When I edit photos in iPhoto it deletes them

It's not deleting them. There may be a permissions issue with the edited version. Try the following:

1 - launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.

2 - Run Option #1, Repair Permissions, followed by Option #4, Rebuild Database, if needed.

OT

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Are these shots from a Nikon by any chance?

I'm having exactly the same problem. Yes, shots are from Nikon. And I'm using iphoto 09 version 8.1.2. (424) so the options for Photo Library Repair are different from the screen shot you posted. Any other ideas? Thanks!

Whoops and I'm on MAC OS X Version 10.5.8.

There's a rare bug that affects iPhoto 09 users who shoot Nikons and this is the upshot. Edits are "saved" into 0kb files. Sorry but the only cure I've seen is to upgrade iPhoto.

Appreciate you taking the time to respond, thanks for the info! Kind of odd, some pics are saved ok, others aren't. No apparently rhyme or reason, I'm ambivalent about upgrading as I have heard that can cause all sorts of other issues. My neighbour "lost" multiple photos when doing an upgrade recently and despite tech help hasn't been able to restore them 😟

My neighbor "lost" multiple photos when doing an upgrade recently and despite tech help hasn't been able to restore them

You neighbor obviously didn't make a backup of his library before upgrading his iPhoto application. Those that have had problems are only a minuscule percentage of those who have upgraded without any problem.

Sorry, I spoke incorrectly...wasn't an upgrade per se, it was a transfer to a new computer. I presume the new computer includes a more recent version of iPhoto than what she was using previously. Her husband backed up everything before the transfer. She also had a tech person check subsequently. He couldn't explain the problem and couldn't restore the images.

Her husband backed up everything before the transfer.

If they used Migration Assistant for the transfer it's known for having problems with iPhoto Libraries. Therefore, he should copy the library from the old Mac to the new Mac manually and run iPhoto on it again. If you have a backup you never lose your photos.

I will pass that along to her. Will Time Machine Backup(s) do the trick?

Yes. If the library is good before TM backs it up the restored copy will be good also.

Thanks for the info! I'll pass it along...

Same thing with clicking on thumb nail and getting exclimation mark. Some photos I could click on and they would show, but not all.

Tried rebuilding library and useing time machine did not work.(I tried finding the missing photos in the Originals and Modified folders and they were not in there)

So I did this. > Aplications. Then on the iPhoto icon you right click and click on the "Show Package contents". In the Package Contents among the files and folders there is one called "Data" (this one had an arrow indicateing it is a short cut) and there is one called Data.noindex. They both seem to have the same folders in them. I clicked on the Data folder and clicked on the folder with the year I was looking for. Then clicked on the folder for the month I wanted. All the pictures were in there. I copied that particular month folder and go back to the iPoto Library and paste the copied file into the Originals Folder. If there was that month in the Originals folder, I would just replace all the photos for that month. I quite iPhoto and restarted it and they are still in there.

Now I am happy and I hope this will make others happy as well.

What are the pixel dimensions of some of the pictures you recovered with this method? In iPhoto 8 the Data folder only contains the thumbnail and faces image files for the library and not the full sized original images.

Couple of things:

1. That's not the same problem. When you try to view a photo you got an exclamation mark.

When Ray Bans clicked on an edited photo "it comes up totally black"

In your case, the exclamation mark means that iPhoto can't find the Photo - because, as you say, the files are missing

(I tried finding the missing photos in the Originals and Modified folders and they were not in there)

So you have a case where your files are missing and iPhoto can't find them. Ray Bans has a case where iphoto can find the files but they are empty.

2. The solution you descibe only recover the thumbnails of the photos, much smaller, much lower quality than the originals.