How Photos 5.0 on Catalina Manages original Files and Filenames
This are just a few observations on differences I noticed in my iCloud Photos Library compared to Photos 4.0 on Mojave or earlier versions.
The new Photos Library package:
This problem persists in macOS 10.15.6 and also in the more recent system versions of macOS 11 Big Sur and macOS 12 Monterey.
With the early versions of Photos it has been easy to recover the original image files from the Library package, simply by ctrl-clicking the Photos Library and using the command "Show Package Contents", as long as we did not use an optimised iCloud Photos Library. Photos 1 to Photos 4 are keeping the originals unmodified in the folder Masters, organized by the import session in subfolders by Year, Month, Day, using the original filename.
Photos is no longer storing the original files exactly as we imported them There is a new folder "originals", where all photos are stored - renamed to cryptic names in an apparently random sequence.
The imported file in the library will be named like this:
We should be aware, that it is no longer easy to recover our originals files from the library package manually, if Photos should fail to open the library and cannot repair it. Because the originals have been renamed, only Photos can identify the originals and restore the original name. If we cannot get Photos to run, should the library become badly damaged, we will be stuck. We will need a running version of Photos and a working Photos Library to get our original image files back.
When we export the unmodified original file, and the original file had the filename extension "JPG" on import, it will be exported with the extension "jpeg".
I strongly advise to prepare for such a rare emergency and keep backups of all original image files in addition to the backup of the Photos Library. Make a backup copy of the originals on an external volume, before you import the originals to Photos and they will get renamed by Photos. Regular backups of the originals right from the camera card are a good practice anyway.
Upper Case and Lower Case letters in Filenames, macOS 10.15.1
This problem has been fixed in macOS 10.15.2!
Photos does no longer preserve the distinction between upper case and lower case letters in the original filenames. When we import an image file with lower case letters in the name, the Info will show the filename normalized to all capital letters. For example, I just imported a file called "P1160039cam.jpg". The Info in Photos is showing the filename as "P1160039CAM.JPG"
The original in the Finder:
The Info in Photos:
When I export the unmodified original, with "File > Export > Export unmodified original" the filename has been changed to "P1160039CAM.jpeg", all upper case letters, and a changed extension - from jpg to jpeg.
