Issues with iPhoto not saving photos

[surfer99]

When I log into iPhoto I now get this message:

"There is a problem accessing one or more files in your iPhoto library. Do you want iPhoto to repair permissions for this library for you?" and it gives me the following options "quite" or repair"

When I click on repair it gives me this message:

"An error occurred while trying to save your photo library,Some recent changes may be lost. Make sure your hard disk has enough space and that iPhoto is able to access the iPhoto Library."

From there it only give me the option to click ok. Once I do that I have full access to iPhoto and everything seems fine until I attempt to add new photos. I can add new photos just fine but when I close iPhoto and come back the new pictures I added are no longer in iPhoto.

Any ideas? I am running Mac OS X 10.5.8.

thanks in advanced

 

[Tumbleweed666]

If you go to preferences > advanced is "copy files to library" unchecked ?

My guess is, it is, and so what you are doing when you import a picture is merely setting up a pointer to it , rather than copy it inside the iPhoto library, and when you remove the source of the photo (is it perhaps on a memory stick?) the photo is no longer there (obviously).

 

[surfer99]

If you go to preferences > advanced is "copy files to library" unchecked ?

My guess is, it is, and so what you are doing when you import a picture is merely setting up a pointer to it , rather than copy it inside the iPhoto library, and when you remove the source of the photo (is it perhaps on a memory stick?) the photo is no longer there (obviously).

"Copy files to library" is checked, and the photos I am trying to import into iPhoto are currently sitting on my desktop

 

[Tumbleweed666]

Ouch ! Then something very out of the ordinary is happening, and it doesn't sound good at all.

Try a reboot, if that doesn't work, rebuild permissions. Also, how are you off for disk space?

 

[surfer99]

Ouch ! Then something very out of the ordinary is happening, and it doesn't sound good at all.

Try a reboot, if that doesn't work, rebuild permissions. Also, how are you off for disk space?

how would I go about the "rebuild permissions"?

 

[Tumbleweed666]

Disk utility - (sorry my bad its repair not rebuild)

 

[surfer99]

Disk utility - (sorry my bad its repair not rebuild)

Is there any risk to doing this? Any possibility of data loss? I do have everything backed up via time machine on an external hard drive but am curious regardless.

Also am curious why iPhoto is the only program I am having issues with. Any ideas?

 

[Tumbleweed666]

Many folks here do this every few months as a matter of routine. Its a recommended Apple fix to many errors. What could possibly go wrong

p.s I have no idea why iPhoto is doing this, your errors are absolutely symptomatic of "copy to library" being unchecked, so you could try ticking it off and on again.

 

[surfer99]

So I repaired permission (twice actually) and it didnt help, checked and unchecked the "copy photos to the iphoto librabry" box and unfort. still having the same issues. Any other ideas? Is it possible to delete iphoto and download again? would that be a pain in the ass to have to bring all my photos back into iphoto?

Thanks for all the help

 

[Tumbleweed666]

I found quite a few folks had issues when their iPhoto library was NOT in the standard place, Home > Pictures > iPhoto Library

Also, there is a library rebuild you can do (google rebuild iphoto library) it involves holding down a key when you start up.Its more extensive than the rebuild permissions youw ere getting prompted for.

One other thing, if your library is broken, why not do a TM reinstall back from a time when you know it worked? I accidentally screwed up a lot of pics a couple of weeks ago and just did a TM restore of the entire library back from the previous day, took maybe 15 minutes or so because it just copied back the whole thing. It worked , though I didnt have the sort of corruption you seem to, it was strictly user error.

Finally if none of this works try the photo forum here maybe someone there knows, no one else here seems to have any ideas. Good luck.

 

[surfer99]

attempted the "command alt" function when opening iPhoto, which had me rebuild all of my iphoto librabry. Unfort still didnt help!

If I use time machine for an old back up wont I lose any changes i have made since the time of the back up I decide to load? Like for instance if I had edited a few word doc yyesterday and choose a back up from a week ago I assume all of those edited word docs would be changed back to their orignial form correct?

 

[Tumbleweed666]

attempted the "command alt" function when opening iPhoto, which had me rebuild all of my iphoto librabry. Unfort still didnt help!

If I use time machine for an old back up wont I lose any changes i have made since the time of the back up I decide to load? Like for instance if I had edited a few word doc yyesterday and choose a back up from a week ago I assume all of those edited word docs would be changed back to their orignial form correct?

Hi surfer, that would happen if you restored everything, but what you would do is enter Time Machine, navigate to your iPhoto library, click on that, navigate back to a time when you know its was OK and then select restore and from memory you will also need to select restore over current version.

With TM you can restore down to the level of of individual files.

EDIT; Trial it with an individual file that doesn't matter first. Just change a file you dont care about, then use TM to restore it as it was say 2 weeks ago.

 

[surfer99]

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Ahhhh gotcha, wasn't aware I could that. Unfort I am away from my external hard drive for the next few days but will try later this week. That sounds like a pretty good solution though and hopefully it works. Thanks again for all the help and will update once I try that.

Ok so I am finally in front of my laptop and my external hard drive that I have been using for my Time Machine back ups. I would like to get iPhoto working again. To do this I assume I would need to pull it off Time Machine from a time that it was working. Only problem is I do not know how to do this. Any help?

 

[Tumbleweed666]

Ok so I am finally in front of my laptop and my external hard drive that I have been using for my Time Machine back ups. I would like to get iPhoto working again. To do this I assume I would need to pull it off Time Machine from a time that it was working. Only problem is I do not know how to do this. Any help?

Pick a time you think it was working. Restore from that.
Try it, if it doesn't work (eg same problem as before), go back whatever seems like a reasonable increment, say a week, or whatever works for you.
Repeat.

Did you ever try an iPhoto reinstall? Not the library but the program, you should check how to do that though I"m not sere. You should also check to make sure there are no updates for the iPhoto app. I dont recall any for some time but you never know.

 

[surfer99]

Pick a time you think it was working. Restore from that.
Try it, if it doesn't work (eg same problem as before), go back whatever seems like a reasonable increment, say a week, or whatever works for you.
Repeat.

Did you ever try an iPhoto reinstall? Not the library but the program, you should check how to do that though I"m not sere. You should also check to make sure there are no updates for the iPhoto app. I dont recall any for some time but you never know.

Stupid question but here it goes:
How do I "restore" from a time when I think iPhoto was working?

And I checked for updates and didnt see any. Also have yet to try reinstalling iphoto. I guess if the restore from Time Machine doesnt work then I will try that.

 

[Tumbleweed666]

Stupid question but here it goes:
How do I "restore" from a time when I think iPhoto was working?

And I checked for updates and didnt see any. Also have yet to try reinstalling iphoto. I guess if the restore from Time Machine doesnt work then I will try that.

As I said a while back, find a file you dont care about but that has changed (or change it now). Then, experiment with TM > go into TM and navigate back and forward in time. Its easier to do than explain. Then click "restore" when you are on a date you want to go back to.

Once you've got the hang of it, do that with your iPhoto library.

 

[surfer99]

Still getting the same thing. I am going into time machine, finding a date when I knew iPhoto was working (I know this because I am looking at the last date I was able to add pictures) and I am going into applications from that date and clicking on iPhoto and clicking on restore. I then say to "replace" and it will then replace. But unfort I am still getting the same message. Looks like I am screwed. How would I go about deleting iphoto and downloading it again?

 

[Mal]

iPhoto /= iPhoto Library

You're restoring the wrong thing if you're even looking at the Applications folder. Your iPhoto Library is in ~/Pictures/iPhoto Library, where ~ indicates your home folder.

jW

 

[yellow]

Side Note: Permissions repair doesn't descend into the Users directory, so if there's permissions related errors writing to your iPhoto Library, permissions repair won't do a thing for you.

 

[Tumbleweed666]

Side Note: Permissions repair doesn't descend into the Users directory, so if there's permissions related errors writing to your iPhoto Library, permissions repair won't do a thing for you.

Yellow, what would work for them in that case?

iPhoto /= iPhoto Library

You're restoring the wrong thing if you're even looking at the Applications folder. Your iPhoto Library is in ~/Pictures/iPhoto Library, where ~ indicates your home folder.

jW

Indeed, navigate to your home directory, then to pictures, then click once on iphoto library, then enter time machine so its highlighted when you are in there.
I'd expect your restore to take a fair time, mine took 20 minutes I think when I did it, for about 18Gb of photos

 

[yellow]

Yellow, what would work for them in that case?

sudo chown -R shortusername /Users/shortusername

Where, one replaces "shortusername" with their short username, i.e.,

sudo chown -R yellow /Users/yellow

That will change POSIX ownership for everything under /Users/yellow to be owned by user 'yellow'.

 

[surfer99]

Yellow, what would work for them in that case?



Indeed, navigate to your home directory, then to pictures, then click once on iphoto library, then enter time machine so its highlighted when you are in there.
I'd expect your restore to take a fair time, mine took 20 minutes I think when I did it, for about 18Gb of photos

Ahhhh gotcha. Ok so I did jsut what you said and when the "copy" box pops up and it give me three options "Keep original" "Keep Both" or "Replace" I assumed I should click "replace". Only problem now is that it says "The operation cannot be completed because you do not have suffiecient privileges for some of the items". Why would it say this? I am the admin on this computer. THere are only two users me and a "guest" user that I never use. Any ideas?

 

[yellow]

Only problem now is that it says "The operation cannot be completed because you do not have suffiecient privileges for some of the items". Why would it say this? I am the admin on this computer. THere are only two users me and a "guest" user that I never use. Any ideas?

Quit iPhoto. Try this in Terminal:

sudo chown -R shortusername /Users/shortusername

Where, one replaces "shortusername" with their short username, i.e.,

Enter your admin password when prompted. Try iPhoto again.

 

[Tumbleweed666]

Ahhhh gotcha. Ok so I did jsut what you said and when the "copy" box pops up and it give me three options "Keep original" "Keep Both" or "Replace" I assumed I should click "replace". Only problem now is that it says "The operation cannot be completed because you do not have suffiecient privileges for some of the items". Why would it say this? I am the admin on this computer. THere are only two users me and a "guest" user that I never use. Any ideas?

As yellow points out, this seems to be the root of your problems, e.g. you don't have permission to access the library, so that would presumably stop you adding new files.

Lets hope it works !

 

[yellow]

Assuming the iPhoto library is in your ~/Pictures folder. If you've moved it to say.. /Users/Shared, you need to change the command slightly.