What computer Programs?

[Golfer_Cody]

Yeah I photo is just like kodak then I think ill stick with kodak for the basics

 

[Alfred D.]

Really?

Yes, really.
It happened to me 2 years ago. I was mad as hell. Luckily I had good backups. From time to time I still hear it happens, but Apple is very "good" at suppressing bad P.R. They simply cut your unfavorable comments off of user forums they control, or they ban you altogether. Next step up is to sue you. Ever wondered why consumers never get to talk directly to Apple? Try contacting them...
(They remind me of Scientology, TBH. Scary, really).

And this would effect the actual files stored in your library folders as well?

No, it affects the photos in the iPhoto library. In which your photos are stored in a proprietary format that only iPhoto uses, internally. Those become inaccessible. So they're gone, for all intents and purposes.
So without good backups, in readable formats, you're screwed.

In general, the Mac and OSX are great concepts. I'm a fan. Have been since 1983, since Lisa. My first, and unattainable love. My first Mac was a Mac Plus. And I still use Macs today.
But I'm not blind: iPhoto is the exception to the rule. It's unstable. So it's simply shoddy software really.

Truth be told.

 

[sabbath999]

Sabbath, keep in mind that iPhoto may seize up after around 20,000 or 30,000 photos, after which you will not be able to get at the photos in the iPhoto library anymore... They will be gone good! So maintain an iron backup regime!

I always keep proper backups.

I generally don't have 20K+ in a library at one time... I export them to storage.

Currently I have about 70K "keepers" stored away.

 

[sabbath999]

No, it affects the photos in the iPhoto library. In which your photos are stored in a proprietary format that only iPhoto uses, internally. Those become inaccessible. So they're gone, for all intents and purposes.
So without good backups, in readable formats, you're screwed.

The photos are, by year in the iphoto library, in whatever format they were in. They are not in any kind of "proprietary" format at all.

Simply go to your home folder, click on your photos folder, right click on iPhoto library and view the package contents. There are two folders called "Modified" and "Originals" which contain all the pictures you have in your all pictures.

Simply click on "originals" then on the year, then on the title of the import batch and you can see whatever pictures were imported at the time, in their original formats.

You don't need iPhoto open (or even need to be able to open the program, if it is for some reason broke) to read any picture on your system. A corruption in your iphoto library file (library.iphoto) in no way makes you lose any pictures on your system... just the indexing within iPhoto.

 

[elemental]

The photos are, by year in the iphoto library, in whatever format they were in. They are not in any kind of "proprietary" format at all.

Simply go to your home folder, click on your photos folder, right click on iPhoto library and view the package contents. There are two folders called "Modified" and "Originals" which contain all the pictures you have in your all pictures.

Simply click on "originals" then on the year, then on the title of the import batch and you can see whatever pictures were imported at the time, in their original formats.

You don't need iPhoto open (or even need to be able to open the program, if it is for some reason broke) to read any picture on your system. A corruption in your iphoto library file (library.iphoto) in no way makes you lose any pictures on your system... just the indexing within iPhoto.

This is what I was thinking. In fact, I just double-checked my "iPhoto Library" folder to make sure they're this way, and they are. I can't imagine what sort of program meltdown would take these with it.

 

[Alfred D.]

It was 2 or 3 iterations of iPhoto ago (v. '05 or '06). iPhoto then used that propietary format for it's internal processing. They've changed that, as '08 shows. Small wonder why.

But the episode put a considerable dent in my faith in Apple software. The original iPhoto was a re-package of an acquired third party application, if memory serves me. The Apple re-branding clearly wasn't enough to make it the foolproof app for the mom & pop market that Apple made it out to be. They slipped up on that one.
They may have repaired this dangerous flaw in iPhoto, but the very facts that 1) the flaw was there, and that 2) Apple never acknowledged it and even actively stifled reports about it, made me lose all faith in Apple's veracity.
They're not the guys in white hats they used to be anymore, they're now just as devious and backhanded as Micro$haft or $ony or any other large commercial party on a market.

I call it corporate arrogance.