iPhoto - do I have to update to keep my sanity?

January 13, 2006 12:47 AM

All my iPhoto albums were updated when I inserted a cd with new albums. Only a newer version of iPhoto will open my existing picture libraries. How do I get my old albums back?

I have iPhoto 4.0.3 installed on my powerbook. At work I burned some albums to a CD. Upon insertion of the CD in my powerbook a dialogue came up, asking me if I wanted to update something. Thoughtlessly, I hit the OK button (I know it's my own fault), thinking that it involved the same kind of update apple gives it software once in a while. After updating it said that it needed a newer version of iPhoto to read the updated albums. Now I'm screwed, since all my albums containing thousands of pics need the same update for the iPhoto software.
What are the options from here to get my existing albums back? My version of iPhoto is not upgradeable unless I buy a new copy of iLife, which I hate to do, just to get my stuff back. Is there a way to downgrade the appropriate files to the right version?
All the albums on my machine (also the ones from other users) are asking for the same new version of iPhoto, just to be read. I am prepared considering marriage with the mefite who helps me with this.

posted by ouke to computers & internet (4 comments total)

Are the old photos still in ~/Pictures/iPhoto Library? they are organized in there by date, so one imported on the 13th would be in ~/Pictures/iPhoto Library/2006/01/13/
posted by mge at 2:16 AM on January 13, 2006

After updating it said that it needed a newer version of iPhoto to read the updated

Are you sure? There's something in this sequence of events that doesn't add up.

The only thing I can think may be happening is you have two copies of iPhoto on your computer, an old one and a new one. The new one updated the library, and now your using the old one. Something like that.
posted by cillit bang at 4:13 AM on January 13, 2006

I just found out that the dreaded cd was still in the drive. When the cd was ejected it could read the old albums. I still can't grasp the notion that I couldn't reach my old files though. In a sense, the iPhoto problem is solved, but since mge and cillit bang tried helping me out, I still have the pending marriage promise. Shall we meet in somewhere in Utah for the formalities? People call me a mormon an a daily basis, anyway.
posted by ouke at 4:51 AM on January 13, 2006

I'm a little unclear on what's happening here.

Are you using a newer version of iPhoto at work? I could imagine, depending on what exactly is on the CD, that you'd wind up with something that ye olde iPhoto 4 can't read. The albums on the CD—what format are they in? Presumably there are jpegs buried in there somewhere, and you'd be able to import them (albeit without metadata) into iPhoto 4 at home.

[side rant]The fact that iPhoto does not put IPTC data into jpegs is incredibly annoying.[/side rant]
posted by adamrice at 7:07 AM on January 13, 2006