iPhoto freezes with beach ball when starting

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Level 2

219 points

iPhoto freezes with beach ball when starting

I have my iPhoto library on an external drive, and it's about 53GB in size.

After I upgraded to 09 I had a problem with the Faces scan that are detailed in [this post.|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1969073&tstart=0]

I solved the Faces freeze by trashing my plist file. Launching iPhoto 09 worked a couple of times after that.

Now I have a new problem, similar to the one in [this thread.|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1955573&tstart=15]. iPhoto uses 100% of one processor on launch, and I left it running all night last night and it never got past the blank window with spinning beach ball. I had to force quit.

I tried to vacuum my database file per the instructions in that thread but I get this error:
SQL error: database disk image is malformed

Is my library trashed? I have a backup but I'd lose my Faces scan again. Is there any way to repair this? Disk Utility says the disk is fine.

2.33GHz Macbook Pro, Dual1.8GHz G5, others, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Apr 13, 2009 7:24 AM

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Answer 1

techgineer Author

Level 2

219 points

Apr 13, 2009 7:37 AM in response to techgineer

Augh. I remembered the CDM-option startup shortcut and rebuilt my library. Now it has no photos in it.

😟

I had no problems before the upgrade to 09.

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Answer 2

Yer_Man

Level 10

164,802 points

Apr 13, 2009 10:39 AM in response to techgineer

Dennis

What format is that external disk?

Try Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the apple and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.

Regards

TD

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Answer 3

techgineer Author

Level 2

219 points

Apr 13, 2009 8:36 PM in response to Yer_Man

Hmm. Interesting question. I checked and the partition map is GPT (GUID Partition Table). Is that a bad thing? I don't remember doing that intentionally. All my other drives are APM. It's a 250G Firewire drive, Journaled HFS+.

Should I still try the rebuild from auto backup?

I have a separate backup of my library from a couple of months ago that I can restore from if I have to. I might lose a few recent photos and edits.

Thanks for the response!

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Answer 4

techgineer Author

Level 2

219 points

Apr 13, 2009 9:44 PM in response to Yer_Man

I went ahead and did the restore from auto backup anyway. I selected every checkbox in the repair dialog. No dice. No photos. Funny, my albums are still there, and a few of them have photos in them, but not the main library.

I refreshed my own memory re the GUID partition map. I did that so I could make a bootable copy of my Macbook Pro at one point. I can't see why it would matter...

I restored my backup to a different disk and dragged the more recent photos out of the dead library's Originals folder. Now I'm waiting for the Faces scan to complete (the backup was 08). Then I'll try to reimport the recent photos.

But I have to say this really shakes my confidence in iPhoto. I just finally switched to it instead of manually organizing folders of photos. Boy am I glad I had a backup!

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Answer 5

Yer_Man

Level 10

164,802 points

Apr 13, 2009 11:28 PM in response to techgineer

The reason I asked about the format of the disk is that folks report issues with Libraries stored on disks that are not formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

Regards

TD

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Answer 6

techgineer Author

Level 2

219 points

Apr 19, 2009 6:23 PM in response to Yer_Man

After recovering my iPhoto library from backup and putting it on an internal drive, I erased my 250G external FW drive and tried again. When I copied the iPhoto library back to it and opened it, I had a recurrence of the beach ball and freeze and had to force quit. The same library worked fine when I used the copy on an internal drive.

The only difference I could see, besides FW, was that the FW drive used a GUID partition map and the internal used APM. So I erased the FW drive again, partitioned it using APM, copied the library back, and now everything seems OK. Coincidence? I don't know. I can't spend more time debugging this. But that's what worked for me, if it's helpful for anyone else.

I've been doing all this with 10.5.6 on my dual 1.8GHz G5. I haven't tried it with my Macbook Pro yet.

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Answer 7

DenisF

Level 2

153 points

May 19, 2009 2:05 PM in response to Yer_Man

Terence Devlin wrote:
The reason I asked about the format of the disk is that folks report issues with Libraries stored on disks that are not formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

Terence could you tell me more? I have not found the corresponding post.
I have a huge (10K photos, 50GB) library on a RAID server under linux formatted as ext 2.
I am not a designer playing with fonts.
After I upgraded to iPhoto '09 from the DVD, it converted my library and I started to look at the animation which crashed in the middle (face recognition was running in the background).
Any attempt to restart iPhoto failed (empty window with spinning wheel).
Then I downloaded the last version of iPhoto.
I restarted from a clean copy of the iPhoto library.=>Same failure.
I try to rebuild everything (except the database which was not an option).=> same failre
I copied a smaller iphoto library on the local hard disc => it works.

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Answer 8

Jul 6, 2009 6:30 AM in response to techgineer

Hi, I have the same problem, but here is a workaround

What I've found up to now :

1. Switch Photo Sharing to off.
2. Restart iPhoto. The startup should now be faster

You will notice that as soon as you switch on Photo Sharing, a color wheel appears and lock your app for a few minutes.

It seems that it happens when I am connected on another network than home.

Cheers,
Marco

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Answer 9

LarryHN

Level 10

106,130 points

Jul 6, 2009 7:46 AM in response to DenisF

Unless the iPhoto library is on a disk formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) you will have problems. The only solution at this time is to keep the iPhoto library on a Mac formatted drive.

LN

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iPhoto freezes with beach ball when starting