iPhoto freeze on launch

S

soulatrium

Registered
I am recently having problems with iPhoto 5.0.1 When I installed iPhoto 5, I upgraded to 5.0.1 before even launching for the first time. After launching for the first time it upgraded my photo library perfectly. Things were well and jolly for a few days, and I was able to manipulate and import images and movies just fine. But today, when I open iPhoto, it gets through the "loading images" part, but as soon as it loads my library (i can see rows of pictures in my library on the screen), the spinning beach ball shows up and iPhoto becomes effectively frozen. At this point I must force-quit iPhoto. This happens every time I launch iPhoto now. I have tried repairing permissions and rebuilding my iPhoto library by holding command and option at iPhoto startup (it seems to rebuild my library successfully, but then freezes at the exact same point as before after loading photos). Please help me get iPhoto running again! Thanks. using Powerbook G4 12" 867 combo; Mac OS X (10.3.8); 640 megs ram
 
Try deleting it's preference file (Users->YourUserName->Library->Preferences->com.apple.iPhoto.plist).
 
Satcomer said:
Try deleting it's preference file (Users->YourUserName->Library->Preferences->com.apple.iPhoto.plist).
Click to expand...

errr...well, I deleted the file, and iPhoto then proceeded to open and tell me it was "updating my library" or some such and then it loaded just fine. The only problem is, now the newest photo that iPhoto shows is from about 2 months ago! It looks like somehow deleting that pref file made iPhoto confused. I took a look in my users>pictures folder and there are 2 different iPhoto librarie: iPhoto Library and iPhoto Library_1. It looks like iPhoto managed to identify with the older one (somehow in a previous incarnation iPhoto must have managed to make 2 folders, I did not do this on my own). How do I get iPhoto to identify with the correct folder now?
 
Soulatrium

Your best bet, seems to me : back up you iPhoto library, delete the two iPhoto Librairies, open iPhoto go through: file; add to library and point to the one you wish to have. You might end up with duplicates you will need to trash but it will create a fresh and clean library and you should get rid off the freezing status that I went through last sunday ! ;-)
 
I've actually be granted a reprieve by my computer. Even though restarting iPhoto did not help me, I tried restarting OS X and iPhoto launched just fine. This just goes to show that one can never underestimate the benefits of an OS restart (and never let pride of uptime cloud your judgment!). Now that I am safe again, I am performing a backup :-D

And, just for your info I talked to an Apple tech and he said the best way to back up your iPhoto library is to do an export of the photos from iPhoto, rather than backing up the entire library...though I will do both just because backing up the files does not preserve album organization.

Thanks for the hints people!
 
Thanks for sharing the tip about exporting very useful and the missing link to solve this kind of situation.

Good to hear your iPhoto is back up and running
 
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