Numerous problems with iPhoto '11

During my session with the Apple Eng. We did try the rebuild and examined and repaired the premissions. ( I had already gone thru the disk permissions and disk verification). We also deleted the ...Ipholo.plist, ...Iapps.plist, Lib/chaces and went thru the font book looking for problems. Then we semt the Iphoto APP to trash and reinstalled. All to no avail.

Still doing some checking.......

Thanks for the info.

Regards

FB

My Library is located in the default location.

regards
FB

After reading all of the problems people were having with iPhoto 11 I was more then a bit hesitant to install the upgrade. My iPhoto library is currently close to 200 gigs and resides on an external drive.

After making a backup of the library and running the library repairs I bit the bullet and did the upgrade. Long story short.....I no issues at all. The complete process was very smooth and did not take nearly as long as I had fear. The photo books my wife had created for various event all migrated just fine.

So far I am liking what I see with iPhoto. It is mainly used by my wife and children and I think the new layout is very good. I personally stick with Aperture 3 for heavy editing.

Just wanted to post to let people know that not everyone is having problems with the upgrade.

The feature "Places" in the new iPhoto '11 is terrible, it's a real downgrade of something that was ok, simple and quick. Now I can't even understand where or how put a pin on the map, or how to go out of the map and back to my photo without exit the event or album, by selecting another one. Nothing seems to work, nor clicking or right-clicking, there's no back button or anything. That's really irritating.

I purchased a family pack of iLife '11 from an Apple retail store on a Friday. I installed iPhoto, iMovie and Garageband on Saturday. I spent many hours over Saturday and Sunday trying to resolve the problems created by iPhoto alone, with zero success. I ended up deleting all traces of iLife '11 from my computer on Sunday night and went back to using the iLife '09 apps. On Monday I returned to the Apple store and asked for a full refund. The manage told me I needed to bring in my machine so they could confirm there was in fact a problem. Since it is a 1.5 hr round-trip from my home to the store I told him there was no way I was making another trip. I suggested that he look at the Apple Discussion boards on line to confirm that there are thousands of other people having issues with iLife '11. He then agreed to "make an exception" and issue a full refund to me. Having been a loyal Apple user since the mid-1980's I am tremendously disappointed with the crappy quality of this software release! What was Apple thinking when they shipped this P.O.S.? Shame on them. Everyone having problems with iLife '11 should demand a refund.

I don't have iPhoto '11 but I read this on Macintouch: ( http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/ilife11/index.html#d28oct2010)

David Ticzon

I finally got my problem solved....
Turns out that there are some plug ins that are causing problems with the upgrade of the iPhoto library to iPhoto '11. I had the pleasure of meeting an iPhoto engineer (at my house), who took a copy of my 73 GB iPhoto library to Apple to determine why my IPhoto would crash during the library update. (Yes, I gave Apple my personal library). I was selected since I am near the Apple Campus.
I told the engineer that they are playing with people's lives, because our photos are very important to us. He told me that they are aware of that, and are investigating the problem. (I had my library go from 73 GB shrink to 9 GB when I tried to upgrade to iPhoto '11.)
It turns out, an old plug-in from the Joe Soft application, called Hear, was causing my problem. Even though this was a iTunes enhancement application, it had ties to the movie files (via Quicktime) that are in my iPhoto library.
Other plug ins that can cause problems are the DIVX plug in and AVI Converter plug ins.
Once I removed the offending plug in, my library converted within a hour and I was happy to be enjoying the new version of iPhoto. I will keep my old iPhoto 9 Library, just in case if I have a problem. (I am testing importing photos from all of my cameras and iPhones, just to make sure import works.)
I was also told that I can do the conversion in "Safe Mode" (hold Shift Key down during startup) if I didn't want to remove the plug ins. However, I needed to know if it was really the plug in, so I did the upgrade in the regular mode with the offending plug in removed.
I have to say that I had moved a copy of the original iPhoto Library to a stripped computer (has no plug ins) and tried converting it to iPhoto '11, and it converted without any problems. Therefore, I know it was a plug in issue.
I was told that I can move the converted library to my main computer (that has the plug ins) and should not have any problems running iPhoto. The plug in problem only occurs during the conversion process.
Regarding the Projects (Books) items, they all converted without any problems. I have open them and verified. All albums are working and all 26,000+ photos are working!
I have shut down and restarted iPhoto and also shut down and restarted my computer, then launch iPhoto without any problems. I actually think iPhoto '11 loads much faster than iPhoto '09
A regular fix is in the works.
Hope this helps.
Thanks again iPhoto Team!

Problem solved for me.
I talked to Apple support today and they were very helpful and understood the pain. Their proposed solution was to create a new library and move the files manually from the old library package (backup availability assumed) to the newly created library as described here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2638

However, this will not migrate metadata, so I finally tried Henry Carlson's proposal: http://iphoto11.wordpress.com/ with success!

Thanks alot for this.

I recommend that everyone calls Apple support so they get the tickets in their process. This can possibly accelerate an official fix.

Chalk up another victory for the user who posted the solution of trashing five files from the iPhoto Library contents. I forgot where his suggestion was posted but it worked for me.

If you right-click ~/Pictures/iPhoto Library and enable "show contents" then scroll down and trash the following files:

InterruptedUpgrade
ProjectDBVersion.plist
Projects.db
Projects.db-journal
ThemeCache
ThemeCache.copy

Then start iPhoto, it should find and display all your photos - fast!

I was caught in the endless loop myself after upgrading. So I re-familiarized myself with these instructions, carried them out and now have a functioning iPhoto '11

Hi Everyone

I just received a call from my Apple Support Rep who I was working with on 10/23 the day I installed iLife11 and crashed my iPhoto.

He said that I should open the package contents of my library and delete two files: Interrupted data and ThemeCache.

He then asked me to open my iPhoto but I'm hesitant because I only had ThemeCache - one of the two files he wanted me to delete in the package contents.

I asked him to go check with the engineers to see if they thought it would be safe to try and relaunch iPhoto after only deleting one without risking my 102 GB data base which contains 25,000+

I'll report back once I hear the results of the Capture Data program he had me run on my system.
AD

The same for me with Books.

Discovered that I could upgrade a copy of the library from Iphoto 09 from my administrator account. I could even create books in this empty account.

I did succeed in this by renaming the "Iphoto Library" file (Iphoto 09 Library name in the French Iphoto) into "Bibliothèque Iphoto" (Iphoto 11 name of the Library in French)

Unfortunately the regular account I'm using with no admin rights still can't handle this Library File and I end up with no access to books, which nevertheless can be seen in the Projects list....

Next time I'll wait three months to upgrade !

I have the same problems with trying to create any books. It simply does not work on two of my three computers that I've loaded iLife11 on.
I tried fixes that many people have suggested such as it was a problem with my fonts. Fixed fonts and the problem remains. I followed Applecare advice that it was a permissions problem, again no luck after following detailed instructions directly from AppleCare over a two hour period on the phone, my ear still aches.

I then had a complete computer meltdown after stupidly messing with the permissions too much in my desperation. I had to re-install everything from my Time Machine backup and so have given up on iLife11 until this problem is directly addressed by Apple with an update that specifically mentions this problem and says it's now fixed.

Totally agree!

I tried Henry C's fix, along with repairing permissions and resolving and deleting duplicate fonts. I also spent HOURS on the phone with Apple tech support reinstalling iPhoto, deleting caches, creating a new user and a new library as well as other suggestions in this forum all to no avail.

My problem was I could not access or edit old or newly created projects. However, Projects (Cards and Books) would all work in safe mode. While on hold on the phone to be bumped up in Apple Tech support I carefully went thru the solutions posted on this forum again and found one that worked for me.

While RESOLVING and DELETING duplicate fonts in the Font Book App did not work, VALIDATING fonts DID work. I removed 4 fonts that had serious errors and 1 font with minor problems. Note these were not duplicate fonts. Immediately my projects started working!

Seems like there are multiple problems with different solutions. I only had the Project editing and access issue.

First time I am really disappointed with Apple. iPhoto11 is such a p.o.s.!!! Compared to iPhoto09 there is no progress whatsoever. On the contrary: full screen mode is not full screen any more, no calendars, useless email functionality, cheesy and irritating backgrounds like the wood panel in books and cards, and worst of all it keeps crashing (a dozen times in the last two hours...). I am going to downgrade to iLife09. How on earth could they release a program full of bugs??? 49€ spent, hours of trial and error and all the pain of getting back to the former version - *THANKS, MR. JOBS!!!*

I have joned this discussion late. I am an Apple fan of many years whose good will is wearing very thin.

I am trying to upgrade to iPhoto 11 from version 8 I think (not the last one but the one before).

My experience over the last six days and many hours work has been very frustrating. Fortunately I have several backups of my photo library (101GB; 17,000+ photos; 580 events), my library appears intact and I seem to have all my albums, books and cards when iPhoto 11 is open.

Every time I open iPhoto 11 it asks me to upgrade the library (takes 6-10 minutes). No changes are ever saved when I close down. Importing any photos causes iPhoto to crash or hang (that was my first sign of trouble on day 1). I also have noted time machine continuously trying to back up several hundred GB.

I have tried:
Repairing disk permissions
Removing duplicate fonts
Validating fonts
Removing the preferences file for iPhoto
Starting iPhoto after starting up my machine in safe mode
Henry's solution utilising the BatChmod utility

So far no luck at all. All issues remain.

I have not even opened iMovie or Garage Band yet.

A question for Griff or anyone ese in the know-

Does removing the 6 files in the iPhoto library (InterruptedUpgrade
ProjectDBVersion.plist, Projects.db, Projects.db-journal, ThemeCache, ThemeCache.copydelete) delete the books I have in my library? I am keen to keep them if possible.

Second question. I have about 10 AVI video files in my library. Has anyone had success by removing those, staring up iPhoto and importing them again later?

Apologies if these are explicitly answered elsewhere, but I have not been able to find the answers easily. Many thanks

FD