mystwillow

Q: Reverting to iPhoto after Photos migration

Does anyone know if it is ok to delete the new Photos library from the Pictures folder after you've migrated your iPhoto library to Photos? This is the situation I'm in - I migrated my library to Photos but I HATE it. I am very invested in Events and being able to review each new batch of photos before categorizing them into the appropriate events, and with this new app it's like everything is in a giant shoebox, it seems to include all my Photo Stream pictures in my library before I'm ready (I typically delete a lot of dud pictures every time I import, now they are all mixed in automatically and I have to remember how far back I've gone through and culled), and there's no way to tell which pictures haven't been categorized into an event yet. Worst of all, there's no way to hide photos from all views. Not only are hidden albums/events not even a thing anymore, Photos "conveniently" makes a whole new album of all the pictures I didn't want anyone to see. So now instead of me being the only one who would know where to look for hidden photos/Events in my library when they were unhidden, they're all collected in one place at the top level of my albums view. Why anyone would want an automatic, top-level album of all photos in an entire library that were meant not to be see, I don't know. Seems to defeat the entire privacy/security purpose of the Hide feature. Not to mention, anyone can still see all hidden photos when scrolling through the Albums view.

 

Long story short, I am RUNNING back to iPhoto for as long as Apple allows it to be used. Now, I know that any changes I make to the iPhoto library won't carry over automatically to Photos. I'm fine with that as I don't intend to use Photos until I'm forced to. However, I know that at some point I will be forced to use it, and at that point its library will be (hopefully) several years out of date. Since Photos creates symbolic links to the photo files, I know I could easily have deleted the iPhoto library when I migrated to Photos, but does that work both ways? I guess my question is, can I delete the Photos library I have now, keep working with my iPhoto library until iPhoto is killed completely, and then re-import the entire library back into Photos? Or do my photo files actually now live in the Photos library package instead of the iPhoto library package and deleting the Photos library will delete all my photos?

 

Any clarification on my options would be appreciated.

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Apr 9, 2015 6:29 PM

Close

Q: Reverting to iPhoto after Photos migration

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

first Previous Page 6 of 31 last Next
  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Apr 15, 2015 12:03 PM in response to writedeb
    Level 10 (108,510 points)
    iCloud
    Apr 15, 2015 12:03 PM in response to writedeb
    I cannot get iPhoto to work again. I just today upgraded the OS and it installed and replaced my iPhoto with Photo,

    It probably just exchanged the icon in the Dock, but the iPhoto application will still be in the Applications folder. Have you looked? If you see if there, drag it back to the Dock.

     

    Only, if you have used an older iPhoto version, it may be incompatible with MacOS X 10.10.3. Then you need to update to iPhoto 9.6.1 to be able to launch iPhoto again.

  • by KPM3895,

    KPM3895 KPM3895 Apr 15, 2015 9:33 PM in response to Richard3030
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 15, 2015 9:33 PM in response to Richard3030

    Yes - having a long list of potentially hundreds of old events  listed under the album tab is not the same thing as the old system for organizing events. It picked a random order, not one I would have picked, and finding anything is ridiculous. Years of organization down the tube.  I don't care what date I took the photo - I grouped by concept, holiday, sometimes by person.  I only used albums for specific purposes. You can delete in an album, but it does not delete the photo. 

  • by KPM3895,

    KPM3895 KPM3895 Apr 15, 2015 9:48 PM in response to Richard3030
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 15, 2015 9:48 PM in response to Richard3030

    No one wants them alphabetically. Life does not work that way. 

  • by marg174,

    marg174 marg174 Apr 16, 2015 12:02 AM in response to Chuckles84
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 16, 2015 12:02 AM in response to Chuckles84

    I migrated to Photos; found Events was missing so I decided to organise all my photos into new Albums and into Folders within the new Photos library, and then deleted the iPhoto events folder as it was now empty - very happy with the result - nicely organised photos in the new Photo App.  Then I switched my iPad and Macbook Pro to sync Photos to iCloud. 

    BUT then found that the iCloud sync with all my devices, used the old iPhoto library complete with iPhoto events (but only part of it!) - I checked on iCloud.com - and the same situation - all other devices and iCloud.com are still reading from the old iPhoto library, not my nicely newly organised Photo album! 

  • by MrPheasant,

    MrPheasant MrPheasant Apr 16, 2015 6:33 AM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 16, 2015 6:33 AM in response to Old Toad

    Thanks for posting this link to the Apple feedback page.  I missed it earlier.  MediaPro 1 imported all of my images from multiple iPhoto Libraries, but crashed when I tried sorting images.  This happened twice.  MediaPro dumped the entire import both times.  It seems surprisingly unstable.  I expect to install a boxed edition of PhotoDirector 6 (recommended elsewhere in this string) this week. Maybe it won't perform any better than MediaPro 1.  I hesitate getting further wrapped in Adobe's expensive tentacles, but Lightroom might be the last worst option.

  • by michelefromwassenaar,

    michelefromwassenaar michelefromwassenaar Apr 16, 2015 6:44 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Apr 16, 2015 6:44 AM in response to léonie

    The version that you need to run are the following:

     

    Yosemite 10.10.3 (14D131) + iPhoto (see screenshot).

    Screen Shot 2015-04-16 at 15.37.13 .png

     

    I got both via normal Applestore updates.

     

    As I mentioned before, I also compressed the whole "Photos.app" directory (into Photos.zip),

    and used the terminal to remove the Photos.app directory (since the finder claimed it could not be done.

     

    Just to be on the safe side I physically deleted the Photos library from my ~/Picture folder.

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Apr 16, 2015 9:19 AM in response to KPM3895
    Level 10 (141,552 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 16, 2015 9:19 AM in response to KPM3895

    Agreed.  So that's why it's important for all of us to tell Apple what additional features we want in Photos via https://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html

  • by rlplant,

    rlplant rlplant Apr 16, 2015 1:05 PM in response to mystwillow
    Level 1 (18 points)
    iCloud
    Apr 16, 2015 1:05 PM in response to mystwillow

    I also have decided, for now, to go back to iPhoto.  For me the main issue was minor but meaningful: I like the ability to sort Events (I guess they are now called Albums) by date.  The Photos app does put the newest Event at the top but all the old Events imported from my iPhoto library are in chronological order so the newest is at the bottom. The only way to move these around is click and drag. (I sent feedback to Apple about this)

     

    I was able to open iPhoto without problem after closing Photos and all my photos were there. And my old iPhoto Library.photolibrary file was in my "Pictures" folder as well. Opening Photos created a new photo library, and I deleted it without any effect on iPhoto.  It wasn't huge (22 GB), but I have an automated online backup system that backs up my entire Pictures folder and I didn't want to spend the additional bandwidth and money to back up a duplicate unused photo file.

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Apr 16, 2015 3:06 PM in response to rlplant
    Level 10 (141,552 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 16, 2015 3:06 PM in response to rlplant
    but I have an automated online backup system that backs up my entire Pictures folder and I didn't want to spend the additional bandwidth and money to back up a duplicate unused photo file.

    You do realize that you can't backup an iPhoto library to an online site, right?  The library must be on a volume formatted OS X Extended (journaled) for its ecosystem of files, databases, links, etc. to be maintained without damage.  To date there is no known online backup that will do that. So you can save even more bandwidth by excluding both the iPhoto library from the backup and back it up to a locate hard drive.

  • by MrPheasant,

    MrPheasant MrPheasant Apr 16, 2015 3:17 PM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 16, 2015 3:17 PM in response to Old Toad

    Engage automatic backups into Dropbox.   Everyone should do it, it's so simple & cheap.  Properly set up (it's easy), Dropbox automatically uploads all your images each time you sync your phone or load pictures from a camera to your computer.  It's the best solution I know to preserving every picture you have without worrying about expensive proprietary programs (I'm talking to you, Adobe).  Dropbox doesn't care about formats.  It uploads and preserves anything & everything. 

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Apr 16, 2015 3:18 PM in response to MrPheasant
    Level 10 (139,582 points)
    iLife
    Apr 16, 2015 3:18 PM in response to MrPheasant

    Adobe, Apple and everyone else, including Dropbox store images in bog standard formats.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Apr 16, 2015 4:12 PM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 10 (85,481 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 16, 2015 4:12 PM in response to Terence Devlin

    Terence Devlin wrote:

     

    Adobe, Apple and everyone else, including Dropbox store images in bog standard formats.

    I'm guessing that is "Non-Standard" formats - love spell check

     

    LN

  • by MrPheasant,

    MrPheasant MrPheasant Apr 16, 2015 4:54 PM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 16, 2015 4:54 PM in response to Terence Devlin

    Love the 'bog'.

     

    ; - )

     

    Won't ague for Adobe or others of the ilk.  Love 'em all you want.  Dropbox works, without conflicts.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Apr 16, 2015 4:56 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 9 (51,211 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 16, 2015 4:56 PM in response to LarryHN

    LarryHN wrote:

     

    Terence Devlin wrote:

     

    Adobe, Apple and everyone else, including Dropbox store images in bog standard formats.

    I'm guessing that is "Non-Standard" formats - love spell check

     

    LN

    Nope, it's bog.

  • by rlplant,

    rlplant rlplant Apr 16, 2015 5:39 PM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (18 points)
    iCloud
    Apr 16, 2015 5:39 PM in response to Old Toad

    I did not know that.  I've been using Mozy as a backup and assumed that the photos were backed up on their system and available in case of a crash.  So that is not the case? And there is no way to set things up so they can be backed up on line?

     

    I've also been using Time Machine and backing up to a second removal hard drive, but it's better to learn now about Mozy's limitation rather than after a crash

first Previous Page 6 of 31 last Next