iPhoto '09 Restore Unsorted, Blurry Photos - Help!

Question

Level 1

0 points

iPhoto '09 Restore Unsorted, Blurry Photos - Help!

Macbook Pro 10.6.8

Western Digital Harddrive

iPhoto '09

My hard drive was recently wiped clean at the genius bar after it failed. I back up my computer using Time Machine on an external harddrive automatically. I restored my harddrive with no problem, but realized none of my photos were restored. After looking at other threads, I used time machine to manually restore my old iPhoto to the blank one. That didn't work.

I have three main problems:

None of the photos are sorted properly. Some of the original albums exist, but some don't.
The albums are full of tiny "Faces" thumbnails, which are a pain to go through and delete.
When I click to enlarge the photos, they are blurry

I am desperate to fix this. I know there must be a way- there has to be, because I cannot come to grips with losing all of my photos. Something troubling- my iPhoto library size is 2.67 GB, even though there are thousands of pictures in the library. I can't imagine that time machine would only back up the thumbnails. I hope someone can help me out. I'm pretty heartbroken right now.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on May 12, 2013 1:11 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,260 points

May 12, 2013 1:38 PM in response to Slylikeafox

It sounds very like you have imported the back up to an iPhoto Library and not restored it correctly.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4927?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US has details on how to restore an iPhoto Library from Time Machine.

Regards

TD

Reply

Answer 2

Slylikeafox Author

Level 1

0 points

May 12, 2013 2:03 PM in response to Yer_Man

Hi TD,

This is the tutorial I used to restore my iPhoto. When I click restore from the iPhoto in Time Machine, it prompts me to choose a folder to restore to. I created a folder entitled "NEW iPhoto" and restored it to that folder. It copies the iPhoto library to this folder, and when I open it, the problems I mentioned above occur. I've never restored iPhoto before, but when I open the restored library in iPhoto, it imports all the photos automatically.

I have iPhoto '09, so I'm not sure if it's different.

Thanks,

Laura

Reply

Answer 3

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

May 12, 2013 2:52 PM in response to Slylikeafox

You do not import an iPhoto library into another iPhoto library - since you have the restored iPhoto library in a different location thatn the previous iPhoto library you depress the option ke and launch iPhoto and use the select library option to select it - it should be complete and exactly waht you had when you created it via the bakcup program

LN

Reply

Answer 4

Slylikeafox Author

Level 1

0 points

May 12, 2013 5:46 PM in response to LarryHN

Hi Larry,

I tried opening iPhoto while holding down the option key and selecting the iPhoto library that I restored from time machine, but no photos show up at all when I do that.

Any other ideas?

Laura

Reply

Answer 5

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

May 12, 2013 6:59 PM in response to Slylikeafox

Not without help form you - what does happen?

One possible solution is Back up your iPhoto library, Depress and hold the option (alt) and command keys and launch iPhoto - rebuild your iPhoto library database

LN

Reply

Answer 6

Slylikeafox Author

Level 1

0 points

May 12, 2013 7:09 PM in response to LarryHN

Hi Larry,

As I said, nothing really happens. iPhoto launches, but there are no events or pictures. It's all blank. It does not prompt me to do anything else. Previously when I imported my original iPhoto file into the blank iPhoto, it imported all the pictures but they were blurry when enlarged. That is the main problem. I can deal with manually deleting the annoying "faces" thumbnails and redoing the events, but I am most worried about being unable to recover my photos.

Because the harddrive was wiped clean, my iPhoto library is blank right now. I don't have anything to backup or rebuild. The only "complete" iPhoto library exists on my external harddrive as saved by a time machine backup.

Reply

Answer 7

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

May 12, 2013 7:21 PM in response to Slylikeafox

You said you restored an iPhoto library to "New iPhoto" - that is the library to test and to try to rebuild (since it is on TM too another backup is not necessary)

LN

Reply

Answer 8

Slylikeafox Author

Level 1

0 points

May 12, 2013 7:33 PM in response to LarryHN

Okay, I see now.

I tried rebuilding with the test library, but the same thing happened as before. Still no photos showing up at all. It didn't seem to do anything (no progress bar, no indication it was trying to rebuild anything). At least before I could see the photos, they were just blurry when enlarged. Now there is nothing.

Reply

Answer 9

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

May 12, 2013 9:50 PM in response to Slylikeafox

What is the "test library" - we were trying to deal with the library you restored as "New iPhoto" according to your posts

And you say the same thing happens as happened before (that was blurry photos) and then you say that you have nothing at all

Sorry but remember we can not see your computer and totally depend on you providing accurate and concise information

At this stage I have no idea what you have, what you are seeing or what you have done

LN

Reply

Answer 10

Slylikeafox Author

Level 1

0 points

May 12, 2013 10:07 PM in response to LarryHN

Yes- the "test library" = the restored library from my time machine backup that I put into "New iPhoto" folder.

So far I have tried three things:

Before coming to this thread, I restored the time machine library to a new folder on my hard drive, then located that iPhoto library in my finder and double clicked it to open. That opened iPhoto and imported photos in. The photos were blurry when enlarged. "Faces" thumbnails were interspersed with my event photos.
In response to your first comment, I deleted the existing (blurry photos) iPhoto library and restored from my time machine library, again putting it in a "New iPhoto" folder. I then did as you suggested and opened iPhoto while pressing the option (alt) key. This prompted me to choose an iPhoto library. I selected the restored library and iPhoto opened, but no photos were imported. It was all blank. This time, there were not even blurry photos.
I then attempted to "rebuild" my iPhoto library by holding down option and command keys while opening the library. This prompted me to check a variety of rebuilding options. I selected all options available. Immediately after clicking "rebuild", my iPhoto was opened, again, with zero pictures (the same as in scenario 2).

Reply

Answer 11

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

May 13, 2013 6:24 AM in response to Slylikeafox

What is the size of the restored library (and about how many photos should it have in it)?

LN

Reply

Answer 12

Slylikeafox Author

Level 1

0 points

May 13, 2013 9:37 AM in response to LarryHN

The restored library is only 2.57 GB - way less than I know it should be. There are at least 8,000 pictures.

Reply

Answer 13

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

May 13, 2013 2:55 PM in response to Slylikeafox

Yes that sounds too small

Launch Time Machine and look at the size of the iPhoto library at different times - see if there is a larger iPhoto library

LN

Reply

Answer 14

Slylikeafox Author

Level 1

0 points

May 13, 2013 11:00 PM in response to LarryHN

Unfortunately I only have one backup date to draw from, and that is the iPhoto library with the blurry photos- unsure where the rest went, because I back up at least once a month.

Is there any way to recover the full files from the thumbnails? Or anything else it might be?

Thanks,

Laura

Reply

Answer 15

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

May 14, 2013 7:02 AM in response to Slylikeafox

No

I would go back to the Apple store and see if they can find anyway to help - depending on what they did it might be possible to find your original photos using a data recovery program likefile salvage or a data recovery service

LN

Reply