can tell) and the original "iPhoto Library" only contains "AlbumData.xml?

    I upgraded to Lion last month AFTER wiping the hard drive for the second time on my 2011 macbook pro.  I am now suspecting that transferring my photos (I have over 8,000 saved on sd cards) to my computer is bringing all this trouble. 
    I was able to rectify some problems by dragging import file from library to desktop etc... But I am worried that these Copied Libraries and recovered photo files and AlbumData.xml file are a sign of something darker loomng ahead...

    Sorry but we have no idea what's going on, or gone on, on your machine. Neither can we see it. We only have your somewhat sketchy post. You mention that you can rectify "some problems", you mention "all this trouble" but neglect to mention what these problems and trouble actually are. So, I'm afraid it's hard to respond to your post in a meaningful way.
    A couple of thoughts: 8,000 photos is not a problem. iPhoto is good for 250,000 in any one library. So, unless you have very limited HD disk space, this is not the source of whatever issues you are having.
    If you're dragging parts of the iPhoto Library around the place, yes there could be trouble ahead. 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, deleting them or otherwise making changes will prevent iPhoto from working and could even cause you to damage or lose your photos.
    There are two ways to get a copied library:  one is to duplicate the Library yourself (either accidentally or deliberately) or while restoring from back up.
    Regards
    TD

  • As a new member to the mac world could some please tell how i can get my imac, macbook and iPhone to share the same iPhoto library

    How can i share the same iPhoto library so that i dont have to update each computer?

    Not easily. iPhoto is designed for a single user. While it is possible to share the Library there are significant limitations.
    Some questions: Do you want all three libraries identical? Same photos, same Albums, Same slideshows?
    Do you import and arrange photos on one machine or on all of them?
    What networking do you have?
    Regards
    TD

  • I know many have this issue but i can't find a solution to the problem. i get message saying insuffisiant disk space in the volume iPhoto library and i have plenty of space available. i have the new macbook pro with retina display.

    I know many have this issue but i can't find a solution to the problem. i get message saying insuffisiant disk space in the volume iPhoto library and i have plenty of space available. i have the new macbook pro with retina display. i have never seen this message before and i have 2 other macbooks and have had many other also. i am assuming this is a problem with the new macbook retina. does anyone know the exact fix to this issue? i have seen many sugestions to try to fix this issue but none have solved the issue for anyone that i can find in the Apple Support Community. thank for looking into this in advance.
    ******A true apple fan********

    Actually your suggestions are the ones that i have tried. i have seen that you have tried to help others with this issue and the only one that i could find that said they found the problem said that it was an ilife update issue and it fixed it and i have no available updates. i know it has to do with something in photo stream because it happens when i create a new library and it is loading the photos but i get the message before i reach the maximum 1000 photos. so i've tried updating, new library(first backing up photos and then deleting them from iPhoto), reinstalling OSX many times, running disc utilities. I called Apple the first day i had this issue and i was the first person to call them for support with the retina display and i actually had it escalated to a senior advisor and we thought we fixed the problem but we did not. i am pretty fluent in dealing with troubleshooting these type of issues and this is the first time i'm reaching out to the community. i figured now that the retina has been out some time now that there would be an obvious answer to this issue. thanks for the quick reply.
    Bebers5

  • IPhoto 11 9.3 I click on a thumbnail and the screen is black or has a triangle with exclamation mark inside of it

    iPhoto 11 9.13 I click on a thumbnail and the screen is black or has a triangle with an exclamation point

    The ! turns up when iPhoto loses the connection between the thumbnail in the iPhoto Window and the file it represents.
    Option 1
    Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.
    If that fails:
    Option 2
    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

  • Hi. I opened iPhoto and, suddenly, it tells me " WHAT IPHOTO LIBRARY DO I WANT TO USE?" but i had a iPhoto library. When i search on my Pictures, i have the file IPHOTO LIBRARY but it appears on a dim letters and i can not open it.

    Hi. I need some help on the following problem. I opened iPhoto and, suddenly, it tells me " WHAT IPHOTO LIBRARY DO I WANT TO USE?" but i had a iPhoto library. When i search on my Pictures, i have the file IPHOTO LIBRARY but is was not the icon on it i previously remembered and it appears on a dim letters and it can not be opened ... How can i recover it??

    Option 1
    Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.
    If that fails:
    Option 2
    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

  • I just purchased Aperture and have 20,000  photos in my iPhoto Library. Can I import only certain events from iPhoto into Aperture or do I have to merge the whole iPhoto library?

    I just purchased Aperture and have 20,000 + photos in my iPhoto Library. I see that I can create a unified library between the two. I am wondering if I can import only certain events from iPhoto (like only 2014 events) into Aperture or do I have to merge the whole iPhoto library? Are there any benefits to bringing the whole iPhoto library over to Aperture (iPhoto is SO SLOW for me, I wonder if it is because I have so many photos). Or, any detriment to only bring a few events over?
    And, if I don't merge the two libraries, I assume that means I cannot do it at a later date?
    Help. My local Apple store has had very few Aperture workshops, and the next one is like 2 months away.

    Thank you so much for this information. Here are some responses/comments:
    Disk space - it says 114.43 GB out of 499.25 GB free. I have no idea if that is enough.
    iPhoto version is 9.5.1
    Again, I am not sure how to know if I have 3rd party software...but I don't think I do. Is 3rd party software anything non-apple?
    I will try rebuilding the library. if that doesn't help, maybe I need more memory...? That is what Apple suggested, but that, of course, means buying something else. I've already bought APERTURE, on their recommendation...
    It wasn't, and they told me it was slow because I had too many photos for iPhoto to handle and that I should buy Aperture. Which I did.
    What is your iPhoto version? Are you using the most recent version 9.5.1?
    iPhoto can handle 20000 photos, no problem.  Your computer can be slow for several reasons:
    The most common problem for slowness - insufficient disk space. Don't let your free disk space drop below 20 GB of free space, better more. If the operating system does not have enough working space and the applications you are using, you will notice a very lagging behaviour.
    Older or incompatible softweare can cripple your mac. Do you have any older third-party software installed, that might have installed incompatible kernel extensions?
    Aperture might be slow or keep crashing, if you imported a corrupted image or incompatible video,  that cannot be processed. Then Aperture will try over and over again to create previews and never succeed.  You could test for this situation, by launching Aperture with the Shift-key held down. This will defer the generation of previews. If Aperture will launch and work better this way, you probably have some bad media in your photo library.
    Another problem to check for is a corruption of your Aperture/iPhoto library. You have run the First Aid Tools to repair the iPhoto Library, but have you ever tried to rebuild the library? See this post by Old Toad: Rebuild iPhoto Version 11

  • How do I view the photos ? I backed up with iPhoto closed as is recommended , when I enter time machine and click on iPhoto library is calculates there is 11gb so photos are there when I click on view using iPhoto nothing happens ????

    how do I view the photos ? I backed up with iPhoto closed as recommended but when I enter the Time Machine and click on iPhoto library it calculates there is 11gb in there so files must be present but when i click on open with iPhoto nothing happens ? any help welcome please !!??

    The external hard drive must connect to your Mac using a USB or FireWire connection.
    Note that the hard drive must be formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) to work correctly with the iPhoto Library and be backed up to the Time Capsule and with the backups of your Mac.
    We are really talking about iPhoto uses here, so you should post in the iPhoto Support area for more details about this. The link is just below.
    iPhoto for Mac

  • I tried moving an album from iPhoto to Pictures.  It took the entire iPhoto Library.  Now I can't use it, and I cannot open it.  How do I get it back to just iPhoto?

    I tried moving an album from iPhoto to Pictures, but the entire iPhoto Library moved.
    I now cannot open iPhoto.  How can I get it back?

    A folder named Library popped up in Pictures.  I didn't want the entire Library, just the one album.
    When I open the Library Folder in Pictures, I get sub folders dated with years.
    When I open the subfolders, I just keep getting more folders.
    This looks like you were viewing your iPhoto Library; the contents of the Masters folder. Is your original iPhoto library still there?
    Where do you keep your iPhoto library? In the default location in your "Pictures" folder? 

  • IPhoto Library locked in Yosemite; You do not have permission to open the document "iPhoto Library"

    Long story to get to the iPhoto part but may help someone who is in-the-know about what can be done for me...
    I turned on my computer a few weeks ago (iMac 27" late 2012, 2.9GHz Intel core i5) to access some photos in iPhoto and it would not load to the home screen but gave me the Disc Utilities Menu. From memory the options I had were; (1) Restore from Time Machine Back-up, (2) Re-install OSX, (3) Get online Help, (4) Repair or Erase using Disc Utility.
    I tried Repair in option 4... no success.
    I tried option 1 as I have my internal HDD backed up to an external HDD via Time Machine in case anything goes wrong... no success.
    I tried option 2 (which was Mavericks) and it loaded and took me to my desktop.
    When I tried to opened the iPhoto app in the dock there were no photos in it.
    After searching forums and the internet they suggested it may have been an iPhoto upgrade issue so I tried to update iPhoto but found it was already up-to-date.
    After looking, I found that the "iPhoto Library" in "Pictures" had a red circle with the white dash through it and was locked. When the "iPhoto Library" folder was double clicked I got the message "You do not have permission to open the document “iPhoto Library”.
    In all the trouble I have upgraded to Yosemite 10.10.3 (with Photos 1.0) and am obviously still having the same warning/error message come up when the iPhoto Library folder is clicked.
    Right click won't allow me to view package contents.
    The "Import" function in the "Photos" app won't do anything with the folder, and the "iPhoto Library" folder looks and functions the same in all of the back-ups on my external HDD Time Machine.
    I don't care if I need to use "Photos" or "iPhoto" but I do need to get the photos out because they are irreplaceable. If had know this problem was possible (especially while using Time Machine) I would have manually stored and backed my photos up in folders on another external HDD.
    Any help would be greatly appreciated, feel free to ask any additional Questions (but this is the first time I have posted in the forum so hopefully I can work out what is going on if you do reply to this post )
    Cheers.

    Thanks for the suggestion. I had tried this earlier with no success either. Even with the padlock unlocked I can't even change the tab that says "OPEN WITH". I still get the... "You do not have permission to open the document “iPhoto Library” message. You may also it continues to say "Fetching" where it should say my user name at the bottom.

  • Can't locate the right iPhoto Library

    I have a friend who can't find the right iPhoto Library.  Mac OS X 10.7 or 8...  latest iPhoto.  Searching in Finder for "iPhoto Library" produces no results, even though we see an iPhoto Library item in her Pictures folder (not the right one).
    So this leads me to believe that for some reason Finder won't display that....not sure why it would do that...but anyway.  She's a professional photographer, and doesn't know the name of most of the photos, because they are photos name by the camera.  She tried to find some with just the .jpg extension but everything was email or web based results that we found.  Thousands upon thousands.  This has happened before, and it was fixed, but we can't remember how. 
    Any help on how to locate the right version would be great.  Also, her Time Machine only seems to have the same one as in Pictures.  I think the iPhoto Library she uses is located somewhre else on the drive. 
    I also tried Locate and Find in the terminal, but neither brought up anything.
    Thanks in advance.

    Download and use  Find Any File to search for "Library6.iPhoto" which is a file in every iPhoto Library.  If there's another library on your hard drive FAF will find it as it can search areas that Spotlight can't.
    OT

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

        So, recently there was a power outage in my neighborhood, the power was intermitent for about 2 hours, during this time my mac rebooted itself several times, but on the second time it rebooted the power went out during boot, then the power finally went out for good, it was back in about 3 hours, but when i finnaly turned on my mac it got stuck at the Apple logo with a spinning wheel and a progress bar that wouldnt go past 40%, when i boot holding command -v it said that there were a lot of errors which were automatically fixed, except for one, "Incorrect Thread records" or something like that.
        I have another partition with Mountain Lion installed for emergencies, the other one with Lion became inaccessible to mountain lion or any other OS X version, but oddly enough, I can access my Lion partition via HFSexplorer and see all my files untouched.
        My main concern are my pictures in iPhoto, and thats about 36Gb of data, I want to backup them to my windows pc by copying the whole iPhoto library package, but HFSexplores for some reason cant copy the folders with date (XX/XX/XXXX) with the /, and it keeps changing them to XX_XX_XXXX and I know that would pretty much break my iPhoto library!
    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

  • Moved iPhoto 11 library to external drive and have a iPhoto Library file left on desktop

    Hello,
    I have a blue file on my desktop labeled iPhoto Library, that appeared during the course of me moving my  iPhoto Library ( iPhoto 11) to an external hard drive to make room on the internal disk, my attempts to reopen iPhoto on the internal disk,  move selected photos from the iPhoto Library on the external drive over to the newly emptied iPhoto Library on my laptop.
    The blue iPhoto Library file contains these items:
    AlbumData.xml
    AlbumData2.xml
    iPhoto.ipspot
    Questions: does this blue file belong somewhere or can I trash it?
    This is what I did:
    1. I opened Pictures, dragged the iPhoto Library from there to the external drive.
    2. When I opened iPhoto on my MBP it said it needed a library to open with and the choices already in the box were:
    iPhoto Library(default)
    iPhoto Library
    3. I chose "iPhoto Library" because I thought "(default)" meant restoring the original library.
    4. iPhoto opened to the "get started with iPhoto" like a new install.
    5.I moved (drag and drop ) some photos from the external drive back into the "empty" iPhoto Library. I tried to move a group of photos but I didn't know how to do it so ...
    6. I took the iPhoto Library from the trash and put it back into the "empty" iPhoto Library.
    7. I tried to delete all the photos except the ones I wanted to keep in the internal iPhoto Library. I couldn't do it so....
    8. I closed iPhoto, went back into Pictures and trashed the internal iPhoto Library again.
    9. Reopened iPhoto and it needed a library to open with and I think I clicked
    iPhoto Library (default)
    10. When I opened iPhoto this time, it was the "get started with iPhoto" but the original photo albums and labels listed but all empty.
    That's what I remember so far.
    Hope you can help.
    Medusa59

    It appears you created a new library.  Launch iPhoto with the Option key held down and select "Choose Library". 
    Navigate to the library on the external hard drive and select it.  Once you're satisfied that it's the one you want you can delete that folder from your desktop.
    OT

  • Iphoto Question - Sharing the one iPhoto Library by two Users

    My wife and I have separate User Areas on the one computer. We would both like access to the same iPhoto Library. I have ticked Sharing photos, put the iPhoto Library in Shared Folder and also put it in Public Folder. The file is marked as restricted access! Is there an answer other than to put a copy of the same iPhoto Library in each users program?
    iMac intel   Mac OS X (10.4.7)  

    My solution requires either a partitioned disk OR an external disk. If you've had your computer for any length of time without partitioning, you don't want to do it now. However, if you have any plans for an external drive...
    Simply move the library to the external drive. Use GetInfo to ensure that the drive is set for "Ignore Permissions." Delete the library from it's original location (but don't empty the trash just yet).
    Open iPhoto. It will ask for help in locating the drive. Direct it to the location on the external drive. If everything is OK, empty the trash. Then log off and log on as your wife. Delete her (presumably empty) drive and fire up iPhoto. Direct iPhoto to the location on the external drive.
    You will both have EQUAL access to the library.

  • How do you get Photos to recognize the "old" iPhoto Library on an external drive without it copying it to the internal drive on the computer which is low in HD space?

    How do you get Photos to recognize the “old” iPhoto Library on an external drive without it copying it to the internal drive on the computer which is low in HD space?

    Launch Photos while holding down the alt/options key.
    This will show the Library Chooser panel. Select the library on the external drive. Photos will create a Photos Library on the same drive.
    Photos may not be able to open the library, however, if your external drive has an incompatible file system. It needs to be formatted MacOS Extended (Journaled) and locally mounted, not a remotely mounted volume, as described here:  Format external drives to Mac OS Extended before using with Aperture

Maybe you are looking for