Weird subfolders in iPhoto library

Hello. Ever since I upgraded to iPhoto '11, I have noticed that when I import my photos it creates a million (okay, around 3) crazy titled subfolders, many of which are empty. When I click on "show original file" instead of the picture being in a folder titled the date that I took it/imported it, it is titled by month (06) and then there is a subfolder titled by day (13), and then in that folder there are a ton of crazy named folders (20130708-210101) some of which have my pictures, some of which have nothing. This only started after I upgraded, and I don't know how to change it. It is especially annoying, because it is affecting how I view my pictures in Picasa.
Has anyone else run into this problem?
Help, Please!!

You need to decide what you're trying to do. Either your managing your photos - in which case you use iPhoto - or your managing files, in which case you use the Finder.
There is never a need to "access the files in a direct way". If you feel the need to do that then you're doing something wrong.
There is no maze. Want to back up just the original files?
Export them: File -> Export set the Kind to Original
This User Tip
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4921
has details of the options in the Export dialogue.
Want to back up everything:
Most Simple Back Up:
Drag the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to another Disk. This will make a copy on that disk.
Slightly more complex: Use an app that will do incremental back ups. This is a very good way to work. The first time you run the back up the app will make a complete copy of the Library. Thereafter it will update the back up with the changes you have made. That makes subsequent back ups much faster. Many of these apps also have scheduling capabilities: So set it up and it will do the back up automatically.
Example of such apps: Chronosync - but there are many others. Search on MacUpdate or the App Store
The files are stored in a package because users persistently corrupted their libraries by manipulating them via the finder in earler versions.

Similar Messages

Weirdness after "previous iPhoto library" prompt

I too did the previous library conversion to Mavericks (iPhoto 9.5.1). Now when I click on the documents folder in finder, iPhoto opens. If I context click the folder, then select "show package contents", I can see the first set of folders, but most have no contents. Mostly text documents and a few other are the only ones still there. However my iPhoto library still seems to be residing in the usual "photos" folder, too. How can I get a handle on this? Totally boggled.

I too did the previous library conversion to Mavericks (iPhoto 9.5.1). Now when I click on the documents folder in finder, iPhoto opens. If I context click the folder, then select "show package contents", I can see the first set of folders, but most have no contents. Mostly text documents and a few other are the only ones still there. However my iPhoto library still seems to be residing in the usual "photos" folder, too. How can I get a handle on this? Totally boggled.

IPhoto library reproduces itself!!!!!!!

Something is weird with my iPhoto library (s). My hardrive was getting full so I bought an external drive and set up a new library. I then deleted the library on the iBook hard drive. The other day I forgot to hook up the external drive and opened iPhoto and all the pictures were there!!! I did a spotlight search and couldn’t find them on the iBook. I’m bewildered!!
I did find a file named AlbumData.xml that came up in spotlight when I searched for a particular picture name on the computer. It's only 1.1 MB which is way to small for my pictures. I do want to delete the library and use just the one in the external drive.
Mac G4 and iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Jim:
When iPhoto didin't find the library it was looking for on the external HD it created a new one in the default location, the Picture folder. To get your external HD library back launch iPhoto with the Option key depressed and, when asked, opt to locate a library. Then navigate to the external and select the iPhoto Library folder there. Then you can delete the folder on the boot drive.
Do you Twango?
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto 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 written 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. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

How can I transfer/copy my entire iPhoto library from one iMac to another iMac whilst keeping all the folders and subfolders intact?

We recently purchased a new iMac for our office (8 GB memory, 2.7 processor, version 10.9.2) and we need to copy the iPhoto library from our other iMac (version 10.9.4) onto the new one. The photos are essential for our work and there are around 53,000 of them all organised into folders and subfolders and then the photos are manually ordered within the albums.
We have tried connecting the computers but when we tried to access the iPhoto library on the new iMac it says that iPhoto is locked and we do not have permission to view it. We updated iPhoto on the old iMac as we thought that might be the problem but the message still appears. We've been advised to use an external hard drive but we're worried that will corrupt the organisation of the library. We have also been told not to do it over AirDrop / the Server because of the sheer quantity of photos.
Any advice on how to safely do this would be much appreciated.

No idea exactly what you did
if you followed the instructions
Simply copy the iPhoto Library from the Pictures Folder on the old Machine to the Pictures Folder on the new Machine.
Then launch iPhoto. That's it.
This moves photos, events, albums, books, keywords, slideshows and everything else.
then you have exactly the same thin on your new system that you had on the old
If you do something differently - like import the library instead of simply opening it - then it will not work
did you dimply drag the iPhoto library from the pictures folder of the old machine to the pictures folder of the new machine and then launch iPhoto on the new machine?
and to help it is important to use word correctly since that is the only communications method we have - in iPhoto folders do not contain photos - you view photos in events and you can organize them using albums (which view photos) and folders (which hold either albums or other folders - folders never have photos in them) so your description of the problem is not at all clear since it uses folders incorretly
LN

I opened my iPhoto library today which was stored on an external hard drive and several of my videos now will not play. The weird thing is that each file shows a duration of 1 second and when I open them it just shows one frame. What the

I opened my iPhoto library today which was stored on an external hard drive and several of my videos now will not play at all. The weird thing is that each file shows a duration of 1 second and when I open them it just shows one frame. What the !&%$#@ Where did my original video files go?

Sounds like a good plan, you can never be to safe and having a second External HD is safer than one.
The only thing that I would do different, is setup the 3T as my TimeMachine Backup and then erase and move my Photos, Videos and perhaps even iTunes Media to the 1T. That way you will have room to backup both the Internal Hard Drive and the 1T External Hard Drive to the 3T using TimeMachine.
Take your time, study and use the > Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions if you get stuck or aren't sure how to make the move.
Also see > iPhoto: How to move the Library folder to a new location
iMovie ’08: Storing or moving your video library to an external hard disk
and > iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder

Something weird is going on with my iPhoto library!

Help! I tried to import a photo from my scanner and it didn't work. The only problem now is that each time I start up iPhoto I get a message...
"A photo has been found in the iPhoto Library that was not imported. Would you like to import it?"
Whether I choose Yes or No I get the following message...
"Unreadable files: 1. The following file could not be imported." It then puts the file in a iPhoto recovered photos folder in my shared area.
This on its own wouldn't be a problem (just a nuisance) but since then I have been unable to import photos from anywhere else into iPhoto. When I try I get a different message that says...
"Unreadable files: 6. The following files could not be imported (they may be an unrecognized file type or the files may not contain valid data).
I'm pretty sure the files are fine I can copy them to the computer and view them as jpegs but I can't get them into iPhoto.
Any ideas?

Yes that worked. I also realised that I'd tried to scan as another user on the Mac, so I logged in as that user and got rid of the offending photo.
So now I'm back in the original user and my Import folder is at the desktop and I can import new photos from my SD card...hooray! However when I try to move the import folder back to the iPhoto library I get the original error when trying to import new stuff. Am I stuck with my Import folder on the desktop? (Not a big deal if I am, just wondering)
Thank you!

Iphoto library lacks the picture icon

Hi all-
I noticed a few weird things recently with my iphoto-- many video clips lack thumbnails (ie the only way to tell what clip it is is by actually viewing it). Some are just black/ no video. Same with some pictures- they're just black/gone. I tried to recover using time machine- didn't help. I noticed that in finder, the iphoto library lacks the 'picture' icon and is a "package" file (see attached screenshot). But- it's the right size and other than what I describe above it seems to work ok. I made a backup of entire HD with carbon copy cloner. Even when I reboot and select the external HD iphoto library it looks the same (no icon)- and in fact it won't let me select that "package file" as the library. I tried fixing with iphoto (permissions, recreating thumbnails etc) to no avail. At this point I think I should re-load iphoto and see if that helps-- but my concern is that if I delete iphoto and reload that I won't be able to use the library on my external drive since I can't use it currently.
any suggestions?
I'm using OS X and iPhoto '11, both updated.
thanks in advance,
Brad

If rebuilding the database doesn't solve the problem you might have to give this a try:
Starting over from scratch with new library
Start over with a new library and import the Originals (iPhoto 09 and earlier) or the Masters (iPhoto 11) folder from your original library as follows:
1. Open the library package like this.
2. Launch iPhoto with the Option key held down and, when asked, select the option to create a new library.
3. Drag the subfolders of the Originals (iPhoto 09 and earlier) or the Masters (iPhoto 11) folder from the open iPhoto Library package into the open iPhoto window a few at a time.
This will create a new library with the same Events (but not necessarily the same Event names) as the original library but will not keep the metadata, albums, books slideshows and other projects.
Note: your current library will be left untouched for further attempts at a fix if so desired.

Which files can I safely delete in my Pictures Folder/ iPhoto Library

Hello
Thanks in advance for any advice on the following. I am trying to free up some space on my Macbook Pro hard drive. In the Pictures/ iPhoto Library folder, I seem to have a lot of duplicates. At this folder level, I have series of sub folders with years 2002-2006 listed, and there is also a folder titled data, which also has subfolders 2002-2006. Can I safely delete one set of folders without losing my pictures?
Thank you
Jonathan

Johnathan:
In a word, NONE. Those are all necessary item for the operation of the library. Those files in the Originals folder are obviously the originals. Those in the Data folder are the thumbnails iPhoto uses to display in the main library window. The Modified files are those that you've editied, rotated, etc. To do any moving, renaming or editing of files directly from the folder is tantamount to committing the cardinal sin of iPhoto: Don't tamper with files in the iPhoto Library folder from the Finder.
What with the low cost of external FW HDs, they are a very cost effective way to protect and preserve important files. As you may know it's recommended to have a minimum of 10G free space for optimum performance of the system and applications. More if possible. You can use Monolingual to remove any language module you don't need (be sure not to select English or American English and DO NOT run any of the Architecture items). I saved nearly 900MB the first time I ran it.
Do you Twango?
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto 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 written 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. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

Ihave 51 iphoto library and they keep increasing and i do not know why

My iphoto has 51 libraries and they keep increasing and i do not know why, i would like only one iphoto library and consolidate all photos in that.

If you're using an IMAP account, also check your other devices to be sure you don't have some filters or rules set up that either delete or move emails to subfolders. You can see all Emails on your iPad, but displaying the sidebar showing Mailboxes, tapping the email account you are having trouble with (NOT the Inbox, but the section below), then tapping All Mail or something similar depending on your provider.
If the mails are there, they are somehow being moved by one of your mail clients or by a rule you set up with your provider.

Can't open or rebuild my iPhoto Library

I was importing a couple of photos from my iPhone into my iPhoto Library when iPhoto crashed. Earlier in the session I downloaded around 6GB of photos and videos into the library and that worked fine. I was only adding four more pictures when this happened.
I have a 900GB library that is stored on a dedicated external 1TB hard drive. I access this library from a MacMini (which the drive is attached to) and from my MacBook Air. Both machines use OSX 10.9.2 and iPhoto 9.5.1 and I set up the external drive to "ignore ownership on this volume".
When I went back into iPhoto, it shows the "Which iPhoto library do you want to iPhoto to use?" window but not my library. When I click on Other Library, I can locate the library, but when I click "Open", nothing happens.
When I tried holding down option and command and clicking iPhoto, it still doesn't find the libary to rebuild.
So I used my iPhoto Library Manager, and the libary is there, but it shows (0) for the photo counts in all the albums, etc. When I try to rebuild, the preview comes up empty. When I click on "scavenge", I get over 10,000 photos appearing in the "Scavenged Library", but I don't know if they are all of the photos. Plus I lose all my events, tags, etc. that organized the library.
Is there any way to get my iPhoto Library back other than through the "scavenge" function and losing all the organization?
Do you know why this happened so that I can avoid having this happen again?

Here's what do to:
Starting over from scratch with new library
Start over with a new library and import the Originals (iPhoto 09 and earlier) or the Masters (iPhoto 11) folder from your original library as follows:
1. Open the library package like this.
2. Launch iPhoto with the Option key held down and, when asked, select the option to create a new library.
3. Drag the subfolders from the Originals (iPhoto 09 and earlier) or the Masters (iPhoto 11) folder from the open iPhoto Library package into the open iPhoto window a few at a time.
This will create a new library with the same Events (but not necessarily the same Event names) as the original library but will not keep the metadata, albums, books slideshows and other projects.
Note: your current library will be left untouched for further attempts at a fix if so desired.
OT

How do I reimport iPhoto Library from an external hd?

Hi all - apologies if this has been posted before (but, couldn't find exactly what I need in the forums). I think I need to rebuild/erase, whathaveyou, my current iPhoto Library on my Mac because I'm getting a perpetual error/alert:
*"The Volume for "CDY_.0005.JPG" cannot be found. Insert the disk or*
*connect to the server volume and wait for it to appear on the desktop,*
*then try again."*
*Here's what happened:* I originally downloaded some pictures and video clips off of Compact Flash memory cards into a new folder ('Photos') onto the desktop of an IBM Thinkpad. I then transferred that folder - 'Photos' - to a new external hard drive (250 GB, Western Digital MyBook Essential Edition). They are visible on the external. I then tried to tranfer this 'Photos' folder from the MyBook into my iPhoto Library by going to 'Import to Library' and then choosing the appropriate drive (i.e, my external MyBook). This folder and it's contents (i.e, the images and their respective folder in which they were placed) seemingly went into my iPhoto Library, and also seemed to organize themselves appropriately....what I mean by this is:
All of these images/videos I'm talking about are for my grad project, and must be organized by date. I had one scouting camera at each of 26 different sites. Each of these sites has it's own folder....and each of folder (site) contains an album for each date the site was checked. So in other words, I've got LOADS of albums organized by date checked and site. *+I must preserve this structure or data analysis and, subsequently, my thesis, will be quite painful, cruel and unusual punishment!+*
*By the way, I have tons of images and videos named "CDY_.0005.JPG" because of the way the scouting cameras save files to the memory card. Each time the card is cleared (each date I checked a site and downloaded images on a card), images are again saved numerically:
CDY.0001.JPG.....CDY.0002.JPG etc etc. Also, these cameras were set up to take motion-activated video (they're infrared), and for every video it captures, it takes a still photo. So, every still photo is essentially associated with a video, and vice versa.
This error/alert occurs when I try to view images that were transferred from the IBM/MyBook to iPhoto. Additionally, since I did the transfer, another qwerky thing occurs: Regardless of what I'm trying to do in iPhoto, when I open iPhoto and click *anywhere else* outside of the iPhoto window (such as back to the desktop or click to open any other program) I get this exact same alert, but it's always an .avi file, not a .jpg, and in this alert (.avi), I am forced to force-quit iPhoto because if I hit cancel, the pinwheel appears indefinitely and never goes away, at which time I forequit and see 'iPhoto (not responding). Essentially rendering iPhoto useless for my purposes (I've got to be able to go back and forth between Excel and iPhoto, for example, and cannot do so because of this alert).
So, I feel like to I need to start from scratch to fix this problem (through a series of discussions with Apple reps and the Mac gurus, I was told this is probably due to corrupted files, I may need to rewrite the program etc etc). And...so...the real QUESTIONS:
*Is this really the solution (backing up my iPhoto Library to the external, which I've done, then clearing my current iPhoto Library on my Mac entirely, then reimporting)?? I don't really have much time to fiddle with too many different solutions...if re-creating a new library seems extreme, I guess I really don't care, as long as it works.*
*If I do this, and delete/clear all the photos in my iPhoto Library on the Mac, then reimport them from my MyBook external harddrive, will they be imported in the same structure as they were before I deleted them from iPhoto? Will I still have all photos in the same albums under the same folders? It is essential for me to retain this structure, as I am analyzing images/videos for my grad project and all these images are organized very specifically by certain dates. *Is it possible to do this??** I was told that if I burned my Library, or folders, onto a DVD, and then brought them back into iPhoto, this would retain the folder structure. True??
Thankyouthankyouthankyou in advance if anyone has some thoughts! I'm still relatively new to Macs, so rudimentary, kindergarten step-by-step thoughts are encouraged....Cheers!

TD-
Great, thanks for helping. I think I've got some useful info for you. I went throught the process you suggested, here's what I found out:
I viewed the rolls through the Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals route. I see the rolls, but I do NOT think these images from the pc are there. Here's what's weird: Towards the end of my 'rolls' list (they're not named, just numbered), the rolls jump from 495 to 503. Though I didn't check all those rolls up to 495 (it would take forever!), I'm pretty sure those are my 'ok' files/rolls. I don't think they house any of the pix I was having issues with (the ones that came over from the pc). BUT...roll 503 DOES in fact have one image, and here's what happens when I click on it:
Only that jpg icon shows up where the picture normally would be viewed, it has a shortcut arrow in the bottom left corner (like that which would appear on any shortcut icon on your desktop), and the info for this image is different than the other ones:
Kind: Alias
Size: 4 kb on disk (usually these scouting camera images are upwards of 800 or 900 some kb)
Created: 9-23-07
Last opened: fetching...
And finally, the infamous alert comes up for this specific image: "The volume for bla bla bla cannot be found...." etc etc.
I'm pretty confident that the missing rolls that should be after 495 are from when I tried to transfer the folders of images from the IBM because those are the very last things I 'imported' into iPhoto. Thoughts??? One other weird thing I noticed, too, was some of my rolls do NOT show all of the images that are in the iPhoto folders...in other words, say roll 300 shows 4 images in the 'Originals' folder you asked me to go to. Well, each roll was created when I would download each card, so essentially I know that each roll represents each time a card was downloaded. But, when I go straight into iPhoto and look in that folder that represents when I downloaded each card, there are many more images there than are in the 'roll' folder for the same download...yikes, does that make sense?!
Thanks again...I feel we're getting somewhere at least!

How Can I Share iPhoto Library/Keywords Among Multiple Users

Hi there! I am having a bit of a dilemma where I am trying how I can have several users access a shared iPhoto library (as well as retain their own personal iPhoto libraries). Basically, I have a handful of (three) users that need to be able to store/search against a common shared photo library - ideally, in iPhoto.
I understand that I can share albums through iPhoto (users are using a mix of iPhoto '08 and '09) on one account as long as iPhoto is running - a serious drawback. When I tried sharing photos via this method I was able to see the shared albums; however the keywords that were defined for those photos were not available. This presents two questions:
1) Can iPhoto share its library among multiple users (including keywords, etc) so that if a user account (let's call it "media") shares out selected albums that the viewing users (user1 and user2) can search against the keywords in the host library? Or is this not possible with iPhoto?
2) Is there another way of sharing photos that is more efficient and can be hosted on our private servers? The interface in iPhoto is amazing - and if there was an application that allowed for that same sort of feel/tagging we would be good to go...

Well here is the weird thing. If I was sharing out the library from my computer, I could search for the keywords (and obtain results) as expected. However, if I went to another computer that was viewing my shared library, searching by the same keyword did not return any results.

What is the best sequence of upgrading: SSD, OSX Mavericks, iPhoto Library?

Working on breathing new life into / upgrading my wife's mid-2009 MacBook Pro (Macbook Pro 5,5 - Core 2 Duo, 2.26 GHz, 13"). Currently running OSX 10.6.8 Snow Leopard.
So far: I have upgraded the RAM to 8 GB from 2 GB, and replaced the battery which recently reached the end of its life.
Next up: SSD upgrade and possibly OSX upgrade to Mavericks.
My questions:
(a) What is my best upgrade path (order/sequence), given the few things I want to with this machine still?
(b) Are my plans and reasoning below sound?
1.Upgrade the 120 GB hard disk to a 240 GB SSD. I have a SanDisk Extreme II 240 GB (although I know this MBP won't fully utilize the SATA III, I got a good deal on it and plan to use it as an add-on drive somewhere when/if this MBP logic board fails eventually), and a USB to SATA adapter for prep work.
Plan: Attach the SSD via USB adaptor, initialize and partition with Disk Utility (Journaled, GUID Partition Map so it's bootable), clone existing hard disk using Super Duper or CCC (recommendations welcome--I'm on a budget ). Set TRIM enabler, and other recommendations per Upgrading Your MacBook Pro with a Solid State Drive
Reasoning: Doing this SSD upgrade first will give me more free space for updates/changes I plan under #2 and #3 below. (For example, current drive has 11 GB free, which is not much room to try and upgrade to Mavericks now before swapping out for SSD.) Additionally, Mavericks will perform much better on the SSD, per other threads I've read with similar MBPs.
2. Upgrade OSX 10.6.8 Snow Leopard to Mavericks.
This is where some of my Mac knowledge is lacking: Is it best to upgrade here (what I've read so far indicates it's pretty seamless), or to install Mavericks freshly on the SSD and then use Migration Assistant to import from the old hard disk? I hesitate to do the latter, since this Mac still has some messes from a previous migration (see #3).
Coming from a Windows background, I have my biases, but I don't know if the jury's still out on performance differences between fresh Mavericks installs versus upgrades--any light to be shed here?
3. Fix iPhoto '09 Library and Consider Upgrading to iPhoto '11. Through reading on the great forums here I have concluded that my wife's photo collection currently exists in a weird place - 68 GB under /Previous Systems/<date of MBP upgrade from Macbook>/Users/<username>/Pictures/iPhoto Library. This seems to be left over from when she copied her iPhoto Library from her old Macbook, before this MBP. (Before I sat down to write this post, I had noticed there was an iPhoto Library (much smaller size, just a few GBs) in the normal place, under /Users/<username>/Pictures/iPhoto Library/ -- but now I don't see it, so maybe I goofed up and either lost that or imported it into the above library. Either way, that was going to be one of my questions!)
Should I move this "Previous Systems" iPhoto Library to a more normal place?
If I do again find extraneous photos or libraries outside of it, how best should I bring them back into one -- or a better question might be, how do I ensure THIS becomes the primary iPhoto Library going forward? (links to threads also appreciated -- I have come up short)
If this machine is now on Mavericks, is it a best practice to also purchase iPhoto '11? Eventually, our next Mac will come with it so it may be worthwhile eventually upgrading (I don't know if it is urgent, though).
Overall, does this process make sense? Any glaring gaps? Thank you for your time and wisdom!
Ryan

Thanks Melophage. I've been looking into my options, together with the advice you gave. It seems like I can salvage quite a bit of data after a fresh install if I follow the steps here - OS X: Manually migrating data from another Mac. However, applications are my (only) concern -- for my iLife suite apps (which as I mentioned, are old -- '09 editions) how can I restore those after installing Mavericks fresh? Can I just plug in the original Snow Leopard disc that says applications on it, to install? Or would they show up in Mac App Store (I think not since they are so old and I haven't purchased '11 with this account yet).
My wife's computer also has some third party apps which would be a pain to reinstall but not end of the world, I suppose. Another route of migrating and keeping these (but still doing a fresh OS install) might possibly be according to OS X: How to migrate data from another Mac using Mavericks, which is really designed for multiple computer copying. But with the SSD external, could I install Mavericks and then take a Time Machine backup of my internal (original) HDD, including those apps, and then follow these steps to import them into the Mavericks install on the SSD, once I booted into it? Does that make sense?
After some further reading on the subject, I found a lot of difference of opinion (especially on some MacRumor threads) about whether to install fresh OS X or upgrade, but I guess if the install ends up cleaner it could be worth it to install a fresh copy.
Any comments on the above approaches, or thoughts from others here? Thanks again for your help.

Trying to restore photos from external drive and realized TimeMachine had been turned off. Found in Imac backup folder in iPhoto library a modified folder with many of the missing pics. Can I restore these?

I recently had a hard drive crash on my iMac. After replacing the drive, I discovered that TimeMachine had apparently been turned off for six months, and all my photos from that period were missing after the restore. In looking on the external drive used by TimeMachine, I discovered a folder called Imac backup, and under iPhoto Library was a folder called Originals and subfolders for each year. To my surprise, there were photos covering the missing time period! Somehow I imported the 2011 folder from the external drive into iPhoto, and then I discovered they were small files of less than 100 KB each, not the 1-2 MB original photos. So now all of 2011 is screwed up, not just from May on. These photos also include faces pulled from many larger group photos.
I can get Jan - April restored using TimeMachine. But in continuing to explore the Imac backup folder, I found a similar folder in iPhoto Library called Modified. This folder has many of the missing photos in their original MB size in folders indexed by date for the missing period after April. Is there a way that I can get these modified photos back onto my new hard drive and into the iPhoto library without causing more damage? If TimeMachine was turned off after April, how did those modified photos and all those small images from the missing period find their way to the external drive?
Any wisdom greatly appreciated.

What you want to do is merge the two Libraries? The only way to do this is to use the paid ($20) version of iPhoto Library Manager
I created a new iPhoto Library on the iMac and dragged the entire iPhoto Library from the MacBook into that new Library. It worked, however it all came over into one big album and my previous album structure was gone
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.
Regards
TD

Iphoto library jailbreak crew needed

Help you mac wizards....Iphoto dilema has caused me to post my first question.
I was so excited to find this old post (shown below) that explains my exact dilema. The answers did not answer my question however. Thank you to Nayeli for posting, http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1898201
I thought I was going to lose my mind trying to explain what my situation was. Hopefully you don't lose yours reading all of this. Please scroll down to read the post from Nayeli so you have a better idea what's going on, then come back to where I join the discussion describing my problem.
(A side note, why does apple not give an option to edit the post, i only see "post message" or "discard and cancel." What about EDIT? I had to copy paste it into another program just to revise. When I click discard, it asks "are you sure you want to discard." No I don't but where is the EDIT option? Am I missing an obvious needed feature?)
My photo management is in the same mess as below. Pictures held hostage by iphoto and years of backups that I'm now trying to get out of iphoto and consolidated into a nice, beautiful, joyful, streamlined system that makes taking pictures fun again. Recently I got a new mpb and had been using a powerbook since 04 with 04 photo backups scattered about due to storage limitations here and there.
Over the last weeks, I've committed to cleaning up my mess and have slowly been getting a handle on things. Forums like these are invaluable. I've sorted it out as best I could with 5 different iphoto libraries. (They were originally 5 different i photo libraries, backups of hard drive and external hard drive, poor management and some of which pictures could be overlapping duplicates) All of which I can access in old iphoto format (from old old backups) instead of new 8 that iphoto converted them to that doesn't let you look thru folders without clicking find photo. I want to stop using iphoto and get into something like picassa where you have the benefit of file management but not the nightmare of having your images locked into a third party software program that takes mountains of work to free.
At this stage....i'm trying to do this in gradual steps.
As mentioned, I have 5 libraries, and all five folders in their original old iphoto 4 format so you can see piles of subfolders. I do not want to sift manually through folders to select which ones i want to export as there are 30,000 images or more. When Iphoto launches the libraries, it shows rolls, thumbs, etc.. there are 3 versions of the same photo. If I export, I have to pick, whereas I want to export the entire library and then enjoy the process of sorting photos when I can access them easily outside of iphoto, where I can have just ONE image not three. If I do a sort in finder for jpgs, it also gives me duplicates. What is the best way out of this iphoto octopus?
Apple Care told me to drag and drop the old library into new computer and that was WRONG. Creating the pile of excess files. I deleted them all and started over. Another mac friend said use extractor. That didn't work either. Another friend said use migration manager. Yet apple care said that won't work because old photos are iphoto 4 and new computer is iphoto 8. However due to the fact it "updated" the old library when I brought it into new computer, is it now ready for migration manager and will this program only bring one not three files of each image? If I had known how iphoto program really works years ago, I would have never entered into using it. Another friend only uses finder on her mac to organize and find photos, but I like to have more creative options than that, like what I see in Picasa.
Aperture came preinstalled on my new mpb but I've never used it and I don't know if it traps photos into a similar iphoto program or not. It gives me an option to import iphoto library. Will it import only 1 image, not thumbs, etc.. of each picture and how will it handle duplicates. I tried it just to see what would happen and an hour later, its still stuck on one image saying its importing thumbs. So this is not playing nicely with iphoto either and does import ALL images. So I'd still be stuck sifting out the original photos I want to start fresh from.
Should I first run a photo duplicator program to try and eliminate the excess thumbs and low res files, leaving me the original single image file?
Then I can export the entire library? As I said, I can't select the photos I want as solution was given below to someone in my boat, due to the fact I'm not sure where or what to select. And a manual select of individual photos would take me 20 years. I just want to extract my original photos and get them out of iphoto, where the date taken is intact. Right now, many of the photos in iphoto libraries are totally wrong, going back to 1970. I have spanked myself for waiting so long to tackle this disorderly photo management issue, but seeing now how much work is involved creating a solution, I am greatly anticipating liberation of iphoto and the development and use of a great new photo management system. WHich i haven't figured out. Step 1 is just to free my photos! Freeyourphotos.com would be a great website for someone who wants to develop a site just for great photo management steps, options, resources and posts for people looking for some education on this iphoto issue. Maybe next version will be like Picasa and let you manage photos better.
What exactly is batch change command and how does it work?
I want to start over, with all of my photos in one big photo folder that i can work with independent of anything else. Any tips for photo management comparisons from other high volume photo takers out there?
Sorry for the long post. I will be super grateful for help.
Thanks so much.
Lisa
Getting photos OUT of iPhoto
Posted: Feb 7, 2009 4:46 PM
Hi all,
I used to use iPhoto 4 a long time ago, and then stopped using it as my photos took up so much more space in iPhoto than kept outside of the software library in folders. I had a really small hard drive and no external drive at the time. Then at some point I tried using iPhoto 6... and to make a long story short I now have an incredible mess of photos, some of which exist both in an iPhoto library (either 4 or 6 or both) and in folders elsewhere, some of which are only in folders outside of iPhoto, and some of which are only in an iPhoto library. I now have a much larger hard drive and external drives, and am trying to set order to the mess (it will probably take me the rest of the year!)
To complicate matters even more, I just now accidentally updated one of my myriad versions of iPhoto Library to iPhoto 7.1.4 (the version I have currently installed), and have noticed that you can no longer see the originals folder inside the iPhoto library in the Finder, UNLESS you right-click on a photo in iPhoto and select "Show File", and then you can browse through the folders of the iPhoto Library. I suppose they made this change so you wouldn't mess with those folders and files.
Looking at the folders inside the iPhoto library that I accessed in that way for the library I accidentally upgraded, I see they are a mess...some dates have two folders, other folders say "Roll X" instead of being separated by date, etc.
*I want to extract all the photos that are in the iPhoto Library to folders outside of the program*--just the original photos--so I can
A. Have a backup of the pictures outside of any iPhoto Library, and
B. Reimport all my pictures once I make heads and tails of what is where (or perhaps just have iPhoto reference the originals in folders outside of the iPhoto Library, since I read that is now possible).
My question is this:
What is the best way of getting the pictures out of the iPhoto Library? If I get access to the original folders within the library by right-clicking any photo and then being able to browse inside the library, am I going to have any problems if I copy or move those original pictures directly to a folder outside of the iPhoto Library? Would it be better to export the pictures? Does exporting using "current" under "Kind" give you the original more safely?
Also, any suggestions on how to best have photos OUTSIDE of an iPhoto library organized so that iPhoto can reference them, but your backup is also organized? I'd like to have my photos organized by date in the backup as well, so that I don't have to backup all my pictures every time I add new ones, just add the latest to the backup drive.
Re: Getting photos OUT of iPhoto
Posted: Feb 7, 2009 5:16 PM in response to: Nayeli
Solved
My question is this:
What is the best way of getting the pictures out of the iPhoto Library? I
Select the photos you want out and export them as JPGEs - kind = current for the current edited version - kind = original for the original
f I get access to the original folders within the library by right-clicking any photo and then being able to browse inside the library, am I going to have any problems if I copy or move those original pictures directly to a folder outside of the iPhoto Library?
Copying photos out will not be a problem if you make no errors - for me that is not a good bet - it is best to stay out of yoru iPhoto library
Would it be better to export the pictures?
Yes
Does exporting using "current" under "Kind" give you the original more safely?
No - it gives you the current version which may be the original if no changes have been made or will be the current edited version if edits ahve been made
Also, any suggestions on how to best have photos OUTSIDE of an iPhoto library organized so that iPhoto can reference them, but your backup is also organized?
In the iPhoto preferences un check the advanced preference to "copy imported items to the iPhoto library"
HOWEVER - this is not recommended - it makes importing more complicated, deleting more complicated and makes replacing a hard drive or going to a new computer much more difficult - and it puts you totally in charge of your original photos - being sure that they are there and do not get moved
I'd like to have my photos organized by date in the backup as well, so that I don't have to backup all my pictures every time I add new ones, just add the latest to the backup drive.
Finally, any suggestions on what to do with pictures that you scan so that they appear by the date they were taken as opposed to the date they were scanned? Is there a way to modify the date of the photo info?
Select the photos in iPhoto and use the batch change command under the photos menu - the tiem and date option
LN

Given your post I have to say that your chosen nickname is amusing.
All the folks here who post in response to your issue are other users giving their time for free. Do we really have to wade through 1900+ words just to find out what the issue is? Frankly, after the first digression (and by the way, it is possible to edit posts for up to 15 minutes after you post) I nearly lost the will to live.
It is really better to
1. State as simply as you can the problem.
2. Mention any efforts you have made to solve it
3. Don't editorialise. Don't drift off into side issues.
(See how annoying it is when you've read this far and haven't even got to the answer yet?)
To leave iPhoto is really simple: Select the pics in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export. Set the Kind: to Original. Export to a folder on the desktop and off you go. Exporting will not export "the whole Library". It will export the Original or the Current versions of your pics, depending on what you set in the Export dialogue. There is no need in the world to use a duplicate finding application.
If the Exif on the camera was set to the right date then your Photos will still have that date.
If you don't want to export (why? because that's too simple?) but prefer to root around inside the Library:
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.
Ignore the contents of the Data folder, they are just thumbnails. Your Edited pics are in the 'Modified' Folder, the Originals are in the 'Originals' folder.
Exporting the Current version will do the same job.
If you find iPhoto frustrating and difficult to understand then I strongly advise you to avoid Aperture. It's not unusual for an Aperture library to have Originals, multiple virtual versions, Previews and thumbnails.
iPhoto, Aperture (and, I think) Picasa are Digital Asset Managers. They are databases. They treat your original file like a film photographer treats the negative and always protect it. Though they work in different ways, they all will have multiple versions of your photo. If you don't want this use a Photo Editor and the Finder to manage your pics.
For the record:
Your Photos are not "trapped" inside iPhoto;
With iPhoto 7 (iLife 08) the old iPhoto Library Folder is now a Package File. This is simply a folder that looks like a file in the Finder. The change was made to the format of the iPhoto library because many users were inadvertently corrupting their library by browsing through it with other software or making changes in it themselves.
There are many, many ways to access your files in iPhoto:
*For Users of 10.5 and later*
You can use any Open / Attach / Browse dialogue. On the left there's a Media heading, your pics can be accessed there. Command-Click for selecting multiple pics.
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!
(Note the above illustration is not a Finder Window. It's the dialogue you get when you go File -> Open)
You can access the Library from the New Message Window in Mail:
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!
*For users of 10.4 and later* ...
Many internet sites such as Flickr and SmugMug have plug-ins for accessing the iPhoto Library. If the site you want to use doesn’t then some, one or any of these will also work:
To upload to a site that does not have an iPhoto Export Plug-in the recommended way is to Select the Pic in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export and export the pic to the desktop, then upload from there. After the upload you can trash the pic on the desktop. It's only a copy and your original is safe in iPhoto.
This is also true for emailing with Web-based services. However, if you're using Gmail you can use iPhoto2GMail
If you use Apple's Mail, Entourage, AOL or Eudora you can email from within iPhoto.
If you use a Cocoa-based Browser such as Safari, you can drag the pics from the iPhoto Window to the Attach window in the browser.
*If you want to access the files with iPhoto not running*:
For users of 10.6 and later:
You can download a free Services component from MacOSXAutomation which will give you access to the iPhoto Library from your Services Menu. Using the Services Preference Pane you can even create a keyboard shortcut for it.
For Users of 10.4 and later:
Create a Media Browser using Automator (takes about 10 seconds) or use this free utility Karelia iMedia Browser
Other options include:
1. *Drag and Drop*: Drag a photo from the iPhoto Window to the desktop, there iPhoto will make a full-sized copy of the pic.
2. *File -> Export*: Select the files in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export. The dialogue will give you various options, including altering the format, naming the files and changing the size. Again, producing a copy.
3. *Show File*: Right- (or Control-) Click on a pic and in the resulting dialogue choose 'Show File'. A Finder window will pop open with the file already selected.
Batch Change allows you to change some of the metadata on a photo in batches.
Regards
TD

Weird subfolders in iPhoto library

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