Can't Add More Pictures to Current Book Project (iPhoto 11)

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Can't Add More Pictures to Current Book Project (iPhoto 11)

I an working on a new book. Everything has been going fine. All of a sudden I am unable to add more pictures.

• To add more pictures I am simply dragging them from my Photo library onto the Project icon.
• I receive no error messages. The additional pictures simply don't get added to the project.
• Interestingly (and alarmingly) the total pictures listed in parenthesis when I hover the cursor over the Project name is 146 pictures. However if I manually count the pictures in the project there are only 93.
• While working on the Project, if I choose the Pictures tool on the right side, the Show Unplaced Photos option is grayed out (because my new pictures didn't get added); nor do these new pictures appear if instead I choose Show All Photos in Project.
• My Project has only 13 pages completed so far, so there is plenty of room for more.
• I have already tried trashing the iPhoto .plist files.

Why can't I add more pictures? Why would the total pictures report 146 when there are only 93?

Please help. I'm trying to get this finished as a Christmas present.

Thanks in advance!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.5), iPhoto '11 9.1

Posted on Dec 3, 2010 8:07 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 5, 2010 11:14 AM in response to kb20

I am experiencing the same problem, running iPhoto'11 v9.1 (475).
It seems to have been caused by adding more photos than required to the book project, then attempting to delete those that are redundant. Although they disappear from the Photo Pane on deletion, the item count for the project (as shown in the source list) does not reduce. At present the item count is '59' although there are no 'unplaced photos'.

I have tried the following:
• deleting user/library/preferences/com.apple.iPhoto.plist
• deleting user/library/caches/com.apple.iPhoto
• rebuilding the iPhoto library
• running Onyx
• restarting etc

I, too, would be grateful for a solution.

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Answer 2

kb20 Author

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Dec 6, 2010 11:18 AM in response to kb20

I figured out a fix, but I wanted to document it as there is definitely a bug.

I had gone further and completely uninstalled and reinstalled iPhoto, and done a full Library Rebuild as well - still no changes.

I showed my problem to a colleague and he suggested that I flag the photo before adding it to the project. I tried this and then, in the project's Photos pane, I chose to Show...Flagged Photos, and it appeared!

I was able to add the flagged photo to my project. The Show...Unplaced Photos option was still grayed out. When I deleted this new photo, it did properly move to Unplaced Photos, and I'm now able to add more un-flagged photos to my project and they properly appear as unplaced. It's like using a flagged photo one time cleared the bottleneck. Makes no sense but I can now work further on my project.

The total photo count is still off. I didn't add redundant photos as Nerneener suggests above, so while that may have caused his issue it is not the source of the problem in my case.

Please Apple fix these bugs!

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Answer 3

Dec 6, 2010 11:31 PM in response to kb20

Thank you kb20 for the fix. It worked for me too. Strange but true. As he reports, the item count continues to show the total of all photos ever added to the project (placed, unplaced & deleted from project), but now I can continue to add new photos.

In contrast to kb20, my version of this problem appears to have been precipitated by adding some photos to the book project that I later decided to discard. Since the initial exchange, I have started a second project but I have been careful to add gradually only those photos that I know I will use. The item count has remained true and I have encountered no obstacle to adding progressively more photos.

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Answer 4

kb20 Author

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Dec 9, 2010 7:26 PM in response to kb20

Nerneener I'm glad the workaround is helpful. My book is almost finished.

The inaccurate picture count has become a real nuisance. Now I'm trying to go through some final photo edits, and there's no good way to scroll through the pictures in my book in Edit mode. When I double-click a picture to edit it, hoping to then scroll through just the pictures in my book, all the additional pictures that I placed and then decided not to use still appear.

When I hover over the project name it shows that it has 801 pictures. The total is closer to 500. But when I enter edit mode it includes all 801 pictures in the continuum. So I can't just scroll through only the 500 in Edit mode.

Sure wish this would get fixed. It's a huge loss of time.

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