10-04-2009, 09:32 PM

I'm new to the mac and this is the first time I've used iphoto. When I loaded my 4000 or so photos the program started running faces and it's been running and running and running and running. I've let it run for hours and it still continues to run and eat up all of my processor power every time I open the program. It's created thousands of these "photofaces.ipmeta" files on my computer and this is starting to get annoying. My question is, how long does this stupid faces scanning process take? Is this normal, or has something gone wrong on my system?

12-15-2009, 10:56 AM

I have the same problem. It's been running for days (about 8500 photos) and has not yet come up with even ONE photo to match. i'd like to shut it off and forget it but don't know how.

Anyone know if this can be done - simply -- I'm not too technical. Thanks.

12-15-2009, 08:35 PM

Called Applecare about the issue of faces running non-stop. I was advised at a one-to-one session that I should allow iPhoto to keep searching for faces through all 8500 of my pictures, leaving the computer running all night if necessary. I allowed the iPhoto to run for 3 days and nights and iPhoto faces was still running without coming up with a single face.

I phoned Applecare and the lady had not heard of the problem before. She attempted a few methods of trying to get it to work right -- no luck. She then checked with a senior advisor who sent me into "pictures" on my computer where I would find two applications for "faces" and they then had me drag them to the trash. The faces I had marked went away, but iPhoto is still running some sort of scan over my photos. I think the Faces feature is worthless, and I hope it doesn't do harm to my brand new computer.

12-16-2009, 06:09 PM

shouldn't take that long but it's pretty pointless..it matched my blonde blue eyed girlfriend with a masai woman from kenya, so utterly useless. even it's novelty factor is pretty much zilch.