Iphoto Library Missing!!!

[dalessio7891]

Hello,

I am a Peace Corps volunteer in Kyrgyzstan and I have taken about 2000 photos and imported them in iphoto. Now, it seems that they are gone and I can't find a way to re-import them back into iphoto. A photo library is still saved on my desktop with all the photos, as well as a backup library, but I don't know how to get them back into iphoto. The instructions say to hit 'find library' but that option doesnt seem to be showing for me. Please help, I dont want to lose all the photos from my entire service!

 

[gauchogolfer]

If you are running iPhoto 5 or 6, hold down the option key when you start up iphoto. This should give you the opportunity to rebuild or find your library.

 

[ftaok]

Relax. As long as the files still exist on the hard drive, you won't lose the photos.

Quick questions. Did you mess with the photos from the Finder? I ask because 9 times out of 10, iPhoto problems crop up because the user messed around with the iPhoto library folder from the Finder. All changes to photos should be done within the iPhoto application.

OK, assuming that you didn't and you have some wierd iPhoto problem. I would suggest burning a DVD of the iPhoto Library so that you have a back-up copy of all of the photos. Make sure you check to see if the photos are really intact, keeping in mind that a lot of the jpg files you will see are thumbnails of your real photos. The real photos will have file names such as DSCxxxx.jpg or IMGxxxx.jpg and so forth.

The first thing I would try would be to reset your preference. Go into your user library and look in the preferences folder for something like iPhoto.plist .

Move that file to the desktop and restart iPhoto. Did you get anything?

No? OK, the next thing I'd try would be to move the iPhoto Library folder out of the Pictures folder. This should trick iPhoto into thinking that you have a fresh, blank library. A new iPhoto Library will show up in the Pictures folder after restarting iPhoto. Anything fishy? No.

Well if you answered no both times, I don't know what to say. You could then re-import the photos into the new fresh library. If you don't want to do that, then you should probably put the original plist file and iPhoto Library folder back where they were. Get rid of the "blank" iPhoto Library folder and plist file.

Good Luck.

EDIT - The post above is a better idea. Try that first.