iphoto upgrade hangs

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

Did you interrupt the first attempt to upgrade? My wife did when it seemed to have hung, but at that stage, iPhoto was announcing that it had completed 100% of Stage 9 of 9; i.e. it should be finished.

In fact, that seems to be where the countdown starts. It 's a totally misleading progress indicator. It's more of the garbage I am coming to expect from Apple where OS X is concerned.

You are warned at the start that on big libraries the upgrade might take an hour or more, but that's no excuse for a totally misleading progess indicator.

On a subsequent attempt, the upgrade hung in stage 5 or 9, which is what you are reporting.

My wife had a backup of the library as it was before the first upgrade attempt. I closed iPhoto, restored the copy to desktop, then renamed the original library to "Old iPhoto Library", moved it to the desktop,and moved the restored library back into Pictures. Then I started iPhoto, and kicked off the upgrade again.

Just make sure you have enough disk space to restore your older library before you start. If not, make sure you have ot backed up, then delete the current one and restore the older one.

That upgrade attempt is currently runnin, and has been for about 1:20. I'll let you know whether it finishes OK.

Still running, and going nowhere. CPU time so far, according to 'ps -ef', 602 minutes. This thing is borked. Another triumph for the Apple OS X guys.

See above.

Yes it did. I initially tried the permissions repair, but, while my back was turned, that dropped me back into the endless upgrade. So then I tried the rebuild (with its admonitions to only do this when all else had failed) and it worked, and worked quickly.

Unfortunately, the procedure is not obvious. There is no reference to it, that I could see, in the iPhoto menus, even if you could access them when this situation occurs. Neither could I see it in the help. Without advice like this, accessible through Google, what does one do. Ring Applecare, if you're still covered?

Many thanks.

I woke up to this problem, yesterday, having not used iphoto for a moment.
So. I followed instructions, found above, and now while it seems all of my pictures are there, the events are screwy, full of strange names events with one photo of nothing...
I'm really not happy.

I'm giving a try at the penultimate option ,rebuilding the database, hoping this will help.I will keep ypou appraised.

I'm having the same problem. Hangs at Step 5 of 9 @ 99% complete. Not really excited about doing a rebuild. However, seems like no alternative. Wanted to log this so Apple knows this isn't a one-off issue.

I had to do a rebuild. What a mess and time killer.

Thanks for the notes - unfortunately no one has confirmed a positive result to the rebuild?

Was it successful?

In my case, yes.

Zevonn wrote:

Thanks for the notes - unfortunately no one has confirmed a positive result to the rebuild?

Was it successful?

Actually almost all people have confirmed that this step resolves the issues they had with their iPhoto library -- look at all of the "solved" checks on this

LN

I think so. I had a bunch of "thumbnail" not found errors and had to search for the file. It was all a big pain in the neck but I think I still have all my photos. Also, ended up with a bunch of duplicates...but this might have been my doing when I was trying to load in my photos again.