iPhoto '11: The Missing Manual

Appendix A. Troubleshooting

iPhoto isn’t just a Mac OS X program—it’s a Cocoa Mac OS X program, meaning that it was written exclusively for Mac OS X. As a result, it should, in theory, be one of the most rock-solid programs under the sun.

Still, iPhoto does have its vulnerabilities. Many of these shortcomings stem from the fact that iPhoto works under the supervision of a lot of cooks, since it has to interact with plug-ins, connect to printers, talk to web servers, and cope with an array of file corruptions.

If trouble strikes, keep hands and feet inside the tram at all times—and consult the following collection of problems, solutions, questions, and answers.

The Most Important Advice in This Chapter

Apple’s traditional practice is to release a new version of iPhoto (and iMovie, and iDVD…) that’s got some bugs and glitches—and then, just when public outcry reaches fever pitch a couple of weeks later, send out a .0.1 update that cleans up most of the problems.

Spare yourself the headache: Update your copy to 9.1.1 (or whatever the latest version is)! To do that right now, choose iPhoto→Check for Updates.

Importing, Upgrading, and Opening

Getting photos into iPhoto is supposed to be one of the most effortless parts of the process. Remember, Steve Jobs promised that iPhoto would forever banish the “chain of pain” from digital photography. And yet…

“Unable to upgrade this photo library”

There may be locked files somewhere inside your iPhoto library. If something’s locked, iPhoto can’t very ...