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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

Sep 21, 2012 6:14 PM in response to Old Toad

Thanks...I did try this approach... #3 that is to no effect.


I also restored from a previous iPhoto 9.3.x library that then exhibited the same behavior once 9.4.0 updated it.


So, my conclusion was that 9.4.0 really breaks something in my photo library that was stable under 9.3.x


Isn't rebuilding going to completely wipe out my current events and albums. I remember doing that several years ago on my wife's Mac and, if I recall correctly, it was a realy nightmare. She's never recovered because she would have to reorganize literally thousands of pictures that iPhoto just through into random Events upon rebuild. Better than losing original photos to be sure...but seems like the option of last resort!!


Thoughts?

Sep 21, 2012 6:18 PM in response to rwross1776

Oh...I forgot to ask...


This situation could easily be overlooked if one wasn't paying attention to the Events selected in iTunes or Streamed to TV.


That said, if you've updated, can folks check in their iTunes to see if they are experiencing this behavior.


To recap---two things:

  1. Extraneous Events listed in iTunes, both in the Photos Tab (when iOS device attached) and in the Advanced->Stream Pictures option in iTunes for making pictures available to TV
  2. Mismatched number of pictures seen in the small numbers to the right of a given selected photo event within iTunes Photo Tab and the corresponding Event within iPhoto. For example, iTunes reports Event "Beach" with 30 pictures, but that same event within iPhoto actually has 50 pictures in it.

Sep 22, 2012 5:02 AM in response to rwross1776

I have a similar issue it seems.


When my iOS devices aere connected the events in the iTunes Photo tab are a mix of my current events but also other events that no longer exist. These randmon events are most dated - and are photos that were imported at one time but deleted.


I've tried deleting the iPod cache but these events never leave.


I should also add that another issue related is that no matter how I sort my events in iPhoto they are being added and displayed to my iOS device in chronological order.

Sep 22, 2012 7:12 AM in response to rwross1776

rwross - I'm replying to something you wrote in the other topic about ampersands, because it makes more sense here:



rwross1776 wrote:

Turns out you were right...but I don't know how to fix it.

I found references to the old defunct Events in the albumdata.xml file I also found picture counts that did not match those within iPhoto itself.

I'm thinking this must simply be a bug in 9.4.0 and there's little I can do to fix it because iPhoto rebuilds the XML file everytime in launches or closes.

I even tried deleting the albumdata.xml file completely in hopes that iPhoto would build it anew without the erroneous data...no joy. iPhoto did rebuild the xml file, but it had the same legacy and incorrect entries.

Any thoughts?


1. DON'T DO THAT!!!! The AlbumData.xml file is not meant to be touched by human hands. You'll end up like Augustus Gloop. Deleting it is likely to cause major problems. (or at least make sure you have a good backup first).


2. Yes, this is a bug in iPhoto 9.4 - and in my opinion it really is a major bug, and the best course of action is to do nothing until Apple fixes it. This bug has the potential to have errors that compound on top of errors, so the more you change the worse it will get.


3. That said (because what do I know, and it's just my opinion, not fact) - do you have anything in the iPhoto trash? I'm referring to the trash that's in the iPhoto sidebar, not the Mac trash. The "old references" might be pointing at things that you deleted, but if you never emptied the trash are actually still there. You might want to try right-clicking on the iPhoto trash and emptying it (but I really thing you should only do this in iPhoto 9.3 or wait for 9.4.1)


4. Rebuliding will not (or at least shouldn't) wipe out old events. I just did it yesterday before I read about the ampersand problem, and everything I had before is still there now (although I do not have photographic memory, so can't be 100% certain. It certainly looks about the same). It's also not likely to help if you do it in iPhoto 9.4, because the rebuilt files will have the same "XML entity" problems.


5. Bowties are cool.

Sep 22, 2012 8:30 PM in response to Joseph Delaney

  1. Confused...I thought you were talking in the other thread about editing it in Textwranger. Maybe you were suggesting just to query the file. In any event...deleting it doesn't do any harm (although I did backup just to be sure); iPhoto just recreates it upon launch and updates it again upon exit.
  2. Are you experiencing the same thing on your system?
  3. Nope...Trash was empty.
  4. Can you explain the rebuilding process a bit. Why do you think it will have the same XML issues. Somehow iPhoto is getting that old information from somewhere. Since I don't really understand the rebuild process, I'm not sure how any legacy information is used to recreate the library. The other thought I had was about legacy library information form previous versions of iPhoto. See picture below. I was thinking of deleting these files since they were from previous versions of iPhoto and haven't been modified for years. I'm guessing you wouldn't recommend that. I might wait for the next .dot. release of iPhoto to see if it fixes it, but it certainly is driving me a bit nuts right now.
    User uploaded file
  5. Indeed they are. Don't Blink! Blink and you're Dead!

Sep 23, 2012 7:36 AM in response to Ian Parkinson

If you really need Photo's or Video's on your iPad before Apple Fixes the bug, do it wirelessly.

I tried it yesterday and it works fine.

http://www.photosync-app.com


Install their App on your iPad and download their software for your Mac.

Just turn on the App and then drag your photo's on to the ICON on your Mac.

They transfer with ease Wirelessly.

Sep 23, 2012 8:37 AM in response to rwross1776

1. Yes, I was referring to that conversation - but it was someone else who suggested editing that file (and who figured out the bug). I recommended looking at the file, then using iPhoto to change the music - as a more cautious approach.


2. No, my albums, events, and faces look fine. That just means that I didn't do whatever it is that triggers the bug. I think the symptoms people experience are highly dependent on how you name your photo albums and events, what music you use in slideshows, maybe even the comments you type - anywhere that an &, <, >, quotation mark or apostrophe may appear.


4. I'm not an expert, but I assume the rebuilding process overwrites the old XML file with a new one. iPhoto is currently creating bad XML files, so it doesn't matter how often you do it - if you use the same busted tool each time you'll end up with the same bad results.


And I strongly advise against touching anything in the iPhoto Library package. You may be able to tell if a file hasn't been changed in a while, but that won't necessarily mean that the file isn't important - and things could go completely haywire if you remove it.


5. Have a Jelly Baby.

Sep 24, 2012 1:17 AM in response to rwross1776

My iTunes looks just like that. In iPhoto they are all perfectly fine, sorted nicely into events, with lots of recognised Faces. When I open iTunes to sync to my iPad 3 (iOS6) and iPhone 4S (iOS5) it lists all the events in the wrong order, displays events that don't exist (it names them as dates such as 28 Oct 2002) and duplicates many of my Faces, some as many as 15 times. It is a total mess, and this is how they sync to my two devices. I've rebuilt the iPhoto database and it didn't help.

Sep 24, 2012 3:16 AM in response to dackman

I just noticed something else that may or may not be related. When identifying faces now, iPhoto will say 'x person may be in 18 further pictures' and then show me only half this amount. I click to accept them and it says 'x person may be in 18 further pictures' and shows me the same half again... and again... and again... stuck in a loop. Very strange.

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

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