iPhoto 11 very slow and hangs up the computer continuously

How much free space on your HD?

Try trashing the iPhoto Cache from HD/Users/ Your Name / Library / Caches

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.

Regards

TD

This performance issue, slow and locking, seems to affect Mac Pro users more than other desktop or laptop users. Wondering if it could be a graphic card issue (my thinking) since Mac Pros had a graphic card problem earlier. Try rebuilding the library with just Options #1 and #6. If that doesn't help try again with #1 and #2.

Is your library on your boot drive? How much free space on your boot drive (with a Mac Pro I've thinking this is not a problem but have to ask)?

Do you have a backup of your iPHoto 09 library? If so keep it safe.

OT

Welcome to the club. I own a Mac Pro and I am also experiencing the same problem. I haven't upgraded to iPhoto 9.1 yet to see if it changes. I am going to wait to see if others see 9.1 as a fix. But I didnt read anything that said the update was about unresponsiveness. Sorry I couldn't offer more assistance on this issue.

It's also been pretty slow on a 1-year-old MacBook Pro 15" with 4GB RAM and 23,000 photos. I'm hoping that version 9.1 helps, but didn't see words like "performance improvements" in the release description from Apple.

I just upgraded to 9.1 and now i Photo crashes each time I try to do anything with it. IS anyone else experiencing issues after updating?

I agree iPhoto is a real duffer, a huge disappointment, as iMovie was a couple of versions ago.
Reverting back is much harder with Filevault turned on, as you have to recover the whole home directory to how it was in October 😟

Same problem with an older iMac. Just installed 11 yesterday. I upgraded from '06, which worked fine. It hangs the whole computer for 15-30 sec. Hope someone comes up with a solution.

Mine hangs up, too, and freezes my mac. But not just for 15 seconds, for minutes at a time and sometimes permanently. Many of the images also blur at least temporarily into abstract color smears. The current update doesn't help. I've dumped the preferences as someone suggested, hoping that would help. It didn't. This program is now useless to me and I am scared to death that I'll never have access to my pictures again.

iLife 11 (9.0) worked fine. After applying the 9.0.1 update all **** broke loose and my iMac would freeze completely after running for a period of time. Apple is sending a HD to capture my library to see what the problem is. I didn't lose pics or data as far as I can see. I tried the 9.1 update to see if the fix was in, to no avail. backed up the iPhoto library and trashed iPhoto and reinstalled from the iLife installer using the Customize button, only installing iPhoto. I am up and running again with no issues yet. I will wait for a definitive fix before going beyond 9.0.

APPLE JUST CAME OUT WITH A IPHOTO SOFTWARE UPDATE NOV 4 2010!!!!!

My mom brought her mac over after installing ilife 11 and iphoto went to the poop-er. Apple just came out with a software update that fixed everything. Her computer was locking up for 10-15 seconds and sometimes for 5 minutes. I thought is was the HD or motherboard. But nope, just a software glitch.
Hope this helps.....cause it did the job for me.

meh....I'ld wait for some verification first. I saw the update and it didn't do a thing to fix my problem.

Just installed 9.1. Still hangs the system for several minutes after a few minutes of use. Cmon, Apple.

I'm on an iMac, so the problem isn't just confined to the Mac Pros. After iLife deleted my whole Photo Library (thanks Time Machine, though I lost 2 weeks of Photos) and still wasn't able to update it until I deleted all avi videos - I now fight against the constant freezing of my whole mac. For minutes. Sometimes when I look at a picture, when I swipe trough them, edit them, push a button... . It's the crappiest piece of software Apple ever released. I used iPhoto in a daily basis which is impossible now! Already tried several steps to fix that. My guess is a graphic problem.

Add me to the list. I did not want to complain earlier, but after two updates I'm getting irritated. Slow, sluggish, beach balls, click, wait, etc. Very irritating.

Same problem - update from Apple made no difference. Hangs every time it's opened - need to force quit to close it.