[Aranamac]

I need a bit of help. I'm running iPhoto 5.0.4 under the latest version of Tiger. Whenever I open iPhoto, go to another application, and back into iPhoto, I get the spinning beach ball of frozen doom. This is consistent. I've tried deleting the preferences file. I've tried replacing the application file with the version from my iBook, and I still have the problem. So I assume it isn't something inherent within iPhoto... but otherwise, I'm feeling rather clueless.

Additional modifications to my OS include a few APEs (which are all set to exclude iPhoto) and the UNO GUI installed via its own installer. But the freezing problem has ocurred even when I am not running those extras.

Also, I have 3497 photos in iPhoto.

Can anyone help, provide any suggestions?

[Aranamac]

When I run iPhoto from the terminal to see if any log messages show up, I get this:

2005-11-18 10:21:14.408 iPhoto[1679] *** -[NSTextField setAllowsMultipleSelection:]: selector not recognized [self = 0xb305750]

When I check through the crash log, I only get references to iPhoto v2.0 and some conflicts with Shapeshifter 1.1. Safe to say I've long since upgraded both of those programs so I don't know why the crash log is displaying that info.

Additionally, I created a new user account to test iPhoto in. It is pristine except for the UNO gui modification (which, btw, is on my iBook and does not affect iPhoto). iPhoto does not crash though I'm testing it without any photos, so that might have an impact.

This leaves me to think it is something with my system that's conflicting with iPhoto. But what?

[EmmEff]

Same problem here, and I've read of several others having the same problem (check Apple support forum). Just another case of iPhoto falling over. The database backend needs a serious makeover. I am hoping it comes in iLife '06.

[Aranamac]

So there is no solution?

I almost thought I had the problem solved when I deleted the preferences file, the application, and reinstalled it from my iLife disc. Same problem.

I've tried some of the other replacements out there (Shoebox and iView Media Pro). While they are good, I do miss the tight integration with the OS and other applications that iPhoto has.

Hmm... I think I may have just found the problem. I did another delete/reinstall run, and this time I'm not doing the Software Update to 5.0.4. Thus far everything seems to be working fine. We'll see how long that lasts.

Edit. Nope, seems I spoke too soon. Dangit!

[EmmEff]

Nope, no solution or workaround that I know of.

[WSKCONDOR]

I have similar problems with iPhoto. Sound like there is no solution. I havent' run anything from terminal, but I noticed that iPhoto locks up when I try to import, when I try to quit, when I resize the browsing view, when I try to look at a video clip.

When sitting by itself, I noticed that iPhoto sometimes is running up to 97.2% of the CPU. This is when NO task has been asked of it. Startup usually takes about 2 minutes. Quitting can take 2-4 minutes (if it does it at all). If I just leave it alone, it usually stops being locked up, but it can take several minutes, and you can't do ANYTHING while it is spinning it's beach ball of death.

I have a lot of photos (about 11,400). And they are not all small, so the entire library is over 20 GB. Still, SteveO said 25,000 photos....hmmm.

Perhaps they just want us to pay for Aperture, so there is no motivation to improve iPhoto. It is bad enough that I am going to have to look at alternatives, though, as iPhot basically disables my computer.

I would have already switched, but I don't know how to easily migrate to something else-since all of my photos are embedded in the iphoto way of categorization.

Does anyone know of a program that is smart enought about the iPhoto library organization to extract all the photos and leave the thumbnails, etc?

[Aranamac]

Well, I sorta fixed it. What I had to do was remove the old library, create a new library, and re-import all my photos. My albums are all gone but the program no longer crashes. A mixed victory, eh?

[EmmEff]

I am not willing to sacrafice more than a year of metadata on my photos to workaround an Apple deficiency/bug.

[Aranamac]

Alas, it was a last resort. Because, uh, resorting (honestly, no pun intended) is going to be a pain. But iPhoto has the integration with so many other applications and the system that I use frequently, so shifting to another program wasn't really an option.

The sad point, I guess, isn't that there is ultimately a very messy solution to the problem, it's that the problem exists and hasn't been fixed at the source.

[EmmEff]

The simple solution, I guess, is to not switch apps when using iPhoto. That's what I've been doing. I don't want to change from iPhoto either as it's one of the primary reasons for me buying a Mac in the first place.

[Aranamac]

'tis just a shame that one stray click, taking you out the program freezes it. Or simply dragging-and-dropping a picture from iPhoto into Photoshop crashes it. Or emailing a picture from iPhoto through Mail… etc. etc. etc.

Anyhow. Kvetching never got anyone very far. I can only hope iLife06 is a far sight better.

[EmmEff]

Yeah, tell me about it... it is a damned disappointment but Apple must be aware of it so hopefully it'll be fixed.