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spinning beachball suddenly every time now at launch

iPhoto has always been quite fast and reliable for me - until recently. Now the iPhoto window opens straightaway but I get the spinning beachball virtually every time at launch - for about 15 - 20 seconds. After that, all is normal.

I've repaired permissions, run all the routine maintenance scripts (with Onyx), and done a full rebuild of the iPhoto library 3 times, with no real improvement. I think the symptoms started shortly after upgrading to 10.6.7 (and Aperture 3.0.2) - but that may well be just a co-incidence.

Anyone having the same experience - or better still, able to suggest a cause/fix?

The iPhoto library is not especially big - about 12,500 pixs. And my external backup - still running 10.6.6 - is as fast as ever. But I've not added pixs I've imported to the MBP in recent days.

MBP 15", Mac OS X (10.6.7), 2.53 GHz, 320GB, 7200rpm

Posted on Mar 29, 2011 5:36 AM

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27 replies

Mar 29, 2011 11:23 AM in response to conran

Try the quick and easy fix (with fingers crossed): Delete the iPhoto preference file, com.apple.iPhoto.plist, that resides in your Home/Library/Preferences folder.


NOTE: If you're moved your library from its default location in your Home/Pictures folder you will have to point iPhoto to its new location when you next open iPhoto by holding the the Option key. You'll also have to reset the iPhoto's various preferences.




User uploaded file

Mar 31, 2011 11:40 AM in response to rk44

After putting up with the beachball for several days, I've just tested turning off Airport and launching iPhoto. It worked fine, time and time again.

Then I turned Airport back on, and tried iPhoto again. It still worked fine.

I rebooted and tried launching iPhoto again, with Airport on, and it still works fine.

I don't know if everything is suddenly back to normal, but can anyone see what might be going on - bearing in mind that all the internet-related preferences (places, sharing and updates) in iPhoto are turned off?

Apr 1, 2011 5:29 PM in response to conran

That indicates that the culprit is your account. It could be a preference file other than iPhoto's that's causing the problem. Here's how to check that out:




Trouble Shooting Preferences in Leopard/Snow Leopard

1 - close all applications.

2 - open your Library folder, Home/Library, and drag the Preferences folder to the Desktop. A new Preference folder will be immediately created in the Library.

3 - run the application again and determine if the problems is fixed.

4 - If the problem is fixed:

A - open the working Preferences folder (HD/Users/your_name/Library/Preferences).
B - Open the Preferences folder on the Desktop, select all of the contents and drag them into the working Preferences folder.
C - When the Copy window pops up check the "Apply to All" check box and then click on the Don't Replace button.


User uploaded file

Click to view full size


5 - If the problem is NOT fixed, drag the Preferencess folder on the Desktop into the Library to replace the new one that was created.

Apr 2, 2011 2:46 AM in response to Old Toad

thanks for the diagnosis. I tried it with a new Preferences folder, and that didn't make any difference either unfortunately.

One side effect was that I couldn't replace the entire new Preferences folder with the original. A dialogue box came up to say that apple.dock.db couldn't be replaced because it was in use. I copied all the others back, and apple.dock.db and apple.dock.plist are all that remain in the original folder (now on the desktop).

All the same, the Preferences folder on my MBP is now 13.5MB, while on a cloned backup of 10.6.7 it's 12.8MB.

Is all still OK with preferences, and can you see why there's a difference in the folder sizes?

Still hoping that iPhoto can be fixed too...

Apr 2, 2011 11:15 AM in response to conran

Any more ideas about what might be causing iPhoto to stall?

No.

Duplicate your library and move it to the other user account on your Mac. Launch iPhoto and see if it will open as the other library did in that account. If it opens without stalling then that's a confirmation that the library is good and the problem lies in your primary user account.

Have you tried turning off Airport again? If that clears it up, event temporarily, then there's some kind of communication that iPhoto is going thru that's causing the stall. In that case you should ask in the Airport forum also.

Apr 4, 2011 10:41 AM in response to Old Toad

I tried turning Airport off again - and iPhoto seems to work perfectly every time.

I used Preferential Treatment to run another test on User preferences, and it showed no faults.

I couldn't see how to duplicate iPhoto library and transfer to a test account, but the library is getting on for 100 GB, which is pretty big to duplicate anyway on my MBP.

Spinning beachball appears probably 90% of the time under normal circumstances (ie. with Airport on).

spinning beachball suddenly every time now at launch

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