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TICKET ARCHIVE -> iPhoto running slow

boy4pele - Nov 28, 2006 - 7:32 pm

Hello I have IPhoto version 6.0 and when i launch it and then scroll down when i get towards the bottom the spinning circle of colors starts and i can no longer do anything in iphoto until it stops, i believe all my pictures are showing up but i don't understand why it does this, any help would be much appreciated

LovesMacs - Nov 29, 2006 - 11:04 am

Hello,

My name is Carolyn and I will try to help you with iPhoto.

Since you indicated you have an 80GB drive, I doubt that you are running out of hard drive space but heed this advice anyway. When using applications such as iPhoto, hard drive space becomes critical. Less then 15% available space on the drive can cause applications to freeze up. To locate how much space you have available, open a Finder window. Look at the bottom of that window and it will help you exactly how much free space you have.

It's possible you have a corrupt preference file. That's not a big deal and here is how to fix it. Locate this file; com.apple.iphoto.plist Here's how to find it:
MacinoshHD>Users>Library>Preferences. Open the Preferences folder, locate that file, drag it to the Trash, empty the Trash, then reboot your PBook. Launch iPhoto and see if it freezes. And don't worry about that file. Your PBook will create a new iPhoto preference file for you when you reboot.

Have you tried using "Force Quit" for this: Here's how: When you are using iPhoto and it freezes up... hence the rolling beach ball, press Command + Option +Esc on your keyboard. A pane will appear, select iPhoto and click Force Quit.

You didn't indicate how much RAM your PBook has... that's important to keep apps from freezing up also. Here's how to find that information. Double click the Apple logo top left of your screen, then click, "About This Mac". A pane will open and tell you exactly how much RAM is on your PBookG4. Anything less than 512MB, and apps like iPhoto, depending on the size of your Library will freeze if they can' access enough memory.

One thing... when you launch iPhoto, wait until the entire Library loads BEFORE scrolling up or down to view photos. If you have a considerable Library, that can take a minute. I have a PBookG4 also, the 12" and have to scroll to see the tops and complete pages of everything so I can understand why you have to scroll to see everything.

Now, run Disk Utility and Repair Permissions. That can fix a lot of bugs.
Here's how: Disk Utility is in your MacintoshHD>Applications>Utility folder. Launch DU, select MacintoshHD in the panel on the left, then click the button that says: Repair Permissions. It takes about a minute to run. Quit Disk Utility, reboot your PBook. Launch iPhoto and see if it runs without freezing up. If you still need help, just post back..

Thanks for choosing Macosx.com!
Carolyn :-)