Q: I wish to use iPhoto not Photo How can I stop photo opening every time I connect my camera

Open Image Capture in your Application Folder. Plug you camera in and select it in the sidebar. Click the icon at the bottom of the sidebar and expand it if it isn't already expanded. Select the application to open for the device, or choose none.

Note that if you reformat the card in the camera, you will have to reset the option.

The Photo app is already installed in the Application Folder and the system will not let you delete Photos because it is part of the System software. If you mean that plugging in a device launches Photos, then what setting did you set the device to do in Image Capture?

If you set a particular device in image capture for a certain setting other than launching Photos, then that should not be happening. When Photos is launched and a device is plugged in, you should be able to select the device and uncheck the box to open Photos when the device is plugged in.

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I understand that I cannot remove Photo but is there any way to STOP it popping up when camera is connected

Photo has NOT been installed

When Photos opens after you connect your camera, disable the checkmark "Open Photos for this device".  The checkmark will be below the toolbar at at the left side of the Photos window. Quit Photos, don't force quit, or it will not write the preferences file.

This checkmark will prevent Photos from opening until you format the card in the camera. Everytime you reformat the card, Photos will see it as a new device and open by default.

RickAu wrote:

 

Ok any camera I connect as now been told to open in iPhoto

I understand that I cannot remove Photo but is there any way to STOP it popping up when camera is connected

Photo has NOT been installed

Thanks in advance

If Photos is opening when you connect a camera then clearly it has been installed. Photos is/was automatically installed as part of upgrading to OS X 10.10.3 or later, so if your running 10.10.3, 10.10.4, 10.10.5 or any version of El Capitan then you will have had Photos installed whether you like it or not.

See Updating from iPhoto to Photos for OS X - Apple Support

Your only option is as per the suggestion made by léonie. I suggest you use this suggestion and also start to get used to using Photos instead. iPhoto and Aperture are not compatible with El Capitan.

With the camera connected, select it in the sidebar and uncheck the box. If you don't have the sidebar view enabled, select the Import tab at the top.

As I said in my first post, select no application or choose iPhoto in the bottom menu in Image Capture application.

Glen, as far as I can tell, at least on all four of my Macs, Photos is ignoring the Image Capture setting for "Connecting this ... opens"; that is why I pointed out again the checkmark in Photos.  I have to disable Photos in Photos as well.

Is the Image Capture setting always working for you?

And since frequently format my cards, I reverted to the quick and dirty Terminal command solution to disable all photo applications from launching at all:

But it does not always work and any update might break it.

This Terminal command will disable the auto start of any photo application, not just Photos. So Lightroom will not launch either and you will have to launch the application of your choice manually.

• Quit Photos and disconnect any camera.
• Open a Terminal and paste this command into it and hit return:

defaults -currentHost write com.apple.ImageCapture disableHotPlug -bool YES

• Restart the Mac . it should not be necessary, but it only worked for me after restarting.

I found this fix in a post by JadedEye (to léonie)

https://discussions.apple.com/message/29506561#29506561

Thanks for pointing that out. I'll remember it for the future.

Image Capture has been working fine for me with settings for devices, but I do very little with Photos lately. So my limited use may be why I don't notice the failure. It may be with only some devices.

However, I did mention it in my second post to disable it in Photos. Also, balsa2 had also posted the Photos solution with an image, but for some reason I see now that he has removed the post. So I reposted the image with both applications.

I knew you had a solution for all applications with terminal, but I was too lazy to search for it and refer your post.

Hold the Option key down and launch Photos. Create a library for it to open with and it will just be an empty library. Then follow the procedures to deselect the checkbox in Photos.

Even if you let it migrate the iPhoto library, it will hard link the 2 libraries and won't actually consume any more space for the current photos. Only extra space for the database files.

If you decide to check Photos out, you may like it. And you can now assign locations with the Photos app.

You could assign Photos to a different Desktop. Then you will not even see it when it launches and you can just ignore it.

1. According to Old Toad it rebuilds another library of photos hence taking up more space on my HD.

It creates a second library, right.  But the photos from both libraries are stored in an optimized way using hard links, so you do not need much more storage.  See:   Six Colors: The (hard) link between Photos and iPhoto

2. I take photos with a Canon SLR camera that does not have GPS information so I always use my iPhone to take 1 photo to record GPS location and paste that to the SLR camera taken photos. I have read that this is not possible in Photo App on iMac. Perhaps Apple believe people only take photos with their iPhones and iPads

That is unfortunately true.  Photos does not allow to copy and paste locations.  But you can assign locations. If you read the GPS of your iPhone photos by opening them in the Finder's Get Info panel, you can copy and paste the longitude and latitude to your Canon photos.

We posted a script in the user tip section to copy the GPS of a photo to the clipboard, so you can paste it as a new location into other photos.