Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Level 1

6 points

Problems with iPhoto library (missing photos)

I've recently spotted a problem with my iPhoto library. Quite a few photos are missing, all of them in some of the albums. Oddly when I select one of the modes where all the photos appear then scroll down through the whole set, those missing photos appear briefly before vanishing again.

I have created new albums and dragged photos into the new album, however a number of photos appear to be duplicated from other albums. The new photos added are missing like they were before.

I have tried to restore an older version (about 4 months old) of the iPhoto library from time machine, but get an error during the restore process.

Does anyone out there have any advice. It seems to me that I should start a new iPhoto library and delete the old one.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 27 inch

Posted on May 6, 2013 3:02 PM

Best reply

Old Toad

Level 10

207,709 points

Posted on May 6, 2013 3:11 PM

Assuming you have iPhoto 9 apply the two fixes below in order as needed:

Fix #1

Launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.

Since only one option can be run at a time start with Option #3, followed by #4 and then #1 as needed.

Fix #2

Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library

1 - download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.

2 - click on the Add Library button, navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.

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

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

5 - 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.

View in context

18 replies

notcloudy

Level 4

1,252 points

Jun 28, 2014 10:46 AM in response to Yer_Man

Like you have not had any lost picture problems with IPHOTO so wondering if it is the camera/way the pictures are imported.

I scanned in old family photos in via Photoshop and fixed them in same software - so the pictures are in PSD files in separate folders. When finished, I imported the entire picture into IPHOTO to take advantage of grouping by name - and splitting photos into separate libraries.

Only oops was that Between versions- IPHOTO had problems with B/W pictures in B/W mode - so I had to convert those pictures to RGB format - but that did allow me to go through the face ID's didn't take that long and turned out to be helpful as I didn't put names on all of the pictures.

As to this just being an IPHOTO problem - relative was using WIndows software on Windows PC that came with her camera - and lost a number of pictures that just started vanishing into thin air.

If I do import from my camera into IPHOTO - I export the pictures that I want to keep into TIFF and then into Photoshop.

There is a limit on IPHOTO number of pictures so hazard a guess there is also one on size.

Aug 2, 2015 11:52 AM in response to Old Toad

I have never loved an Old Toad more than today! Bless you! I had lost 1200 photos at least and your guidance using the Library Manager brought them back! Thank you!!! You must have lots of good karma!😍😍😍

Old Toad

Level 10

207,709 points

Aug 2, 2015 12:51 PM in response to Suzanne Dumont

I'm glad you were able to recover your photos. Best sure to have a backup strategy in place because errors do occur at times and drives crash. Without a good backup plan a crash can leave you without any files.

Problems with iPhoto library (missing photos)