iPhoto freezes (spinning beach ball) when USB drive or memory card containing movies is connected

Question

iPhoto freezes (spinning beach ball) when USB drive or memory card containing movies is connected

As the description says, iPhoto freezes with the spinning beach ball when a USB drive (thumb drive or 1TB HD) or a memory card in my USB reader is connected to our Macbook and contains movies. This happens if iPhoto is already open when the USB drive is plugged in, or if it is launched after the USB drive has been plugged in. If the drive does not containt movies, all is fine and iPhoto can see it.

This is on a Macbook Cord Duo / OS X 10.6.8 / iPhoto 9.1.5.

What I have noticed: When iPhoto freezes, the following Log entry is made:

/System/Library/Image Capture/Devices/MassStorageCamera.app/Contents/MacOS/MassStorageCamera[4751] ICDCreatePropertiesForMovieAtPath - exception: QTMovie_QuickTime class must be initialized on the main thread.

This happens with 2 different SD memory cards read using a USB reader, 2 different USB hard drives.

I have:

Tried with a new, empty iPhoto library (same result)
Reinstalled iPhoto from the install DVD and applied all patches to iPhoto (same result)
Reinstalled 10.6.8 using the Combo updater (same result)
Reinstalled Quicktime X (same result)
Tried from a different, new user (same result)

My next step is to take the machine in to an Apple Store and have a Genius look at it, but does anyone have an idea?

Nicolas

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8), Core Duo, 2GB RAM, 500GB HD

Posted on Aug 14, 2011 11:13 AM

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

166,098 points

Aug 14, 2011 12:18 PM in response to Nicolas Julie

Copy a working verion of that folder

Image Capture/Devices

from another Mac to that location.

Regards

TD

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Answer 2

Aug 15, 2011 8:07 AM in response to Yer_Man

Thanks for the suggestion. As I do not have another Mac with the same version of OS X I took an external drive I have and installed Snow Leopard on it, updated it to 10.6.8, installed iPhoto 11 and all updates, figuring I would take that folder from that new install.

However, that new install has the same problem with USB drives holding movies freezing iPhoto. :-/

Nicolas

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Answer 3

feraris

Level 1

8 points

Nov 13, 2011 7:53 AM in response to Nicolas Julie

Same problem here.

I have to import the sd card using the camera with the cable if i try to insert the sd using a usb adapter, iphoto stop responding.

I think it can be some version of the quicktime componet or usin qt7 and qtX

1) reinstall qt7

2)replace image capture

not solved.

i think some videos on the sd are causing the problem.

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Answer 4

feraris

Level 1

8 points

Nov 20, 2011 8:00 AM in response to feraris

20/11/11 16:54:09 /System/Library/Image Capture/Devices/MassStorageCamera.app/Contents/MacOS/MassStorageCamera[328] ICDCreatePropertiesForMovieAtPath - exception: QTMovie_QuickTime class must be initialized on the main thread.

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Answer 5

Jan 3, 2012 8:20 AM in response to Nicolas Julie

I am having the exact same issue. Any movie on an SD card (which may also have photos on it) will lock up the import process (both in iPhoto and Aperture 3) with the error message you cite. After that, Aperture and the system is confused in a way that you must log out and back in to make Aperture aware that you have removed the SD card.

As it is, I cannot perform an image import into Aperture or iPhoto (or even Image Capture - it's the same error there as well!) as long there is any movie on the SD card.

The movies come from an Canon IXUS camera and have a .avi extension.

Import worked before, so this is a new issue that came with one of the recent updates. It worked all well before the Aperture 3.2.1 update, so it most probably can only be one of the following:

- Aperture-Update 3.2.1

- iTunes 10.5.1

- Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update 3.8

- Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update 3.9

Furthermore, the issue happens only on my Mac mini 1.6GHz Intel Core Duo with OS X 10.6.8.

It does not happen on my Mac Pro 2xXeon QuadCore, also with OS X 10.6.8, i.e. all the same versions of Aperture and system updates.

Is it a timing issue/concurrency issue, that only shows the bug on the slower machine, and not the faster one? I am at a loss, and any help how to restore import compatibility from SD card is highly appreciated.

-kris

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Answer 6

Sep 13, 2012 9:22 PM in response to Christian Roth

I am having the same issue as everyone above, using OSX 10.6.8 and iPhoto 9.2.3. When I insert the USB card reader iPhoto spins, and after I force quit iPhoto spins on relaunch regardless of whether the USB reader is still in or not. I had to restart to get iPhoto working again, but I discovered that if I force quit (via Activity Monitor) the MassStorageCamera process I can open iPhoto w/o having to restart (as long as the USB reader is not in).

If anyone figures out how to get iPhoto to work with a USB card reader, please post it here! Thanks.

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