Orphan Photos In Iphoto

[John Varela]

Today I discovered a couple of orphan photos. These were taken, imported, and deleted a year and a half ago. They do not exist as far as the iPhoto user interface is concerned, and iPhoto Trash is empty, but these and lord only knows how many more orphan photos are cluttering the library.

Is there some tool that will audit the library and purge it or orphans? iPhoto's help says to hold down Option and Command while booting iPhoto, but that's not working here. Could the tools have been broken by Sierra?

 

[DeltaMac]

If the "orphaned" photos don't exist in the iPhoto interface, how did you find them?
Are they actually in the iPhoto library file? or simply files that are in your Pictures folder?
Files in the Pictures folder may (or may not) be imported by iPhoto at some point, but separate, identical, but not indicative that your iPhoto Library needs purging.

Regardless - the Library Repair function SHOULD do something for you. I just reinstalled iPhoto to try that out.
I still have the iPhoto Library as it existed when I swapped over to the Photos app a couple of years ago, and I was surprised that iPhoto so easily re-installed on my 10.12.4 beta system. All looks intact, and holding Option-Command when launching iPhoto also brought up the iPhoto Library maintenance screen, with several choices, including repair of the library. You may want to try that again.
Another possibility is uninstalling then reinstall iPhoto, as it will reinstall, assuming that you have iPhoto in your App Store/Purchased tab. If that is so, you can uninstall iPhoto through the LaunchPad. That uninstall does not touch your iPhoto Library file, although you do want to make sure you have that backed up anyway (just in case!)

 

[John Varela]

If the "orphaned" photos don't exist in the iPhoto interface, how did you find them?
Are they actually in the iPhoto library file? or simply files that are in your Pictures folder?

Dropbox was taking forever to sync, so I was keeping the pulldown open to see how many files were yet to go. The pulldown shows the last few files to have been synched, and at one point I noticed a couple of photos that I didn't recognize. Dropbox gives the name of each file, and I found them in both iPhoto thumbnails and originals. There may have been more versions of the same photos in the library, but that was enough to get me worried.

Files in the Pictures folder may (or may not) be imported by iPhoto at some point, but separate, identical, but not indicative that your iPhoto Library needs purging.

Well I don't know how they would have been imported to iPhoto without my having done it. I'm guessing that I pushed a wrong button and imported from the camera into iPhoto instead of via Image Capture. (I always, or at least always intend to, upload photos with Image Capture, cull them, Photoshop as needed, and give descriptive filenames before importing to iPhoto.)

Regardless - the Library Repair function SHOULD do something for you. I just reinstalled iPhoto to try that out.
I still have the iPhoto Library as it existed when I swapped over to the Photos app a couple of years ago, and I was surprised that iPhoto so easily re-installed on my 10.12.4 beta system. All looks intact, and holding Option-Command when launching iPhoto also brought up the iPhoto Library maintenance screen, with several choices, including repair of the library. You may want to try that again.
Another possibility is uninstalling then reinstall iPhoto, as it will reinstall, assuming that you have iPhoto in your App Store/Purchased tab. If that is so, you can uninstall iPhoto through the LaunchPad. That uninstall does not touch your iPhoto Library file, although you do want to make sure you have that backed up anyway (just in case!)

I just tried again and holding Option-Command during launch does nothing. Reinstalling is probably the thing to try. I got iPhoto with the computer seven years ago and I don't think I've had to pay for any upgrades, so I don't know what the App Store thinks. I'll have to see if there's a problem. Why can't I just copy an old version of iPhoto.app from Time Machine?

 

[DeltaMac]

Yes, reinstalling will only be possible if you actually see iPhoto in your App Store/Purchased tab. I have never paid for iPhoto, but it appears in my Purchased tab in the App Store.
Your version number should be iPhoto version 9.6.1
You could copy out of Time Machine, if that is available, but I was suggesting the App Store, so you surely have a fresh copy.
You won't have that available if iPhoto is not in your Purchased tab, however.

Hmm... Holding the Option key, even without the command key, when launching anything, should hide other open windows. That's one result when using the Option-Launch.

You say it does nothing at all? Hate to use a forum meme, but I think you are doing it wrong
Maybe try holding Option-Command before launching iPhoto - ? (try it on other apps, you will see various responses, but ALL will hide at least some open windows when you hold Option key down before launching apps. Option-Command will often start a maintenance action of some kind. For example, Option-Command with iTunes launches iTunes in safe mode. Does that happen on your Mac?

 

[John Varela]

Yes, reinstalling will only be possible if you actually see iPhoto in your App Store/Purchased tab. I have never paid for iPhoto, but it appears in my Purchased tab in the App Store.
Your version number should be iPhoto version 9.6.1
You could copy out of Time Machine, if that is available, but I was suggesting the App Store, so you surely have a fresh copy.
You won't have that available if iPhoto is not in your Purchased tab, however.

Hmm... Holding the Option key, even without the command key, when launching anything, should hide other open windows. That's one result when using the Option-Launch.

You say it does nothing at all? Hate to use a forum meme, but I think you are doing it wrong
Maybe try holding Option-Command before launching iPhoto - ? (try it on other apps, you will see various responses, but ALL will hide at least some open windows when you hold Option key down before launching apps. Option-Command will often start a maintenance action of some kind. For example, Option-Command with iTunes launches iTunes in safe mode. Does that happen on your Mac?

By "nothing at all" I meant with regard to iPhoto. Yes, it minimizes the windows on the main screen, but not the one open on the second monitor.

 

[DeltaMac]

I've not seen Option-launch minimize any windows, ever. It actually hides them. There's a difference in that behavior. Minimize places a window in the Dock. Hiding, well, hides the window. If you hit the same Option-Launch app again, you will see the window toggle back again (usually)

But, Launching iPhoto with Option-Command, you don't see the dialog box for iPhoto database maintenance, correct? That does have to be at iPhoto launch, and not just hold the keys down randomly (just checking )

some random questions:
Do you have File Vault enabled?
Do you have fast user switching enabled (with other users logged in)?

Not sure if either will help your issue, but I have been in some strange troubleshooting recently, so just curious about your answer...

 

[John Varela]

But, Launching iPhoto with Option-Command, you don't see the dialog box for iPhoto database maintenance, correct? That does have to be at iPhoto launch, and not just hold the keys down randomly (just checking )

some random questions:
Do you have File Vault enabled?
Do you have fast user switching enabled (with other users logged in)?

Not sure if either will help your issue, but I have been in some strange troubleshooting recently, so just curious about your answer...

File Fault: no Fast User Switching: yes it's no but no, no other users.

One thing: I installed Little Flocker a few days ago and some strange things have been happening. None with iPhoto, unless this is the first one. Now you're making me think. I have iPhoto permissions = rwc everywhere in ~/. Maybe I should add an x. Let me try that. Nope, that didn't help. Interestingly, this time opening iPhoto closed the app on the second monitor but left Mail and Finder windows open on the mail. At the same time it disappeared Firefox (which I am using to write this) and Chrome.

I've not seen Option-launch minimize any windows, ever. It actually hides them. There's a difference in that behavior. Minimize places a window in the Dock. Hiding, well, hides the window. If you hit the same Option-Launch app again, you will see the window toggle back again (usually)

But, Launching iPhoto with Option-Command, you don't see the dialog box for iPhoto database maintenance, correct? That does have to be at iPhoto launch, and not just hold the keys down randomly (just checking )

some random questions:
Do you have File Vault enabled?
Do you have fast user switching enabled (with other users logged in)?

Not sure if either will help your issue, but I have been in some strange troubleshooting recently, so just curious about your answer...

 

[DeltaMac]

My thought is that if Little Flocker has any effect on your situation, that you would get a popup reporting something about that from Little Flocker.
But, you could turn it off. It can be disabled if you have that need, right?

Just curious if LF is, somehow, blocking the command to get to the rebuild screen in iPhoto.

I would try rebooting your Mac into Safe Mode, then try the Option-Command launch of iPhoto. If that still doesn't work, even in Safe boot mode, I would likely say to myself "ah, some old pictures, syncing to Dropbox. Not too important, I bet.

Apple virtually killed iPhoto a couple of years ago. I know that some users had issues with Photos, early on. But, I don't hear much about that since a year or so back.
At some point, I would expect iPhoto is going to stop working, maybe in next macOS upgrade. What you have now might be some glitch on a system where iPhoto works, but might have issues that don't affect every user, and Apple is not likely to fix dead software. I expect that will not be getting better as time goes on. (just my 2 cents.)

 

[John Varela]

My thought is that if Little Flocker has any effect on your situation, that you would get a popup reporting something about that from Little Flocker.
But, you could turn it off. It can be disabled if you have that need, right?

Just curious if LF is, somehow, blocking the command to get to the rebuild screen in iPhoto.

I would try rebooting your Mac into Safe Mode, then try the Option-Command launch of iPhoto. If that still doesn't work, even in Safe boot mode, I would likely say to myself "ah, some old pictures, syncing to Dropbox. Not too important, I bet.

Apple virtually killed iPhoto a couple of years ago. I know that some users had issues with Photos, early on. But, I don't hear much about that since a year or so back.
At some point, I would expect iPhoto is going to stop working, maybe in next macOS upgrade. What you have now might be some glitch on a system where iPhoto works, but might have issues that don't affect every user, and Apple is not likely to fix dead software. I expect that will not be getting better as time goes on. (just my 2 cents.)

Disabling Little Flocker was a good idea but unfortunately it didn't help. I went to the admin account and tried opening iPhoto with Option-Command held and iPhoto went ahead and opened. Then it hung, presumably because there is no iPhoto library in the admin account, but really it shouldn't do that.

I'll try your suggestions. If you don't hear from me that'll mean one of them worked. Thanks for your help.

I expect that you don't hear any more complaints about Photos because those who dislike it are still using iPhoto or have gone to Lightroom or elsewhere. I still run iPhoto because I hate Photos. Photos does really stupid things, mainly to do with not using the metadata in the iPhoto library. For example, I have probably 1,000 photos scanned from prints, slides, and negatives. In all cases I assigned dates in iPhoto corresponding to the date the photo was taken. Photos ignores those dates and uses only the dates the scans were created. So a photo I took in 1963 sorts into 2008 in Photos. Ever since I realized how stupidly Photos was implemented, I have always made sure to check Change Original when adjusting a date, but that doesn't help with all the older ones. I could go on about how they messed up Places and other things but you get the idea.

 

[DeltaMac]

OK.
I hear your "growls" about Photos, and I do understand. I don't use any photo apps to your level of use. I'm a "vacation and family pictures" guy, and I don't have much need for proper sorting, or anything else, just a place to process the few photos that I need to keep (maybe 20 or 30 a year, and that's it. Really... ) So Photos does what I need.
So - when I tried the iPhoto/Command-Option launch, the maintenance window came up almost instantly, but my iPhoto library file was empty, no pictures and was 7.4 MB in size (remember, no pictures at all, empty!)
I suspect that YOUR iPhoto Library is slightly larger, so one that might be several GB, with tens of thousands of photos, might take longer to get to the initial maintenance screen, even appearing to hang up during launch. I would suggest allowing at least 30 minutes, if you want to test, before giving up on it. If you ever DO get the maintenance screen, likely that any choice you make will ALSO take quite a long time.