Q: Unable to view photos in iPhoto, although all pictures are still accessible via Finder?
Last week, I was trying to import some pictures from a USB flash drive. During the import, I got an error that some of the pictures were corrupt and iPhoto '08 7.1.5 stopped the process. At that time, iPhoto still showed all my events and pictures correctly.
The next day however, iPhoto was completely empty and did not show any event/picture. It simply says 'no photos' at the bottom (in Dutch):
None of the rebuilding features solve the problem (iPhoto 6 and later: Rebuilding the iPhoto library).
Via Finder, I'm able to access the iPhoto library (and I only see 1 library at the location) and view the master files all sorted per year. All pictures open perfectly when I double click them in preview.
If I simply try to drag these pictures to iPhoto, I get an error saying that they are unrecognised/unreadable:
How do I get these events/pictures back in iPhoto?
Thanks for your help!
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.8), iPhoto '08 7.1.5
Posted on Aug 24, 2014 6:16 AM
It appears you'll haver to do the following:
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.
Posted on Aug 24, 2014 8:09 AM


