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iTunes sync issues with iPhoto 9.4 (extra empty photo events and missing photos)

I post this once above but it got swarmed with the larger xml related issue that prevented syncing at all. Not complaining, just wanted to revisit this other issue now that folks are mostly able to get their syncing started. I'm pretty sure this, too, is an xml related issue. To that end, can anyone point to where iTunes is getting it's list of iPhoto Events and Albums? **


I believe we are all experiencing variants of the same issue.


Here is mine and I'd ask if others are seeing this specific issue as well.


With an iOS device attached, and looking at the photos tab, I see a number of Events with questionable names that seem to be old data from somewhere. They look like the name of test events I may have made and delted over the years. Regardless...they are are empty.


I then checked the Advanced tab within iTunes and used the share photos option I use to stream photos to my TV and the same empty Events are there too.


These first two are annoying...and now comes the really troubling part.


For the Events that are not blank and look like the ones in my iPhoto library, many of these events are not reporting the same number of photos as does iPhoto. For example, an event named "Beach" in iphoto consists of 100 photos, but that same event when selected within iTunes only has 85 photos in it. When iTunes sync'ed the first time it reported XXX items could not be sync'ed check iTunes. That error message has not yet reoccurred but I can confirm that only the 85 photos sync'ed not the 100 that are present on my iPhoto 9.4 library.


If I drag the entire contents of that same 100 photo event to the desktop and then drag it back into iPhoto, iTunes will then recognize it as containing the full 100 photos. But...of course you lose all tags, face data, etc.


I'm not yet prepared to do this major surgery, but does anyone have other ideas?


One additional thing I noted...remember that there were always more pictures in the iPhoto Event than in the iTunes list for that Event. Well, I noted that all the images that were missing from iTunes and thus my iOS device, pretty much sucked. Why is that important? It seems like they might have been pictures I previously deleted but that iPhoto still has in the Event even though iTunes doesn't "see" them.


Conversely, it seems like iTunes is seeing old Events that I had long since deleted from previous incarnations of iPhoto.


Anyway...if you have a moment check out your iTunes list of Events and Albums to see if 1) there are extraneous Events listed there and 2) if the number of pictures in those events matches the same number reported by iPhoto.


thanks!!

iMac (27-inch Late 2009), OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Sep 21, 2012 4:18 PM

Reply
149 replies

Sep 24, 2012 6:36 AM in response to Ian Parkinson

Rebuilt my iPhoto database using "option" & "command" on iPhoto launch and then quit the application.


Opened the AlbumData.xml file using TextEdit and located where I had a "& ". Took note of the Slideshow where the iTunes sound (with the "& ") was attached and then closed TextEdit.


Opened iPhoto one more time and changed that (or thoses) Slideshow(s) to a different song with a "& " not in its name.


Opened iTunes and and turned Sync Photos back on for my iPhone and iPad. (I had turned it off because of the syncing error.)


With iTunes still open, I synced both my devices and everything worked perfectedly.

Sep 24, 2012 7:48 PM in response to rwross1776

I have this problem also. My iPhoto library is about 12,000 photos, and of those, about 1,700 show up in iTunes as syncable. Same other symptoms - crazy events in what seems to be chronological order, and in the albums, many are missing pictures.


The one thing I noticed is that in iPhoto, in a particular album, I have 16 photos. They show up fine in iPhoto, and I can rename, resort, etc. and it all works fine, saves fine, etc. In iTunes, it says there are 0 photos in that album, and iPhoto Library Manager reports the same info as does iTunes.


However, if I then open up the AlbumData.xml file and try to find that particular album in the XML, or any of the photos in it (via their renamed name or their original names), nothing shows up. For other albums that do have photos where the count is wrong, the XML shows the incorrect count for the PhotoCount key.


My guess is that iPhoto is bombing out writing/rewriting/modifying AlbumData.xml and is missing large portions of people's photo databases due to this. I don't have any guesses as to what causes it though, so I guess it's time to just sit back and wait.

Sep 24, 2012 7:49 PM in response to rwross1776

The advice to wait for Apple to fix this is spot on! I spent several hours on the phone today getting bounced around various Apple support groups. My takeaway is that you should WAIT until Apple publishes an update to iPhoto. The problem is that release 9.4 of iPhoto'11 screwed up the database when it was installed and updated it. If you cannot wait, then you CAN create a new Library and copy all of your photos into it, but you'll have to reorganize any albums, etc.

Sep 25, 2012 3:02 AM in response to highpti

I have just noticed a further 'symptom' of the bug and that is that many of the events on my iDevices now contain significantly less photos than the same events in iPhoto.


Apple really need to sort this out. I've sent them feedback several times, I hope everyone else has too. I've also sent them the link to this thread - just in case that helps.


I'm just glad that my photos still exist in iPhoto. I've made several backups as I simply don't trust the app any more.

Sep 26, 2012 4:20 AM in response to dackman

It is definitely the AlbumData.xml file being incorrectly written by iPhoto and read into iTunes. Here's is a snippet showing my son Conor's name three times - and he is one of the Faces that is duplicated.


<key>15762</key>

<dict>

<key>key</key>

<string>15762</string>

<key>name</key>

<string>Conor</string>

<key>key image</key>

<string>(null)</string>

<key>PhotoCount</key>

<string>1</string>

<key>Order</key>

<integer>12</integer>

</dict>

<key>15761</key>

<dict>

<key>key</key>

<string>15761</string>

<key>name</key>

<string>Conor</string>

<key>key image</key>

<string>(null)</string>

<key>PhotoCount</key>

<string>1</string>

<key>Order</key>

<integer>13</integer>

</dict>

<key>15760</key>

<dict>

<key>key</key>

<string>15760</string>

<key>name</key>

<string>Conor</string>

<key>key image</key>

<string>(null)</string>

<key>PhotoCount</key>

<string>1</string>

<key>Order</key>

<integer>14</integer>

</dict>

iTunes sync issues with iPhoto 9.4 (extra empty photo events and missing photos)

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