05-12-2009, 01:05 AM

I've spent about 3-4 hours trying to manage the modified photos in my iPhoto library. I understand that when you edit a photo, iPhoto copies the new edited version into the "Modified" folder. However, I haven't edited any of the photos that have been copied into the folder. I've even reverted "edited" photos back to their originals. The copies in "Modified" are momentarily deleted before being copied again a few seconds later. Going back to iPhoto, when I right click the photo, once again the option "revert to original" is present. About 600 of my 2000+ photo are affected in this way.

I was so fed up with it, I backed up just the "originals" folder and deleted my iPhoto library. However, upon creating a new library and importing a few of the photos that were giving me trouble, it started doing it again.

Has anyone else had a problem with this? Anybody have any ideas of what is causing the problem, how to fix it, or anything else I should investigate?

It shouldn't be a hardware problem since it's a uni-body aluminum macbook.

Thanks

05-12-2009, 10:22 AM

Why do you care? You should not be messing around in that file at all. It is just iPhoto's way of organizing, and if you mess with it, iPhoto will cease to operate correctly. Anything done to/with your photos in the library in finder will cause you problems down the road. Just forget that file exists. Do anything to/with your photos from within the app itself. You and your photos will be much happier.

05-12-2009, 03:03 PM

I care because I don't want my library to take up 30% more space than it should. Also, I understand that altering photos through finder in the library screws things up and that's why I haven't done it. I've done everything through iPhoto (which is not making me any happier). I don't want to "forget the file exists" because I actually want to access the files to open in other programs like photoshop without having to deal with iPhoto.

I posted this to find out if anyone knows why my photos are being unnecessarily copied to the modified folder. Anybody have any ideas?

05-12-2009, 04:54 PM

I don't believe there's a way to alter iPhoto's behavior. By default it will create a duplicate of any imported file and place it in the modified folder. I've gone through the same process myself although the number of photos I normally work with are very small compared to yourself.

Instead of using iPhoto you might want to try the free Google Picasa for Mac. I personally like it better than iPhoto but then I was already used to it from my days in Windows.

Download from here: Link

It's still a beta according to Google but it works well.

Regards.

05-12-2009, 05:29 PM

Originally Posted by chscag

I don't believe there's a way to alter iPhoto's behavior. By default it will create a duplicate of any imported file and place it in the modified folder. I've gone through the same process myself although the number of photos I normally work with are very small compared to yourself.

Instead of using iPhoto you might want to try the free Google Picasa for Mac. I personally like it better than iPhoto but then I was already used to it from my days in Windows.

Download from here: Link

It's still a beta according to Google but it works well.

Regards.

Agreed. The guys that designed iPhoto aren't making copies of your files for nothing, it's just something iPhoto needs to do to work its stuff.

If you don't like it, I'd find something else before you start to lose files messing around in the library structure.

For me personally: the extra 10 GBs or so that iPhoto "wastes" is totally worth it if it means I don't have to worry about losing the original copies of my photos.

05-12-2009, 05:49 PM

Yeah, I kind of figured it's something I'd have to just deal with. I've used Picasa fairly extensively on Windows and have tried it on Leopard... I just love how pretty iPhoto is! Also the in-software facial recognition and tagging is nice opposed to Picasa's web album-only recognition. Anyone else think it's weird that Picasa 3 recognizes pictures with faces but you can't assign names to the faces or really do anything at all with them? Anyone know if they're planning on implementing a fully functional facial recognition feature in the final release?

Thanks a bunch for the replies, everyone. Appreciate it.

05-12-2009, 07:08 PM

You don't need to access the directory in order to modify files in Photoshop. Simply drag the photo(s) out of iPhoto to the desktop and it will create a copy of the file for you to modify. That way your original is left untouched and you don't have to muck about the directory in order to access your files.

05-12-2009, 09:01 PM

Opening iPhoto to open a picture in Photoshop is inefficient and frustrating. If I'm in Photoshop and want to open a new photo, the logical way to do so is File>Open and find the file (this would require to "show package contents"). Instead I have to open an entirely new application so I can then find the photo and drag and drop. I feel like I'm the only one who finds going through iPhoto to do anything with my photos is annoying... and then there's the whole lack-of-any-semblance-of-file-organization thing, but I won't get into that!

05-12-2009, 10:22 PM

In that case it looks like iPhoto is not for you. If managing file organization is that important to you, then use a program that gives you this option. Sure, you'll be losing iPhoto's Faces feature, but that's part of the compromise in being able to do things your own way. You want Faces, you're gonna have to suck it up and use iPhoto and not muck about its insides because that's not how the program was intended to be used.

05-12-2009, 10:38 PM

Originally Posted by incumalf

Opening iPhoto to open a picture in Photoshop is inefficient and frustrating. If I'm in Photoshop and want to open a new photo, the logical way to do so is File>Open and find the file (this would require to "show package contents"). Instead I have to open an entirely new application so I can then find the photo and drag and drop. I feel like I'm the only one who finds going through iPhoto to do anything with my photos is annoying... and then there's the whole lack-of-any-semblance-of-file-organization thing, but I won't get into that!

Set Photoshop as your "External" editor inside of iPhoto and you will find it works better than opening Photoshop first. You never have to leave iPhoto to make your edits or worry about forgetting to import an edited photo.
If you will start using "Keywords" and "Smart Albums" and not try to make iPhoto work like "windows and folders" I think you might find "the whole lack-of-any-semblance-of-file-organization thing" will go away, and you will be able to find any photo you want with just a few key strokes and not have to remember what folder or subfolder you buried them in a couple years ago.

05-13-2009, 12:28 AM

Originally Posted by incumalf

Opening iPhoto to open a picture in Photoshop is inefficient and frustrating. If I'm in Photoshop and want to open a new photo, the logical way to do so is File>Open and find the file (this would require to "show package contents"). Instead I have to open an entirely new application so I can then find the photo and drag and drop. I feel like I'm the only one who finds going through iPhoto to do anything with my photos is annoying... and then there's the whole lack-of-any-semblance-of-file-organization thing, but I won't get into that!

You're doing it wrong!

No need to open iPhoto – Leopard has a built-in iPhoto browser in every 'open' window:


(Not sure if Photoshop uses the default system open window though...)

05-21-2009, 06:15 PM

I am having the same issue as the person who posted the initial question....although it is only happening with photos imported from my iPhone.

Any answers?

05-22-2009, 12:22 AM

Originally Posted by jrok8576

I am having the same issue as the person who posted the initial question....although it is only happening with photos imported from my iPhone.

Any answers?

It's just the way iPhoto works... deal with it, or use Image Capture to import your photos and skip iPhoto.