Restored from Time Machine but iPhoto library file corrupted

Hmmm? There maybe an additional problem in that this CCC back up has been successfully working on a daily basis so isn't likely that whichever database file is corrupted has also been backed up? I need a Time Machine restore from before the error crept in as opposed to a CCC restore of a bad file over a bad file. Any idea which files Faces work with? I will check if my Time Machine includes iPhoto library on the external hard drive.

One month on and still issues. Suspect the iPhoto database isn't that robust. Restored from TM back up pre-crash, still some issues. Acquired iPhoto Library Manager and opted to choose those images with the most metadata as that was what seemed to be missing. Re-built and re-built every which way. Now spent hours (days) re-combining events that had been single but were now split into two (or more)( maybe now from the different sources?). Lots of dates wrong and curiously often only four or five in an event of many more. So adjusted these. Still a few faces icons are black although the underlying images are there.

It would be nice to know what files this application consists of and which one does what?

It could of course be bad blocks on the external Hard drive I suppose but as it is split into two partitions and the other holds my iTunes library and hasn't had any issues, I doubt it.

Hi Mr D

Still wading through treacle!

I recall I used iPhoto Library Manager and then selected largest file size and most metadata to merge the two libraries. Still not perfect but images are there even if a few face thumbnails are absent.

Using SMART Utility I checked to see what was going on with hard drives as a CCC back up reported some deep system files were on an unreadable block. I should have replaced them from CCC but there were only a few and they were so unusual I hesitated. Whilst searching which replacement hard drive I could fit and whether I could fit it myself, iMac crashed again so another restore from TM. (According to SU my hard drive is failing as it has 6 re-allocated blocks and 1 event error). Back up and restored, I now see that various movies in iMovie '09 cannot access the source files as they are not in the original location. This I think is more to do with me relocating my iPhoto library for space reasons to an external hard drive rather than the crashes and re-builds. I hadn't realised the distinction between imported movies into iMovie '09 (from a movie camera say) and those from iPhoto (from an iPhone say) and what would happen if, for space reasons, I moved the iPhoto library to an external hard drive. Yes, I know now I should have consolidated the movies. There are occasions when a small user guide might help! Also the new iMovie '10 library, which runs as an alternative alongside iMovie '09, is happily located on the external hard drive whereas the iMovie '09 library sits on the iMac's hard drive.. All the still images are ok in all the movies in iMovie '09 (even having moved?) its just the .avi files that it cannot locate. Simples, I thought. I created a folder in iPhoto '09 with all the iPhoto avi files and thought if I exported them and then imported them into a new library in the location (my iMac user pictures folder) it would then be able to 'see' them. Problem is in the iPhoto '09 library on the external hard drive I have many more folders than in the newly created iMovie '09 library on the iMac hard drive. iMovie '09 is looking for /Users/'me'/Pictures/iPhoto library/Originals/'movie file title'/'file name'.avi but the 'Originals' folder is in fact just an alias to point to an adjacent folder in the iMovie library package called 'Masters' and in the new library I only have 'Masters' and not an alias 'Originals' folder.

So iMovie '09 still cannot 'see' the .avi files even though they are now (almost) in the right location on the correct drive (the iMac) as I don't have an 'Originals' folder in this library whereas the legacy library does. Can I get around this? Why does one library have a 'Masters' folder as well as an 'Originals' and 'Modified' aliases and the new library only 'Masters'? As I cannot re-point iMovie I need to have an 'Originals' alias pointing at 'Masters' for this to possibly work. My plan was to resolve the project issues once the files were all accessible in the correct place and then consolidate and move the iMovie '09 library as a working entity to the external hard drive where there is space.

The second issue is that of the c600 .avi files I exported (all of which function in the library from whence they were exported), 129 will not import into the new '09 library I have created on my iMac hard drive. This is odd as they are visible and play in their source library but refuse to be imported into the new one made with the same application. Other than a couple of the ones that do import showing a format in QT as 16 bit little-endian signed integer 44100Hz as opposed to 8 bit unsigend integer 16000HGz for one that didn't, I am at a loss to understand what the new library objects to.

I have now isolated all the exported .avi files that will not import into a folder pending someone hopefully providing a answer....

Understood thank you but ever so slightly depressed there wash't an answer which might provide the prospect of me getting out of the house before the end of this year (2015)!

All those external hard drives, all those back ups, CCC and TM and still I get caught!

Hi OT

It turns out it was some sort of timing or duration glitch. I isolated the 129 avi refusenik files and tried to import them again and it worked. Still got the fundamental issue that iMovie won't allow re-pointing links.

No, but the issue (according to other fora) is that you can't re-point files. So, when I open an iMovie project although bizarrely the still images are present (despite the very same iPhoto library which contains the problematic avi files being moved), the movie parts have a yellow warning triangle. Unless the specific avi file is re-located in the expected location it cannot be accessed by iMovie. I believe now that after creating a project there is an option of 'consolidating' whereby all the files in the project are bundled together. I've only just discovered this regrettably and after years of using iMovie.

I finally managed to create an iPhoto library with an aliased Originals folder but even after placing it in the location iMovie claimed it was looking, it could not re-link. So I have now given up and will re-build the various movies if I need them again and will then 'consolidate.' Some things of interest:

The iTunes library created as a result of the TM hard drive recovery also produced issues in iMovie in that some music (but not all?) had yellow warning triangles but when I clicked on them iMovie automatically offered to re-connect the tune files to the suggested correct place in the new iTunes library. So moving an iPhoto library seems to have no effect on any still images in an iMovie, iTunes will re-connect any song files it can't loctae but video files seem lost to iMovie and will need each film re-editing from the new location.