• Unable To Write To Iphoto Library
• Unable To Write To Iphoto Library Message
• Unable To Write To Iphoto Library
• Can't Delete Iphoto Library
• Unable To Write To Library Iphoto Library

• I first tried rebuilding the iPhoto database (see iPhoto 4 or later: Rebuilding the iPhoto Library ), but that didn’t help. Then I came across this document on Apple Support: iPhoto 6: Image appears when browsing but is blank or exclamation mark when editing. Apparently, the exclamation mark indicates that iPhoto is unable to find the file.
• So now we click on choose. And now iPhoto will launch using the newest iPhoto Library. And now we can quit out of iPhoto. I’m going to hit (Command-Q). So now it’s safe to delete the old iPhoto library. So I’m going to right-click on it, and then select “Move to Trash.” Sound effect paper hitting trash can.

Martha Helena writes in with a problem that may have a few different angles. Her startup drive started to fill. Her Photos Library file is 12.5GB, and she had just a few gigabytes left on the drive. While she was able to copy an older iPhoto Library to the other drive, the Finder kept hanging up during the Photos Library transfer with this error:

The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in “Photos Library” can’t be read or written. (Error code -36)

A decent number of people have received this error with an iPhoto or Photos Library, possibly because the media library folders are big folders full of other folders. This increases the odds that if you have a faulty file, it will scotch the copy. Because the library files are packages which look like files, the error gets reported for the package name, rather than revealing which file within the package is at fault.

On your startup volume, select an iPhoto or Photos Library and select Show Package Contents. First try copying everything to see if the Finder will report the problem: select everything in the.

You have a lot of possibilities to fix this. For starters, while this is an oddball one, some of the people who have had this failure have solved their copy operation holdup by fixing the destination drive’s format type.

Some external drives come preformatted for Windows in FAT32 format if they’re not listed as being specifically intended for Macs. Some iPhoto/Photos filename or related data may be incompatible with FAT32. (Some forum posts are from folks who thought it was in NTFS format, but Macs can only read, not write, to NTFS without additional software, so you wouldn’t be able to start copying at all.)

You can check whether you have a FAT32 partition on the external drive as follows:

1. Launch Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.
2. Select the volume beneath the drive. The drive will be named something like Seagate, WD, or the like, followed by a model number. The volume appears indented named something else and, if mounted, with an Eject button next to it.
3. In the main view, Disk Utility shows the volume’s name, and beneath it the capacity and then should read “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”.

If the volume shows FAT32, you need to reformat the drive. Make a complete backup of the volume, because erasing and reformatting a partition deletes all the stored data on it. Then and only then:

1. In Disk Utility with that partition selected, click Erase.
2. In the Format pop-up menu, change the item to “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”.
3. Click Erase and the confirm. This will delete everything on that partition.

When the volume mounts on the Desktop, if you can copy the media library successfully now, hurray, that was the problem.

If that doesn’t solve the problem, I have two more suggestions:

• Run Disk Repair from Recovery. Apple lets you boot from a special partition on your startup drive into the Recovery mode. Follow Apple’s instructions here, and then after restarting into macOS, try to copy the library. If that fails, then…
• Rebuild the Photos Library using Apple’s instructions here. In Martha Helena’s case, that may require freeing up more than 3GB on the startup volume for temporary storage while it rebuilds. If that fails, then…

You can open the media library package and copy items in small groups to see if you can identify which file or folder is corrupt. Follow these steps:

1. Launch Photos with the Option key down.
2. Click Create New, and save the new files on the external drive.
3. Quit Photos.
4. Control-click on that new library file on the external drive and choose Show Package Contents.
5. Select everything in the revealed folder, move to the trash, and delete it.
6. On your startup volume, select an iPhoto or Photos Library and select Show Package Contents.
7. First try copying everything to see if the Finder will report the problem: select everything in the folder, and drag to the new library’s folder.
8. If nothing fails, great! If you receive an error, you should be able to see which folder it failed with. Grab all the folders except that one that didn’t copy and drag them to the new library folder. (Repeat with failures as necessary.)
9. Open folders that failed to copy and try to copy elements within them until you diagnose which file is bad. If it’s an image file and not a database or other file, you may have to just do without it.
10. When you’ve completed copying everything you can, launch Photos with the Option key held down.
11. Select the library on the external drive.
12. If it fails to open appropriately, try to rebuild it per instructions above.

This is a lot to try, but it’s likely one of these solutions will move you along your way to success.

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Unable To Write To Iphoto Library

I downloaded iPhoto this morning and try to install but when the installer runs nothing seems to happen. Is anybody experiencing the same thing ?

Haven't seen that, but I have seen other peculiar installer behavior. Did two installations yesterday afternoon, one on my 500MHz Sawtooth, one on a (fruit-flavored) iBook. The iBook installation went as expected. On the Sawtooth, everything appeared to install OK, but none of the nifty internet services appear in the 'Share' pane (that is, no Print Service, no Book Service, no Home Page service). I've inspected the package, and it looks like everything from the 'Net Services' package got installed in the right places. I'm puzzled.

Yes, I am.
I downloaded iPhoto, double-clickedon the .dmg file which did nothing, opened the file via the Disk Copy utility which mounted an iPhoto disk on my desktop.
I admit to being a new OS X user, but ... in hunting for an installer, I find none. I try to click on the readme.rtf file and all I get is something that looks like it's opening up, and a beep. No *readme*.
Any help would be appreciated.
Best Regards,
Sally

There should be an iPhoto directory in the root of the disk image. Inside is something called iPhoto.mpkg. This is NOT an application; it's an installation package that will start the Apple Installer program. THIS is what you want to install.
(okay, the name may be a little different, but it's definitely something to the effect iPhoto.mpkg, and is definitely .mpkg)

Unable To Write To Iphoto Library Message

Strange. You have 10.1.2 installed?
I double clicked on .dmg file on both G4 DP 450 and TiBook 500 and it mounted image normally. Inside image was a Package installer. I double clicked on it and went through the standard screens agreeing to license, etc. and it installed without a hitch.

Unable To Write To Iphoto Library

(1) make sure you are running 10.1.2
(2) Do you have the BSD tools installed?
(3) get a free account at connect.apple.com and REPORT THOSE BUGS!!!
Seriously-- (3) is key. Apple really does look at the bugs that go through the system (I have reported close to 300 and everything have eventually transitioned to some resolved state-- critical bugs are dealt with surprisingly quickly).

Am non geek.
What are BSD tools? I have the current Developer's Tools installed (for 10.1.2). Same thing?
Just curious. Why would they need to be installed to install iPhoto?
Thanks.

I'm not sure if they do need to be installed, but am just trying to gather evidence one way or another.
The 'bsd tools' are all of the command line stuff outside of what is already in the core... the Unix layer. Regardless of whether or not you are ever going to drop to the command line, I would suggest installing it simply because every developer has already installed it and, therefore, testing against systems that don't have it installed is likely to be sporadic, at best.

The same trick doesn't work for iTunes. Does anyone know how to change the location of the 'iTunes Music Library (2)' file that it still creates in the Documents/iTunes folder? (I already know how to change the music folder.)

I simply moved the library folder where I wanted it (to another drive) and then put a symbolic link of the same name (iPhoto Library) in the ~/Pictures folder.
I first tried with an alias, but that did not work.
So far iPhoto seems to operate fine with the symbolic link (created via the terminal command 'ln -s', look to 'man ln' for more instructions in the terminal).

can't remember for the life of me how to make a symbolic link, can someone remind/tell me,
thanks

I thought about setting iPhoto's library to my existing (huge!) photos folder, but I decided against it.
I have a lot of raw and edited photos from my digital camera that are about 1.3 MB in size. If I let iPhoto manipulate them, then they would be re-saved with unknown compression quality. Since I want to use my photos for printing as well as web albums, I decided to let iPhoto make its 'disposable' copies in its own folder, then I won't worry about damage to my digital 'negatives' which are still in their original place. I'll likely continue to use Image Capture to download pictures from my camera to my regular photos folder, and only THEN let iPhoto import them.
Of course I'd love to see iPhoto upgraded so that it would only make a copy if necessary, but so far I've gotten my money's worth from the program!
Still a remarkable program, and free!

I just tried an experiment with our new camera. Using the highest resolution JPEG setting (minimal compression, 2048x1536) on the camera, a test photo downloaded into both Image Capture and iPhoto comes out at 1.3mb on the disk.
Where are you seeing additional compression?
-rob.

Hey all, I've tried this, and I get an error. This is what I get...
OK? default write com.apple.iPhoto RootDirectory /Volumes/VM_Disk/iPhoto Library? yes
default: Too many arguments
I've tried another method, which says to do...
In -s/Volumes/VM_Disk/Pictures Pictures
This is the error I get with this one...
OK? ln -s/Volumes/VM_Disk/Pictures Pictures? yes
ln: illegal option -- /
Usage: ln [-fhns] file1 file2
ln [-fhns] file ... directory
So how the heck do I get this to work?
Thanks

Use defaults, not default. And make sure that your destination directory already exists (eg. iPhoto Library).

I do type defaults, but ends up in the error just saying default. But I'll try these new suggestions.

Ok, tried a combo of both your suggestions. I also changed the name of my target drive to remove a space, just calling it Data. So here's what I typed (up to RootDirectory, then dragged [drug?] my destination folder), and the resulting error, which is the same as what I got before.
[localhost:~] graphic% defaults write com.apple.iPhoto RootDirectory /Volumes/Data/iPhoto Library
OK? default write com.apple.iPhoto RootDirectory /Volumes/Data/iPhoto Library ? yes
default: Too many arguments.
Notice how I typed defaults, but when it asks for confirmation, it gets changed to default. Is that my problem? and if so, how do I change it?

Can't Delete Iphoto Library

When I try to issue the command line using 'defaults' (with an 's'), the confirmation prompt comes back using 'default' (with no 's'), and then I'm told I have too many parameters.
GraphicFoxx, it's been a couple of months since you posted this--did you ever find out a solution?

When using
ln -s
you need a space after the -s. It doesn't look like you have one there....
Matt

I used the terminal to change the default location of the iPhoto Library to /Users/Shared so that my girlfriend and I share the same photo library, it worked just fine.
My problem is that by default, when iPhoto creates a folder to put the imported pictures in, the privileges are Owner: Read and Write, Group: Read only. So if my girlfriend logs in and imports pictures, and iPhoto creates a new folder to put them in (first time of the day), I cannot import pictures in that same folder (same day) without first changing the privileges to Group: Read and Write.
If I try to do so, iPhoto says 'Cannot create User/Shared/iPhoto Library/2002/01/11/159.jpg'. I then click 'Stop' and iPhoto unexpectedly quits.
I imagine that all users wanting to share an iPhoto library between users are going to experience the same problem.
Is there a way to change the default privileges for iPhoto created folders to Owner: Read and Write and Group: Read and Write ?
I looked into the iPhoto plist and there is no entry specifying the privileges. Maybe it is possible to add one ?
Thanks

Apart from the problem with importing photos on the same day as your girlfriend, do you have any other problems? For instance, can you modify any photos your girlfriend imported? I have not altered my default library settings but am thinking about doing so.

I ran out of space on my hard drive (HD), so to free up (and backup) data, I now use an external firewire hard drive to back up my pictures folder (along with the rest of th home directory). I found I still needed to free up space on the main HD so I decided to change the default location of the iPhoto Library. Apple Knowledge base does not tell you how to change it (Thanks Apple).
1) Copy your 'pictures' folder or your iPhoto folder (whatever your choice is for backing up that folder) to the external HD or another folder with a different name- this is your option. Since I was out of HD space, I copied to my external HD.
2) **NOTE: DON'T delete until you have backed up your files & completed all these steps & verify this worked. I'm not responsible for you losing your data)** Drag the iPhoto pictures folder to the trash for now, but DO NOT empty it yet. You can always pull the folder back out.
3) Start iPhoto.
4) iPhoto will tell you that it is unable to locate the iPhoto Library. Select the option to locate the iPhoto Library folder then locate your duplicated iPhoto Library.
5) That's it! No messing with the terminal and....
6) No need to install the dev tools.

Unable To Write To Library Iphoto Library

Actually, holding Option when launching from Dock will allow you to set or choose any library location you want. I copied my library to the new location, held down option and opened iPhoto and chose the new location. Easy. Then I safely deleted the old folder from my hard disk.

I typed in the suggested change into Terminal:
defaults write com.apple.iPhoto RootDirectory /Users/my name/Pictures
and a new file appeared in my user file. However, I got scared when I opened iPhoto and nothing was there. I then typed the second change into Terminal, which maybe I wasn't supposed to do:
defaults remove com.apple.iPhoto RootDirectory
Now I can't figure out where all of my pictures went because when I open iPhoto, nothing is there, and I can't find the files in the new file I created which was supposed to change the location of my iPhoto Library. I fear the worst - did I just lose all of my photos in iPhoto?