iPhoto keeps crashing, it starts balling for a few minutes and then it crashes.

Since everything worked OK in the new account then your current account seems to be the culprit. As the testing of the preference files in your home/library/Preferences folder didn't help I'm at a loss at to where to go from here.

You could create a new admin user account and transfer all of your files in the Home folder (except the Library folder) to the new account and work from there. Move the files to the Shared folder and then into the new account - or to the external HD and from there to the new account.

By not moving the library folder what will I loose? Will I loose all my pictures in iPhoto?

Thanks again for your help.

I'm referring to the Home/Library folder, not the iPhoto Library package which is in the Pictures folder.

Sorrry to be so bothersome. I am a bit nervous about doing what you have asked, only beacuse I am not sure what the ramifications may be.

If I create the new Admin account, and transfer all the file in the HOME foler, except the Library to the new Admin account, what happens next? Will I have to reinstall applications? Will I loose files. I tink the new account won't have all the things I have under my current Admin account (is that correct)? I know they will always remain in the old Admin account.

What are the files that need to be moved to the Shared Folder?

Is the process the following:

1. Create Admin account

2. Move Home Folder, except Library Folder, to new Admin account

3. Move file from Shared to new Admin account

Than I should be okay?

The copying as I suggested probably is not the best way to go. That's because it would be a very long process and all preferences, System, Finder and all the applicaitons would have to be reset. Also any applications that require activiation codes to work would have to have those codes reentered.

If you have Time Machine running on your Mac to make backups I belive you can use Migration Assistant to move your files from that account to the new account. You'd have to ask in the Lion forum for help with that.

Here's something else you can try: boot into the Recovery volume (boot with the Command+R keys held down and select the Recovery volume to boot into) and run Disk Utility from there to repair the disk and disk permissions.

If that doesn't help repeat the recover boot and reiinstall the system.

Thanks! I will try the Recovery boot and disk utility and see what happens.

If that does not work and I reinstall the OS, won't I loose everything?

This would be done under my current Admin account, not the new one I created for testing, correct?

You won't lose anything. To lose your files you'd had to use Disk Utility to wipe the boot volume and then reinstall the system. Just use the reinstall option which keeps your user files and applications.

It's always prudent to have a backup of your HD in the unlikely event that something goes wrong.

Thanks again! Hopefully the first option will work. I have a backup that runs everynight to an external disk and makes it bootable. I also use Time Capsule as a secondary measure.

Thanks again for you help.

I have tried the Recovery boot, but I am not sure it is working. I have bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and I don't ge thte dialogues you mention or any other site mentions to selelct the boot volume. I did try booting from my external drive and running the disk utility and everything was okay. Even the SMART verification. I am wondering, since the bluetooth keyboard may not be recognized in time while holding down the Command +R keys it is just booting into the partition based on the boot disk. I am wrong here?

Before I attempt the re-installation of the system, I want to make sure that the first step really did occur.

Sorry for all the stop and goes, but I can't afford to loose these photos.

Thanks again for all you are doing!

I've run out of ideas. 😟

Hey OT,

I did some research and found out the following. If you are using a wireless keyboard and mouse, to go into Recovery Boot you have to restart your system and wait for the startup tone before pressing any keys. I can see the keyboard light flash just before the tone. Once you hear the tone, then you press the OPTION key only (holding it down until you are in Recovery boot). As with the COMMAD-R, if your desktop appears, you have either not pressed the OPTION key soon enough, or did not hold it down long enough. You will have to use the TAB key to select the boot disk since the mouse is not recognized. Once you have selected the boot disk and press enter, then the mouse is pared.

So I was able to get to Recovery boot. Did exactly what you said. I ended up having to restore the OS. Not as scary as I thought, thanks to your help.

iPhoto is still not working. On the first launch it hung again. I had to force quit it. Then on relauch, it said it found some discrepanices in the library database and needed to rebuild it. I let it do that and it still had problems.

Where I stand now, is I only have iPhoto launched and the disk I/O is crazy. I can hear it (writing, I know it is writing because I have Activity Monitor running). It is as if I am doing a disk verify or repair. Also, the iPhoto process is using between 60%-75% CPU utilization.

I am typing this from my laptop and just waiting to see when the disk and CPU will stabilize. I am thinking maybe it is going through all my 17k of photo files (just a thought). Yours?

I am hoping once all this stops, iPhoto will be okay. I will repost once I find something out.

If you have any ideas based on the CPU/Disk usage, let me know.

Once again, I really appreciate your help. I wouldn't have gotten this far without it.

I forgot about wireless keyboards. They make getting into other volumes a lot harder. Yes, the reinstall is rather painless. Let us know how everything finally turns out.

Here is what I have discovered:

1. Activity Monitor is your friend :-)

2. I checked all the processes that were running and shut down any that could wait to run (e.g. Time Capsule Backup).

3. I only had iPhoto and Photo Stream processes running.

4. Both iPhoto and Photo Stream were fighting for CPU and Disk

5. Photo Stream was not active, at least I had shut it off, but I think it was in a loop everytime iPhoto launched

6. I went into iPhoto preferences and Photo Stream was disabled (crazy the is was using so much resources and no photos were even getting pushed into iPhoto

7. I selected Photo Stream in the navigation bar of iPhoto and it seemed to know PS was not activated.

8. I said "No Thanks" and within a few seconds PS process went idle.

9. I then noticed that Face Recognition was doing it's thing (I was searching for what was using all the resources, by now with PS quiet, iPhoto was utilizing over 100% of CPU and mashing the disk I/O.

10. Since there is no way to disable FR, even if you remove the faces, it still runs (from what I read), I let it continue to run until it finished. I was hoping this would not be an all nighter since I didn't know from all the other things I had done (rebuild the library, create a new library, etc.) if it was trying to go through all the photos.

11. Finally, FR completed, and iPhoto is now working fine.

In conclusion, I thikn the PS and FR were causing the CPU and I/O issues, which was causing iPhoto not to respond. I haven't turn PS back on yet, and will wait to see how iPhoto behaves for a while. So maybe there is a bug with FR, PS, and iPhoto. Will this thread get reported to Apple to see if this is the issue? Should I report it?

As I said, iPhoto is now just as responsive and fast as it used to be.

Thank you once again for all you help. I hope this feedback has been helpful and you can use it for others.