Extremely Slow iPhoto 6

I currently have 7000 photos in my iPhoto library and after about 5 minutes of use I get the spinning death pizza. After that my whole entire system is extremely slow taking 5 inutes to unfreeze, only to freeze again after another minute. I've read that with Nikon camera's there was a problem with the camera making large makernotes in the EXIF files for iPhoto 5 (I have been importing with a Nikon P4). Everything that I've read about iPhoto 6 states that these problems have been fixed in the newer version, so I'm wondering if there is another problem that I may be encountering. I have rebuilt my library database, fixed file permissions etc. and nothing seems to have helped. I currently have a 17" MacBook Pro 2.16 Ghz, with 1 GB Ram. Hopefully someone has a solution for me, because I feel like throwing this thing on the highway. Thanks for your help, JDB.

No one has any ideas?

I think you'd get better performance if you would break your library into smaller chunks. iPhoto seems to choke on large libraries. You can create another library by holding down the option key when you start iPhoto, then tell it to create another library/libraries wherever you want it. Export from you main library into the new, then delete from the original. Should work faster that way.

Just one more thing to add to skybolts excellent advice . If you are going down the multiple libraries route this app although it's $19 is a good investment
http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/

I have just read that iPhoto manager is not as yet fully compatible with iPhoto 7

Thanks for the input. I do understand that I can create multiple libraries, but since all of these pictures are from my trip to Australia, it would be rather annoying to have to switch between libraries all of the time. If iPhoto can support 250 000 pics, I would assume that having a small fraction of the maximum allowance cannot be the problem. I feel like there must be something that I have been overlooking. Even more irritating is that after I finally quit iPhoto, my whole system is slowed down. I have to shut down and remove the battery for the problem to go away. After phoning Apple the only input I get is to check my disks, check the file permissions etc., etc. Nothing has worked. So, for now, I have to put off my editing and sorting of my pics until the problem is fixed.

JB

Sorry to hear about your woes. I was wondering if more RAM would help. My iMac uses 2 Gig. Maybe you just need a bit more Ummph! as it were.

Have you tried rebuilding your cache?

While launching iPhoto (right after clicking the dock icon), hold command+option+control (or shift, I'm not sure, kind of forgot). Just try combining those keys till you get the dialog box to rebuild your cache. Also defrag your HDD....