Your Photos Are In the iPhoto Library File, But Not Showing Up When You Launch iPhoto Application
When photos go missing from your iPhoto collection, it usually falls under two specific situations. You will need to work your way through both and figure out which one you are dealing with.
POSSIBLE ISSUE — When you launch your iPhoto application, and a message comes up saying that it can't find your iPhoto library file, or in the window, you don't see the name of your library file listed, then this tells you that iPhoto is having a problem finding your entire photo collection. In this case, you will need to give iPhotos a little help in finding it. Click this button to take you to the solution to this problem.
POSSIBLE ISSUE — Or, in the second situation, when you launch the iPhoto application, it seems to load your photo collection just fine. But the problem is a few, or maybe even many of your individual photos don't seem to be there anymore. If so, the article you are reading should help you to solve this, so continue reading on.
A Few Or Many of My Photos Are Missing
What's Causing This Problem:
It may not be known to you, but your iPhoto photo collection is more than just the iPhoto application stored in your Application folder.
All of your master photos, thumbnail and preview versions of your photos, and database records of how the iPhoto application handles all of your photos, are stored in a separate file (a folder really) that is in a completely different place on your hard drive from the main iPhoto application.
This separate file, called a “photo library” file, by default is stored inside of the pictures folder in your user folder.
Sometimes the database records become a little mixed up, and what the database shows as being correct doesn't match what's actually true with your master images stored with that database.
EXAMPLE:
A simple example of this might be that if you were to peek inside your folder full of master images, you might find you have 1,000 photos. But your database records might be off, and you only think you have 950. Launching the iPhoto application could cause problems and prevent those last 50 photos from being shown to you.
How We Can Fix This:
There are a few procedures that Apple has almost “secretly” written into the iPhoto application that will force it to “recalculate its math” and reconstruct its database.
In a repair procedure, it will go in and compare how many actual photos it finds in your library file to how many the database believes it has. If the numbers are off, it will fix this and “re-attach” to the ones it wasn't “aware” that it had before.
Additionally, if this repair procedure doesn't work, there is a “stronger” one that will actually rebuild your database.
Apple states on their support page:
Sometimes rebuilding the library may resolve issues such as the library appearing to be unreadable, missing photos, or other issues related to reading the iPhoto library structure.
Repair Database
Checks for inconsistencies in your iPhoto library file and repairs them. Adds photos that are stored in the library but are currently missing from the database.
Rebuild Database
Examines and rebuilds your library. This should be used only when “repairing” the database doesn't work.
My Background Finding Missing Library Files:
Even though I have helped a lot of people with their missing iPhoto Photo Library files, I still have personally never experienced a corrupt or missing library file myself.
So, like I tell everyone that I help, I still can't give you first-hand knowledge of how to deal with your problem, since I've never even been able to reproduce the situation. And often, I never hear back from them, so I never find out exactly what fixed their particular problem.
But, what I can tell you from everything that I've heard from people with these problems, and from those that I have helped, is that in a few rare cases, iPhoto libraries seem to go missing during upgrades of iPhoto library files when a major version of iPhoto was just installed, and when their iPhone is connected to their computers and is doing various kinds of syncs and imports.
It's very strange. Coming from their stories, it's as if in these situations, when there is a problem, the software makes a decision to move the Library file somewhere else — possibly to the OSX trash bin!? And then iPhoto creates a whole new (and empty) library file. I, of course, easier not to believe all of this, but I've heard this story many times now, over and over, so I've had to accept that something strange is, in fact, going on.
Instructions
Backup your iPhoto library.
What you are about to do is a fix for problems like this written by Apple programming engineersand built and hidden away inside of your iPhoto application. In almost all cases, it's safe to run without ever causing any damage to your iPhoto library file.
But, for the safety of your photo collection, since there's a tiny chance something could go wrong with this procedure, please make sure you have a good backup of your library file. You can’t be too safe when it comes to your irreplaceable photo collection.
With iPhoto closed, press and hold down the option and command keys.
Launch iPhoto.
Don’t let go of those two keys until a special window pops up. The window will look different depending on which version of iPhoto you are running
From this new window, first, let's choose to repair your iPhoto Library Database.
It could take a little while if your library is massive
Relaunch iPhoto and look for your missing photos in the Events folders again. If you still can’t find them, repeat this process from step (2) but this time instead choose to rebuild the database from the list.
This also could take a little while if your library is massive
Relaunch iPhoto and look for your missing photos in the Events folders again.
This also could take a little while if your library is massive
Additional Information
Here’s the page on Apple’s website explaining this same process, including older versions of the iPhoto application: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2638
Testimonials
Repair and Rebuild iPhoto using “iPhoto Library Manager”
If Apple's built in “First Aid” processes didn't restore your missing photos, it's possibly that the iPhoto application just isn't accessing, or isn't able to access, your library file with all of your photos in it.
By default, any time you launch the iPhoto application, it loads up the photo library file that was loaded when quitting out of the application last.
If you are trying to run Apple's first aid procedures to fix a photo library file that wasn't the one loaded the last time you launched iPhoto, or a library file that even the “first aid” part of the iPhoto application can't even seem to open (because it's so badly damaged), you may need to move on to a tool that will be more “powerful” and one you can specifically target at the correct library file you want to fix.
This tool is a third party piece of software — and really the only one out there of its kind as far as I can tell.
“iPhoto Library Manager” by Fatcat software is an application that does many things including the ability to merge 2 library files. But in particular, it offers “Rebuilding Corrupt Libraries.”
http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/
What I really like about Brian Webster’s approach is that his application doesn’t just try and fix your current “damaged” library, it instead (more safely) creates a completely new library file and pulls in all the photos and data it needs from your “damaged” one:
Sometimes, an iPhoto library will become corrupted, with missing photos, mysterious iPhoto hangs, or outright crashes. With iPhoto Library Manager, you can rebuild a new library based on your current library, starting with a fresh database free of corruption. You can even scavenge photos from the library that iPhoto may have lost track of.
Thank you so much. AI is alive and well, your solution gave me back scores of photos
I stand amazed and in your debt
Thank you so much!! I was in the process of preparing to move my computer data on my 2012 MacBook Pro (which refuses to backup) to a new computer and the library updated without warning and I “lost” 5 years of photos!! This little trick saved my life, quite literally all of the memories!
Thank you!!! The simple command-option-repair library helped me recover many photos I thought were lost forever. Thanks again.
Fantastic! So great to hear! And thanks for letting me know about your good fortune. 🙂
Dear Curtis,
I am primarily a DOS / Windows and Linux user not Mac OS but I need to help my wife occasionally with her Mac.
This is the problem.
She has many iPhoto libraries, contining thousands of photos each.
In one of her libraries, which is about 40 GB in size, when I click Show Package contents I see the first level of the folder heirarchy including the Masters folder and the Previews folder, and Thumbnails folder, etc, but also in that folder level there are two odd files called Library.iphoto and Library6.iphoto, and their size is 22 bytes and 12 bytes respectively. To repeat, their size is in bytes, not kbytes or Mbytes. They show the regular iPhoto library icon, and their “Kind” is listed as iPhoto Library but clearly they are not iPhoto libraries because they are far too small. They are not listed as Alias.
It seems to me that they should not be there but what is the best thing to do? Delete them with Finder? Just ignore them? Repair the Library somehow?
Thank you
I am repairing my iPhoto photos on my external hard drive. It’s been sitting at 100% complete for more than an hour? Is this normal? How long should I wait before forcing a restart?
So where DO you save the new library file in step 4, above?
And also, does Library Manager strip all editing that may have been done to photos when it rebuilds the library?
(I have a specific issue where all of a sudden this past spring, the thumbnails in Photos no longer correlate with the actual photos – clicking on a thumbnail of a photo taken in April, will show a photo taken in 2010!!!) The folks at apple want to make a fresh new library for me, but mentioned that doing so will erase almost twenty years of edits! HELP!!!
It seems when I save pictures older than 2010 they don’t show up on my iPhoto library. How can I find these.
Sukoshi, it all depends on how you are saving photos. Are you actually importing them into iPhoto directly, or are you just saving them to your Mac, and then expect them to be inside of iPhoto (automatically).
There are ways to get photos to import and save “into” iPhoto (and Photos) automatically, but it usually requires syncing through iCloud, or syncing through a USB cable and an iPhone or digital camera etc.
Manually, you usually have to load iPhoto, and then manually import all photos you want to be inside of iPhoto.
A “longshot” guess here, is if you are sure they are inside of iPhoto, and you aren’t seeing them, (if something hasn’t gone wrong with your database where it needs to be repaired of rebuilt like the instructions above) then maybe it’s something to do with the EXIF metadata, and your photos aren’t showing up chronologically because they no longer have the date the photo was taken embedded.
My issue, is I normally save from scandisk to file on computer in finder under pictures. All of a sudden the computer said, I didn’t have permission to move a picture or edit?
I closed everything restarted this morning, and plugged in scandisk on a USB module, I was able to import from Iphotos one image, then was confident and clicked everything I hadn ‘t updated to import from iPhotos. I assumed they were going to go in the same file as the first one. Nope, they are not there, and have no idea where they went. I did a search under DSCN, and they are not to be found. So big question, where did they go?
You would think Apple would put a step in there just after you click import to ask where to import. Duhhh.
Anyhow, very frustrating to say the least and spending way too much time trying to figure it out.
I’m running OS X El Capitan, Version 10.11.6
Thanks for any help,
Bill
UPDATE…….
This is strange, the images I imported and deleted are no longer in photos, but here they are in the albums folder??? Not confusing at all……so, maybe this will help some other folks out there…. Once you open your Photos. Don’t try and do anything there, just highlight them, then to up to the top under File, just to the right of Safari, scroll down to Export. Then a box comes up, says export one or however many you highlighted…I put a easy number to find under sequential sequence…Then it’s glorious you click export and the drop down box you’ve been waiting to show, shows up and there you can export to where you want it to go. Remember, Up to the top under File, hope that helps someone and take care of your health everyone. We’ll get through, always look on the bright side of life… and stay positive and busy. Thanks for those other folks who post helpful comments…:O)
I have a very old iMac and tried at one time to back up iPhoto library to an external hard drive, pretty sure I did not do something right and ever since then I struggle with finding the original photo, if I click on them to open them I get a large ? in the box instead of the photo. I would like to back them up the the cloud once I figure out where in the heck they are.
hi I am able to see my picture as Thumbnail as well as my Albums and folders however when i go to PHOTOS it shows me only 10 pics that i have and when i click on the albums it says No photos .
I tried the repair / rebuild option however no result .
this happened after i was organising my albums and decided to take a break closed the laptop and opened it again an pooof no more pictures
any idea how to fix this?
Thank you in advance
I thought it was all lost in my old iMac with Mac OS 10.4.11 and iPhoto 6.0.6, but I found and old version of iPhoto Library Manager and it was able to recover nearly 16,000 pictures. My life’s collection! Amazing piece of software.
Fantastic to hear Ricardo! Very happy for you. Wahoo!
Thank you so much Curtis! I followed your instructions and was able to repair my databases and it worked!
Excellent Gina! Very happy to hear this. I hope you enjoy the rest of your Memorial Day weekend! :beer:
Hi there! I am having a similar problem. The photos ARE showing up in iphoto app, but if I’m on Facebook or somewhere else where I want to upload or attach a picture, they all come up with the white icon. Same thing on my iphone. For the record, my icons are showing up on my desktop, just not when I send or attach something. Very strange. Also, this is a brand new imac and I did a restore from time machine.
Kacy, were you ever able to resolve this issue?
Dear Curtis,
I was just reading all the comments and would like to ask you help. This issue started since I have updated my iPhone 6s to the latest update. I tried to connect it with the cable to my mac to upload the latest pictures, however it kept telling me that there is a passcode in the phone so the pictures could not be upload/even thought I do not have a passcode.
Later or all the thumbnails in my iPhoto disappeared. When I click on the picture, it shows but not with latest retouching I did.
As you suggested, I tried to rebuild the thumbnails-it didn’t work. I also tried to repair the database with no success.
I also tried the option: rebuild all the small photo thumbnails (it may take a while) but when I did that, there was always a window popping out saying: the photo XXX.jpg could not be opened because the original item cannot be found. There were two options: 1) CanceI – which I tried but then the iPhoto would crash after some time and 2) Find Photo – but when I clicked that I am not sure where to find it. Also, I have almost 3000 pictures in the iPhoto. Is there a way to do something for all the pictures and not to look individually?
I will be very grateful for any advice to get my original photos and thumbnails back.
Thank you,
Michaela
Will rebuilding the library work if I can’t even find the photos in the “Originals” folder? I am missing one set of photos from a trip in 2014. As with most folks, all of the thumbnails are there, but when I click the thumbnail, I get a black exclamation point. At a later date, I remember iphoto crashing while uploading some photos from my memory card and after that, this set of photos somehow disappeared. I have tried doing a recovery of deleted photos from the memory card, but the photos are missing. I have searched in the pictures-iphoto- originals and modified files and the photos are not there either. Have I somehow deleted the original files and now the photos are gone for good?
how long do i need to press the option and command key ?
You can let go now. 😉
Joking aside, the real answer is you just need to hold it down long enough for the menu to pop up. Then you can let go.
Thank you for this, I was creating an album for my husband from 2012 and had to collect so many photos and my laptop froze. When i restarted, all my photos were gone. I had to redo it and then had to sleep and again the next morning, found the photos missing. I was able to google your site and it thankfully has helped and saved me soo much time from redoing it again.
I was beginning to think Iphoto was such a hard program to use, you saved me!
Thank you!
Oh Charmaine, so glad to hear this helped you out. Fantastic! And thank you so much for letting me know. I really appreciate that. Cheers to you! 🙂
Hey!!
I’m facing some problem with photos app. Earlier i was using iphoto then i transfered all my photos in Photos app and checked it properly, then deleted the iphoto app, but now after a week or so i’m unable to find some of the photos in Photos app.
Please help it’s urgent.
Hi Curtis,
This has been by far the most helpful site I have seen on this subject! I’ve read through the comments and I don’t think I can find my problem, so I was wondering if you would be able to help me out?
I started off trying to copy my iPhoto library onto an external because my startup disk was full. I apparently had 2 different iPhoto libraries, one that was just iPhotolibrary.photolibrary and the other titled iPhonelibrary.photolibrary. As far as I’m concerned I thought they were both the same, not sure how I got two.
So I copied over the entire “pictures” folder, found on my hard drive.
Then, to be sure they had copied over correctly, I tried to open them both.
When I opened the iPhone folder, I scrolled to the bottom and all appeared to be there including an added ‘Recovered Photos’ folder, which I hadn’t had before, containing 5,000+ pictures. Except all the thumbnails are black and even when I enlarge them they stay black. I’m confused, I hadn’t recalled asking iPhoto to repair itself?
Also, when I open the iPhoto folder, it starts importing photos, and then asks if I want to import duplicates. Maybe I somehow made two different iPhoto libraries that were exactly the same?
And lastly,
Size on my hard drive:
– iPhotolibrary.photolibrary 15.77 GB
– iPhonelibrary.photolibrary 33.27 GB
Size on my external
– iPhotolibrary.photolibrary 15.77 GB
– iPhonelibrary.photolibrary 33.79 GB
So there seems to be a discrepensy in the sizes, could that be the added recovered photos? If so, does that mean I haven’t lost any? To sum up,
– why do i have 2 photo libraries, can I combine them to make just one?
– where did the recovered photos come from?
– and how can I see the recovered photos to see that I’m not missing any photos?
I’m sorry if that was really long winded!! Would just be nice to get this sorted out and finally have some room on my startup disk without worrying that I’ve lost pictures.
Thanks for your time and help, really appreciate it.
Thank you so much for posting this information. I was able to restore all of my missing photos by following your instructions to repair the database. The only problem now is the restored photos have a date assigned to them that is off by several years. Is there a way to manually fix the date that displays in iPhoto for each group of photos?
You’re so welcome Bill. So glad this worked out for you! :thumbs:
Yeah, when iPhoto gets fairly corrupt, and you get into repairing/restoring, sometimes there is some “collateral damage” I’ve heard. Mainly what I head is that people lose the “event” names all their photos were carefully stored and organized in.
I’m not sure I’ve heard of this situation, but if your photos are consistently off by a set amount of time, then this could be an easy fix for you with little harm done in the end.
Check out my post here and follow the instructions to do “batch change.”
https://www.scanyourentirelife.com/iphoto-change-date-time-photo-taken-digital-camera-scanned-photo/
Hope this works out for you!
Hi! I’ve read through your site and have a question. I have photos on my phone (iPhone 6) that iPhoto never uploaded. It’s a three week span of photos (just so happens my mother in law wants about 100 pics from that time frame.) I repaired the database… and recovered all sorts of good stuff… but it didn’t help me with my problem. Any ideas on what to do? I’m sure there’s something quite simple that I’m overlooking but I can’t figure it out. Thanks for any help!
Thank YOU!!!!!! This explanation of how to repair iPhoto issues was the first clear, logical list that I have found. Most “help” is written for people who already know what they are doing. Now, I can save my family memories in multiple locations after my main backup external hard drive crashed just when iPhoto started acting up. Thanks again!
P
Hello Curtis,
I am so glad that I came across your article while I was researching for a solution that would fix a syncing issue I had been experiencing – certain photos from iPhoto were not copied to my iPhone via iTunes, even though I was able to add them to my iPhone via Photo Stream. The “Repair Database” feature worked like a charm! Thanks so much for being a sanity saver!
J
Hi Curtis,
Am trying to make a back up of my photos kept in iphoto on my Mac desktop. Have an external hard drive which has an older iphoto backup from a few years ago. To make space and to avoid recopying many of the same photos I decided to delete this old backup. After MUCH effort I managed to do this – took 3 days of emptying the trash can on my desk top to finally free up the space on my external hard drive.
However, now when I drag across the iphoto library to external hard drive, it copies REALLY quickly and the amount of free space on external hard drive remains unchanged – so guess I am only saving the folder name? From “get info” on my iphoto library says it is 207.36GB so it should take a few hours to copy to external heard drive I imagine. Any ideas on what is happening? Should I buy a new external hard drive or possibly re format my existing one?
I have plenty of space on my desk top, but just want to make a back up incase!
Further are the photos actually stored on the external hard drive or is it just a link back to the iphotos program on the desk top. I guess one will always have to have the iphoto program to be able to access them so what will happen now that Iphoto is no longer available? All very confusing really. Sometime wish I had stayed with windows and kept them all in simple folders!!
Would appreciate any help or advice. I am a senior citizen…. and struggle with all these new concepts!!
Many thanks.
Maddy.
Hi Maddy. If do command-I on your library file and are seeing “207 Gb’s”.. then that tells me you are looking at the correct file to be dragging to your external drive (for a backup).
Do you know how your external drive is formatted? This could be the case, that you trying to copy a very large Mac file to a “Windows-formatted” drive that is possibly also formatted in a way to not accept a file (even though this acts as a folder) that is so large in file size.
So, as you asked, this is what I would check first. See if your external drive is formatted correctly (Most store-bought drives outside of an Apple store will be pre-formatted for Windows). You could choose to have your drive formatted in a format that both PC’s and Mac’s can read, but I would recommend if you aren’t often on a PC with this drive, to stick with a Mac-only method of formatting. You want “Mac OS Extended Journaled” (encrypted or not encrypted — that’s up to you) You want to make sure nothing is on the drive before you format it (or you will lose it!) and use the “Disk Utility” application that is in your Application/Utilities folder in your user account.
If your drive is formatted correctly, then it could possibly be a permissions problem, where you don’t have permission to write to this drive. Command-I on the drive and then look at the bottom of the inspector window and see what permissions your account has set for writing (and reading).
See if any of this helps you out. :coffee:
Currently travelling around in China, and suddenly 1/3 of ALL the photos I’ve taken so far that would not show in iPhoto! I thought I had lost them – but no! The “Repair Database” was enough to recall them all. I am SO happy!
Thank you SO much !!
Oh Rikke, I’m so so happy to hear this helped you out! Fantastic.
You are SO welcome! And thank you for letting me know. That made my day to hear. :coffee:
Sorry – by the way, when dragged to the desktop, it copies fine and I can open it up in another graphics app.
Zapped PRAM – Came out fine !!!!
That’s interesting guhor. Not sure I’ve ever dealt with this problem and solution before! I hope this thread helps others out with this same problem in the future as well. :thumbs:
iPhoto – 37K images – 146GB. Has worked just fine. I have been doing a lot of “culling” and naming, etc. All of a sudden, when I click onto an individual photo to open it up, it comes up black.
It’ll have the little flag on the upper left (normal) AND it will show a name for any face that I might have identified – as well as show a place where it was taken. But the whole image is black. I have an iMac with 150GB left in storage. Running Yosemite 10.10.5.
Ran full complement of “repairs” to no avail.
Any help would be appreciated.
Hi there, I’ve read the posts above and see a lot of similarities although maybe not the same problem.
I’ve had the issue where an update on iPhoto results in the loss of links to the original image files and any attempt to access them results in the big grey triangle with the exclamation mark.
An additional problem that I experienced was that many events had become fragmented and lost the majority of their photographs.
I spent much time on the phone with Apple Support and tried the database first aid steps of repairing permissions and databases and verifying them but this approach did not work.
Your own suggestion of using iPLM successfully rebuilt the database, however I do still have the problem of lots of missing pictures from individual events but also now have lots of missing events. A strange addition has been that an additional “event” has been generated somewhere along the way with about 11000 photos in it, seemingly randomly distributed although possibly with some chronological ordering I places.
I wonder if you have any thoughts on how to restore the missing events possibly from this large collective event or to restore individual photos to their “home” events. As you can imagine dealing with 11000 pics would be painful. Any help greatly appreciated.
Thanks
John
John, my experience with the “!” means that a photo was initially imported with the advanced preference option to “copy items to the iPhoto library” was deselected (selected is default). This means that the photo is stored outside of the library file and is “referenced.” The “!” shows up (again in my experience) when that original photo has been moved and is no longer accessible. For example, you drug a folder of master images from one folder to another, or you even deleted it thinking it was a second copy of them (when in fact they were the originals). The “!” means “Hey, I can’t find your original photo.” So, you then have to manually relink them if you can find the originals — point iPhoto in the right folder direction.
For a better explanation to how this setting works, watch the video I made on this page: https://www.scanyourentirelife.com/iphoto-imported-photos-iphoto-library-managed-referenced/
Since I’ve never had a corrupt iPhoto library file to try and fix, I don’t know if it gives you the same “!” if the missing photos were originally stored inside of the iPhoto library file. But, it makes sense that it possibly could appear as well.
I know from what I’ve heard, iPLM doesn’t -always- do miracles when it’s really doing it’s best to rebuild/repair the most stubborn of library files. I’ve heard from some that they were lucky and most/all of their photos were restored, but some of the original events where the photos were restored weren’t maintained. So, this could possibly be what happened to you as well. You kind of hit the last resort and many or most of your photos were restored, but there was still some corruption to the database and all the events weren’t.
It’s still possible your photos are inside of the library file, but just aren’t showing up in the application. So worst case, if you were adventurous, as a last resort, you could make a duplicate copy of your library file as it is now, (so you have another copy of it if you mess it up in what I’m about to tell you) and then you could go into the library file “package contents” and try and manually find your missing images. It’s not always easy to find much of anything in there because only iPhoto understands how it stores files through the folder hierarchy. But, there could be a way to search using the advanced fields of Finder for all photo files inside and maybe it could pull them all up for you.
Hi Curtis, would really appreciate your advice and help on the following issue I’ve encountered.
I dropped my iPhone into water and hence it cannot be switched on now. In an attempt to locate and retrieve my photos from iCloud and iPhoto, I signed into iCloud on my Mac yesterday and managed to recover 1,000 photos from the photo stream. Additionally, when I clicked “last 12 months” on iPhoto, I also managed to locate all of the 7,000+ photos that were taken from my spoilt iPhone and also my previous iPhones, after a few minutes of loading.
However while trying to export these 7,000+ photos out, iPhoto hanged and I had to force quit it as it was not responding. After reopening iPhoto, I went back to the “last 12 months” tab and realised there were only 4,000+ photos now. This meant that the 3,000+ photos that appeared before are now missing from it. The missing photos are from various dates and events across the last 12 months.
Would really appreciate your advice as to what had most probably gone wrong and the steps that I can take to locate my missing photos because this might be my only chance left to retrieve my photos..
Thank you so so much!!!
Hi Adelle, I realize a lot of time has passed since you originally wrote your comment. Were you able to recover any more since then? The “Last 12 Months” link or button that you are referring to, is a “smart” folder basically that just automatically pulls in a list of all of your photos in your events, from the last 12 months. So, if you saw them in this section of iPhoto, know that they are also in your events, in 1 or more event “folders” as well. I can’t imagine a situation where iPhoto would show you photos in the “Last 12 Months” folder and not also show you the master images stored in your Events.
Hi Curtis! I need your help!
My iPhoto library has disappeared. When I click on iPhoto a box comes up saying “which photo library do you want iPhoto to use?” and the box is empty. When I click on “other library” and I got to iPhoto and click “open”, the “open” button doesn’t work. But the iPhoto file does say it contains over 20GB. I have gone searching and I did find all of the “Masters” but I am just trying to recover my library of neatly organised ‘Events’. I have tried ‘File’ and ‘Switch to Library’ and that just takes me to the same box – “which photo library do you want iPhoto to use?” I have also tried holding down option and command while opening iPhoto and the same box comes up again. I cannot get the ‘repair database’ box to show up.
I’d really appreciate your help!! Thank you!
Hi Jessica. From here I would try and manually load the iPhoto library file. In a Finder application window, I would navigate to the library file that you believe to be your original library file, the one where you have found all of your masters inside, and double click on it. Or you can control-click and then choose “open with” and then choose iPhoto as your application of choice.
If you are still having problems after this, my assumption is if you know you have found your library file, and it won’t open within iPhoto (Switch to), double clicking through Finder (what I showed you above), or with option and command held down to load repair, then your library file may have been “damaged” somehow before you wrote me. I’ve still never had a “damaged” one in my hands to experiment with, so this is still all just based on diagnoses.
At this point, if you know for sure you have your library file with all of your originals inside, but you just can’t get it to open no matter what, then I would for sure move on to iPhoto Library Manager and try and have it reconstruct a new copy of your library file.
Hope this helps.
Hi Curtis! I just wanted to finally send you a big thanks for your help on this issue! Nothing worked so I ended up downloading the free preview of iPhoto Library Manager and I managed to build a whole new library exactly the same as my old one! Thank you for taking the time to help me and suggesting I download that. It was really efficient! Now I just have to figure out where the duplicates are so I can delete the extra 21GB that is now on my computer somewhere. 🙂
Hello again Curtis! Unfortunately iPhoto has done it to me yet again! The same box (which photo library do you want to use?) keeps coming up and I can’t open either of my iPhoto libraries (my original one or the one I rebuilt with iPhoto library manager last time). The box that came up before the “which photo library do you want to use” was one that said “iPhoto has detected inconsistencies in your library” “Click repair to avoid problems.” I didn’t click repair but instead just clicked cancel, then my normal iPhoto showed up and then forced me to close it. So now I am wondering should I rebuild yet another iPhoto library with iPhoto library manager? Then some how delete my old two libraries because this is going to clog up my memory! And could you please tell me where to find my masters so that I know they are safely on my mac somewhere? I can’t seem to remember where iPhoto stores the originals.
So frustrating that this keeps happening! I would really appreciate your help again. Thank you so much Curtis!
Hi Jessica, I’ve got exactly the same issue 🙁 and to top it off my wifi is down so can’t download the iphoto library managed to rebuild like you did….the masters are stored under pictures and you right click on icon to show contents of folder…let me know if you’ve fixed your problem. Curtis if you’re still there I’d greatly appreciate your help too.
Hi there….probably the best discussion page on the subject I have found so far. I read up everything above and will hopefully fix my issue soon. My question is about the back up. If the iphoto library is on an external hard drive (currently looks corrupted and can’t access any photo after following prompts on upgrading/rebuilding), could I simply click and drag this iphoto Library icon from the external hard drive onto another external drive through the second usb slot (I have an old 2009 macbook, running Mountain Lion)? Wouldn’t I be backing up a corrupted library and therefore not be able to access it anyway if my initial attempt to fix failed? I have lots of pictures backed up online, but not all yet as its a rather lengthy process).
Thanks for your help, will def bookmark this discussion page!
OK … this one has not been covered yet ! My iPhoto library has gotten corrupted somehow, so I thought a simple restore from the Time Machine would fix it. However when I go into the Time Machine, my backed-up IPhoto library is there (in size), but the icon is a blank piece of paper (with folded corner). What does this mean and how do I get it back to a working iPhoto Library please ?
Dear Curtis Bisel.
Hope that you can help me.
I have a trouble with my iPhoto program. When I open a map where i have
put picture’s, the thumbs all appear on the screen.
When I move the mouse over a picture, there appears a flag in the upper left
corner, and an down indexing arrow in the right corner of the thumb.
when I click the mouse on the picture, all the thumbs on the screen disappear.
In some cases it is enough to klick on the reopen, and all the thumbs
reappear. But in some cases I have to go through the repairing procedure.
When turning on -The last 12 Months-. On the screen appears 720 items
1.9 GB Most of them I have already put in separate maps and albums. Now
when i have made a new map for the last ones. The same thing happens. As soon
as I try to select the pictures. to move them in the new map. All the thumbs disappears,
And I am stuck there.
I have localised the iPhoto library map, where the original pictures should be.
Information tells my that inside that map there are 12. 24 GB in that map.
When I try to open that map. it only opens up in iPhoto. And then I am on the starting
point again. As soon as I try to select a picture to remove it. the same story continues.
Some of the pictures in the last import are big one´s from my Canon Mark II can
that be reason for all the trouble. I made a copy of the iPhoto library map, on a Memory
card. And a copy of all the large pictures I also have in a special map on my Hard dish.
How can I remove the large pictures ( if they are the cause )from the iPhoto map without
opening up in the iPhoto program ?
Thank you
Jon A. Bjarnason.
Hi Jon. I’d love to give you some advice, but I’m having a problem following your situation and question. I’m not sure what you mean by “map” .. such as “I made a copy of the iPhoto library map, on a Memory card.”
Is there any way you can send me screen shots and explain each one for me? That might make it easier for me to follow. You could send them to me through my “Contact” page at the top and choose “I have a question” and it will give you the option to attach files.
Hello,
Some how I have run into a problem with my iPhoto library. Something popped up past night that, stupidly, I did not read. I now have an “iPhoto library 2”, and when I try to switch back to the other iPhoto library, it wont let me. I can’t find my pictures!
Hi Sydney. I’m sorry to read about your issue. Hopefully, it’s just slightly misplaced right now and you will be able to find it easily.
I see you are commenting on this guide page that helps people who have already found their library file, but can’t get all of the photos to show up inside of the application. You actually should be looking at the other resource page I have up. This one will help you to actually find a missing library file. Try following the steps on this other guide instead and see if this helps you:
Is iPhoto Not Opening Up Your Original Photo Library File With All of Your Photos? Are 100% of Your Images Still Missing?
OK, I’ve tried everything here with no help. Even spent the 29.95 on IPLM and got no benefit. Here’s the thing though, MOST of the photo files, at least, were at some point “recovered” in a folder called “iPhoto Library Recovered Photos,” and I have built an auxiliary library from these. However, a few of the newest files are not in that folder. Now here’s the really curious thing. in my original library, I get the whole black triangle and exclamation point thing for EVERY photo — even ones just added to my photo stream, or uploaded from SD card AFTER the photos disappeared from my library. I just took a photo with my iPhone and watched it pop into my photo stream in the original library. Double click on the thumbnail and there’s the black triangle again. Makes absolutely no sense to me. any help?
Addendum . . .
When I try to restore the iPhoto Library from my Time Machine backup, the process always fails and I get the following error message:
“The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in “iPhoto Library” can’t be read or written.
(Error code -36)”
Then a few moments later, the external drive where the Library is located will spontaneously dismount with the following message:
“Disk not Ejected Properly
Eject “{Drive Name}” before disconnecting or turning it . . .”
Hi Scott,
It’s really hard for me to try and diagnose your issue with what little I have to go on. Too many variables of what happened before and after the library file corruption. But, if even IPLM can’t put your library file back together, then something really went wrong somewhere.
Since you are one of the lucky ones, that has a backup file of it, I would put more of your time to trying to get that backup restored. I looked up the Error -36 and probably found similar information to what you found. It’s either a drive formatting issue where OS X is having problems getting information in and out off a FAT32 (Windows) formatted drive, or it’s anything from basic input/output errors due to the drive possibly starting to go out.
What is your Time Machine drive formatted as?
If the problem turns out to be a hardware issue, then I would try and:
1) Make sure the drive is plugged right into a port on your computer (not chained through other devices)
2) Run drive diagnostic software on it to look for problems with the drive. Disk Utility has a basic one, but you can’t do better than Disk Warrior if you are dealing with a really bad issue.
Hi Curtis,
I am in the same situation as Bibi and Jean. I was asked to do an upgrade on iPhoto this past Sunday, and it took overnight to do the “repair” to my permissions. (my computer went to sleep before it was done) In the morning, i accidentally disconnected my external drive (which is where my iPhoto Library lives) while it was still updating. So my iPhoto crashed.
Instead of going to my Time Machine backup (i actually did look at it, but couldn’t figure out how to restore it, so gave up — i think my problem was that i had iPhoto still open), i used iPhoto First Aid and went directly to Rebuild Database.
It took 2 days for 10,000 photos, but it did restore them. The problem is, now all the photos are in one “event”, and i also notice weird “face” photos – i assume from the Faces application within the program.
Is there any way to get back the “events” listing?
After the above happened, i wanted to try again to restore my old iPhoto from Time Machine, but the only version it was showing me now, was from a date in time that was “mid-upgrade”– i.e, Sunday night while my computer went to sleep. I went ahead and restored it, opened it, and the library was blank — same thing that happened the first time i choose to Rebuild Database.
In your opinion is it worth it to try to maybe Repair Database — will this maybe get my “events” folder back? I am able to see them all in the “Old Masters > Year > Month” folders under Package Contents. So i am hopeful… somehow.
Or maybe i should try the iPhoto Libary Manager?
On a side note, i don’t know why i can’t find an older backup of iPhoto prior to Sunday. My Time Machine shows me that there are several others dates available, however, when i travel to them in the Finder, it just says “Waiting…” and won’t ever show me any contents. If i could only find an older backup, i think i would be fine. Since Time Machine ran out of disk space while i was restoring my iPhoto this week, i think it may have gone ahead and deleted all my older backups. (Also keep in mind, my iPhoto library is on another external drive.)
Whew! I know this was confusing, so i hope you followed! 🙂 Thanks in advance for your excellent website and suggestions.
Diane
I am having exactly the same problem with my iPhoto library with all the photos now in the old master folder. When I repaired the database all the photos came back in a random order in one event with lots of faces photos.
Any help on restoring the family photos much appreciated!
Rob
Oh my gosh, thank you so much!! I had my old iphoto library backed up on an external hard drive, and when I tried to open it as the library for iphoto (both from the external drive AND after copying it to my internal macbook drive), it didn’t show any photos in it!! Even though the library was 26GB. I did the rebuilt database and it imported over 8,000 photos I had stored in there. Thank you!!!
Congratulations Shelley! You’re so welcome. I’m so happy to hear you were one of the successes and got your photos back! Wahooo! Now it’s time to celebrate!! :beer:
Hi there! Your instructions are fantastic but I have a question before I try it. Upon upgrading to Yosemite and the newest iPhoto, I got the message saying that iPhoto had to upgrade my library. It, of course, took forever and iPhoto crashed. I restarted and now it has created a new library. I cannot see my old library but I can see (using your instructions) my “Old Masters” folder that has all of the images from the last 5 years. How can I create my new library with the images from the Old Masters folder? I have all of the iPhoto folders on an external HD that I use only for that. (And I made the horrible mistake of not making a backup prior to the upgrade.)
Any advice would be awesome! Thank you!
Bibi, did you ever find the answer? I am in the exact position… all my pictures are on an external and they are in the “Old Masters” folder rather than the “New Masters.”
Hi, I haven’t gotten an answer but I’m still hoping. I can’t access any of my pictures and I don’t want to mess anything else up.
Hi Jean, I just replied to Bibi, so you should check out that response and see if any of it can help you as well.
I just did about 25 minutes of research online to see if I could find out any more about both of your situations, and so far nothing else is really coming up other than:
1) those keeping their library files on external drives, make sure the drive is formatted as OS X Extended (journaled). You can hit command-I on the drive (icon) and an info window will come up. In that window under “Format” it will tell you how it’s currently formatted.
2) Backup library file and then run the iPhoto First Aid procedure to Repair database and if that doesn’t work, try rebuilding it. 3) If First Aid built into iphoto doesn’t work, then trying the rebuilding procedure in the iPhoto Library Manager application is the best last resort.
And of course, restoring your library file from a Time Machine backup is a great option if you have a one.
Let me know if any of this helps, or what additional information you might have for me that I can use to help you further. Fingers crossed for you!
Hi Bibi. So, you have 2 library files now, one that has all of your master files, and one that it created (on its own I assume) that is empty — right?
If you can make a backup of the one library file with your photos in it, I would do this first before you do anything else. That way, anything else you do trying to recover this library file will be much less of a concern for you since you have a backup to go back to.
You asked how you can create a new library file with the images from your old masters folder. I’m not so sure this is what you want to do, because this would then be a third library file. I would try and get your original library file — the one with your images inside that you may have just backed up — to work again.
You said “I can’t see my old library.” Does this just mean that it won’t load? Have you tried double clicking on this library file to see if it will load inside of iPhoto? Additionally, if you are in your empty library file, when you go to “File” at the top and choose “Switch to library,” are you able to select our old library file in this menu and load it from there?
And, I’m not sure what you mean by “I have all of the iPhoto folders on an external HD that I use only for that.” (Are all of your images stored inside of iPhoto being managed there, or are you saying all of your photos are being referenced and the masters are stored outside of the library file?)
If you can’t get your original library file to load, I would still suggest you do the two options listed on this resource page. If your master images are in your library file, but you just can’t get your library file (with the photos in it) to load, then your only way to fix it is to repair and rebuild this library file. First you try and do it with iPhoto and the first aid procedure (the first on this page). If that won’t work, then you gotta get into it and rebuild it with the other program that I mentioned — iPhoto Library Manager.
Let me know what you come up with after reading this, and if maybe I am just misunderstanding some information you told me.
Curtis
Hiya! Great instructions, thank you. Sadly I still cannot access my photos. They are there somewhere as iMovie shows them when you choose iPhoto Library in that program, but in iPhoto itself, the alternative library’s contents appear. Any advice would be so helpful and appreciated. thank you!
Hi Analee. Could it just be that you are in the wrong library file? If you are in iPhoto and you aren’t seeing the right photos, then this means you are in a different library file. When you switch (File > Switch to Library File) to the other one (not the one you are calling the “alternative” one), does the correct one then load?
Hi there, I have a similar problem. I have tried everything and can’t seem to solve it.
All of my photos are in iPhoto – the thumbnails are visible where they should be. However when I click on a thumbnail, the full size photo shows up blank. I can “reveal in Finder” and the photos is where is should be. I have tried repairing the database, repairing permissions, thumbnails etc but no change.
Any ideas for how to make the full size photos appear?
Thanks!
Josh
Hi Josh. If your original photos are for sure in the library file folder (where they should be as you said), then it’s just iPhoto that has “lost” the link to the photos.
So if I were in your place, I would make sure I’ve tried all of the suggestions on this page. Rebuilding the databases might be the answer. If the “rebuilding Database” in the iPhoto Library First Aid doesn’t work, then I would for sure try it using the iPhoto Library Manager software and the rebuilding function. Sometimes that really turns out to be the trick is to have IPLM rebuild the entire thing.
Hello, my iphoto kept crashing and I used all of the steps above and now have iphoto library and can thankfully see all my images there. The issue is that with many of them I can’t access the master file / show in i photo. When I try to show in iphoto the message ‘missing.tiff; comes up… PLEASE HELP, I have thousands of images that I haven’t saved anywhere else 🙁
My first thought is wondering whether or not any of the images that bring up the “missing.tiff” message are actually being stored inside of your library file now. If an image is coming up as missing, but the master file is in fact currently stored inside of your library file (such as in the ‘masters’ folder), then this means it’s still a database problem and repairing, rebuilding is still necessary – either using iPhoto’s built in First Aid, or iPhoto Library Manager if that doesn’t work.
If your thousands of missing photos aren’t currently being stored inside of your library file, then this missing information must point to the fact that iPhoto can’t locate them. My usual experience with this though is that you get an exclamation point in a large graphic instead of your image when images can’t be found. And this is often when a photo was imported in the “referenced” option setting (saved in the current location on your computer) and not in the “managed” method (that stores the imported image inside of your library file). I made a video tutorial explaining these options here:
https://www.scanyourentirelife.com/iphoto-imported-photos-iphoto-library-managed-referenced/
If all of your photos have been managed inside of iPhoto, is it possible something has caused your master images to be removed from the library file in some kind of “incident” recently? (I’ve had people try all kinds of things on their own to repair their library file — taking files in and out and not knowing what they were doing and it “damaged” the integrity of the library file)
Hello! I wanted videos saved on my A20 Android phone to my laptop. When I connected the phone to my laptop it shows only photos, not videos saved on the phone library. Please help me to fix this issue, Thanks.
Henry
I’m sorry Henry, I’m not sure I would be the best person to help you with this. Especially since this is an article about the discontinued iPhoto application for the Mac, and even more importantly, I don’t currently own an Android phone. So, even if I found an article online that seemed to be a solution, because I don’t have experience with Android phones, I wouldn’t know if it was good advice or not. I’m really sorry I can’t help, but my suggestion for you would be to find an online forum for Android users and ask your question there.