Beach ball when opening iphoto

Question

Beach ball when opening iphoto

The other night I made an album in iPhoto for a Christmas gift, when I opened iPhoto the next day all I get is the spinning beach ball. This means I can't burn the album to a flash drive as planned, nor can I do anything else in iPhoto. I've had to force close it several times. I shut my computer down every night, so I thought that maybe it just needed to be rebooted, but when I logged on tonight the same problem. The only other thing I know I did was I tried downloading a photo from Facebook into iPhoto, but it said it wasn't compatible so I just downloaded the photo to my downloads folder which I have done before without a problem--- and since then I have rebooted the computer. Any other suggestions? I'm going to see if going back a few days in Time Machine will help. I really would like to know what caused this problem so I do not do it again... there was no recent update for iPhoto so it's not a glitch. I've had no problems uploading pictures from my camera. It just happened at some point after I created an album (which I have done in the past with no problems). You would think that shuting down the computer and restarting it a day or two later would have fixed any glitches/ brain farts.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.7), Mail

Posted on Dec 14, 2012 11:18 PM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

194,871 points

Dec 14, 2012 11:34 PM in response to kathyfromliverpool

kathy,

what is your iPhoto version? Can it be that your hard disk is too full? How much free disk space do yiu have?

If you have plenty of free disk space, try if booting in safe boot mode (see: Mac OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?) will clear some settings and get iPhoto to work properly. If not, try the first aid tools:

Try to repair or rebuild the library. Check, if your backup of your iphoto library is current, before you rebuild; if not, make first a backup (don't overwrite your current backup, make a new copy).

Then launch the library first aid panel by firmly pressing and holding the ⌥⌘-keys, while double clicking the iPhoto icon . Hold the keys down, until you see the panel. Then select "Rebuild database" from the panel.

Regards

Léonie

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Answer 2

Dec 15, 2012 5:11 AM in response to léonie

Thanks for the suggestions, am in Safe Mode and still got the spinning beach ball. I have 378.4 GB free on my hard drive so there is plenty of space. I have 12GB RAM as well. I am running a 3.06 Intel Core i3 with Mountain Lion. iPhoto is version 9.4.2 which should be up to date.

How would I repair/ rebuild the library? I've only had my iMac for just over a year and am still not familiar with everything we can do. If I haven't had to do it, I haven't tried it. 🙂

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

194,871 points

Dec 15, 2012 7:13 AM in response to kathyfromliverpool

kathy,

How would I repair/ rebuild the library?

as I said: 🙂

launch the library first aid panel by firmly pressing and holding the ⌥⌘-keys, while double clicking the iPhoto icon . Hold the keys down, until you see the panel. Then select "Rebuild database" from the panel.

This support article explains the procedure in more detail:

iPhoto 6 and later: Rebuilding the iPhoto library

Just in case, this still does not solve the problem, try the "Option 2" in Terence Devlin's post here:

(Re: iphoto help) and rebuild using iPhoto Library Manager.

Regards

Léonie

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Answer 4

Dec 15, 2012 7:49 PM in response to léonie

I ended up using the iPhoto Library Manager and the spinning beach ball is gone. It is allowing me to export the album I made as a Christmas present to my flash drive. 🙂 I am glad the problem is fixed, just wish I knew what caused it since I'd like to avoid the problem in the future. Thank you for all your help. I am still learning how to use my iMac since it is my first Apple product.

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