iPhoto crashes when deleting photo's

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Level 1

32 points

iPhoto crashes when deleting photo's

At some point I tried deleting a large amount of pictures (maybe 500) from my library. The pictures moved to trash but where also visible in the library. I emptied the trash but something strange happened...

Ever since this happened I have had the deleted photo's in my library as empty black frames. If I try to delete them iPhoto crashes every time. I have managed to get rid of a few by starting up iPhoto fresh -> going to a specific event and moving a maximum of 5-6 of those images into trash (and then emptying the trash). I might be able to do this a few times in a row before it crashes again.

I've rebuilt the library several times but at maximum it helps for a very brief time (and does not allow me to remove the "bad" photos.

Macbook Pro / iMac C2D, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Feb 5, 2010 11:58 PM

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,918 points

Feb 6, 2010 12:00 AM in response to dropadrop

This can happen if you try and delete too many pics at one go. People generally recommend not trashing more than a 100 at a time.

Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.

If that fails:

Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords, faces and places back.

Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.

Regards

TD

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Answer 2

dropadrop Author

Level 1

32 points

Feb 8, 2010 9:07 AM in response to Yer_Man

Thanks for the reply. I would be happy to purchase a license for the Library Manager if I was sure it was going to do the trick (I think this feature is only supported by the full version).

Maybe it's obvious, but I just did a bit more debugging. I looked for info from one of these files, and selected the "show in finder" option. It opened the folder, but there is no file by that name. Confirmed with terminal:

$ cd Pictures/iPhoto\ Library/
$ find . -name ' IMG_2253'

Nothing. Then:

$ grep -r IMG_2253 *
AlbumData.xml:<string>IMG_2253</string>
AlbumData.xml:<string>/Users/mikaa/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2007/Kreikka 2007/IMG_2253.JPG</string>
AlbumData.xml:<string>/Users/mikaa/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Data/2007/Kreikka 2007/IMG_2253.jpg</string>

So the entries are in the database, but files are already gone. I wonder why none of the rebuild options work against this (and I wonder if this is really my problem).

edit:

Further details. If I go to photo's and move the broken images to trash they become visible in both photo's and trash. If I try to empty trash iPhoto hangs and I have to force quit it. If I don't try to empty trash I can quit iphoto, but when restarting the photo's are back where they started from.

However if I find the event containing the photo I can delete a few at a time from there and iPhoto does not crash (until I take ~5 at a time)...

Message was edited by: dropadrop

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,918 points

Feb 8, 2010 9:11 AM in response to dropadrop

You don't need to purchase iPhoto Library Manager to use the Rebuild option.

So the entries are in the database, but files are already gone.

The xml file referred to in that output is not the iPhoto database.

Further details. If I go to photo's and move the broken images to trash they become visible in both photo's and trash. If I try to empty trash iPhoto hangs and I have to force quit it. If I don't try to empty trash I can quit iphoto, but when restarting the photo's are back where they started from.

All symptoms of a damaged database.

Regards

TD

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Answer 4

dropadrop Author

Level 1

32 points

Feb 8, 2010 11:48 AM in response to Yer_Man

You are right. The rebuild just finished reporting as many errors as there where empty pictures, and now everything seems to run fine!

Thanks a lot

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