Iphoto stuck updating thumbnails

I ran into a similar problem when I migrated from an older Mini to a new one. In retrospect, the older iPhoto Library was probably not in perfect condition, but I didn't know it. It worked fine.

Here's what I'm doing to resolve it. It ain't pretty, but it seems to be working. In short, I find the original on my old Mini, then copy it to a new folder (I call it "losts", and it is under my main user folder for simplicity). Lastly, I find the file for new iPhoto on the new folder on the old Mini.

I open a terminal window on the old Mini, then change directories to "losts" (cd losts). Then I use the find command to find the missing file (find .. -name <missing file name>).

Then I use the copy command to copy the missing file to the losts folder. (cp ../<full folder description>/*) The * copies all the files, just in case there are other missing files.

If you're not familiar with unix commands, this can be pretty daunting. But it works.

Most of the missing files turn out to be located somewhere in the old iPhoto Library, I have no idea why they weren't moved over in the migration. Furthermore, Finder won't let me just go directly to the old iPhoto Library, which is why I have to use the command line stuff.

Unfortunately, this is a fairly slow process.

Furthermore, Finder won't let me just go directly to the old iPhoto Library,

Go to your Pictures Folder and find the iPhoto Library there. Right (or Control-) Click on the icon and select 'Show Package Contents'. A finder window will open with the Library exposed.

I followed your steps but nothing worked. I have the same issue. No files but checking file size my library says 34 gb but no files. I have all my files on external hard drive but tried to import and message of no room came up. I am tempted to delete old rebuilt library and all my old libraries and just import my photos from external. I created a new library and imported a few photos from external HD and it's fine. What do you think? I have to confess I threw old rebuilt library into trash and started emptying, but it's taking forever, so I freaked and stopped emptying trash. There's a lot of gb on there but like I said no files.

i am having the same problem - getting an insufficient disk space message in iphoto.

my hard drive was replaced in november once i did a time machine re-install i could not get iphoto to see "outlook" in my email preferences. apple sent me the iphoto 11 upgrade. once i installed that i found out that i had to upgrade to mountain lion for the upgraded applications. i installed mountain lion.

i still cannot get iphoto to let me select outlook as my email - it's there but it's gray & won't let me select it. i already added the email outgoing mpath info. then i got the insufficient space message so apple told me to RE-INSTALL osx. 4 hours later & i am back to the same exact problems.

initially i was able to import photos (the desktop library is empty - my library is stored on an external hard drive)

i imported about 10 photos edited them - deleted them & closed iphoto. i did that about 3 times today. the 4th time i got the insufficient space message again.

i've tried all the "fixes" listed in the forums - trashing the plist file, opening with the option + command & doing those fixes. still getting the message - mind you i'm only trying to import 6 jpegs that are very small files.

& oh yeah, i still can't select outlook as my email! argh.....

any ideas???

(i have about 12 gb free on my computer)

i never had this problem before the upgrade.

thanks!!

my library is stored on an external hard drive)

What format is that drive?

i'm not sure....i only mentioned it to show that there are no photos on my computer - i didn't import anything into the desktop library. (i have always kept my pictures & music externally so they don't eat up my memory). i use the program to do quick retouching/cropping for blog pictures so its usually empty or a maximum of 30-40 pictures on there.

it's been an incredibly annoying experience for the past 2-3 months - 1 fix leads to another problem and here i am back with the original issue (can't get outlook to show in iphoto) plus the new memory issue.

i checked the pics - they were about 64 kb each so definitely not large files. all end with .jpg

The format of the drive is a key question. If that's wrong it would explain most of your issues right off.

no - i'm not using the external drive at all. my main library is stored there but i haven't imported any photographs. this is just on my desktop & computer. (i have 2 other libraries on my desktop & i am using one of those).

Sorry but you're not clear to me...

(the desktop library is empty - my library is stored on an external hard drive)

and

i only mentioned it to show that there are no photos on my computer - i didn't import anything into the desktop library

and

i'm not using the external drive at all. my main library is stored there but i haven't imported any photographs.

and then...

(i have 2 other libraries on my desktop & i am using one of those

So you have no photos on your desktop but you have two libraries there and they are empty?

Perhaps you might explain your workflow in detail, step by step...

I had a feeling I wasn't clear. I will try again. Thanks for your patience and response.

After last update of iPhoto (I think, 9.2.3 Lion), something happened. I remember it was updating thumbnails but I did something which may have caused files to be corrupted (please don't ask, as I can't remember). Now, iPhoto has no pictures. No thumbnail pics and no pics in general. There are captions to each large event as I had originally organized it. But, when I click on a photo, there's that dreaded triangle with an exclamation mark in it. btw, there is no word warning of any kind.

I followed all the steps mentioned in this thread to fix any issues. I even downloaded library manager but that didn't work either (maybe I'm not following process correctly).

I tried importing all the files from the HD but after a while, I get a message that there's no room on iphoto to finish importing. I have three libraries, an original, something else I can't remember and a rebuilt library. It was the rebuilt library I was trying to import. When I open the contents, I see in the info box, 34 GB of space but it says there are 0 files. I look in the files and there are no pictures. Unlike the library I saved into my external HD. I see all my photos there.

So, I decided to create a whole new library. I tried importing all those photos from my external to my desktop but I get the same message of there's no room. So I imported a few at a time and that worked. I have some photos in my new library.

I thought I would throw the old rebuilt library in my HD into trash and I started emptying it thinking that would free up space to put the photos from my external back into the new library. I went to bed but the next morning the trash was still emptying. Then I realized there's still thousands of files on there taking a very long time to empty trash. That's when I stopped emptying trash as I freaked out thinking I might be doing something worse. If it says 0 files, then I don't know where the photos are and why contents shows 34 GB left in rebuilt library. I hope I didn't make matters worse by throwing old rebuilt in trash and then emptying contents.

So hopefully this clarifies my problem. I guess what I'm asking is, can I trash old rebuilt library without hurting anything else. I have the photos on my external if I can trash old rebuilt library to free up space, can I then import the files from external to new library?

I get a message that there's no room on iphoto to finish importing.

I have 113.78 GB but I have the old rebuilt library in trash. I left it in there after my initial thought to dumpt the old library and empty trash to free up space. But, as I said before, I cancelled empty trash when I thought twice about whether that was a wise move or not (to delete old rebuilt library.)

Is your current library working OK and contain all of your photos? If so then there's no reason to keep your old library any more. Trash it to free up that space.

My current library is the new one I recently created. It doesn't have any photos except the few I imported from my backup external HD. I just don't understand why my old rebuilt file has no picture files but show it has over 35GB and when I put it in trash and begin to empty it, it says over 200,000 files to delete.

I just want to know if I delete the old rebuilt library, that will free up necessary space that I can just import from my backup external HD since I tried this before and got a warning that there wasn't enough space in iPhoto to finish importing.

Try the following with your old library:

Starting over from scratch with new library

Start over with a new library and import the Originals (iPhoto 09 and earlier) or the Masters (iPhoto 11) folder from your original library as follows:

1. Open the library package like this.

2. Launch iPhoto with the Option key held down and, when asked, select the option to create a new library.

3. Drag the subfolders of the Originals (iPhoto 09 and earlier) or the Masters (iPhoto 11) folder from the open iPhoto Library package into the open iPhoto window a few at a time.

This will create a new library with the same Events (but not necessarily the same Event names) as the original library but will not keep the metadata, albums, books slideshows and other projects.

Note: your current library will be left untouched for further attempts at a fix if so desired.