iPhoto Unable to write to library Check that you have permission to write to the library directory.

Check, if the original files are still in your iPhoto library.

Is the size of the library large enough, to be holding all your photos? Then select the library in the Finder, ctrl-click it or right-click it. From the contextual menu that will appear select "Show Package Contents".

Inside you will see several folders. The names of the folders will depend on your iPhoto version. Look for a folder named "Masters" or "Original". Inside should be your original files, in subfolders corresponding to the date of the import.

To save your images copy these folders out of the library. Don't modify anything.

If rebuilding with the First Aid Tools did not help, you can try to rebuild with iPhoto Library Manager as described by Terence Devlin's Option2:

Re: I uploaded my pictures to iPhoto, and they were all imported. I then deleted them off of my camera. IPhoto suddenly shut down, and when I reopened it, the pictures were gone, but the album I made was there. Where might the pics be saved?

I moved my iPhoto library to an external drive. That drive is formatted "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" I do not see an "ignore ownership" checkbox. In Disk Utility, repair permissions is grayed-out.

Please start a new thread for your problem - include specific details or your problem, exact error messages and your system (version of IPhoto and of the OS) - to properly start a new thread for a new problem click on the word new at the top of the page

LN

Thanks. I thought this was a follow on to the topic. Just explaining the variation. At any rate, I achieved temporary success by unmounting the external drive and then re-starting. I still don't have the ignore permissions checkoff in the external drive info box, though.

I still don't have the ignore permissions checkoff in the external drive info box, though.

What connection do you have to the disk? USB? Thunderbolt? Something else?

I still don't have the ignore permissions checkoff in the external drive info box, though.

Are you using that drive with Time Machine? On a Time Machine volume it is not possible to ignore ownership:

Hi Leonie

I have the same problem as the people above. I have been through your answers and suggestions but I can't seem to come right.

A little history:

I copied my iPhoto Library from my Mac HD to a Seagate external 1TB HD about a year ago.

I did this successfully following steps on this apple communities forum.

A little while latter I started to have problems opening my iPhoto form the SGate HD

Thisoccured always after I imported photos from my iPhone (4s) or my GoPro.

The message would normally say that there were some corrupted files.

I followed the normal repair option again on the apple communities forum.

The first being: This helped and restored my library.

However after a few more crashes due to corrupt files I then did this...

This work for a very long time allowing me to import photos from my IPhone 4s and my GoPro

Today doing all of the above I keep on getting this message which is the same message as the other community members.

My Seagate backup HD is Mac Extended (Journaled)

OS is Yosemite

iPhoto is the latest version

Backup software I am not sure of

Please help as I have family 24 000 photos

I had the same thing as Selous.

I recently bought a MyBook in February to replace my corrupt Samsung internal HDD. Everything went well and now I am getting the same error message in regards to permissions.

I tried repairing permissions directly from iPhoto Library First Aid. No Avail. I am about to try to rebuild the database again.

Edit: No matter which option I pick, I still get this error message!

It seems to me all my troubles started when I updated iPhoto:

The date of installation was March 30. And now I can't access my iPhoto at all

Do you have any backup software installed on the external drive? The Info panel is showing, that the external drive does not have the "Ignore Ownership" flag. Your's looks like this:

But it should look like this:

That usually happens, if the drive is not a plain disk, but has some software installed, that can interfere, or when the drive is a Time Machine volume.

Move your iPhoto Library to a disk, where you can enable the "Ignore Ownership" flag.

OK! I restarted my Mac Mini and "Get Info" in the Seagate external HDD and noticed that "Ignore ownership on this volume" was not ticked. I just ticked it and will see if my iPhoto Permissions has resolved.

And to answer your question, no, this external HDD has no other backup software installed. It is not partitioned and I immediately reformatted it to Mac OS Journaled before copying (Carbon Copy Cloner) my iPhoto folder into this external HDD. And like I said, I had no troubles with it for 1 month until recently.

I just ticked it and will see if my iPhoto Permissions has resolved.

You should now be able to run "Repair Permissions" using the iPhoto Library First Aid successfully.

I did that. After running "Repair Permission", I still get the error message:

😢

How do you launch the First Aid Tolls? Do you click the iPhoto icon or directly the library?

Select the iPhoto Library on the external drive and hold down the key combination option-command. Then double click your library. Keep holding down both keys firmly, until you are seeing the first aid panel.

This seems to be turning into a longer discussion. Please post your question again as a new thread. That makes it much easier to keep the posts with the error details sorted. When you post, include a link to this discussion and a summary of what you already tried.