iPhoto is having serious problems.

[Harry K.]

I just about want to kill iPhoto even though it's my favorite app. if it works correctly.

It worked correctly and fast with 8,000 photos on my 12" PB until about five months ago.

Since then, it has slowed the entire system down when it runs and it just beachballs every few minutes when it's open.

I've tried most everything:

I upgraded to a 17" Powerbook which is faster and has more memory.

I got iLife '05 hoping it would make a difference. Nope.

I got Tiger- no difference in speed or performance.

I reinstalled each photo one by one and after 2,000 it started the same problems. So I've now stopped with just 6,000 in my library.

I reinstalled Tiger creating a "previous system" folder. No change. (I really don't want to have to start completely fresh on my system)

I deleted iPhoto and reinstalled it from the disc. It's the same as before and now I've lost the albums in my folders (any idea how I can get them back, please!?).

I've made the background black and turned off shadows.

It's slow when it's running alone with no other apps. open.

I really don't know what to do. I've run out of ideas. Please help.

Also, one other note. The PhoneBook widget won't run at all on my user account. I've tried deleting preferences, reinstalling the widget, etc. It just comes up with a warning message any time I try to use it. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[mklos]

It depends on the size of your photos. If you have 25 or 30MB photos of course its going to slow down after 2,000+ photos. Any program will slow down with 10,000 30MB photos. iPhoto wasn't made to handle that kind of thing.

I haven't experienced any slow downs.

You must have to have some larger photos in your library.

 

[Harry K.]

Nope, it's all 2MB pictures.

 

[Applespider]

What part of it is slow? Is there anything you've changed in it since you moved it - in terms of the way that you work?

I found keeping things in 'rolls' rather than showing all the thumbnails helped once I got beyond a few thousand photos.

And, don't take this wrongly since it took me months to spot it (although I guess it's unlikely if you've re-imported so often), but have you emptied the Trash in iPhoto. My iPhoto was starting to get sludgelike with 5,000 images until I discovered another 5,000 in the trash.... oops...

 

[Abstract]

Well he said everything was fine, even with a lot of photos, around 5 months ago.

When you deleted iPhoto, did you delete everything in iPhoto Library? I'd delete everything that has to do with iPhoto, including those "thumbs" files and the whole lot.

 

[munkle]

Split up your iPhoto library into more manageable chunks using iPhoto Buddy.

 

[mad jew]

I upgraded to a 17" Powerbook which is faster and has more memory.

How much memory exactly? It might be worthwhile getting more again. Although I don't think this will necessarily completely solve your problems, it might help. As a last resort, maybe try completely reinstalling everything. Do a fresh erase/install of Tiger, load iPhoto on from the DVD, import the photos again. Do this as a last resort though, because it sounds like it'll be quite a bit of work. But iPhoto really shouldn't be that slow.

 

[russed]

just out of curiosity - iis it ok to go through your iphoto files and delete all of the 'thumbs' folders? my iphoto has also been slowing down and i have loads of junk in there that i dont want.

also, i have some files in there (under year > month > date) that have nothing in there. will i corrupt the iphoto library if i delete them? i like to have things all tidy and im rahter low on space so every little bit helps!

 

[munkle]

You could also try iPhoto Diet, some people swear by it. I don't know if it's compatible with Tiger though.

 

[iGary]

iPhoto 5 destroyed the application.

Still waiting for a fix.

I've probably sent at least a hundred bug reports to Apple from "unexpected quits."

 

[Harry K.]

Well, the trash I always keep emptied.

I'll have to check out iPhoto Diet although I don't like splitting up my library.

The roll idea sounds like the best so far, if it will let iPhoto load faster. I think I'll try it.

I'm still confused by my phonebook widget. I took it to a Genius at the Soho and they couldn't fix it. That saddens me. Even 10.4.1 didn't fix that.

Thanks for all the ideas & info so far!

 

[Inspector Lee]

I'm experiencing a sudden slowness as well with 4400 pics (2 MB size) on a 1 GHz TiBook with a gig o' RAM, iLife '04 and jaguar. Can't import pics directly anymore via my Lexar firewire reader. Have to select them manually from the desktop and drag. Was hoping an upgrade to Tiger and iLife '05 would speed it up but based on some comments about iLife '05, I must admit I am a wee bit hesitant.