lazor12

Q: Photos duplicates & wrong thumbnails after upgrade

So I finally got around installing Yosemite and now I'm starting to regret it. I have a library of maybe 10'000 photos that I used to store in iPhoto. After the Yosemite upgrade, my mac worked around the clock with the processing of the photos to move them to Photos or whatever it did (100% CPU use for maybe 6 hours).

 

Now however, I'm going to explain the really scary problems that I'm experiencing:

 

1. When walking through my library in the Photos-app, maybe 20-30 % of all photos (especially newly imported just before I switched OS) have either wrong or really messed up thumbnails. The photos seems OK first I open them, but I never know which photo I will open because the thumbnail is from a completely different picture.

2. Some pictures are now duplicate, with the exact same file name and file size. I'm afraid to remove them as I fear that it's actually another picture hiding behind the duplicate one that is showing? This is extremely frustrating.

 

My tries to solve the problems:

1. I have tried to remake the iPhoto events to Photos albums, did not change a thing.

2. I have tried to manually rotate photos to correct the thumbnails. Works 90 % of the time but I'm guessing I have thousands of mixed and faulty thumbnails so that's not really an option.

3. Repairing the library with the option+command control. Didn't change a thing.

 

What I haven't tried yet:

1. Using a duplicate finder tool. Mainly because I'm afraid to remove photos and because I don't know any good free one.

2. Smashing the laptop in the wall.

 

Specs:

Macbook Pro early 2011, 256 GB SSD, 8 GB RAM.

And yes I have a backup on TimeMachine, though I had to delete the old Mavericks one because the new Yosemite was too big to fit.

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Jul 6, 2015 9:46 AM

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Q: Photos duplicates & wrong thumbnails after upgrade

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  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Jul 6, 2015 9:56 AM in response to lazor12
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    Jul 6, 2015 9:56 AM in response to lazor12
    2. I have tried to manually rotate photos to correct the thumbnails. Works 90 % of the time but I'm guessing I have thousands of mixed and faulty thumbnails so that's not really an option.

    First try to correct all thumbnails by rotating back and forth.  You can select many photos at once and rotate them at the same time using ⌘R and ⌥⌘R

     

    2. Some pictures are now duplicate, with the exact same file name and file size. I'm afraid to remove them as I fear that it's actually another picture hiding behind the duplicate one that is showing? This is extremely frustrating.

    That might be caused by edited versions.  If you used adjustments in iPhoto that cannot be reproduced in Photos you may see the original and the edited version side by side.

     

    After fixing the thumbnails look at the apparent duplicates if they are really identical.  Are you seeing the duplicates side by side in moments or only in albums?   If you have identical photos and not different edited versions of the same in the same moment you can delete one of the duplicates.  A duplicate finder can help to identify them.

    These three apps are compatible with Photos:

     

  • by lazor12,

    lazor12 lazor12 Jul 6, 2015 1:28 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 6, 2015 1:28 PM in response to léonie

    Well thank you very much for the reply. So the basics is that there is no easy way of doing this and because I've previously chosen iPhoto for being my photo browser, I'm now stuck with it. Is it possible in anyway to get another more competent app for photo management and merge all my files (without all the extra 1024, thumbnails and everything), just plain simple jpg transfer so I can get out of this mess?

     

    I tried the rotate trick, but it's gonna take me probably 3-4 hours going through my whole album and that's really not in question.

     

    And the duplicates may or may not be created by edited versions but I seriously doubt it since they have the exact same file size and I can't see any difference at all.

  • by lazor12,

    lazor12 lazor12 Jul 6, 2015 1:44 PM in response to lazor12
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    Jul 6, 2015 1:44 PM in response to lazor12

    also just noticed that the thumbnails that I've previously manually "reset" by rotating, they show up faulty again...

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Jul 6, 2015 1:51 PM in response to lazor12
    Level 10 (107,827 points)
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    Jul 6, 2015 1:51 PM in response to lazor12
    I tried the rotate trick, but it's gonna take me probably 3-4 hours going through my whole album and that's really not in question

    You can select man photos at once from the "All Photos" album. It should not take that long.

     

    Is it possible in anyway to get another more competent app for photo management and merge all my files (without all the extra 1024, thumbnails and everything), just plain simple jpg transfer so I can get out of this mess?

    It will depend on what you want. Professional photo managers will support a lossless workflow, like iPhoto and Aperture do, also Lightroom or Capture One.  That means a library with saved originals and edited versions, previews, and thumbnails for speedier performance.

     

    You could try Picasa for Mac, if you just want an index for photos already on your Mac.

  • by lazor12,

    lazor12 lazor12 Jul 6, 2015 2:00 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 6, 2015 2:00 PM in response to léonie

    no I can't do them all at the same time since I got videos stuck in between, and they don't rotate (even if they too got faulty thumbnails)... But I mean Apple... Come on! You got to have a simple enough solution for this problem? I can't be the only one?

     

    Does any of the software you mentioned migrate easily from the Photo library?

  • by lazor12,

    lazor12 lazor12 Jul 6, 2015 2:02 PM in response to lazor12
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    Jul 6, 2015 2:02 PM in response to lazor12

    update:

     

    seems like when I for example rotate img_0045 (which was showing thumbnail for img_0087) the img_0087 starts showing the thumbnail for img_0045... So it just changes back and forth. Like the worst catch 22 ever invented!

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Jul 6, 2015 2:59 PM in response to lazor12
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    Jul 6, 2015 2:59 PM in response to lazor12

    3. Repairing the library with the option+command control. Didn't change a thing.

    Since repairing the Photos  library did not help, i'd try to rebuild the original iPhoto Library in iPhoto and then repeat the migration to Photos, hopefully with a better result.

     

    Where re your Photos Library and the original iPhoto Library stored? In the default location in the Pictures folder or on an external drive?

  • by lazor12,

    lazor12 lazor12 Jul 8, 2015 10:25 AM in response to léonie
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    Jul 8, 2015 10:25 AM in response to léonie

    I just got empirical evidence that the photos are indeed just switching back and forth the thumbnails with other pictures as I try to manually rotate them to reset the thumbnails. The photos that are "linked" in that sense does not have any other (what I can see) features in common, like filename or such.

     

    To your question, I have them stored internally on my OS X drive, a Samsung SSD. And I would guess they are stored in the default Photos folder still. The original iPhoto folder shows 60-something GB and the new Photos folder show 70-something (without me even adding any more pictures, so I would guess there are gigabytes of wasted thumbnails, faces and weird apple stuff that I don't really want clogging up my expensive SSD drive).

     

    So how do I rebuild the library, and does that come with any risks of losing data?

     

    I'm still very thankful for all the help ofc, even if my patience with the new yosemite os is being tested.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Jul 8, 2015 11:17 AM in response to lazor12
    Level 10 (107,827 points)
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    Jul 8, 2015 11:17 AM in response to lazor12
    So how do I rebuild the library, and does that come with any risks of losing data?

    In your original post you said:

    3. Repairing the library with the option+command control. Didn't change a thing.

    So you already tried to repair the Photos library. I think you need to repair tor rebuild the original iPhoto Library and then migrate it again.

     

    The original iPhoto folder shows 60-something GB and the new Photos folder show 70-something (without me even adding any more pictures, so I would guess there are gigabytes of wasted thumbnails, faces and weird apple stuff that I don't really want clogging up my expensive SSD drive).

    The iPhoto Library and Photos Library are sharing the photos. (See: Photos saves disk space by sharing images with your iPhoto or Aperture libraries - Apple Support)  The combined size of the two libraries is much smaller than the sum of the file sizes.

     

    To rebuild your iPhoto Library make a backup copy if you do not have a current backup, and then try first to launch iPhoto while holding down the key combination option-command. Select "Rebuild". 

    repeat with "Rebuild Thumbnails".

    Then migrate the rebuilt library again to Photos by dragging it onto the Photos icon.  If this does not solve the problem, rebuild the iPhoto library with iPhoto Library Manager.  The free trial will suffice:   http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/

  • by lazor12,

    lazor12 lazor12 Jul 13, 2015 1:50 PM in response to léonie
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    Jul 13, 2015 1:50 PM in response to léonie

    OK,

     

    tried both. The option-command rebuild direct on iPhoto doesn't, iPhoto simply doesn't answer and I guess it's because the iPhoto on the computer is an outdated an inactive one. When I click, nothing happens.

     

    With the iPhoto Library Manger app I tried also to rebuild, but it too tells me that my iPhoto application is outdated and needs to be updated in order to compete with my OS (so sad that it's not possible to "update" iPhoto any longer)...

     

    However. When I use iPhoto Library Manager, the photos seems to appear correct and with no fuzzy thumbnails. So maybe the iPhoto library in fact isn't faulty, just the previously migrated Photo library is? Do you think it might be worth a try, as you explain to migrate the iPhoto library however I can do that, to Photos again without doing any rebuilding that I apparently can't do anyway? I mean, I just need the ************ thumbnails to work, else it's ******** to even try and do anything with the photos.

     

    What else can I do? It feels sad to be so blue-eyed and naive for trusting just Apple software to take care of my pictures? I should've had another third-party app to backup of my photos.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Jul 13, 2015 2:25 PM in response to lazor12
    Level 10 (107,827 points)
    iCloud
    Jul 13, 2015 2:25 PM in response to lazor12

    Try first, if you can update iPhoto. Which version did you have?

    With the iPhoto Library Manger app I tried also to rebuild, but it too tells me that my iPhoto application is outdated and needs to be updated in order to compete with my OS (so sad that it's not possible to "update" iPhoto any longer)...

    That depends.  If you bought iPhoto from the App Store or ever updated it using the AppStore you should be able to update to iPhoto 9.6.1, the compatibility update for iPhoto.  I am using both iPhoto and Photos on Yosemite. It is very convenient to have two libraries open at the same time.

    If you missed the update, see this User Tip:   Get iPhoto 9.6.1 if you didn't update before OS... | Apple Support Communities

  • by pinkapplemac,

    pinkapplemac pinkapplemac Aug 25, 2015 12:56 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (18 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 25, 2015 12:56 PM in response to léonie

    Hello -

    Following this thread as I had the same trouble. Seems to be out there and I'd love to know from the hosts if this is a real bug or the result of a corrupt iPhoto library.

     

    When I did the same, I had some wrong thumbnails. Rotating helped but there were tons of them. And thumbnails from pictures long trashed.

    With Apple's assist - I repaired system permissions, repaired iPhoto library and rebuilt the database. Attempted Photos again, same problem. Repaired the Photos library, made the trouble even worse.

     

    Then, reinstalled the OS for 10.10.5 and iPhoto works great. I've not tried importing back into Photos YET. But was curious about iPhoto Library Manager and what your  results were because iPhoto has worked without fault. I am waiting to hear back from Apple (and their engineering group who are assessing my database) as to what the trouble is. My case worker said perhaps wiping my drive and reinstalling - this seems extreme.

    Not thread-jacking but leonie is a favorite.

     

    Thanks.

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Aug 25, 2015 2:26 PM in response to lazor12
    Level 10 (141,304 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 25, 2015 2:26 PM in response to lazor12
    Is it possible in anyway to get another more competent app for photo management and merge all my files (without all the extra 1024, thumbnails and everything), just plain simple jpg transfer so I can get out of this mess?

    Yes there is.  I use Media Pro 1 as my primary DAM (digital asset management) app and Photos/iPhoto for my special projects, i.e. books, calendars, etc.

     

    If you still have your iPhoto library just follow this tutorial to migrate to MP1: iP03 - Converting an iPhoto Library to a Media Pro Catalog System

     

    I believe MP1 can be used in demo mode for 30 days so you can try migrating your iPhoto library to it.  If you don't like the results you can continue using what you have.

    OTsig.png

  • by dancypye,

    dancypye dancypye Aug 27, 2015 4:56 PM in response to lazor12
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 27, 2015 4:56 PM in response to lazor12

    Hi,

     

    Read this thread as I was having the same problem. After import from iPhoto to Photo many images clicked through to wrong photos and appeared fuzzy - like many photos lay on top of each other. Rotating would sort. Anyway, this might sound odd, but I happened to resize the photos using the sliding tool at the top - and it sorted it.

     

    This has probably come too late for you, but I thought you should know. Also, might help others who find your thread with the same issue.

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