[bbales]

My iphoto library disappeared this morning. Part of the trouble had to do with my deleting a set on Flickr -- then all those photos (200...) disappeared as a result and then, when I tried to restore from a TC backup, well, all I can say is "something happened." Now everything is gone. I've tried twice to restore from Time Capsule and it hangs and then won't work. I have another backup (thank God I do this once a week -- I think I'll do it more often!), which I'm now copying AGAIN to another external drive, for safekeeping. I'll lose the 2 to 3 hours of work I spent on modifying the aforementioned 200 photos, but I don't see a way around that.

So, my question -- is there a way to take a file or the library or whatever from a TC backup and throw it on an external drive, as opposed to restoring the library onto my main computer? Does anyone have experience with the Flickr plug-in? This all started because I'd modified all the photos in the Flickr set, AFTER uploading them originally, and then I couldn't see that the photos were modified on the Flickr site. I'm thinking the system is a little too basic. These are for a work client -- I simply have to have a better method than this has turned out to be.

Any guidance is gratefully appreciated. Would I be better off using a different management system than iPhoto perhaps?

[CharlesS]

Time Capsule is, I believe, an AFP shared drive. You should be able to connect to it via File Sharing and try to copy the files off. Connecting via Ethernet might make it a little more reliable than via wireless.

Worst-case scenario, you could probably open up the Time Capsule, take the drive out, and put it in a USB or FireWire enclosure. Hopefully that won't be necessary, though.

[Old Toad]

Did your library package disappear or just the photos inside when you launched iPhoto? If you'll open the library package and look in the Originals folder you can check to see if the image files are still there or not.

If the files are there you can try the following three fixes below in order as needed:

1 - launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys depressed and follow the instructions to rebuild the library. Select options 4 thru 7.

2 - rebuild the library using iPhoto Library Manager as follows:

Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library

1 -Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.

2 -Click on the Add Library button, navigate to your User/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.

3 - Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the File->Rebuild Library menu option

4 - In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.

5 - Click on the Create button.

Note: It may take some time to create the new library if you have a lot of photos.

3 - start over with a new library and import the Originals folder from your original library as follows:

Creating a new library while preserving the Events from the original library.

1. Move the existing library folder to the desktop.
2. Open the library package
3. Launch iPhoto and, when asked, select the option to create a new library.
4. Drag the Originals folder from the iPhoto Library on the desktop into the open iPhoto window.

This will create a new library with the same Events as the original library