iPhoto '09 Freezes on start-up

[magiic]

Everytime I open iPhoto '09 it sits for a minute and then pinwheels. It just started recently. I have tried deleting the plist file and repairing permissions. Any other solutions to this?

 

[magiic]

I tried using appzapper to clear out iPhoto and re-install and it still does the same thing. Any suggestions?

 

[SilentPanda]

I believe that if you hold down the option key when launching iPhoto it lets you select your library. Your library might be corrupt.

Try "Create New" when the dialog comes up to see if that helps.

 

[magiic]

Do I lose any tagging or albums or such if I do this?

 

[JediMeister]

The new iPhoto Library package will be created in ~/Pictures or wherever you select the destination and it will be completely empty, and not show any pictures/albums/metadata that was present in the prior library. The test library is solely for the purpose of seeing if the pinwheel on startup follows the library. If there is no problem in the new library, you can consider either an automatic or manual rebuild of the library. Directions for performing either rebuild process can be found here. Based on the steps you've taken so far the only remaining culprit for the pinwheel would be the library itself, since you've identified the problem as not with the application itself or the plist. Quick question before leaping to this possible resolution though, after uninstalling and reinstalling iPhoto, you DID update to iPhoto 8.0.2 right?

 

[magiic]

I updated to 8.0.2 and that didnt fix it. I tried to follow the steps but it does not work for me. I held option and command and then opened iPhoto and it still pinwheels. I have kept the keys held down for over 10 seconds and no prompt comes up. Any other suggestions?

 

[pknz]

I find my iPhoto 09 freeze if I have Sharing enable in the preferences.

iPhoto will lock up for 5-10 minutes.

 

[magiic]

Moving the library out and opening a new one fixed it. I still dont know how to solve my problem though either repairing my old library or re-importing the old photos into a new non corrupt library.

 

[JediMeister]

Directions for the rebuild process are linked in my previous post. The manual rebuild can be a bit hairy and isn't recommended for people uncomfortable with digging around in the iPhoto Library package. The automatic rebuild must be done on the original library and can be done by completely quitting out of iPhoto (so that there is no black triangle or blue dot under it), and then relaunching it with those two keys +option held down. You should see this:

 

[magiic]

Directions for the rebuild process are linked in my previous post. The manual rebuild can be a bit hairy and isn't recommended for people uncomfortable with digging around in the iPhoto Library package. The automatic rebuild must be done on the original library and can be done by completely quitting out of iPhoto (so that there is no black triangle or blue dot under it), and then relaunching it with those two keys +option held down. You should see this:

As I said it locks up before that prompt can come up. I have tried launching iPhoto with those keys held multiple times to no avail. It just launches and then pinwheels. No window pops up.