[m021478]

Please Please Please... I am in desperate need of help here! For reference, I am using iPhoto '09 - version 8.1 (415)

For hundreds of my images that I have cataloged in iPhoto, about a month ago I started noticing that when I click on an image thumbnail to blow it up full size, I am presented with an alert informing me that "The photo "PhotoNameHere" could not be opened, because the original item cannot be found". This seems to be the case in dozens of different event groupings for images shot at all different dates and times.

I have performed iPhoto maintenance routines by holding down the Opt+Cmd keys upon launching iPhoto and I have run the full battery of maintenance routines offered, but that didn't seem to fix the problem.

I have performed a spotlight search of my computer for the image that iPhoto is telling me cannot be found, and the only reference I can find to that photo is an alias for it located within my iPhoto package file in the 'Originals' folder, and hitting Cmd+R to reveal the source of this alias indicates that the alias is broken

See the screenshot below for the precise error message I am getting, and also see the screenshot below that showing what appears to be a folder full of aliases which iPhoto is presumably referencing as the original photo... though they are obviously not the originals, hence the programs inability to display them full-sized:






I am in a really screwed up place here where I stand to potentially lose thousands of priceless family memories I've captured over the years, so if anyone can offer an steps I might try taking to resolve this issue, or if someone wants to chime in with the best way that I should go about exporting and then re-importing all of my photos into a brand new iPhoto Library, I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks!

[ibook_steve]

So you are saying the original pictures are gone from your iPhoto LIbrary package in the Pictures folder? What's the file size of your iPhoto Library package? Does it jive with what it should be (multiple GB of photos) or has the size shrunk?

If you can't find the originals, then unless you have a backup, they're gone. I'm not sure how they could have disappeared based on your information. You do have a backup (Time Machine or otherwise), right?

Steve

[Veltliner]

I see from the file size (4 Kb) that you have only thumbnails here. (it also says "alias")

Did you move the files? Maybe to an external hard drive?

[Veltliner]

Have you thought of looking for the image files outside of iPhoto?

I never used iPhoto, but usually all those applications work the same way. The images are stored in folders that are in a different location than the application. So, if iPhoto loses the path to the image, the image file could still be there.

Just do a search for the file name.

Software like Capture One and Lightroom can trace moved images. iPhoto probably cannot. So, if you moved the folder the images were in, iPhoto loses touch.

PS: I have some older image files on an external hard drive. If the hard drive is off, and I click on the folder in the folder tree, I get a shockful of question marks.

Ps2: in future always back up your images.