thedatadude
Level 1 (3 points)

Q: Where are photo file names?

I've "titled" many, many photos in iPhoto by changing the filename (e.g. "DSC_2254" --> "On vacation in Hawaii"), but there appears to be no option in Photos to show the filename. So none of my "titles" appear. Am I missing something?

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014), OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Apr 9, 2015 7:56 AM

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thedatadude

Q: Where are photo file names?

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  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Apr 9, 2015 8:02 AM in response to thedatadude
    Level 10 (105,806 points)
    iCloud
    Apr 9, 2015 8:02 AM in response to thedatadude

    Have you enabled the titles to show in the "View" menu in Photos? "View > Metadata"?

    Screen Shot 2015-04-09 at 16.58.43CEST.png

    The titles will show in the "Moments" below the photos.You can see the original filenames in the Info panel for a photo.

    Screen Shot 2015-04-09 at 17.01.36CEST.png

  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Apr 9, 2015 8:14 AM in response to thedatadude
    Level 6 (17,633 points)
    Apr 9, 2015 8:14 AM in response to thedatadude

    Also note that once you have enabled Titles in the View>Metadata menu (or with the command-shift-T keyboard shortcut) you can add a title to a photo that doesn't have one by hovering the pointer over the white space below it. That will reveal in grey its "untitled' name. Click on that & type in the title right there.

  • by thedatadude,

    thedatadude thedatadude Apr 9, 2015 8:33 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (3 points)
    Apr 9, 2015 8:33 AM in response to léonie

    I am not referring to photo "Titles" -- I am referring to photo filenames. In iPhoto, when "Titles" was selected under the View menu, the camera-assigned filenames would appear below the photos. You could then edit the "titles" as seen below:

    Screen Shot 2015-04-09 at 8.15.51 AM.png

    In Photos, these "Titles" do not appear, even if View -> Metadata -> Titles is selected. The only way to see them is to in the "Info" panel, as you mentioned above. This makes the hours and hours of time I have spent over the years renaming photos' filenames to a more meaningful "title" in iPhoto totally wasted! You can't see the "titles" (i.e., renamed filenames) in any of the list displays in Photos -- and to make matter worse, since Photos does not include the renamed filenames created in iPhoto, you cannot use that information in searching for the photos!

  • by thedatadude,

    thedatadude thedatadude Apr 9, 2015 8:38 AM in response to thedatadude
    Level 1 (3 points)
    Apr 9, 2015 8:38 AM in response to thedatadude

    Just to clarify -- it appears that when Photos imports images from iPhoto, it totally ignores any filename renaming that you have done. It simply does not import that information! So if you had a thousand photos in iPhoto that you "titled" by changing "IMG_2345" to "Fred in NYC", etc. -- all that work is completely lost because Photos completely ignores that information when it imports the images from iPhoto.

  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Apr 9, 2015 9:21 AM in response to thedatadude
    Level 6 (17,633 points)
    Apr 9, 2015 9:21 AM in response to thedatadude

    Photos does import the filename -- it is visible in the Info window -- but the problem is basically that a filename of a photo doesn't really have anything to do with its title. (The title field is metadata stored within the photo file itself, while the filename is stored in the file system.) iPhoto displays the file name (less its extension) if the title metadata field is empty & supports searching on it; Photos does neither.

     

    So what you need is a practical way to add the filename to the title field of the photo if you are to continue using your organizational scheme in the Photos app. This should be doable using Applescript with either iPhoto (before importing the photos into Photos.app) or afterwards with the Applescript support built into Photos.app. However, I do not have the time right now to write such a script myself (& I'm too rusty on Applescript to do it quickly even if I did) but I think someone will begin publishing scripts for this & similar needs in the days & weeks to come.

     

    If you can't wait for that, it might be worth asking for help in the ASC Applescript forum, or in any of the other Applescript-oriented support sites on the web.

     

    EDIT: I said that Photos doesn't support searching on a file name. I was wrong about that -- it does -- but that isn't of much help with this issue.

  • by Washington Apples,Helpful

    Washington Apples Washington Apples Apr 9, 2015 10:19 AM in response to thedatadude
    Level 1 (18 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 9, 2015 10:19 AM in response to thedatadude

    I have your exact same problem.  Very frustrating.  Perhaps the Apple software engineers could have foreseen this problem.  Overall, Photos 1.0 is disappointing in many respects.  Sadly, when you go to the Apple Feedback site, there is no option to give feedback on Photos.  iPhoto is still listed on that page.  Again, shouldn't someone have thought to update that page knowing users are going to have a lot of feedback about Photos 1.0. 

     

    If anyone comes up with a solution, please let us know.  Here's a link to discussion of my question.

    https://discussions.apple.com/message/28031908

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Apr 9, 2015 10:25 AM in response to Washington Apples
    Level 10 (105,806 points)
    iCloud
    Apr 9, 2015 10:25 AM in response to Washington Apples
    Sadly, when you go to the Apple Feedback site, there is no option to give feedback on Photos.

    Photos is part of MacOS X and not sold separately, so the feedback form to use is this:

        Apple - Mac OS X - Feedback

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Apr 9, 2015 10:40 AM in response to thedatadude
    Level 10 (105,806 points)
    iCloud
    Apr 9, 2015 10:40 AM in response to thedatadude

    I am not referring to photo "Titles" -- I am referring to photo filenames. In iPhoto, when "Titles" was selected under the View menu, the camera-assigned filenames would appear below the photos. You could then edit the "titles" as seen below:

    And that is what I am seeing in Photos - the iPhoto titles below the thumbnails:

     

    In iPhoto, before migrating the library: The default version name remained in iPhoto's Title field:

    Screen Shot 2015-04-09 at 19.32.19CEST.png

    And in Photos - the same name below the thumbnails, after migrating the iPhoto Library, clearly visible in the "Moments" view.

    Screen Shot 2015-04-09 at 19.32.37CEST.png

    Toggling "View > Metadata > Titles" turns this on and off.

  • by Washington Apples,

    Washington Apples Washington Apples Apr 9, 2015 11:32 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (18 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 9, 2015 11:32 AM in response to léonie

    Some of us are experiencing a situation where Toggling "View > Metadata > Titles does not solve the problem.  Yes, it's a necessary step to make titles below photos visible, but, even with that, many photo titles are not appearing.  Some do and some don't.  In my case, any photo title from iPhoto that had a suffix such as .jpg, .tif, etc. DOES NOT APPEAR under the photo regardless of what is checked under Metadata.

     

    Screen Shot 2015-04-09 at 8.14.53 AM.png

    Notice that "Add a Title" appears.  The title (filename) was "Ann in Tennessee Shirt" in iPhoto and it appeared under the photograph.  In Photos 1.0, however, it does not appear.  One has to copy "Ann in Tennessee Shirt" and the paste it into the "Add a Title" field.  Can you imagine doing this for thousands of photos?

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Apr 9, 2015 11:50 AM in response to Washington Apples
    Level 10 (105,806 points)
    iCloud
    Apr 9, 2015 11:50 AM in response to Washington Apples
    Notice that "Add a Title" appears.  The title (filename) was "Ann in Tennessee Shirt" in iPhoto and it appeared under the photograph.  In Photos 1.0, however, it does not appear.  One has to copy "Ann in Tennessee Shirt" and the paste it into the "Add a Title" field.  Can you imagine doing this for thousands of photos?

    That is clearly a bug.

    The titles are supposed to be transferred, even if .jpg is part of the title.

     

    Please file a bug report. Either use the feedback form or - more involved - the bug reporter: Detailed and Effective Bug Reporting | Apple Support Communities

  • by thedatadude,

    thedatadude thedatadude Apr 9, 2015 1:32 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (3 points)
    Apr 9, 2015 1:32 PM in response to léonie

    Léonie,

     

    As a further clarification, because this has huge implications for those of us that have "titled" thousands of photos in iPhoto, which are not carried over to the new Photos app:

     

    Here is an example of a photo to which I edited the filename (D7K_2242) in iPhoto:

    Screen Shot 2015-04-09 at 11.31.13 AM.png

    Note that the full title (which is actually the edited filename) appears in iPhoto.

     

    Here is the same photo as it appears in Photos in the Moments view:

    Screen Shot 2015-04-09 at 12.57.26 PM.png

     

    Here are my Metadata settings in Photos:

    Screen Shot 2015-04-09 at 11.27.26 AM.png

    So..

    --- Even when "titles" are turned on under Metadata

    --- and when in the Moments view in Photos

    The filename edited in iPhoto (="title") does not appear in Photos.

     

    I have discovered one way to remedy this, but it is NOT a practical remedy when you have thousands of "titled" photos in iPhoto with lots of albums, etc.

    --- In iPhoto: Select a photo, then: File -> Edit -> Export, with these settings:

    Screen Shot 2015-04-09 at 1.07.24 PM.png

    Any other settings for Kind (e.g., Original) will result in the title not carried over to Photos. Here's how the above export looks in Photos:

    Screen Shot 2015-04-09 at 1.15.01 PM.png

    As I said above, this is not a reasonable solution because among other things you can only export a file as a "jpeg" and not as an "Original", which was a "raw" file. So I guess off I go to report this as a "bug" to Apple.

  • by stephenfromencinitas,

    stephenfromencinitas stephenfromencinitas Apr 9, 2015 1:39 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (28 points)
    Apr 9, 2015 1:39 PM in response to léonie

    In my case it seems that JPEG files have been imported from Aperture with the "title" set to the filename, but RAW images have a blank title.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Apr 9, 2015 1:50 PM in response to thedatadude
    Level 10 (105,806 points)
    iCloud
    Apr 9, 2015 1:50 PM in response to thedatadude

    I just tested - when I am doing the same in Aperture and migrate the Aperture library to Photos, the titles will migrate correctly, even with ".JPG" as part of the version name:

     

    In Aperture: The edited version name below the image

    Screen Shot 2015-04-09 at 22.46.44CEST.png

    In Photos: The added version names are shown as titles.

    Screen Shot 2015-04-09 at 22.49.18CEST.png

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Apr 9, 2015 1:55 PM in response to léonie
    Level 10 (105,806 points)
    iCloud
    Apr 9, 2015 1:55 PM in response to léonie

    And another test with a Canon .CR2 file, migrated from Aperture: The version name also shows:

    Screen Shot 2015-04-09 at 22.54.37CEST.png

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