Trouble with iphoto

I transferred all my photos from my PC onto my Mac through an external hard drive. I first put all the pics in a folder on my desktop, then from there I imported the pics into iphoto.

I was able to view the files completely fine until I started renaming the roll numbers under the iphoto library. I changed the names to the album name to make them a little more ccessible. Now I can only view them as little thumbnails. When I try to enlarge an image, I only see an exclaimation point with an empty border.

Do I have to keep the names of the rolls the same in order for iphoto to retrieve the file? What is going on, can someone give me a little advice?

G'day elbachies & welcome to Mac-Forums.

I'm not too sure about this ... but what happens if you change the names back?

Do you have a tick next to "Copy Files to iPhoto Library when adding to Library" in iPhoto Preferences>Advanced?

Do you still have the original folder on your Desktop? You could try re-importing them after deleting the iPhoto Library.



I can't remember the original roll names. They were named "roll 13", "roll 14", etc. and now they're in alphabetical order according to their new name

And yea, i've got the originals still. I was just looking for a shortcut to view them again through iphoto without re-importing them. Even with automator, the process of importing photos is really annoying because of all the different albums I have.

Do you know of a command on automator that renames the roll number as the pictures are imported? I couldn't find one, but I think that would greatly help.

well... it sounds like iPhoto is looking for a specific name but isn't finding that name. So, that's why you're getting that question mark. Basically, the path needs to be re-established.

Thus re-importing them.

I had a very similar problem after renaming picture folders and I have a theory for you. The thumbnails that you are viewing are contained in a directory called data (within your iPhotos library). This directory has exactly the same folder structure as the directory where the actual pictures are stored. Try checking this directory and also changing the names of the corresponding folders in Data to match what you changed in your originals folder.

I only realized this after deleting everything in my iPhoto Library and reimporting. I cannot guarantee that it will work but in theory it makes sense.

I am experiencing some of your pains too. I am also new to macs! My sister and friend came over the other night and did some photos in photobooth, I imported them to iphoto and deleted the ones in photobooth. I can see them in iphoto and they are folders named roll#. I tried making copies to her flash drive but it told me they were all names my photo, so I decided to take them all out (88 rolls), rename them, and stick them in the iphoto originals folder. They transfered to the stick but when I go into iphoto it shows the old pics and when I try to import the renamed ones it says "Invalid format". Any ideas?


Thanks,

<R>