iPhoto 11 ate my library, say users

Apple fans upgrading to the latest version of iPhoto are finding that their photos are being gobbled up and spat out to god knows where.

Users have reported albums being reordered, messed up, and in some instances apparently eaten up, either in part or completely.

Unhappy snappers have taken to the vendor's support forums to look for answers, leaving some threads groaning under the pressure.

Mach0u said: "I'm having a ton of problems with iphoto 11 - I strongly urge not to make the upgrade...I've restarted, checked permissions etc...and still not working. Feels very very BETA..."

Chester444 said: "I concluded that when iPhoto was upgrading my library it dwindled down the iPhoto library from 112GB to 14Gb. I am pretty sure it deleted my iPhoto library. Luckily I had a time machine backup. I hope you do too!"

The problem here seems to be that Time Machine would not have grabbed libraries if users left iPhoto open more or less permanently.

The issue has left fans divided, with some pointing out the raft of improvements with the software, while others complain of "too many bugs and poor changes".

Cult of Mac makes the suggestion that wannabe upgraders take the drastic step of backing up their iPhoto library before making the switch. This would of course mean a mindset swap amongst some fanbois to accept the idea that something could potentially go wrong.

Those who've already been scuppered by the process are advised to try to rebuild their permissions, delete the iPhoto preferences file and rebuild their library.

We called Apple to see what its official solution to the users' problem is. We were told: "We don't comment on rumours or speculation." ®