Old g4 iMac with iPhoto. Pictures don’t show, only all-black, with names of “events”. Running OSX 10.4.11. Apple says they can’t do anything. Anyone know a way to get the 4,000 pictures back? Computer belongs to an elderly friend, and she may have “done things” trying to get the pictures.
Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode?
Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.
In Finder open the Pictures folder, also if I recall you can highlight the iPhoto Library, right click & choose Show Package Contents.
Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode?
Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.
In Finder open the Pictures folder, also if I recall you can highlight the iPhoto Library, right click & choose Show Package Contents.
I hope, BDAqua's suggestion will work to repair any permission problems. Which version of iPhoto is installed on that Mac? On my old G4 is a newer system installed, and probably a newer version of iPhoto. My memory of this old version is rather vague, and unfortunately I just trashed my version of the old "Missing Manual" for iPhoto.
Have you looked in the Pictures folder , if there is an iPhoto Library? For the first iPhoto versions the photo library has been just a set of folders and not a closed package. If there is an iPhoto Library folder, check the inner folders. Are there folders named "Originals" or "Edited" or "Masters"? If yes, copy the folder to an external drive.
New versions of iPhoto have a built-in First Aid tool. I am not sure , if the First Aid dialog has already been introduced in iPhoto on Tiger.
You could just try it, if you can launch iPhoto in the Repair mode. But first make a backup of the iPhoto Library.
To repair follow the directions here: iPhoto 6 and later: Rebuilding the iPhoto library - Apple Support
Perhaps Old Toad or Terence Devlin can remember the old iPhoto versions better than I do.
Thank you. I tried Safe Boot as suggested, but it required an ID & Password. My neighbor had no clue what they might have been. Hadn’t used one in many many years. But, I did get lucky and was able to find several hundred photos (maybe even her best ones) that she had sent to people as e-mail attachments (Thank you “Erase Never” setting). Her iPhoto Library seems to be trashed - she has about 6 copies of it, but each are about 1mb (for 4,000 pictures!). I think we are going to declare victory with the pictures we found in e-nail. Thanks again.
Thank you. I tried Safe Boot as you suggested, but it required an ID & Password. My neighbor had no clue what they might have been. Hadn’t used one in many many years. But, I did get lucky and was able to find several hundred photos (maybe even her best ones) that she had sent to people as e-mail attachments (Thank you “Erase Never” setting). Her iPhoto Library seems to be trashed - she has about 6 copies of it, but each are about 1mb (for 4,000 pictures!). I think we are going to declare victory with the pictures we found in e-nail. Thanks again.
Good work, great to hear. :)
To get an admin PW...
Fool the Mac into making a new admin account...
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/164331/i-dont-have-administrator-account-on-my-mac
Old iPhotos on G4 iMac
