Reconnecting Photos

Question

Level 1

4 points

Reconnecting Photos

I had deleted many folders of photos that I thought were duplicates of those stored in iPhoto library. However, they were not and iPhoto did not work without them. I used TIME MACHINE and have RESTORED the photos and also Restored iPhoto. After rebuilding thumbnails, I get an ALERT box "the original cannot be found". I find the photo by going to PICTURE folder and opening a few levels of folders before I get to the "original".
This is incredibly time consuming, and I am certain there is another way of being able to reattach the original. Please help.
asuch

iMac 24", Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on May 19, 2010 2:34 PM

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,984 points

May 19, 2010 2:45 PM in response to asuch

Are you running a Managed or a Referenced Library?

A +Managed library+, is the default setting, and iPhoto copies files into the iPhoto Library when Importing

A +Referenced Library+ is when iPhoto is NOT copying the files into the iPhoto Library when importing because you made a change at iPhoto -> Preferences -> Advanced. In this scenario you are responsible for the File Management.

Regards

TD

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Answer 2

asuch Author

Level 1

4 points

May 19, 2010 3:19 PM in response to Yer_Man

I am running a Managed library.
The problem photos are all fro 2006 and earlier. Everything after 2006, is perfect.

My major question is: is there a way of re-connecting the originals without doing it individually.
I have about 6,000 pics remaining to re-connect, and each one takes multiple steps (opening various levels of folders). Since most are consecutively numbered; there must be a way to connect groups of photos?

asuch

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,984 points

May 19, 2010 10:58 PM in response to asuch

I am running a Managed library.

Are you sure? This message is usually an indicator of a Referenced Library. If you're running a Referenced, then yes, there are ways to do it in batches.

However, if you're not I would expect that rather than getting this message you would simply get a large ! indicating that iPhoto had lost contact with the Original. If you are running a Managed Library then there is no way to do this in batches.

Regards

TD

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Answer 4

asuch Author

Level 1

4 points

May 20, 2010 6:46 AM in response to Yer_Man

Managed Library. In the preference "advanced" there is a checkmark in "Copy items to iPhoto Library"
Since you say that loss of contact results in large "!" , which is what I am getting from 2006 on back, maybe it happened with previous versions of iPhoto???? as I had used most of them.

In any event how can I get them back. All 10,000 pics from 2006 onwards are OK, but about 1/2 of those prior to 2006 are not in contact with the original.

asuch

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Answer 5

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,984 points

May 20, 2010 6:55 AM in response to asuch

I'm confused - not an especially difficult thing to do 😉

In your first post you say

I get an ALERT box "the original cannot be found".

in your most recent one:

loss of contact results in large "!" , which is what I am getting from 2006 on back

With a Referenced Library the "original cannot be found" Alert will give you the option to reconnect with your actual file - and from your description that is what you are doing:

I find the photo by going to PICTURE folder and opening a few levels of folders before I get to the "original"

Or is it?

With the ! there is simply no way to reconnect with the original file. The database is trashed.

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 6

asuch Author

Level 1

4 points

May 20, 2010 3:21 PM in response to asuch

TD
I used "OPTION 2". It rebuilt the library showing 12,700 photos. We started with 17,400. From the log, I see which photos are missing. But I cannot access them,
I than used the previous library, and can visually see all of the photos that are "missing". When I click on the photo the dialog box comes up and I click on "find photo". I get the "!", and I cannot locate the photos in any folder as most of them were imported directly into iPhoto.
From the Alert I took the name and searched using spotlight and because some of the photos had been adjusted in Elements, the PE program opened and the photo shows. The path shows that is in the library/data/event. But how can I get to "data"?

I than thought I would "save" the photo and reimport. The PE save dialog box comes up and I see that there is a "DATA" folder and the folder that contains the event. it is above the "Library", but this is in the PE save box only. I can look at the folders in the save box, but I cannot locate this folder when I open the normal boxes.

All of my "missing" photos are in here.
How can I get access to these folders?

These are too valuable to loose.
Thanks for your help.
asuch

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Answer 7

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,984 points

May 20, 2010 3:39 PM in response to asuch

The path shows that is in the library/data/event. But how can I get to "data"?

There's no point in getting to Data. It's the folder that contains the tiny thumbnails that you see in the iPhoto Window. Those are not your Photos.

Go to your Pictures Folder and find the iPhoto Library there. Right (or Control-) Click on the icon and select 'Show Package Contents'. A finder window will open with the Library exposed.

Can you find the images in the Original folder? If not then I would suspect these are the images you deleted (as you mentioned in your first post).

Regards

TD

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Answer 8

asuch Author

Level 1

4 points

May 20, 2010 4:11 PM in response to asuch

Have opened "ORIGINALS" and all are there except that most are "aliases".
I do not know how to trace an "alias" to the original.
But I think we are probably on the right track. How do I use these?
Thanks
Asuch

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Answer 9

LarryHN

Level 10

106,142 points

May 20, 2010 4:33 PM in response to asuch

Have opened "ORIGINALS" and all are there except that most are "aliases".

That shows that you have a mixed library - at some time you had unchecked the "copy imported items to the iPhoto library" and imported photos while in a referenced mode - apparently you sometime later rechecked that option (or deleted and recreated your iPhoto preference file) which put you back into a managed mode

IF the original photos are still on the exact same path as when you imported them as referenced photos then Alias herder -- http://www.rorohiko.com/wordpress/downloads/aliasherder/ -- will bring them into the library and convert to a fully managed library - if the path to them has changed then you will have to reconnect them as you have been or start over with a new library and import them

This is one of many reasons that it is strongly recommended that you do not use a referenced library

I do not know how to trace an "alias" to the original.

See above

But I think we are probably on the right track. How do I use these?

See above

LN

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Answer 10

asuch Author

Level 1

4 points

May 21, 2010 1:00 PM in response to LarryHN

LN
I am now in almost a perfect panic. The photos that I cannot find are incredibly valuable to us.
I think that some of the initial info I gave was incorrect. The photos I originally erased,were all restored, so none are missing. This is a much smaller part of the problem than I had thought.

I thank you for Alias Herder. All of the photos inside "ORIGINALS" seemed to be aliases. Could that be, even if I had a managed library? When I ran Aliasherder a great portion changed to the proper originals.
1) where does it look to find the original? There is nowhere on my drives, other than residing within iPhoto package, that it can find anything (as far as I can see). And if I had adjusted the photo would the adjusted version show or only the original?
2)When I get the alert "Find" the photo number is not the actual items I tried to open, but one photo to the right.
3)Now I see that the "original" is correct, but when the alert "find" comes up, how can I go to the path and point to the original?

I expect a major corruption somewhere. I had thought I did all the proper backing up (TM and a seperate HD). There must be a way of getting these pics back.
I will keep working with you, but please try to explain carefully to me as I am above the age of the experts.
Thanks
Asuch

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Answer 11

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,984 points

May 21, 2010 1:06 PM in response to asuch

Somewhere back along the line you ran a Referenced Library. That is iPhoto did *not copy the files into the Library on import*.

The aliases in Originals would have pointed to +whereever those actual photos were+

IN your first post you mentioned trashing folder of images. Was those images in those folders?

IF they were, restoring the iPhoto Library from Time Machine is not what you need, it's to +restore the folders you trashed+.

Regards

TD

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Answer 12

asuch Author

Level 1

4 points

May 21, 2010 1:18 PM in response to asuch

TD
I did restore the actual folders. Actually, only a very small amount of those photos are involved in this.
Where did this ingenius program AliasHerder find the originals that the aliases pointed to?

Also, is it a good idea to go to the backup drive and run AliasHerder on the "ORIGINA:" folder and compare results to the library on my main drive, I did look into this folder on the HD (about 2 week old save) and it does have mostly aliases.

Asuch

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Answer 13

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,984 points

May 21, 2010 2:26 PM in response to asuch

Also, is it a good idea to go to the backup drive and run AliasHerder on the "ORIGINA:" folder and compare results to the library on my main drive,

Don't just yet. Let's hold on to some vestige of things as they were...

How find were an alias points to:

Click on one to select it and then go File -> Get Info. In the Get Info window you'll see the location of the actual file.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Regards

TD

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Answer 14

asuch Author

Level 1

4 points

May 21, 2010 3:04 PM in response to asuch

Thanks for the reminder, I had forgotten how to trace the paths.
I tried a few and many point back to the folder that contains the alias. But a few did point to some of my recovered folders.
I found a back-up of Library from 2007 but something must be missing as it doesnt start. I looked into the "Original" and all were aliases.

What about the wrong info coming up in the alert box (wrong name for the photo that is shown)?
-----I'll be back in a day or so as this must be fixed, too much at stake. And I would love to find out how this happened and how to protect against it. It seems that double backups did not work.
Thanks for the help so far
asuch

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