iPhoto alias can't find original picture

[frankmezz]

I have 5 iPhoto libraries I am using holding over 30,000 pictures. recently i get the message the alias can't find the original photo when i click on the thumbnail in iPhoto to enlarge or edit the picture. This is especially troubling since the picture would be there the day before when i moved it to my MobileME Gallery. I opened the "packet" for iPhoto and looked in the original folder and sure enough it is gone. I have started keeping backups of photos outside of iPhoto and have not lost much but i don't trust iPhoto anymore. I also have a 2tb raid for Time Machine but can only restore the entire packet.

Any ideas what is going wrong here? is there a way to "reindex"? I am using iPhoto '09 version 8.0.3

Any suggestions on a replacement program to handle over 30,000 pictures? (assuming i still have the old ones)

 

[Sawday]

I have 5 iPhoto libraries I am using holding over 30,000 pictures. recently i get the message the alias can't find the original photo when i click on the thumbnail in iPhoto to enlarge or edit the picture. This is especially troubling since the picture would be there the day before when i moved it to my MobileME Gallery. I opened the "packet" for iPhoto and looked in the original folder and sure enough it is gone. I have started keeping backups of photos outside of iPhoto and have not lost much but i don't trust iPhoto anymore. I also have a 2tb raid for Time Machine but can only restore the entire packet.

Any ideas what is going wrong here? is there a way to "reindex"? I am using iPhoto '09 version 8.0.3

Any suggestions on a replacement program to handle over 30,000 pictures? (assuming i still have the old ones)

I think you answered your own question viz "since the picture would be there the day before when I moved it". You moved it. iPhoto is looking in the old place. Try moving it back.

 

[Pomeroy]

If you are keeping a Backup of your photos outside of iPhoto then any change you make to those files will cause iPhoto to lose track and not be able to find the file. If you want to keep backups like that and be able to rename or move those files make sure you have "Copy items to the iPhoto Library" checked in iPhoto's Preferences under the "Advanced" tab. That way iPhoto will keep a copy of the Original in it's data base.

 

[frankmezz]

Thank you for the replies.

I opened Advanced options and clicked the option. That makes sense when i am importing from a backup disk, but what happens when i import directly from a camera card and remove the card (and never had the option checked)? Rhetorical question, it finds the picture fine with the card removed. I hate it when importing from a drive iPhoto responds differently than importing from a camera card.

anyway, after i checked the option to copy photos to iPhoto Library, i opened the external hard drive and picked ONE picture to import and got the attached. ( when i picked the entire folder of 275 jpg's i had to hit cancel 275 times to get them all to import) I can open the jpg in preview and "space bar" but iPhoto reports it can't find it. then i click cancel and it finds it and imports it. spotlight shows the file in the original folder so it did find it. As stated earlier I am not trusting iPhoto (or my knowledge to use iPhoto)

 

[frankmezz]

BTW - i needed to move all my pics to a 500G external drive since i had little space left on my primary boot disk, i took the opportunity to organize and moved files from all over to one drive and iPhoto got very confused and so did I. But know that i know that iPhoto assumes you will never move original jpg's from the importation drive (unless its a camera card) and if you have the copy jpgs to library box checked, life is getting better. As usually the knowledge base on the listserv is incredible. THANK YOU for you help. I rebooted the iMac, restarted iPhoto and the error that the pictures cannot be found stopped.