restore iphoto library from external drive

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Level 1

8 points

restore iphoto library from external drive

Help - I'm in a panic!

Our iPhoto library is housed on an external drive, and opens automatically from that external drive when we plug a device in or open iPhoto. I plugged in my iPhone today to upload photos, I was prompted to update to a newer version of iPhoto, and upon completing the update my iPhoto library now says that it is corrupted and needs to be backed up. I can't find the library in Time Machine to back it up - it is not detecting my external drive when I go to past backups. Help! How do I restore my library?

iPhoto '11

Posted on Aug 1, 2012 8:04 AM

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,978 points

Aug 1, 2012 8:10 AM in response to LandBDavid

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 Repair Database. If that doesn't help, then try again, this time using Rebuild Database.

If that fails:

Option 2

Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. (In Library Manager it's the FIle -> Rebuild command)

This will create an entirely new library. It will then copy (or try to) your photos and all the associated metadata and versions to this new Library, and arrange it as close as it can to what you had in the damaged Library. It does this based on information it finds in the iPhoto sharing mechanism - but that means that things not shared won't be there, so no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your events, albums and keywords, faces and places 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

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Answer 2

LandBDavid Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 8, 2012 4:55 AM in response to Yer_Man

Thanks for your help. I tried this and when rebuilding my library it got very far but then said the starup disk was full and stopped with about 6 months of photos missing. Now, when I try to go to my external drive and open iPhoto it still says that the library is damaged and needs to be restored from backup, but when I open iphoto from my main screen it opens the version that is missing 6 months of photo. and I'm afraid with two versions my computer has no memory left and is moving slowly, with the startup disk full.

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,978 points

Aug 8, 2012 5:52 AM in response to LandBDavid

Delete the Library on your internal drive (the one missing the 6 months)

Rebuild the Library to the External Drive.

Note:

OS X needs about 10 gigs of hard drive space for normal OS operations - things like virtual memory, temporary files and so on. Without this space your Mac will slow down as the OS hunts for space on the disk, files will be fragmented, also slowing things down, apps will crash and the risk of data corruption - that is damage to your files, photos, music - increases exponentially. Your first priority is to make more space on that HD.

Regards

TD

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Answer 4

LandBDavid Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 9, 2012 9:48 AM in response to Yer_Man

So I've deleted the first rebuild and started rebuilding again, saving to the external hard drive. for the last 12+ hours it says "restoring photo attributes" but does not appear to be moving at all. I am able to open the new iphoto library (rebuilt) from my hard drive and it looks like about 2 years worth of photos are missing. I'm not sure if this is becuase the rebuild is still in progress or what....

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Answer 5

LandBDavid Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 20, 2012 3:25 PM in response to LandBDavid

Ok I'm back. Im still having the proces rreeze whn it is "rebuilding photo attributes". It gets through 230 out of 240 evnts. I think the issue is that there is not enough room on the external drive to rebuild the new library in full, since I'm not erasing the old one until the rebuild is done. Any suggestions?

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