iPhoto gets beachball for 20 seconds everytime I launch it :/ PLEASE HELP!

Like Waterbottle, when ethernet cable is NOT connected to my mac (WiFi is off on my Mac) iPhoto launches quickly (~2secs) and without the spinning beachball and is immediately usuable. But

when the ethernet cable is connected to my mac, the iPhoto window appears within 2secs showing the last Event or Album looked at when it was last opened, and about 5 seconds later the cursor switches from an arrow to the spinning beachball, and about 37 seconds after that (42 secs after launching iPhoto) it changes to the arrow key and iPhoto behaves normally. During the first 5 secs after launch while the cursor is still an arrow clicking on anything in the iPhoto window does nothing. During the time the beach ball is spinning the Activity Monitor displays "iPhoto (Not Responding)" and when the beach ball goes away, it simply lists iPhoto.

It has not always behaved this way, but I didn't notice if this started before or after I upgraded to Mountain Lion (from Snow Leopard).

MacBook Pro 17-inch, Early 2008

Processor 2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

Memory 6GB

MacOS 10.8.2 (12C60)

240GB Solid State SATA Drive 95.73GB free out of 239.2GB <- from OWC

iPhoto version 7.1.5 (378)

There are only 879 photos and 8 Events in the iphoto library. All the photos are .jpg files.

I have spent a few hours reading thru similar reports here and elsewhere online and tried the following:

• deleting iPhoto cache files

• deleting iPhoto .plist files

• creating a new blank iPhoto library, it behaves the same as my usual iPhoto library

• Rebuilding (Command+Option launch) iPhoto : small thumbnails, all thumbnails, iPhoto Library database, recovering and removing ophaned photos, examine and repair iPhoto file permissions.

• iPhoto Preferences>Sharing "Look for shared photos" and "Share my photos" are unchecked

• MobileMe "Check for new photos": is set to Manually and was never set up nor used in the past

• iPhoto is not subscribed to any photo feeds

While doing all the above our Apple TV, iPad, and our iPhones were all off or asleep. I am not using any iCloud services with the computer or any of our devices.

Because other iPhoto libraries including a new blank one behave the same way, I do not believe it can be a problem with the libraries. Because it launches and works without delay when the ethernet cable is not connected (and WiFi is off) and only delays with the beachball when the ethernet cable is connected, I suspect that iPhoto is looking for something on the Network <- what or why that might be I do not know...

Suggestions / solutions appreciated!

I have iPhoto Preferences>General "Check for iPhoto updates automatically" unchecked.

I updated from Snow Leopard directly to Mountain Lion skipping Lion; but that isn't likely the problem since others have reported similar if not identical problems with earlier versions of OSX and later versions of iPhoto, e.g.:

spinning beachball suddenly every time...: Apple Support Communities<- iPhoto 9.1.1 under Snow Leopard 10.6.7

iPhoto 7.1.5 spinning wheel issue: Apple Support Communities <- iPhoto 7.1.5 under Snow Leopard 10.6.7

2 min. spinning beach ball during...: Apple Support Communities <- iPhoto 8 and 9 OS 10.5, but turning off sharing fixed this one

I was having this problem too with iPhoto 7.1.5 in OS 10.8.3. I just gave up and upgraded to iPhoto 9.4.3 and the wait at startup is gone.

iPhoto 9 has a few things that are annoying and make it a poorer workflow than iPhoto 7, but it also seems faster, more responsive, and it happens to get better color from my Panasonic GH2 RAW photos. I just miss the simple way iPhoto 7 dealt with fullscreen editing.

Yesterday iPhoto delay was present, but oddly after installing the following three updates today:

• OSX 10.8.3 - from 10.8.2

• Airport Utility 6.2 - I use a hardwired ethernet connection and have WiFi turned off

• Java for OS X 2013-003

the problem went away and iPhoto 7.1.5 (378) starts up instantly again... See my Jan 5, 2013 post above for more about the Mac and software I use and which fixes I tried back then.

Well that was short lived. After opening a few times without problem, when I opened it with the iPad connected it hangs with the beachball again. After disconnecting the iPad still hangs upon opening. Why it worked a few times earlier today is a reall mystery...

Try backing up the iPad and then do a complete reset and restore. See if that will clear the air.

Hi there,

I too had that problem with spinning wheel / beachball ie. after deleting pictures, emptying the paper basket etc. Each operation took 10-15 seconds. And generally bad performance...

Thought it was due to a database with over 37k pictures, a bad sector on the HDD or something else....

But not anymore 🙂

I saw someone writing about "no problem when no connection to internet" - and thought the problem could have something to do with connections to the internet AND gps coordinate lookups. Which can slow down any application and/or machine.

So open Settings in iPhoto

> Go to Advanced

> Change "Look up places" to 'Never' from 'Automatically'.

> Close iPhoto (important!).

That worked for me. Now I can delete a photo and immediately go to the next thing 🙂

I even tried to change it back to Automatically. Still good performance!

Hope it will stand the long run ....

Maybe there are other settings which slows the app, ie. connections to iCloud, Facebook, Flickr.

Good luck

Frank