So what happened to my 15,000+ iPhoto library?
Recent activity - I took photos and video on a vacation - 700+ total. While on vacation I moved them around using a macbook pro. When I got home I merged this library with my main iPhoto library on my iMac. Everything was fine for a few weeks - editing, emailing, mobileme, etc.
The first trouble I noticed was that an error was reported when I would sync my iPhone with my iMac. "photo could not be copied to the iPhone because it can not be viewed" or something like that. It was an old photo that I had edited and it was in the correct orientation.
The next trouble I noticed was photos on my iPhone had mysteriously "fallen over". Photos in portrait had gone to landscape. This was strange and over then next few days - as I looked thru my albums in iPhoto more - I noticed more and more photos mysteriously changed orientation.
Another indicator of trouble was when I selected a photo that had fallen over and clicked "edit" in iPhoto the photo could (I recall some did and some didn't) appear in the correct orientation. In other words - it seemed that the thumbnail did not match the file. I saw this with photos that were in albums that were in sync with my iPhone. The photo on the iPhone was "wrong", the thumbnail was "wrong", click edit and the file photo was in the correct (desired) orientation.
As I was working thru this trouble I had a few photos go missing. The thumbnail would be in iPhoto but clicking on it gave a triangle with the exclaimation point.
I tried rebuilding the iPhoto database. The process stopped. The Activity Monitor showed a process and cpu activity but nothing happened. No halts were reported in the Activity Monitor. The process ran for over 37 hours. When I Forced Quit - clicking on iPhoto opened a new blank library. I tried holding the alt key and navigating to the correct file - no good. Next I deleted the iPhoto library and restored the file from Time Machine. The file opened as expected with the fallen-over photos and all. (I love Time Machine!)
I tried again by repairing file permissions system wide. Then, repairing permissions in the iPhoto database. Checking photos all the same troubles. I tried to rebuild the database using the command + option key press at startup and it stopped again at some point many many hours into the process.
SOLUTION
I deleted the iPhoto database and brought forward the backup from Time Machine. I ran iPhoto Library Manager and built a new iPhoto library. As the 15,000+ photos flashed by - I did notice that a few (hard to keep track really) of the photos that had fallen over were duplicates. A dialog presented the photo in the correct orientation as the existing photo and asked if I wanted to import another (the other photo was in the wrong orientation). I selected "do not import" (so as not to import the duplicate photo in the wrong orientation) and the process continued. iPhoto failed to quit at the end of the process - which scared me for a few minutes. When the process finished I opened the iPhoto library. iPhoto Library Manager also presented a long error message that was cryptic - I was tired - so I clicked thru it.
I ran the iPhoto rebuild database on the file and it completed within a few hours.
This morning I made a couple albums and ran the sync with my iPhone.
All the photos in the few selcted albums are standing-up in the correct orientation. These are photos that were previously fallen over - in the wrong orientation.
Everything looks good right now.
SUGGESTED
- Use Time Machine - it's brought me out of the dark - more than once - flawlessly!!!
- iPhoto Library Manager is a must have
Hope this benefits the community.
