iPhoto cannot import your photos because there was a problem writing to the volume containing your iPhoto library.

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Level 1

8 points

iPhoto cannot import your photos because there was a problem writing to the volume containing your iPhoto library.

my batch of 500 photos is stuck between 2 worlds - it's not on my camera and it's not imported into iphoto. I have it in a folder on my hard disk and it just doesn't import into iphoto. I've tried creating different libraries, that doesn't work either. I can view all the photos via preview but need them on iphoto. sometimes a few do get imported and most times I get the message: "iPhoto cannot import your photos because there was a problem writing to the volume containing your iPhoto library." I would greatly appreciate any help to resolve this.

iPhoto '08, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Jul 22, 2011 9:32 AM

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,396 points

Jul 22, 2011 11:37 AM in response to gkapple

That message sounds like there is an issue with your Hard Disk. How muh free space on it?

Regards

TD

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Answer 2

gkapple Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 22, 2011 1:41 PM in response to Yer_Man

Approx 620mb. But the folder with the pictures is already on the hard drive so should just moving it across to iphoto suffer?

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Answer 3

gkapple Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 22, 2011 1:47 PM in response to gkapple

Terence, I've also tried moving across small batches (approx 100mb worth and well within the available space) from the folder to iphoto. still doesn't work.

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Answer 4

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,396 points

Jul 22, 2011 2:33 PM in response to gkapple

Approx 620mb.

Are you serious? You have a major problem and you need to sort it out now. Urgently.

OS X needs about 10 gigs of hard drive space for normal OS operations - things like virtual memory, temporary files and so on.

Without this space your Mac will slow down as the OS hunts for space on the disk, files will be fragmented, also slowing things down, apps will crash and the risk of data corruption - that is damage to your files, photos, music - increases exponentially.

Your first priority is to make more space on that HD. Nothing else can be done until you do. Purchase an external HD and move your Photos and Music to it. Both iPhoto and iTunes can run perfectly well with the Library on an external disk.

Deal with this space issue first. When you have then worry about the photos because frankly, the next thing that happens is your photos start becoming damaged and irrecoverable - if it hasn't already

Regards

TD

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Answer 5

Old Toad

Level 10

207,667 points

Jul 22, 2011 2:59 PM in response to gkapple

We can't emphasize this too much: get at least 10 GB of free space on your boot drive ASAP!

If you don't clear up some free space quickly you could get to a point where your Mac will freeze completely and/or not boot at all. Get an external FW/USB hard drive and start moving files to it and then delete them from your boot drive.

You don't say what type of Mac you have but if it's a desktop you can run your iPhoto Library from it freeing up a lot of space. Also your iTunes library if you so desire.

OT

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Answer 6

gkapple Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 22, 2011 10:49 PM in response to Old Toad

Thanks Terence and Old Toad. I've been backingup regularly and just did another one. I assume I can delete files from my macbook now. Will report back.

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Answer 7

gkapple Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 24, 2011 6:59 PM in response to gkapple

ok, so i created approx 7gb space and tried again. all is well now, thanks! Can I niw delete the folder in which the pictures were (on my desktop)?

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Answer 8

Old Toad

Level 10

207,667 points

Jul 24, 2011 7:01 PM in response to gkapple

As long as you've confirmed that the photos are safe in your library you can delete that folder.

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Answer 9

Rymdkrig

Level 1

0 points

Apr 19, 2014 7:37 PM in response to gkapple

I had this same problem and I had plenty of hard drive space. Repairing the permissions did the trick for me. At one point I had tried to share my library between multiple user accounts, iPhoto could "of course" not handle this as each user account stole the permissions for the library.

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Answer 10

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,396 points

Apr 20, 2014 12:21 AM in response to Rymdkrig

If you solved this by repairing permissions then you didn't have the same problem. Same symptom maybe, but repairng permissions will not fix an overcrowded disk.

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