Problem with iPhoto

[jodea23]

I'm having a problem accessing my photo library through iPhoto that came out of nowhere. Here's the scenario...hopefully someone might be able to give some guidance.

I have an older imac that was running OS X Leopard (10.5.8 I think). Out of the blue, my wife tells me that she can't open our photos anymore using iphoto. This is the same version of iphoto that came with the computer when I bought it back in 2008. When you go to open the program, it tells us that changes were made to the library using a new version of iphoto, so we need to upgrade to the new version of iphoto to access our library.

So I upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard so I can download iphoto '11 from the mac app store, which worked fine. I then upgrade to iphoto '11, which worked fine as well. When I go to open the iphoto program, a window opens that says I need to upgrade my library to work with the new version of iphoto. When I click continue, the window that started this whole mess, the one that says I need to use the new version of iphoto, opens up and the only option I have is to quit.

I have everything backed up on my time capsule, but restoring the iphoto library hasn't worked. Anyone have any idea what I'm supposed to do?

 

[r0k]

I'm having a problem accessing my photo library through iPhoto that came out of nowhere. Here's the scenario...hopefully someone might be able to give some guidance.

I have an older imac that was running OS X Leopard (10.5.8 I think). Out of the blue, my wife tells me that she can't open our photos anymore using iphoto. This is the same version of iphoto that came with the computer when I bought it back in 2008. When you go to open the program, it tells us that changes were made to the library using a new version of iphoto, so we need to upgrade to the new version of iphoto to access our library.

So I upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard so I can download iphoto '11 from the mac app store, which worked fine. I then upgrade to iphoto '11, which worked fine as well. When I go to open the iphoto program, a window opens that says I need to upgrade my library to work with the new version of iphoto. When I click continue, the window that started this whole mess, the one that says I need to use the new version of iphoto, opens up and the only option I have is to quit.

I have everything backed up on my time capsule, but restoring the iphoto library hasn't worked. Anyone have any idea what I'm supposed to do?

I'm a bit confused here. You suddenly lost access to iPhoto Library and decided to upgrade both OS and version of iPhoto and STILL can't access iPhoto Library, correct? If this is so, I suggest you grab your originals using Finder and store them someplace else then re-import them to your favorite version of iPhoto from scratch. Only this time don't allow iPhoto to make its own copies of every photo you import.

Based on my experience, I think iPhoto Library is a lousy place to keep originals of photos. You can open iPhoto Library using "show package contents" and browse to your photos. You can them copy them somewhere else using Finder. I suggest you leave your original photos there. Then start over importing them to iPhoto folder by folder. This time switch off "copy photos to iPhoto Library when they are imported". This is the setting I use. I have a 10 gig iPhoto Library that contains metadata (faces, places, events, etc) on about 200 gig of photos that I keep on a removable hard drive. The only problem with this approach is you can't go moving your photos around "at will" once they are imported in to iPhoto.