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PLEASE HELP with iPHOTO!!!!

yOyOYoo

yOyOYoo

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
"The iPhoto library is locked, on a locked disk, or you do not have permission to make changes to it."

iPhoto worked perfectly yesterday.

I did download iphoto buddy as well as iphoto library manager today.

Did I seriously screw everything up? How do I "unlock" iphoto?!?!?! Help please I hope I did not lose all my pictures!!!
 
OK So I went ahead and went to disk utilities and repaired permissions.

Now I can get into iphoto, only there are NO MORE PICTURES!!!

what the heck happened?!?!

When I go through FINDER, then go to Pictures and iPHOTO library I get a message: "The folder iphoto library could not be opened because you do not have sufficient access privileges"

Does this mean that my photos are here somewhere, or are they lost forever. AND WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO ALL MY PHOTOS!!?!??!

omg I'm freakin out here!!!! help me please!!
 
Okay another update:

I restarted the mac for the first time ever. I figured what the heck, it always fixes everything with PCs.

NOw, I can use finder and SEE that I do have the pictures saved in my iphoto library and within these "numbered" folders. I guess the finder sees iphoto file folders as numbers like "03" and "04"

Anyways, when I open iPhoto application, it says NO photos and all my previous folders have all disappeared. I used to have 20 some folders organizing different dates and events.

Why have they disappeared? How can I get them back? I don't want to load all these photos back into iPhoto as one lump.
 
Sounds like just a permission error. Fixing permissions won't fix it since it isn't considered "system files" so I'm going to guess that if you went to your iPhoto library and hit Command (Apple) + I it will say something other than "You can: Read and Write" under permissions.

I'm assuming you are using a Admin account as I continue with this...

Get BatChmod (http://macchampion.com/arbysoft/)

Click "File..." in BatChmod and navigate to your iPhoto Library.

Change Owner to your user name if it isn't already and select all the boxes below it. (they stand for Read, Write and Execute)

If any other users will be accessing the the iPhoto Library, change group to the appropriate group. If there is no group that contains all users who need to access it, I recommend you just select "admin" and check all the boxes and then check all the boxes for other. If there is a group that encompasses all the users needed (if you know how to make one, go ahead, but I'm not providing instructions) select that group and select all the boxes. For other, in this case, I recommend that you either select Read only or none at all.

Under "Enclosed Files and Folders" select both checkboxes.

Click "Apply"

This should work, but as you start up iPhoto, hold down the option (alt) key and select "Find Library..." and navigate to your iPhoto Library.

I hope this helps. If it still doesn't work, you'll need to re-import everything... I've had a lot of problems with iPhoto before.

EDIT:

I posted this before I saw your 3rd post. The numbered folders go like this (or should):

iPhoto Library/yyyy/mm/dd

They have nothing with how your photos were organized in iPhoto. AlbumData.xml contains all of that information.
 
thanks for the fast post.

Ok I downloaded that program, applied the changes, but when I click on "choose library" where do I go from there?

I have several different folders, namely 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005

I can't just select one of them, and when I don't select anything and just click OK I load up iPhoto with no photos inside.

I really think I lose all of my organized folders. BUT WHY? and HOW? I just got this powerbook a few weeks ago and this is the first major problem that I am experiencing. I am glad that my pictures are SOMEHWERE on my powerbook, but it is very inconvenient to find these pictures, since they seem to be burned under several layers of folders simply titled by numbers. "10" "20" etc etc.

Is there a faster way of importing everything in at once.

I knew I should have made a backup. I am so frustrated right now. 😡
 
The folder you should select is "iPhoto Library" not one of the subdirectories.

And yes, backups are good 🙂 I've been updating my backups after every change I make in iPhoto because it has been so problematic for me.
 
ok CKC, I tried that, still getting nothing. I guess it is hopeless to recover my old organized folders.

Now the question is, how do I get all the photos back into iPhoto without having to go through hundreds of sub folders and directories to reach each set of photos I have saved on this HD?

thanks for all your help so far!
 
Thanks guys.

I used the photo extractor and just extracted all the photos from all those submenus.

I'm really ticked off that iphoto decided to dump all of my organized folders though 😡 😡 😡

I was hoping that by switching to mac, I'd have a more stable platform 🙁

Anyways, are there any good album sorting programs that are FREE out there??? I never really liked the way iPhoto could not have subdirectories.
 
yOyOYoo said:
Thanks guys.

I used the photo extractor and just extracted all the photos from all those submenus.

I'm really ticked off that iphoto decided to dump all of my organized folders though 😡 😡 😡

I was hoping that by switching to mac, I'd have a more stable platform 🙁

Anyways, are there any good album sorting programs that are FREE out there??? I never really liked the way iPhoto could not have subdirectories.
Click to expand...

Glad the extractor worked for you. iPhoto has been exemplary for me but nothing is perfect and photos are just too precious not to have backups of.

Sub folders have been introduced into iPhoto 5, or you could use iPhoto Buddy to create multiple libraries and organise your photos that way. If you're feeling really bitter towards iPhoto you could give something like Kodak's EasyShare a go.
 
yOyOYoo said:
I never really liked the way iPhoto could not have subdirectories.
Click to expand...

Um... it can.

I'm using iPhoto '06. Go to the file menu and select "New Folder". Then you can put albums in that folder.

You can also just right-click anywhere in the sidebar where the albums are and select "New Folder" from the contextual menu.

If you want to move a folder/album into another folder then just pick it up and drop it on top of that folder.
 
Easy Fix

I’ve got the solution to this locking problem, and man, you guys are going to kick yourselves. 🙂

First, make sure iPhoto is closed.

Second, find your iPhoto Library in the Finder. (Unless you’ve moved it, it should be in your Pictures folder, which is itself in your User folder.)

Once you’ve found your iPhoto Library, right-click (control-click, two-finger–click, etc.) it and select “Show Package Contents” from the contextual menu.


Method 1
Drag iPhotoLock.data to the Trash and empty it.


Method 2
If iPhotoLock.data cannot be moved to the trash (which is likely):

Create a new folder within the iPhoto Library. (Call it whatever you like.)

Drag iPhotoLock.data into that new folder.


Once you’ve used either of these methods, you may close the iPhoto Library window and relaunch iPhoto. You’ll probably get a message that iPhoto is rebuilding the thumbnail cache (which will probably take a while), but that’s a small price to pay for recovering all your prized photos.

Good luck!
 
bojangles said:
I’ve got the solution to this locking problem, and man, you guys are going to kick yourselves. 🙂

First, make sure iPhoto is closed.

Second, find your iPhoto Library in the Finder. (Unless you’ve moved it, it should be in your Pictures folder, which is itself in your User folder.)

Once you’ve found your iPhoto Library, right-click (control-click, two-finger–click, etc.) it and select “Show Package Contents” from the contextual menu.


Method 1
Drag iPhotoLock.data to the Trash and empty it.


Method 2
If iPhotoLock.data cannot be moved to the trash (which is likely):

Create a new folder within the iPhoto Library. (Call it whatever you like.)

Drag iPhotoLock.data into that new folder.


Once you’ve used either of these methods, you may close the iPhoto Library window and relaunch iPhoto. You’ll probably get a message that iPhoto is rebuilding the thumbnail cache (which will probably take a while), but that’s a small price to pay for recovering all your prized photos.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

I had the same problem, which is probably connected to time machine backups, after physical reconnection of external drive iphoto asked me to select which library i want to use, after i've selected library in pictures folder it works fine 🙂
 
Bojangles: there are better ways to repair permissions on iPhoto than to mess with the files inside the library (which is always asking for trouble, in my opinion).

Hold down option+command while opening iPhoto, you should be presented with a utilities window with options to rebuild the various thumbnail files, search for 'lost' photos, rebuild the library or repair permissions on the library.
 
2yrs after posting, this tip just saved my library of 24,465 photos!!!
I could not be more thankful!!!

the Otter said:
I’ve got the solution to this locking problem, and man, you guys are going to kick yourselves. 🙂

First, make sure iPhoto is closed.

Second, find your iPhoto Library in the Finder. (Unless you’ve moved it, it should be in your Pictures folder, which is itself in your User folder.)

Once you’ve found your iPhoto Library, right-click (control-click, two-finger–click, etc.) it and select “Show Package Contents” from the contextual menu.


Method 1
Drag iPhotoLock.data to the Trash and empty it.


Method 2
If iPhotoLock.data cannot be moved to the trash (which is likely):

Create a new folder within the iPhoto Library. (Call it whatever you like.)

Drag iPhotoLock.data into that new folder.


Once you’ve used either of these methods, you may close the iPhoto Library window and relaunch iPhoto. You’ll probably get a message that iPhoto is rebuilding the thumbnail cache (which will probably take a while), but that’s a small price to pay for recovering all your prized photos.

Good luck!
Click to expand...
 
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