iphoto is unresponsive upon launch?

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iphoto is unresponsive upon launch?

I have iphoto version 9.5.1 (902.17) on a MacBook Air that is running OS X version 10.9.5. I have a very robust iphoto library that is almost filling my hard drive (I have an external hard drive also, but like to keep current photos that need editing on the computer). Everything (computer and hard drive) is backed up using CrashPlan (although CrashPlan is running right now and is backing up all my iPhoto files right now. A few days ago all files were backed up and the percentage was 100% backed up but now it is showing 14mb of files to backup that will take 2 days --- don't know how but this feels like it is connected).

It feels as though all of a sudden I went to open iphoto today and I combined two albums and I got a spinning beach ball. I closed the program and restarted it just to get the spinning beach ball immedietely upon opening. I have shut down the computer, let it sit and restarted. That is about the extent of my personal abilities at trouble shooting.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Feb 9, 2016 6:24 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 9, 2016 6:26 AM in response to kellykate21

Well, if your backup software is accessing your Photos library to back up, and you are also trying to access it at the same time, then it is likely you are going to run into resource contention. I would suggest you wait until the backup is complete and then see if you are still having issues with iPhoto.

Cheers,

GB

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Answer 2

Yer_Man

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Feb 9, 2016 8:09 AM in response to kellykate21

I have a very robust iphoto library that is almost filling my hard drive

How big is that HD? how much free space on it?

(I have an external hard drive also, but like to keep current photos that need editing on the computer).

There is no significant performance hit with the Library on an external drive.

Everything (computer and hard drive) is backed up using CrashPlan

Backed up to where? The Cloud? There is no good or safe back up for an iPhoto Library in the Cloud.

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Answer 3

kellykate21 Author

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Feb 9, 2016 7:29 PM in response to gail from maine

So I let the backup run all day and by tonight it is complete now (I guess the estimate time was really off). I restarted my computer and tried reopening iPhoto and now there is no spinning beach ball but it is frozen and non-responsive.

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Answer 4

kellykate21 Author

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Feb 9, 2016 7:37 PM in response to Yer_Man

How big is that HD? how much free space on it?

MacBook Air is 250gb (only 7gb available); my iphoto library is 126gb; external hd is 1tb with 736gb available

My itunes library lives on the MacBook Air and not the external hard drive. These are the photos that I'm working on editing currently. Once edited - I export out and store in a folder structure on the external hard drive.

My backup is through CrashPlan --- it is cloud based but if I lost everything, I would pay a fee and receive a drive with all the data. Can you tell me more about what you mean by there is no safe back up for an iPhoto Library in the Cloud?

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Answer 5

kellykate21 Author

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Feb 9, 2016 7:46 PM in response to kellykate21

I am still looking for help on a solution. I am feeling a little panic-y because ALL the photos of my son who passed away are in this iphoto library. I have most back in the original source (SIM card in camera and on phones), but I really really really want to get to these. Thanks for any help anyone can give me! If you think I should just take the computer to an Apple store --- we have one here in town, so let me know!

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Answer 6

Yer_Man

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Feb 9, 2016 10:55 PM in response to kellykate21

MacBook Air is 250gb (only 7gb available); my iphoto library is 126gb; external hd is 1tb with 736gb available

OS X needs about 10 gigs of hard drive space for normal OS operations - things like virtual memory, temporary files and so on.

Without this space your Mac will slow down as the OS hunts for space on the disk, files will be fragmented, also slowing things down, apps will crash and the risk of data corruption - that is damage to your files, photos, music - increases exponentially.

Your first priority is to make more space on that HD. Nothing else can be done until you do.

Purchase an external HD and move your Photos and Music to it. Both iPhoto and iTunes can run perfectly well with the Library on an external disk.

It's quite likely that running iPhoto on an overfull disk is the cause of your issue.

These are the photos that I'm working on editing currently. Once edited - I export out and store in a folder structure on the external hard drive.

So you import photos into iPhoto, then edit them and afterwards export them from iPhoto to the Finder? If so, simply your life by not using iPhoto at all. Its key feature - non-destructive editing - is disabled and defeated in your workflow. Just use a picture editor. More efficient from a disk space point-of-view too.

Can you tell me more about what you mean by there is no safe back up for an iPhoto Library in the Cloud?

An iPhoto Library needs to sit on a disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If you write to a library sitting on a disk with a different format (as would happen with incremental backups) there is a high probability that the library will be damaged. We've had a lot of reports from folks with damaged libraries received from cloud back up services. Get another HD and bak up to that locally.

Of course, if you drop iPhoto from your workflow then this will not be a problem.

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Answer 7

kellykate21 Author

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Feb 10, 2016 5:13 AM in response to Yer_Man

ok - I deleted old applications and moved files to the external hard drive so now there is 42gb available on the hard drive. I copied the iphoto library to my external hard drive as a backup. I still have the iphoto library on the computer too. I opened iphoto and still got the spinning beachball. What now?

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Answer 8

kellykate21 Author

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Feb 10, 2016 5:44 AM in response to kellykate21

YES!!!! I went through and repair and rebuilt the database for iPhoto (opening iphoto while holding down option and command). That worked! Thanks for the hint on needing more hard drive space.

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