Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

iPhoto '09 8.0.3 Update - iPhoto painfully slow now

After installing the iPhoto 8.0.3 yesterday, iPhoto has become painfully slow on my machine. Switching between Views (eg. from Events to Faces) makes the CPU usage spike up and I get the spinning beachball for about a minute or two before I can continue working - the worst offenders are Faces and Places, but it's basically become a pain to work with.

This was not a problem until I installed the update yesterday and I tried rebuilding my library to no avail.

Anyone have any tips?

Does anyone else encounter this problem?

iMac G5, Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on Jun 5, 2009 6:35 AM

Reply
78 replies

Jun 5, 2009 10:15 AM in response to LarryHN

Thanks Larry.

I reported it to Apple, but it's really frustrating. I wonder if there's an easy way to go back to iPhoto 8.0.2 using Time Machine?

BTW, I only have 8800 photos, so my library is nothing crazy.

The problem is definitely with Faces and Places, takes forever for them to come up. It almost feels like iPhoto is scanning all photos all over again.

I also noticed that the custom names of some my places were lost and it reverted back to the original street addresses.

Message was edited by: Tim Tschirner

Jun 5, 2009 11:33 AM in response to LarryHN

Just a quick update - I got totally frustrated and left - when I came back iPhoto had calmed down and I went through 40 or so photos adding un-named people with about the same speed as before the upgrade to 8.0.3 except once it went off for a minute or so -- the CPU meter is staying at 100% but iPhoto is going pretty good now ?????

I have not tried places yet

I even have been able to use iPhoto while TM is doing small hourly backups

So my experience is very mixed at this time - I shut off my clone so I will have the pre-update version available if I need it - but now I am hopeful that 8.0.3 will work

LN

Jun 5, 2009 11:37 AM in response to LarryHN

Larry;

Did you run into this window the first time you updated and closed your iPhoto library?

User uploaded file

Click to view full size


I didn't see it on my test library but did on my large, 37,450, library when I started to close it. It took a long time to complete. It only happened on the first run and close. That library is a referenced one. It could be that since the library was so large it just took longer to complete and was noticeable whereas in the other libraries it was too fast to observe.

I ran a quick test of faces in the large library after the latest update and it went rather quickly (with item counts activated). It seemed to be more effective than previously.

I noticed one fix with the new update: the MobileMe galleries now display the photos in all of my libraries instead of just the one that created it. Previously the thumbnails would be blank is those other libraries.

Tim: Faces and Places are quite CPU intensive and require a lot of memory also. How much free space do you have on your boot drive. It may be that the update requires more memory/virtual memory and that might contribute to your slowdown.


OT

Jun 5, 2009 11:46 AM in response to Old Toad

Did you run into this window the first time you updated and closed your iPhoto library?


No I did not (my main library is managed and about 28,000 photos) - I have not opened any test libraries yet

I didn't see it on my test library but did on my large, 37,450, library when I started to close it. It took a long time to complete. It only happened on the first run and close. That library is a referenced one.


That is NOT recommended you know 😉

I ran a quick test of faces in the large library after the latest update and it went rather quickly (with item counts activated). It seemed to be more effective than previously.



Must be that fancy new computer - my G5 crawls if I turn item count on


Tim: Faces and Places are quite CPU intensive and require a lot of memory also. How much free space do you have on your boot drive. It may be that the update requires more memory/virtual memory and that might contribute to your slowdown.



LN

Jun 5, 2009 1:19 PM in response to Old Toad

I had the same window come up after the first upgrade as well. It has actually come up once or twice after as well.

I have Item Counts and Sharing off. I tried with Item Counts on and it actually doesn't make a difference - what's strange is that it USED to make a difference, but now iPhoto almost behaves as if Item Counts is on even when it says it's off.

Also, I have 150 GB of free space on my boot drive, so I don't think that that's a problem. I essentially didn't change anything on my system other than installing the slew of iLife updates yesterday.

This is quite frustrating, I guess I'll have to experiment to see how I can revert back.

Jun 5, 2009 3:39 PM in response to TeeTw0

Can't solve, but can offer solidarity in the fact that I have experienced the same thing. Resolved another issue by rebuilding iPhoto (command+option while launching iPhoto), but the 8.0.3 upgrade just crawls. Counts and sharing off helps, but does not return upgrade to pre-upgrade speed. I'm trying to figure it out as well and will post if I get anywhere.

Jun 5, 2009 3:42 PM in response to jimkstl

It seems to me that it takes spells - after launch it is slow as can be and eats all the CPU cycles for a while (If I have only it running so it gets all the cycles available it finishes what ever it is doing quicker - then it works pretty well like pre 8.0.3 speeds until I let it sit for a while or quit and relaunch it - then it does the same eat the CPU and slow, slow, slow for a while then finished something and becomes just fine

Very strange behavior

LN

Jun 5, 2009 3:59 PM in response to LarryHN

Have to agree. I've been using Activity Monitor a lot to track how my system degrades over time, and this led me to double my RAM to 8 gigs. This has helped, but since iLife '09 came out, Face recognition just hammers the CPU and iPhoto goes red in the System Memory tab of Activity Monitor because it is unresponsive. I have become used to this trend.
With the 8.0.3 update, the same happens more often and the lag is worse. The CPU tab shows between one to two of my four meager processors getting maxed out completely. The CPU Usage graphic turns almost solid green in one or more of the processor fields (for what that is worth).
It seems as if they are moving around some resources with this update. My system is unhappy with the rewrite. I feel like I did using my old Mac IIci with an 80 MB hard drive twenty years ago.

iPhoto '09 8.0.3 Update - iPhoto painfully slow now

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.