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tramahound · Jan 13, 2004, 08:06 AM

A few weeks ago iPhoto was running so slow that I removed two years worth of photos from my iPhoto Library folder and backed them up onto a firewire drive. I figured if I wanted to look at them again I could just copy the folder back into my iPhoto Library and start up iPhoto. Well, that day arrived yesterday when I tried to do just that and ran into a problem. The pictures wouldn't show up. So, I restarted my computer. Nothing. Then I tried removing the iPhoto plist file, nothing. I replaced it and thought maybe if I remove the Library cache file and the xml database in my iPhoto Library folder it might regenerate and fix it. Oh no. It not only didn't find my old pictures, it won't even find any of my pictures any more. I didn't delete the files I removed, I just moved them, and when it didn't work I put them back. But, for some reason, even though I put them back it does not work. I've tried restarting and whatnot and it still does not work. I thought about re-installing iPhoto, but can't find it to download anymore since they're now charging for it. Is that even what I should do? Should I back up all my pics, delete iPhoto and then re-install it and copy over the folders with all my pictures again? I don't see how that would be any different from what I've been doing though. Please help, 4000 pictures are very important to me!
Thanks

chaldean oracle · Jan 13, 2004, 09:43 AM

try dropping the folders containing the pictures onto iPhoto. It should (may?) be smart enough to look through the folders and pluck out the images within. Of course you'll lose any nice structuring you had.

Next time, using iPhoto's 'backup' menu item to preserve everything.

tramahound · Jan 13, 2004, 09:46 AM

ugh, i've tried backup before with zero success. luckily i was just trying it and not relying on it because it just didn't work for me. see, that's the problem. if i just re-import them not only will it take forever, but the order they appear will be totally ruined. or, will it sort them by their metadata (?) dates and whatnot?

fetopher · Jan 13, 2004, 10:15 AM

When I try to use iPhoto's backup, it only lets me use my CD-R drive. I also have a stock DVD-R drive. Is there a way to tell it which drive to look at like in iTunes?

bewebste · Jan 13, 2004, 05:32 PM

What exactly did you backup to your firewire drive? Did you just take a bunch of stuff out of the iPhoto Library folder and then delete it once it was copied over? If so, then I'm guessing the next time you launched iPhoto, it saw that those pictures weren't there any more and removed the corresponding entries (including metadata) from the library. In short, I don't think you'll be able to get that information back, although you can of course reimport the photos.

tramahound · Jan 14, 2004, 07:48 AM

yep, that's what I did. It makes sense now, but of course hindsight is 20/20. i'm re-importing all 4000+ now. i'm doing it folder by folder though so that they'll at least be in the same order as before. the film rolls all say today's date, but the metadata for the pics themselves tell the true date they were taken. wonder if iPhoto '04's auto sorting feature will work correctly with my library now. you know, the one that automatically creates xmas albums with pics taken around december...i hope so

Old Toad · Jan 14, 2004, 06:31 PM

Next time you want to backup with the option of viewing the backup in iPhoto, put the images you want to backup and delete into albums and burn those albums from iPhoto with the Burn button. Then when you insert the disk into the tray, it will show up under the iPhoto Library icon on the left and a iPhoto library disk. You can then open it and view the albums that you burned.

When you've verified that the burned CDs work properly in iPhoto you can delete the albums and the corresponding images from the mail Library with the Applescript, Delete Album and Contents, obtained here: http://www.apple.com/applescript/iphoto/.

In the meantime remember the very valuable and old adage, DON'T MESS WITH THE IPHOTO LIBRARY!

Hope this has been of some help. Good luck.

tramahound · Jan 16, 2004, 08:08 AM

yeah, i re-imported the 4800 pictures in about a day or two. it seems i have the originals and any that I edited, so now i have to weed out any duplicates. ah well, at least the update might make doing that a little less of a chore. if only i had a dvd burner...actually my library is over 5gigs, aren't the dvd-r discs 4.7gig?

Old Toad · Jan 16, 2004, 12:10 PM

Originally posted by tramahound:
yeah, i re-imported the 4800 pictures in about a day or two. it seems i have the originals and any that I edited, so now i have to weed out any duplicates. ah well, at least the update might make doing that a little less of a chore. if only i had a dvd burner...actually my library is over 5gigs, aren't the dvd-r discs 4.7gig?

Yes, the DVDs are only 4.7 G. You'd have to break the library down to two sections using albums. When you backup a library using the Burn button in iPhoto you will lose all Roll information but will retain any albums you've created in it.