corrupted my iphoto library

Question

corrupted my iphoto library

I'm really in a panic, I was moving some photos from iphoto to a online developer for copies , everything was going great, until I grabbed a photo that was locked, and instead of the picture moving to my pictures folder, the entier iphoto library moved, so I moved it to trash, then when I looked at iphoto, all my pics were blanks, I panicked and dragged the folder from trash back into iphoto, but that only made it worse, now instead of having 1002 pics, I have 2290 pics, and iphoto is not working,(spinning ball). How do I undo what I did and restore my pics back to normal. I still have the iphoto library in my trash. Help please!

Posted on Oct 5, 2005 10:39 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 5, 2005 11:30 PM in response to David Kowalewski

The first thing you should do is move the iPhoto library out of the trash and put it on your desktop so you don't accidentally delete it. And close iPhoto if you have it open.

When you said, "dragged the folder from trash back into iphoto" by that did you mean that you dropped it onto the open iPhoto window?

Now... is it your entire iPhoto library folder that you have in your trash?

When you open the Finder and look in your Pictures Folder (in the side bar) is there an "iPhoto library" folder in there as well.

If there is, rename it. Just add the word "bad" to the name or something like that. (Make sure iPhoto is not running before you do that). Now put the iPhoto Library that you first moved to the trash into the Pictures Folder. Make sure that it is named "iPhoto Library", and move the "Bad" library to the desktop.

Try opening iPhoto now and see if everything is OK. If it is, you can move the "Bad" library to the trash and delete it.

If it isn't back to normal, post here again and let us know. And don't delete anything.

bd

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Answer 2

Oct 6, 2005 9:58 AM in response to briandallas

Hi Briandallas,
I'm at work right now but will try this as soon as I get home. First question, yes I dropped it back into the iphoto window, on the top "library icon on the left side, thinking it would reinstall right there. When the problem first occured,all I could see were blank photos.
When I seen the library in the pictures folder, thats when I dragged it from there into the "main trash". It does look like the entire library, but will double check when I get home. I'll get back to you latter..thankyou

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Answer 3

Oct 6, 2005 7:56 PM in response to briandallas

Briandallas,
Thankyou very much, it worked great, all is back to normal. I'm pretty new to MACs and still on a learning curve. I did'nt realize at first that the iphoto library normally resides in the picture folder, thought it was a mistake, then after you wrote me, it made sense. Thanks again..I owe you

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Answer 4

Oct 6, 2005 10:59 PM in response to David Kowalewski

You are very welcome!

Since you are on a learning curve, here is something you should learn. Don't tamper with the iPhoto Library folder.

iPhoto is a data-based system. Meaning that the iPhoto Library Folder, the one you see in the Pictures folder, belongs to the iPhoto app. Only iPhoto can put photos in there, and only iPhoto can take photos out.

When you want to "move" photos out of iPhoto to upload to an online developer you should select the photos in iPhoto and use the Share>export>file export menu bar command. This will
i copy
the photos to whatever location you select (the desktop is usually the easiest place to export them to, just don't select the iPhoto library folder as a destination).
Upload the newly exported photos on the desktop (or wherever) to the online developer. When you are done, they can be deleted because they are only copies. The originals are still inside the iPhoto library folder.

Have fun with it.

bd

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