iPhoto crashes when accessing Preferences

Question

iPhoto crashes when accessing Preferences

I am running iPhoto '08 version 7.1.5 (378) on a MacBook Pro running Lion 10.7.4.

I want to change some settings in Preferences. Every time I try to open Preferences the application crashes (hangs). All I see is the spinning beach ball that never stops spinning and never goes away. The only way to get out of this is to Force Quit iPhoto. When I open Force Quit is see iPhoto (not responding)

I have quit all running programs, and I have restarted the computer. I have plenty of RAM.

How can I fix this?

If I can't fix this, how do I remove and reinstall iPhoto?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Aug 24, 2012 8:36 AM

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,954 points

Aug 24, 2012 8:47 AM in response to Abrasha Staszewski

Odd though it may sound some folks fixed this my opening Image Capture (in your Applications Folder) changing something in the Preferences to that app and then trying again on iPhoto.

Regards

TD

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Answer 2

Aug 24, 2012 10:21 AM in response to Yer_Man

Image Capture does not have Preferences.

I reinstalled iPhoto from the original install disk with the Bundled Software. I now have iPhoto '09, versio 8.1.2 (424).

The same thing happens. iPhoto crashes (hangs) every time I try to open Preferences.

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Answer 3

Brent62

Level 1

4 points

Aug 26, 2012 3:34 PM in response to Abrasha Staszewski

I am having same problem on Mac Pro running Snow Leopard (10.6.8) and iPhoto 09 (8.1.2), I have tried everything listed in a similar post with no luck. See:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3551035?start=0&tstart=0

This post includes deleting iPhoto preference files, re-installing app, etc. I even deleted all the files in the preferences folder and rebooted. Nothing.

If I logged in as another user, iPhoto preferences then worked. There is a clue here but I don't know what.

Ideas?

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Answer 4

Marujita

Level 1

15 points

Sep 8, 2012 9:17 PM in response to Abrasha Staszewski

I had the same problem. I read numerous discussions on this issue today and someone mentioned MobileMe (which has been discontinued). This is what what I did and it worked like a charm.

Go to System Preferences>Internet & Wireless>MobileMe. Once there, sign off from MobileMe. That's it! 🙂 Go back and start iPhoto and go crazy clicking on Preferences. 😉

Don't ask me what one thing has to do with the other as I have absolutely no idea. 😝 Hope this works for you!

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Answer 5

Brent62

Level 1

4 points

Sep 9, 2012 5:44 AM in response to Brent62

I have since updated the operating system to 10.8.1 (Mountian Lion). That also has solved the issue.

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Answer 6

Sep 15, 2012 11:18 PM in response to Marujita

Thanks heaps Marujita, searched all over the internet for a fix and yours worked!

Who knows why MobileMe was connected with the problem but thanks heaps!

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Answer 7

jig uk

Level 1

5 points

Sep 21, 2012 4:25 AM in response to Marujita

cheers Brah... success with your help...

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Answer 8

Mr Tea

Level 1

148 points

Sep 29, 2012 1:25 PM in response to Marujita

Also worked for me, Marujita. Thanks for sharing.

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Answer 9

Oct 3, 2012 10:18 AM in response to Marujita

Worked for me thank you very much. I had tried everything including reinstall. Thanks again.

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Answer 10

slack

Level 1

0 points

Oct 15, 2012 6:28 PM in response to Marujita

Signing out of MobileMe fixed it for me too. iPhoto 8.1.2, OS X 10.7.5, iMac 20" Late 2006

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Answer 11

Oct 20, 2012 6:55 PM in response to slack

Signing out of iCloud didn't fix this for me. But when I turned wifi off and disconnected from the internet it worked!

Sweet!

iphoto 8, os mountain lion, MacBook pro

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Answer 12

erickv17

Level 1

0 points

Oct 21, 2012 3:17 PM in response to Marujita

worked for me! yay!

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Answer 13

iGranny

Level 1

0 points

Jul 29, 2014 4:13 AM in response to ossianhowley

Thanks for this suggestion. It worked perfectly as soon as I turned off the wi-fi iPhoto preferences worked. It makes no sense to me, but it worked.

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Answer 14

Dec 14, 2014 7:16 PM in response to Marujita

Marujita,

I am grateful for your solution to this confounding iPhoto problem on my wife's computer.

She refuses to upgrade, and I was going in circles trying to make some iPhoto preference adjustments, then hit with "the spinning rainbow of death."

It seems to me I've gone down this path before, but I appreciate you reminding me that the solution to all my iPhoto freezes was so…simple.

Best,

PPS

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Answer 15

jtsink

Level 1

0 points

Apr 6, 2015 7:32 PM in response to Marujita

This helped me and I wasn't even signed in to Mobile Me. I just deleted my login information from the Mobile Me login screen in System Preferences, leaving the fields blank, and then closed the panel. Then magically, my iPhoto '09 preferences didn't crash.

Thanks!

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