Missing Albums and Photos in iPhoto!

it happened the same to me with the only difference that i'm still able to see the albums and events i created but there are no pics inside them! i can only access 2 events which are the latest i created. ***? i have something like 4000pics i do not want to import them all again! can someone pls help?

my iphotolibrary is on my external hard drive where it has been since the first time i used iphoto. i did not make any changes since the last time i used iphoto and it worked. so what's happened? how do i fix this?

To both of you:

There are 9 different versions of iPhoto and they run on seven different versions of the Operating System. The tricks and tips for dealing with issues vary from version to version and OS to OS. So before anyone can help, they need information to work with. Basic stuff:

- What version of iPhoto.

- What version of the Operating System.

- Details. What were you doing when the problem arose?

- Did it ever work properly?

- Are there error messages?

- What steps have you tried already to solve the issue.

Anything else you can think of that might allow someone else to understand your issue.

With this kind of information somebody can develop a starting point for troubleshooting the issue.

iPhoto 11 (9.2.1)

Mac Os X Lion (10.7.3)

details: i normally ran the programme and clicking on the events i can still see the thumbnails but when i click on the pic it displays the '!' because it can't find it

iphoto has been working properly since i started to use it

no error messages a part from '!'

i checked my backups done with time machine but unfortunately i found out TM doesn't back up my external hard drive where the iphoto library is stored....

need to find a solution to this as well, but first thing first...

i noticed that if i import the pictures again (i tried with a small album) all the metadatas are restored, i found this odd....

Thanks for your time Devlin

Suggestions?

franOz

The ! turns up when iPhoto loses the connection between the thumbnail in the iPhoto Window and the file it represents.

Option 1

Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.

If that fails:

Option 2

Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.

Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one. .

Regards

TD

thanks for your help TD but none of this worked

i'm really upset to find out that one day i can run a programme and with no reason have lost hours and hours of editing and tagging and so on....

the new library i created with iphoto library manager is double the size of the original one in GB but then it has something like 10 events instead of the original 80 and it is hard to tell if it imported all the pics in each album. i'd rather start over and do it all from the beginning but how can i know it won't happen again?

this really frustrates me... really...

thank you

franOz

What exactly did you do with iPhoto Library Manager?

i used the 'rebuild library' tool and it recovered 10 events only...:-(

franOz

Did you get any error messages from it?

The protection for any app is a good back up. Time Machine will back up external disks. And there are many, many other back up utilities.

Regards

TD

nop, no error messages so i was crossing my fingers, but it didn't work...

i don't know why tm excludes my external drive from the backup and doesn't allow me to change this.

the thing that freaks me out is why?

if it has happened like this it means it can happen again... so maybe there is a major issue behind it...

also, do you think the eventual backup could have fixed this?

it is not like my photos are gone or deleted by mistake they're there but the iphoto library it's all messed up...

i'm considering taking my macbook air to the apple store asap, it is still in warranty and want to hear from them what the reason can be...

what do you think?

thanks

franOz

The usual reason that a database is damaged is because the app is disturbed when writing to it. So, a crash, force quit, losing connection to the disk can cause the issue. Minor directory damage on the disk, having the library on an inappropriately formatted disk - these kinds of things can cause the issue.

Regards

TD

Terence Devlin wrote:

having the library on an inappropriately formatted disk - these kinds of things can cause the issue.

Regards

TD

inappropriately means... fat32?

don't tell me it's because of that.... that's also why TM wouldn't let me exclude it from the exclusions?

and that's why iphoto it starting crashing often now?

just to be sure i think i'm gonna keep the library on the internal hd and just copy it every now and then so i can have it as a back up copy... i cannot format the external hd now i have too much stuff i don't know where to store it...

thanks

franOz

Oh yes.

iPhoto needs to have the Library sitting on disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Users with the Library sitting on disks otherwise formatted regularly report issues including, but not limited to, importing, saving edits and sharing the photos.

Regards

TD

I think I learned my lesson!

it is my first mac though and maybe I deserved it for being using microsoft for more than 15years..:-)

anyway thanks for all your help and patience! I'm gonna keep the library on my computer for now and spend some time with all the editing.

I have to say that also I have my entire iTunes library on my ext hd but never had any problem with that... is it a matter of time?

franOz

It's perfectly good running a library from a disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) - and you can reformat the disk using Disk Utility. (Of course, reformatting will erase the disk, so make sure you've got all your data off first)

I'm not sure about iTunes. It has no editing capability, no version control and the actual database is quite simple. But I would ask on the iTunes forum for that.

Regards

TD