iPhoto All events collapsed into a single event dated 1969

Question

Level 1

54 points

iPhoto All events collapsed into a single event dated 1969

A friend had all her iPhoto events arranged and orgainzed... until about a week ago, when everything collapsed into one event covering the birth of Unix in 1969 until last week.

This is a disaster... googling around turned up a distressing number of people thinking iPhoto '11 is the culprit. Going back in Time Maching didn't rebulid the database...

I'd be inclined to blame a hardware issue given the date involved but her system time is OK and points to the Apple time server, also there were no other issues at the time in question.

As a last resort we're trying a database rebuild... had to leave before it completed. There are a lot of photos involved.

This is bad... please someone tell me it's easily fixable.

Posted on Jul 4, 2013 1:36 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Jul 4, 2013 1:42 PM in response to Mr. Fazookus

Most likely cause is user error - solution is to restore a copy of the iPhoto library from before it occured

Going back in Time Maching didn't rebulid the database...

No idea what you mean here - TM doess not "rebuild" anything - it restores a previous version of a file - in this case the iPhoto library package

a database rebuild is probably not the solution

you also can select the "big" event and use autosplit selected event command to split it according to the preference settings

LN

Reply

Answer 2

Mr. Fazookus Author

Level 1

54 points

Jul 4, 2013 1:59 PM in response to LarryHN

Nope, TM didn't rebuid anything, wishful thinking dep't.

I'll try autosplit, thanks.

Fingers are crossed.

Reply

Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

207,751 points

Jul 4, 2013 3:00 PM in response to Mr. Fazookus

Did you select a library in TM for restoration from a time before this problem occurred?

OT

Reply

Answer 4

Mr. Fazookus Author

Level 1

54 points

Jul 4, 2013 3:13 PM in response to Old Toad

Yes, google suggested that and there was what looked like some database information was there, XML stuff though it didn't seem like the files were all that large so I didn't think it was an entire database for thousands of pictures.

Disclaimer: I'm not any kind of database guy, my brain shorted out at SQL.

Reply

Answer 5

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Jul 4, 2013 3:20 PM in response to Mr. Fazookus

You do not select something inside the library - you select teh iphoto library - it must always be kept intact and treated as a single entity

LN

Reply

Answer 6

Mr. Fazookus Author

Level 1

54 points

Jul 5, 2013 5:19 AM in response to LarryHN

I'm not messing with the database, my thinking was that it appeared to be to have a database component in with the actual pictures.

The fact that 1969 is involved says that this is a bug, not a user error, sigh.

So TM doesn't back up the iPhoto database? It couldn't restore the machine if it didn't, come to think of it.

Reply

Answer 7

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Jul 5, 2013 6:59 AM in response to Mr. Fazookus

Time Machine backes up everything (unless you tell it not to) - but you can not restore just the database -

You do not select something inside the library - you select the iphoto library - it must always be kept intact and treated as a single entity

You must restore the iPhoto library intact as a single entity - you can not work with parts of it in any way

LN

Reply

Answer 8

Mr. Fazookus Author

Level 1

54 points

Jul 5, 2013 7:08 AM in response to LarryHN

Gotya.

My fingers are crossed... 😕

Reply

Answer 9

Mr. Fazookus Author

Level 1

54 points

Jul 5, 2013 7:49 AM in response to LarryHN

Tried this:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4927

to be sure and after I'd selected 'replace', thusly,

Got this:

My user is a computer administrator so I can't imagine why I wouldn't have permission.

If this has veered into a new topic let me know and I'll start a new one.

I really appreciate your help.

Reply

Answer 10

Mr. Fazookus Author

Level 1

54 points

Jul 5, 2013 8:14 AM in response to LarryHN

(I dug around and found references to the permissions problem, this is definately veering off into another issue).

Reply

Answer 11

Old Toad

Level 10

207,751 points

Jul 5, 2013 8:17 AM in response to Mr. Fazookus

Try selecting "Keep Both" and see what happens. It will not try to replace the existing library.

If that fails launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and select the first repair option: Repairing the library's premissions.

Then try restoring the library again from Time Machine.

Reply

Answer 12

Mr. Fazookus Author

Level 1

54 points

Jul 5, 2013 9:00 AM in response to Old Toad

Tried 'keep both', still complained about permissions and left me with a zero byte iPhoto Library and a 'iPhoto Library (original)' of the right size but without the iPhoto Library icon...

iPhoto works, and holding option while starting iPhoto gives me an option to select 'other library', which is there, even if I rename the 'origional' library it still shows the original name as default, presumably metadata?

Or a nasty ACL issue, I don't know.

Reply

Answer 13

Mr. Fazookus Author

Level 1

54 points

Jul 5, 2013 9:13 AM in response to Old Toad

Renamed 'iphoto library (original)' and tried the restore from TM again, this time it appeared to work, counted all the bytes... but I don't know where it restored to, it's not in the Picures directory.

I'm going all this on my own computer and will try it on my friends computer later.

Reply

Answer 14

Mr. Fazookus Author

Level 1

54 points

Jul 5, 2013 9:31 AM in response to Old Toad

Just checked 'get info' on my Pictures directory, its showing a size that's almost triple the total size of my hard drive, that's a nice trick. Verify disk and verify permissions don't help.

I'm giving up on this and opening a new issue, thanks for all your help.

Reply