infernalmachine
Level 1 (2 points)

Q: PERMANENTLY Prevent Photos from Opening Automatically

Hi All!

 

I just upgraded to Yosemite, and with that came the Photos App that replaced iPhoto.

 

The internet is full of forum posts asking how to prevent Photos from launching automatically when a device is inserted, and full of replies saying to uncheck the tick box in Photos for each given device...  But this is no solution at all!

 

AFTER telling Photos not to open for a given SD card, if the SD card is reformatted in-camera, the setting is lost and Photos will open again the next time the SD card is inserted.

 

Is there any way to PERMANENTLY prevent the Photos App from handling digital media FOR ALL DEVICES by default?  Any way to reset the default behavior in Terminal perhaps???

 

I am not the only Photographer who prefers the Adobe software and has a bag full of SD cards that get reformatted routinely.  It is seriously aggravating to come back from a shoot with 8 SD cards full of new media and wait for Photos to launch before returning to the Adobe family of software to import media over and over again.  It's a major workflow disruption!

Mac Pro (Mid 2012), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), Photos v1.0.1

Posted on Aug 16, 2015 9:53 PM

by infernalmachine,Solvedanswer
infernalmachine infernalmachine
Level 1 (2 points)
A:

Hey guys.  I've had just about enough of the Photos app trying to assert it's dominance over my media cards...  Trying to delete the app altogether, the OS gives me an alert that it cannot be modified or deleted because it is required by the operating system.  Well too damned bad!  So I took a heavy-handed approach that seems to have solved my issue.

 

!!!  I do not recommend this approach unless you thoroughly understand the implications.  Proceed with extreme caution.

 

I right-clicked on the photos app icon, and selected "Show Package Contents."  For safety, I first selected everything in the "Contents" folder and right clicked again to "Compress selected files."  I left the new zip-file in place so that I can extract contents if I need them in the future, but then deleted all of the original files within the Photos App's Contents folder.  This prevents the app from opening at all, because it effectively removes all of the application code from where it should be.  I still have the Photos.app icon in my Applications folder, but effectively it is an empty container. 

 

In addition to preventing the photos app from opening, this will prevent the operating system from performing any task that requires the photos app.  As far as I can tell, this disables PhotoStream.  I am not sure about AirDrop, but I don't care at all about those kinds of services.  If you're still reading, probably neither do you.  This solution remains effective after restarting, but I recommend disabling automatic updates in the App Store as well.

 

This is not a consumer-appropriate solution, but for we professionals who rely on professional imaging software, it does seem to do the trick.  Use your own best judgement, but I hope this helps!

Posted on Nov 13, 2015 1:32 PM

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infernalmachine

Q: PERMANENTLY Prevent Photos from Opening Automatically

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  • by mulambo28,

    mulambo28 mulambo28 Apr 17, 2016 10:31 AM in response to S.P.L.
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 17, 2016 10:31 AM in response to S.P.L.

    Thank you! I recently upgraded to El Capitan and have been frustrated with Photos opening every time I inset a memory card despite constantly unchecking the box. I think it's beyond absurd that I have to go searching through a forum and use code in the terminal to make this virus app stop attacking my computer. I should just be able to uninstall the **** thing since I've never used it except to try to figure out how to disable it. It's truly a waste of hard drive.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Apr 17, 2016 10:53 AM in response to mulambo28
    Level 10 (84,646 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 17, 2016 10:53 AM in response to mulambo28

    No reason to tell the users here - to make a difference you need to tell APple - http://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html

     

    LN

  • by alphabc,

    alphabc alphabc Apr 26, 2016 3:19 PM in response to S.P.L.
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 26, 2016 3:19 PM in response to S.P.L.

    S.P.L. wrote:

    Open terminal and type:

     

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


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

     

    Hope this helps.

     

    Thank you, thank you, thank you!

    This problem has been annoying me ever since iPhoto became Photos.

     

    Even though I turned off that checkbox in the top left of Photos to no longer automatically launch the app, if ever I formatted the same memory card and later reinserted it to my Mac, then Photos would auto-launch again. Same thing for changing the setting in Image Capture - these settings do not persist after a memory card format.  So annoying, and such a huge waste of time waiting for sluggish Photos to launch each time when I didn't want it to, only to have to turn off the setting until next time.

     

    There should simply be a preference setting in Photos to disable this "feature" permanently. but of course there isn't.

     

    but your simple Terminal command finally fixed this annoying problem. No more Photos launching by itself.

     

    Thank you again

  • by faanjim,

    faanjim faanjim Apr 26, 2016 11:45 PM in response to infernalmachine
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 26, 2016 11:45 PM in response to infernalmachine

    Tenex's solution worked great for me. But I linked my phone to open my preferred program Picassa.

     

    I unplugged my phone, closed image capture, opened image capture, plugged in my phone and image capture automatically opened picassa. Yipppeee

  • by Jennifer Nieland,

    Jennifer Nieland Jennifer Nieland May 4, 2016 11:19 AM in response to alphabc
    Level 1 (9 points)
    May 4, 2016 11:19 AM in response to alphabc

    I wish the command line fix had worked for me, but nope, all 25 iPads still open iPhoto when I plug in the USB cable to the Configurator laptop. What's even better is that since I had to Restore them to factory settings, every one of them is named "iPad". Such fun using the pull-down menu to try to disable for each. 

     

    Running 10.11.4, latest version of Configurator, etc.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN May 4, 2016 1:09 PM in response to Jennifer Nieland
    Level 10 (84,646 points)
    Photos for Mac
    May 4, 2016 1:09 PM in response to Jennifer Nieland

    then you need to try again - you probably made a typo - many people have used this and it does work

     

    And Apple needs to address this so report it to them - the squeaky wheel gets the grease - http://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html

     

    LN

  • by Stiobhard Cassel,

    Stiobhard Cassel Stiobhard Cassel May 5, 2016 6:59 AM in response to Tenex
    Level 1 (38 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 5, 2016 6:59 AM in response to Tenex

    Worked like a charm on El Capitan   Thanks. 

  • by marcusfromlondon,

    marcusfromlondon marcusfromlondon May 12, 2016 2:36 PM in response to infernalmachine
    Level 1 (4 points)
    May 12, 2016 2:36 PM in response to infernalmachine

    Yup, its driving me crazy too, I have talked to geniuses in the Apple shop and they weren't initially aware of the problem but then couldn't help with a solution.

    Are apple dictating what we should do, yes it seems that way apple is definitely going 1984 all the way.

    Legendary Apple 1984 Ad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEI4XRfHSJo

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN May 12, 2016 3:44 PM in response to marcusfromlondon
    Level 10 (84,646 points)
    Photos for Mac
    May 12, 2016 3:44 PM in response to marcusfromlondon

    Rather than waste your =and our time with meaningless editorials you should try reading the thread - the solution is posted just above your pointless editorial

    S.P.L. wrote:

    Open terminal and type:

     

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


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

     

    Hope this helps.

     

     

    LN

  • by marcusfromlondon,

    marcusfromlondon marcusfromlondon May 12, 2016 4:06 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (4 points)
    May 12, 2016 4:06 PM in response to LarryHN

    I've reported it to apple and the terminal thing is a workaround not a solution and i don't want a workaround. It’s like buying a car and being asked to pray when you use the breaks to make them work, I trust most of the time that wouldn’t do anything and not everyone is religious anyway just like I am a photographer and not a programmer. Thanks for your aggressive response though.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN May 12, 2016 4:14 PM in response to marcusfromlondon
    Level 10 (84,646 points)
    Photos for Mac
    May 12, 2016 4:14 PM in response to marcusfromlondon

    What ever you want  - there are currently only two "solutions" - unchecking the box to open Photos for each device and for each SD card every time you format it or use the terminal command

     

     

    If you demand only a solution that matches your personal narrow desires then you may wait a long time as I seriously doubt that APple is going to build a custom version of Photos just for you

     

    Have a nice day and good luck

     

    LN

  • by ironmal,

    ironmal ironmal Jul 24, 2016 5:55 PM in response to Tenex
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jul 24, 2016 5:55 PM in response to Tenex

    This worked like a champ. Thanks !!

  • by oakleybloke,

    oakleybloke oakleybloke Sep 4, 2016 12:24 AM in response to infernalmachine
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 4, 2016 12:24 AM in response to infernalmachine

    An easy way to disable the Photos app opening automatically for anything is to open Terminal and type this line:

     

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

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Sep 4, 2016 12:31 AM in response to oakleybloke
    Level 10 (106,958 points)
    iCloud
    Sep 4, 2016 12:31 AM in response to oakleybloke

    A caution: No application will open at all, after you enter this command. You will have to launch the app you want manually.

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