iPhoto Reloaded

[dick]

Greets,

I somehow crashed iPhoto the other day and lost nearly 700 pics. Fortunately, I had saved them to CD just a couple of weeks ago.
When I reloaded the photos from the CD, I got at least two, and sometimes, three copies of the same pic. Sorting them out, deleting the extra photos and re-structuring the albums was mind-numbing. (Names of pics, info & keywords did not reload and had to be reentered).

Any suggestions how I could avoid this double/triple reload in the future? Is there a way to save photo info & keywords? When saving the photo library to CD, does it also save the photos in the Trash. (I do rebuild the Thumbnail thingy each time the notice comes up).


MacBook Pro 10.4.10
iPhoto 6.0.6

Thanks,
dick

 

[casdvm]

Dick:

A couple of suggestions. First, before you restore from the CD, try rebuilding the library. I don't know why Apple has not chosen to document this, but it may work:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107947

Second, you could (and probably should) create a second library from scratch and reload from disk that way. You can do drag and drop into your fresh library from an iPhoto disc, which will preserve all your keywords, comments, orginals, etc. You can create a new iPhoto library by holding down the OPTION key while starting up iPhoto fresh from your dock. iPhoto Library Manager is a very affordable option to do both of these things (and more, of course. I don't work for the developer; I just love the product.)

 

[dick]

Dick:

A couple of suggestions. First, before you restore from the CD, try rebuilding the library. I don't know why Apple has not chosen to document this, but it may work:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107947

Second, you could (and probably should) create a second library from scratch and reload from disk that way. You can do drag and drop into your fresh library from an iPhoto disc, which will preserve all your keywords, comments, orginals, etc. You can create a new iPhoto library by holding down the OPTION key while starting up iPhoto fresh from your dock. iPhoto Library Manager is a very affordable option to do both of these things (and more, of course. I don't work for the developer; I just love the product.)

Casdvm,

Thanks for your response. Whilr I am a rather experienced user there are some gaps in my knowledge, so I must ask a couple more questions:
When the word 'backup' is used, that that automatically mean 'back up to something other than the HD"?
If I highlight "Pictures' in the Finder, the Edit menu gives me an option to "Copy Pictures". Is that the same as 'back up".
I have a progran named "BackitUp" which will copy 'Pictures' to a CD. Is that how I should do the backup.

I want to try to do the back up correctly this time so I don't lose the keywords, etc.

I wish Apple had done something different rather than create one Library where all photos are kept. I will follow up on 'IPhot Libary Manager' as you suggested as this may ally my concerns.

thanks,

dick

 

[casdvm]

Dick:

The best way to back up iPhoto is to use the Share -> Burn feature from the iPhoto menu. You can select the whole Library, or just a few albums, so long as there is room on the disk (CD or DVD) to hold everything. If you are unsure, select the whole library, and select Burn, and iPhoto will give you a graphic presentation of how much of the disc will be needed.

This method creates a true iPhoto disc Library, which iPhoto will recognize upon insertion of the disk. It contains all your keywords, comments, original images, etc., etc. It really is a handy feature to keep you hard drive clean.

Good luck,