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How to solve Facebook import and export freezes in iPhoto '11

Uploading photos from iPhoto to Facebook via iPhoto's built-in exporter has taken a turn for the worse for some users, not allowing uploading or downloading and often freezing while trying to connect.

Joe Aimonetti MacFixIt Editor
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Joe Aimonetti
2 min read

Uploading photos from iPhoto to Facebook via iPhoto's built-in exporter has taken a turn for the worse for some users, not allowing uploading or downloading and often freezing while trying to connect.

Several users have voiced their displeasure with the situation in one of the Apple Support Discussion forum threads. User ajrossnz writes:

Since I upgraded from iPhoto '09 to '11 I have been unable to upload to facebook, a feature that worked great in '09. I have done all the things that were suggested through various googling such as removing my facebook account in preferences and removing albums, but it still doesn't work. iPhoto can create a new album on my fb account, but that's it, when it tries to upload a photo it just sticks with a progress indicator bar saying 'Pending'... that's it.

The problem has been echoed by a few other users on the same thread. User Charles Figuero... writes:

I have a similar problem. Although all of my Facebook albums synced to iPhoto correctly, when I try to upload an album to Facebook, the "pending" indicator simply churns forever. Also, when iPhoto tries to sync the albums back from both Facebook and MobileMe, I'll see permanent "swirly arrows" next to both the accounts in the side bar. They never go away. Eventually, after leaving iPhoto alone overnight, I had to force quit.

While I have not been able to personally replicate the issues, users on the ASD forum suggest rebuilding the iPhoto Library as a possible solution. To rebuild your iPhoto Library, hold down (Command + Option) and click to open iPhoto. Continue holding those keys until the Rebuild iPhoto Library window appears.

Choose the following checkboxes and click rebuild.

Some users also found that simply logging out of their Facebook account in the iPhoto Preferences > Accounts > Facebook window, restarting iPhoto, and logging back in solved the issue.

Solutions to situations such as this may also be found in the preference list files that store each application's unique adjustments. Try deleting the iPhoto preference file found in user > Library > Preferences. It will be called com.apple.iPhoto.plist. Keep in mind that by deleting this file, other settings will reset as well.


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