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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

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149 replies

Nov 2, 2012 7:21 AM in response to lgreenberg98

A small update. Everything looks fine in iTunes as I said, but I noticed now that there are pictures missing in my albums on iPad/iPhone after syncing, and those albums corresponds to those with the "key-photo" and order messed up. Looks like every update solves some problems, but no, it's still not perfect. I've tried using manual sorting instead of by date, and iTunes will then obey the order. But pictures that are missing are still missing. Will write a feedback to Apple after this... hopefully the next update won't take as long as one month.

Nov 4, 2012 5:22 AM in response to BlueLux

BlueLux, just to share my experiences:


After having installed iPhoto 9.4 when it came out I restored back to 9.3.2 via Time Machine because of those ghost events, duplicated faces, etc.

I never tried 9.4.1 (because of feedback here in Apple Discussions) but decided to update to iPhoto 9.4.2 yesterday.


Result:


Everything seemed to look fine, but I noticed the non-matching key photos on iPad and iPhone (but not on Apple TV!) and the sort order problem (on all iOS devices including Apple TV), too.


Later I discovered that there are 46 photos (out of 8461) missing from iTunes.

By comparing all my 86 events one by one I was able to track it down to just 1 event reporting 48 photos in iPhoto but only 2 in iTunes. AlbumData.xml shows 48 photos for this event, which is correct, but iTunes only reports 2...

My iPad and iPhone just show the 2 photos, Apple TV reports 48 photos for this event, but 46 photos are marked with a question mark and only the 2 photos work and can be displayed.

Interesting how different iOS on Apple TV works compared to iPad & iPhone...


My solution (for the missing photos in iTunes):


Because I could track the problem down to just one event, I decided to "repair" this event.


First I marked all 48 photos and created a new event from them (which deleted the original event, because each photo can only be part of one event).

Result: no change in iTunes - still 46 photos missing


Then I duplicated all 48 photos and deleted all 48 duplicates afterwards.

Result: no change in iTunes - still 46 photos missing


Then I duplicated again all 48 photos, but deleted the 48 source photos and renamed the 48 remaining "duplicates" back to their source names.

Result: success! 48 photos visible from iTunes for this event!


Syncing brought all photos back to iPad & iPhone and Apple TV is now able to show all 46 photos previously marked with a question mark.


I have no idea what happened here...

AlbumData.xml was correct, iPhoto itself had no problem but iTunes and iOS devices obviously were unable to get access to the 46 missing photos.

Moving those missing photos around in iPhoto did not solve the problemn, but duplicating them and deleting the sources solved it. Perhaps a library update problem (-> iPhoto 9.4.2 updated the library...)?


The key photo and sort order bugs are still there - this mus be solved by Apple.


Michael

Nov 6, 2012 7:21 AM in response to lgreenberg98

I'd got everything working fine, since I manually rebuilt my entire library. I made the mistake of installing 9.4.2 and guess what - all messed up again. Now my iPad and iPhone are showing the wrong key photos, iTunes and iPhoto cannot agree on the number of photos in an event, and the contents of the events, on my iDevices, are all displaying in the wrong order.


Aboslute shambles. Apple are really depressing me now with this continuous roll out of rubbish.

Nov 6, 2012 12:58 PM in response to dackman

I'm realy getting p*****d off about this.. How difficult is it for Apple to get things working together......


1. Photos in itunes now in the right order

2. Number of photos now correct

3. Photos exported to Apple TV and iPad out of order

4. Key photos a mess


New products comming up and they expect us to upgrade etc, and the software doesnt match up to the hardware..



COME ON APPLE - ENOUGH IS ENOUGH....😠

Nov 7, 2012 2:36 AM in response to Guy - UK

I agree totally, Guy. Why should we fork out for more products if the software doesn't work properly on them?


I rolled back to 9.4.1 and restored my non-updated library with Time Machine (now there's a piece of software that DOES work) and all is working again now. My photos are back in order, in the events. Key photos are still wrong though. Maybe they were before and I didn't notice. That's not too important to me - but my photos MUST be in order.


How hard can it be? It's not even something they needed to fix - it's something they introduced in the new version.


I sent a few bug reports, but the last one contained an angry rant so I'm not sure how seriously they'll take it.

Nov 7, 2012 3:39 AM in response to Guy - UK

Yes, I kept the version of iTunes which updated a week or so ago.


I restored the iPhoto app using Time Machine, and then did the same for the iPhoto Library from in my pictures folder. Then I loaded iPhoto and closed it so that it would update the xml file for iTunes.


iTunes made me add all the photos all over again, but when it had done that they were all in order again.


I guess I will have to do this all over again when 9.4.3 appears.

Nov 7, 2012 5:18 AM in response to Guy - UK

It is really annoying to see passing by 2 updates and the problem weren't finally fixed at all. Before, iTunes showed up only the videos and the newest photos in iPhoto, now some 90+% of the photos are shown. Faces is ok, all the events and no ghost events are shown - ok, but still the key photo issue (which i am experiencing since much longer than 9.4. and still some missing photos... before, Photos took some 39 GB on my iPad, now only 19GB but there seems no logical order which photos are missing... Please, Apple, fix that!!!

Nov 27, 2012 12:32 AM in response to dackman

I have all events in order after updating ITunes and iPhoto but the photos in the events when synced with my iphone and ipad or viewed on apple TV are all out of order.

I have a case number on this with a senior techie and this has been escalated (three weeks ago). In fairness they do keep me posted that there is no change and they haven't got a fix yet..


A real pain

Nov 29, 2012 11:54 AM in response to Moll51

I've the same problem... It's a shame somethin like this happens... To apple, where software and hardware are supposed to work togehter because it's the same ecosystem... But right now it's the opposite - nothing works togehter!


Ghost events in iTunes and the order of photos on all ohter devices than my mac are a mess...


Come on - please fix this guys! It's really annoying at the moment!

Dec 4, 2012 6:10 AM in response to rwross1776

Okay I have the same problem and I was able to correct it. This process may trouble some people, but as an example I have over 31,000 pictures, 342 events, with dates, times, a lot of places (which are very important to me) and faces in my iPhoto. All have been restored without problem, EXCEPT faces, but hey that's easy enought to fix.


- First step back up your computer! That way if it doesn't work (which it will) or you don't like the results you can at least restore the original file.

- Empty your Trash (the one in Finder)

- Open iPhoto and go to Events.

- Select all your events and delete them (yes DELETE them ALL).

- In iPhoto "Empty iPhoto Trash" (again don't stress you aren't deleting them they will be in the Finder Trash after you do this)

- Once this complets close iPhoto

- Open the Trash (there should be a folder called iPhoto; in there are all your pictures).

- Move that folder to the Desktop (the trash should then be empty)

- Go to Users/ Username / Pictures folder in Finder and Delete "iPhoto Library"

- Empty your trash


- Reopen iPhoto, create a new iPhoto Library in the same place as it was before.


- You should have a clean empty iPhoto now.

- Open the folder iPhoto that you copied to the Desktop (you should see all your old Events)

- Copy all those files to iPhoto. (I did it 50 folders at a time, so I could check the progress) Each folder will create an event, just like it was before.


This worked for me. I got back all my Pictures, Events, Places with the correct dates and times AND most importantly NO phantom events. I did lose FACES, and the original Thumbnails, but for me that wasn't as big of a problem.


Good Luck!

Dec 4, 2012 1:12 PM in response to Bermudapilot

Hy Bermudapilot


Thanx for this awesome workaround. Sounds like this could really work!


I've just one question left: What happens with pictures you've edited within iphoto? Which Version do you have in your new iphoto library? The original one? The edited one? Or both (so can restore an edited pic to the original pic)?


Thank you for your help!

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

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