What is going on with iPhoto? Is it my retina? Is it the Photostream?

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Level 1

9 points

What is going on with iPhoto? Is it my retina? Is it the Photostream?

I have never had this type of problem almost daily with my iPhoto (since its birth) and have no idea what's going on.

Essentially after importing and organizing for about 45 minutes images/movies (from iPhone 5 OR SLR)—iPhoto quits out. THEN, when I reopen—I am left with all these gray events with "0" photos—yet the photos seem to be in the "Imported in the last 12 mos". That said, they do NOT show up in the event—and they can't be made into an album. In fact when you control click to see the event—iPhoto quits out again.

Beyond SERIOUSLY annoying and a HUGE TIME SUCK—it is quite problematic when I've deleted from the resource but not yet backed up with Time Machine. And of course the TWO times I do this I've lost images/movies. 😠

As an aside—I've found if you pull down the "Imported in the last 12 mos" images (that are now corrupt in events and albums to the desk top (NOT empty folder)—you can reimport (if you agree to import duplicates). And quit out of iPhoto several times to "save" your progress if you are dealing with hundreds of images—or you'll be starting over again. Because I can download them (the "Imported in the last 12 mos" imagery to my desktop, leads me to believe the corrupt event or photos (or both?) are somewhere but I can't for the life find them. Oh—and you have to merge all the corrupt (gray icon) events to one so that you don't see these all over the place (because you can't delete these odd corrupt events w/ "0" photos—and when you attempt to do anything in them iPhoto will quit out).

So, considering I have a new Retina Laptop—and Photostream is a new feature I have to think it is one or the other or both. And wonder if it's one of the many reasons why the stock has dropped? Hmm....If it's the Retina that's sad because I upgraded to spend LESS time organizing family photos—not more. Makes me (and my fam) seriously annoyed by this insane time suck—not to mention very expensive upgrade to Retina just a few weeks ago that doesn't seem to be panning out in a positive light.

Any insight on the issue—how to avoid, better work arounds, etc...greatly appreciated!

MacBook Pro with Retina display, iOS 6.0.2

Posted on Jan 26, 2013 8:39 PM

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Answer 1

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Jan 26, 2013 11:35 PM in response to sukibean

Sorry - I have no idea what your problem is - a concise description with no editorial comments and no crazy formatting would help

you can try rebuilding - tha might address what I think might be some of your issues - Back up your iPhoto library, Depress and hold the option (alt) and command keys and launch iPhoto - rebuild your iPhoto library

LN

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Answer 2

sukibean Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 27, 2013 11:00 AM in response to LarryHN

iPhoto Quits-Out/Crashes when....

Scenario (1)

After importing and during organizing (anywhere from 10 -45 minutes) images/movies from iPhone 5 OR SLR

Scenario (2)

Manipulating existing events (splitting events, organizing into albums, batch naming, editing images in anyway) after about 5-10 min

Frequency

Both scenarios seemed to happen every couple of days at first

- I've had my new retina since 12/25

Now they are happening every time I sit down to do anything with iPhoto

- Example: Last night I spent 3 hours, today thus far 2

When iPhoto is opened after this crash....

Events appear "corrupt"

Grayed-out icons replace the former event key photo—and the number reflects "0" (see example image below)
These photos are also no longer in any albums that they may have just been organized in (see example image below)
This happens for either scenario above

When attempting to find what seems to be lost photos....

They are not in the trash
They are not in events
They are not in albums
They ARE in photos "Imported in the last 12 mos"

- BUT when you control click to see the (originating) event—iPhoto quits/crashes out again

Work arounds attempted

1. Rebuilding the library (you think I wouldn't have tried this?)

2. A very convoluted work around/process I discovered

Download (pull down) images from "Imported in the last 12 mos" to the desktop in small batches (large batches result in nothing being downloaded)
Quit iPhoto (to save work)
Drag/drop these images into several new small albums
Check the "import duplicates" in the modal. If you do not do this, nothing appears in events.
Quit iPhoto (to save work)
Attempt to reorganize events, albums, batch naming, etc...
Quit iPhoto (to save work) SEVERAL times during this if working with several hundred images—or will need to start all over
Merge all "corrput" (aka grayed out events) into one so scanability of what is viable is relatively normal

Questions

1. Are the iPhoto crashed due to my new retina (I thought crashing was suppose to be an upside)?

2. Is the new Photostream feature in iPhoto causing crashing?

3. What else can I do, this is constantly happening (and quite frankly my old 17" snowleopard while slow never incurred this issues)?

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

207,439 points

Jan 27, 2013 12:21 PM in response to sukibean

Much better description.

Have you applied all the updaters that are available for the Retina machine?

Try this:

1 - launch iPhoto with the Option key held down and create a new, test library. Import some photos and check to see if the same problem persists.

2 - log into another user account on your Mac and test iPhoto there.

3 - have you tried rebuilding the library with iPhoto LIbrary Manager? If not give it a try:

Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library

Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.

Click on the Add Library button,

navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.

Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the Library ➙ Rebuild Library menu option

In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.

Click on the Create button.

Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments. However, books, calendars, cards and slideshows will be lost. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.

Report back with the results.

OT

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Answer 4

sukibean Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 27, 2013 12:59 PM in response to Old Toad

Thanks @Old Toad will report back w/ results.

Side: Love the iPLM view of several libraries—but do you know if you can have this view if libraries are stored between a laptop (1 library) and NAS drive (2 & 3 libraries)?

Thanks again—

Susan

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Answer 5

Old Toad

Level 10

207,439 points

Jan 27, 2013 1:06 PM in response to sukibean

No I don't, give it a try.

Do you operate any of the libraries from the NAS? The libraries could be damaged since the NAS probably isn't formatted OS X Extended (journaled) which is essential for reliable read and write to the database files in the library.

Users have used libraries on NAS servers but eventually run into corruped database files. It's not recommended to run off such a drive.

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Answer 6

sukibean Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 27, 2013 2:45 PM in response to Old Toad

@Old Toad—the library that has the issues is the main library on the laptop.

I haven't yet created the other two libraries—I wanted to break down the larger on on the laptop (49+K photos/video taking up 150 gigs) and put the others on the NAS...just haven't got that far yet
I'm aware of the OS X Extended (journaled) issue (so unfortunate), but with a (small) 500 gig drive, a wireless NAS server space was necessary. Just couldn't tac on another $500 to get the solid state 750gig (as a new laptop, new backup server, ipad mini and apple TV at 4.5K) was already a quite costly update for the family finances to swallow.

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