iPhoto '09: Faces is broken; missing photo libraries
Several users, particularly those with large photo libraries, have reported that Faces does not work at all, failing to categorize images.
Faces not working Several users, particularly those with large photo libraries, have reported that Faces does not work at all, failing to categorize images.
Reports include:
"I have a similar problem. iPhoto contains about 14,000 photos and "136 faces with 2,580 items" according to the information at the bottom of the Faces page. The icon next to Faces has been spinning for about two days. I don't think iPhoto has combined any faces, but I have removed a couple people from one face category and added them to another by using the "Confirm Name" button.
"Have about 12K images in my Mac Book Pro (10.5.6/2.4GHz/4GB RAM/1GB free hard drive space) and have tried several times to let iPhoto run to establish the face database. Each time, not a single face showed up on the cork-board. I had to remove the faces database each time, and re-tried. Over 300 minutes each time..."
This problem can sometimes be solved by by deleting the faces.db mentioned in the section above, and faces_blog.db files. Locate the file iPhoto Library" then control-click it and pick "Show Package Contents," then delete the aforementioned files and re-attempt the faces library build.
Face categories merging As previously reported, a huge number of users are experiencing an issue in which Faces categories inexplicably merge; in other words, two persons' faces combine into one face category.
A sampling of reports:
- I too have experienced the merging of faces in iPhoto '09. I spent more than an hour last night renaming photos where three people's pictures had been merged into one name.
- At least twice since working with iPhoto Faces over the last week I've had different individuals merge together totally losing one unique face name and category.
- I also experienced this issue with two large faces albums. While perusing through my 12,000 photo album adding new face identifiers I noticed that one of the faces I was previously adding did not appear in the drop-down that appears while you type the face name. Lo and behold, after checking other photos I had previously tagged with this person, I found that they all now had the wrong name associated with them!
This problem can be circumvented by backing up the same faces.db mentioned in the section above, and faces_blog.db files. Locate the file iPhoto Library" then control-click it and pick "Show Package Contents," then backup the aforementioned files.
Corrupt/missing photo libraries Several users have reported sudden corruption or other inability to use photo libraries from older versions of iPhoto.
As described by one MacFixIt reader:
"I tried to upgrade iphoto using ilife 09. While iphoto was upgrading, it suddenly froze, so I force quite but when i relaunch my iphoto library, a window appears with "The photo library needs to be upgraded to work with this version of iPhoto.Your photo library will not be readable by previous versions of iPhoto after the upgrade. The upgrade process may take several minutes depending on the number of photos in the library." So I click upgrade, then an other window appears with "You can?t open your current photo library using this version of iPhoto.You have made changes to your photo library using a newer version of iPhoto. Please quit and use the latest version of iPhoto."
In some cases, this issue can be resolved by removing the PhotoMain.db file from the library package and rebuilding the library with just the last option, "Rebuild the iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup"
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