10 years of iphoto info/edits/etc. wiped....

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Level 1

7 points

10 years of iphoto info/edits/etc. wiped....

OK, it’s going to sound like I need to press option + click on the icon to open and to get the different option to select the library to open, etc. Nope. After a month of going back and forth with apple support, yesterday I received a call by the tech support rep that the engineers could not figure what was going on with the library and Photo not being able to talk to each other (or something like that.) After my laptop automatically updated the OS to Yosemite, it could not open the old iphoto library that contained 81 gigs of photos (collected, edited, fixed, etc.) for 10 years. Tried all the standard fixes, etc. over the course of a weekend: nope. Called support: nope. Took the laptop to apple store: nope. Call tech support: nope. Tech support talked to the engineers, got back to me with no solution, and that became a month of phone calls, emails, collection info, screenshares, etc. from my computer for them to see if they could do something or figure the problem: Nope. No solution.

Just had the last call now with customer support. No solution. The issue was reported. They are really sad, and worried about this, so they offered me 100 dollars discount coupon to use at the Apple store next time when I need to buy my next imac/macbook/ipad... (ah, and they could purchase the old one too.) Please Apple, don’t laugh in my face.

Posted on Jul 28, 2015 12:08 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 28, 2015 12:12 PM in response to renveron

Do you have any backups? If so, what? Time Machine?

What version of iPhoto were you using? It should still be in your Application folder and should still be usable if you had the latest version.

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Answer 2

Jul 28, 2015 12:13 PM in response to renveron

That's terrible. I have read some posts on here where people recommended installing a version of iPhoto that would work on Yosemite. Have you tried that? I don't have the link, otherwise I would provide it for you.

barring that, I would backup your iPhoto library and try another clean install of Yosemite to see if that works?

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Answer 3

KiltedTim

Level 10

195,189 points

Jul 28, 2015 12:13 PM in response to renveron

Your laptop did not "automatically" update to Yosemite. It requires user intervention. You have to manually "purchase" Yosemite in the Mac App store. It can't happen by itself.

Sounds like it's time to restore from your backup. You do have a backup, right?

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Answer 4

JimmyCMPIT

Level 7

29,217 points

Jul 28, 2015 1:12 PM in response to renveron

if you have another mac you could target mode or network (mac or pc) your laptop and try to open the photos that way.

Barring that I hope you were not confident that 10 years of irreplaceable data should just be consigned to a single point of failure and you have a copy of all of this.

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Answer 5

renveron Author

Level 1

7 points

Jul 28, 2015 1:26 PM in response to JimmyCMPIT

Thats a great idea. Yes, I have a back up of all the files on my computer. The issue is that photos is not able to open the "package" that was used by prior versions of OSX. Dont know when they changed the system or what they changed but it just doesn't open the package (library.) Apple tried to solve the issue and the engineers and tech support check files, computer, etc. but were not able to fix it. They have not seen this issue before my case and they told me that there was nothing that they could do. We even tried the option of re-installing iphoto but the OS did not agree with the idea.

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Answer 6

KiltedTim

Level 10

195,189 points

Jul 28, 2015 1:30 PM in response to renveron

So if you go into Finder, right click on the iPhoto library, choose "Show Package Contents" and drill down through the folders you'll see, are you saying the jpg files are not there? If they are, just copy them someplace else and import them to Photos.

I'll be kind of surprised if the "engineers" didn't think of that... but maybe it's too simple for them.

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Answer 7

renveron Author

Level 1

7 points

Jul 28, 2015 1:37 PM in response to KiltedTim

All the info associated to the pics and edits made on iphoto will be gone....The "raw" photos are there.

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Answer 8

KiltedTim

Level 10

195,189 points

Jul 28, 2015 1:41 PM in response to renveron

Well, at least you've got that. There must be some kind of corruption in the database contained in the package. How far back to your Time Machine backups go?

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Answer 9

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,518 points

Jul 28, 2015 1:41 PM in response to renveron

Have you tried getting the correct version of iPhoto?

Get iPhoto 9.6.1 if you didn't update before OS X 10.10.3

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Answer 10

renveron Author

Level 1

7 points

Jul 28, 2015 1:47 PM in response to Barney-15E

Yeah, i tried that too...:(

I will try importing opening them with a different computer and older computer.

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Answer 11

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,518 points

Jul 28, 2015 2:48 PM in response to renveron

What version of iPhoto were you using?

If prior to Lion, you would need the iPhoto Library Upgrader.

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Answer 12

Old Toad

Level 10

207,367 points

Jul 28, 2015 2:56 PM in response to renveron

Photo was not deleted from your hard drive, only removed from the Dock. If you have iPhoto 9.6.1 you can still use your iPhoto library. If you don't have that version but some earlier version of 9.x try following Terence Devlin's instructions in this post to obtain iPhoto 9.6.1 from the App Store:

Terence Devlin

Apr 14, 2015 11:21 AM

Re: Is Iphoto gone ? i want it back!

in response to Johannes666

Recommended

Go to the App Store and check out the Purchases List. If iPhoto is there then it will be v9.6.1

If it is there, then drag your existing iPhoto app (not the library, just the app) to the trash.

Install the App from the App Store.

Sometimes iPhoto is not visible on the Purchases List. it may be hidden. See this article for details on how to unhide it.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4928

One question often asked: Will I lose my Photos if I reinstall?

iPhoto the application and the iPhoto Library are two different parts of the iPhoto programme. So, reinstalling the app should not affect the Library. BUT you should always have a back up before doing this kind of work. Always.

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