Unable to merge events in iPhoto

Would you please explain how these two basic troubleshooting steps differ when there are multiple iPhoto libraries? Also, what if you throw iPhoto Library Manager into the mix? Would these steps change or would there be an additional file that should be deleted as part of the basic troubleshooting steps? It is my understanding that iPLM places its own plist and or cache files into the iPhoto Library's package file. So would those also need to be deleted? If so, could you please specify which ones exactly?

Thanks in advance.

Before I try to answer that what problem are you experiencing? With just one of your libraries or all of them? What iPhoto and system version are you using?

Well, it's a long story, so I was trying to spare you! LOL!

There are several libraries, each with about 9-10,000 photos and probably 80-90% of them are the same in each library with the remaining photos being unique to each library.

I'm running OS X 10.8.3 and iPhoto 9.4.3 on both an iMac and MBP, as below:

iPhoto Library Manager version 3.8.6 and version 4.0.6.

iMac 27" Late 2009

2.8 GHz Core i7

16 GB RAM

ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB

MBP 17" Mid 2010

2.66 GHz Core i7

8 GB RAM

NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 512 MB

So the problem arose from trying to keep two iPhoto libraries in sync on the two computers in a typical travelers scenario. Eventually, I upload or download pics into the wrong library. In the past, I have used iPhoto Library Manager to rectify this. However, this time I ran in to issues with both versions of iPLM.

I always try a couple of test runs with iPLM, to make sure I have it set correctly. I started with attempting to duplicate a current library via iPLM's Merge into a new, clean, library function. The duplicate detection choices were turned off, as I wanted to duplicate the library, thus testing my settings and the software. However, I did not end up with the same number of photos or events that I started with. I verified the settings and tried different settings and get the same wrong result. I have the same problem using iPLMs rebuild function. Also, I am in communication with the developer and he is addressing from his end, but the back and forth is sometimes slow. I realize he is just one guy and applaud him for his responsiveness. No beef with him at all. I just saw your basic troubleshooting steps and I had not tried those, yet. So that is the background.

Basically, all my libraries are very simple. Everything is organized only by Events. I don't think I have added any keywords and there are no slideshows, photobooks, or greeting cards. What I want to accomplish is to merge the libraries and retain original pic and its descriptive data as it was when I first took the pic. I have never done any serious editing. However, about 2,000 of these pics are modified, as determined by using iPLMs Extract function. I would like to keep any organization into Events that I have done, if possible.

Is there another way to do this just with iPhoto, while iPLM is getting the kinks worked out and especially since I do not have keywords, albums, etc. I would even be willing to buy Aperture, if that would help. I have read that Aperture can be used to merge iPhoto libraries, but am not at all clear on the details. Also, from reading the version history of iPLM's version 4, there have been some pretty serious issues since its release. I don't want to count on something that isn't working only to realize months later that my pics are missing their original date or GPS data or something that might not be obvious at first and with thousands of photos.

Sory this was so long, but now you know the rest of the story and hopefully, can give me some good advice.

Many thanks.

Oops!--I almost forgot! Yes, I have rebooted. Nothing changed. BTW, the number of pics and events discrepancy varies from one rebuild to the next, with the same settings. The developer seems to have provided a fix for that, but I am curious about being able to do this without iPLM, for now, until I'm certain that all of the bugs have been resolved. As I mentioned, kudos to the developer. I'm just wanting an alternative in the meantime.

Message was edited by: jamesfromoakland park

I started with attempting to duplicate a current library via iPLM's Merge into a new, clean, library function. The duplicate detection choices were turned off, as I wanted to duplicate the library,

If you want to duplicate a library just use the Finder to duplicate it.

Deleting the preference file and caches just resets iPhoto back to "factory" settings. Sometimes the pref file will get corrupted and that can affect performance in ways I never imagined. So deleting that file is Troubleshooting 101. The cache files hold previously executed functions and clearing also resets to factory settings. Again a part of 101.

In the future if you want to sync two libraries try using Sync iPhoto libraries | SyncPhotos (formerly iPhotoSync) | Haystack Software. What is does is compare library A with library B and imports those photos in A that are not in B into B and, conversely, those in B that are not in A into A. There are not edited versions, keywords or other user added metadata imported along with the photos,

Otherwise, keeping two libraries in sync is a manual effort.

Thanks for the quick response and for the app suggestion. Although, currently I do not have much metadata to worry about, in the future I might, which is why I have tried iPLM. I'll check out your suggestion. Thanks.

The reason I was trying to duplicate a library, wasn't to duplicate a library. I understand that can be done in Finder. However, the reason was to test my setup in iPLM and make sure I had it right and no problems. So as a test, I tried to duplicate the library by both the rebuild command and by the merge command. In both cases, into a newly created, clean library. I should have ended up with the same number of pics and events, a duplicate library, but I did not.

That is why I wondered if deleting the plist and cache files might help. Maybe the problem is in my libraries and not with iPLM. I was never able to use these methods to duplicate any of several different libraries and reproduce what I started with, nor repeat the same results in multiple runs, the numbers were always different. I surely don't want to proceed with using merging and deduplicating options unless I can produce expected and repeatable results. Then I noticed that iPLM places some of its own plist and maybe other files in the iPhoto package file and wondered if those, too, should be deleted. If so, could you please specify exactly which are the iPLM files within the iPhoto package that I should delete, in addition to the ones you have specified previously?

Finally, I am looking for a lossless way to merge iPhoto libraries and wondered if Aperture would provide this?

Thanks again for your help.

I'm not an Aperture uses but understand that it can merge libraries. iPLM can also merge libraries and those are lossless since there's no editing involved, only copying.

OK, thanks. Would you please advise on the rest of my question about which plist and cache files to delete that are placed into the iPhoto library package file by iPLM? In the aforementioned context of iPLM not accurately recreating my iPhoto library and my wanting to make certain that the problem is not on my end.

Thanks.

You don't need to remove them but if you want remove these:

com.fatcatsoftware.iplm.checksums.db

com.apple.iPhoto.plist

Cache folder contents

Thanks OT, I'll give these things a try.