Washington Apples
Level 1 (18 points)
Photos for Mac

Q: I lost thousands of photo Titles from a 24,000 photo collection after converting iPhoto 9.6.1 library to new Photos 1.0 for Mac app.

I lost thousands of photo Titles from a 24,000 photo collection after converting iPhoto 9.6.1 library to new Photos 1.0 for Mac app.  Is there a way to do the import again and start over?  Very upsetting to lose years of carefully written photo titles.  All of the titles appear as normal in iPhoto which is still on my iMac and working fine.  Can I delete the Photos app and re-import with the hope that it gets things correct on the second try?

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Apr 8, 2015 11:11 PM

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Q: I lost thousands of photo Titles from a 24,000 photo collection after converting iPhoto 9.6.1 library to new Photos 1.0 for Mac ap ... more

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  • by Clem,

    Clem Clem Apr 9, 2015 12:19 AM in response to Washington Apples
    Level 3 (670 points)
    Apr 9, 2015 12:19 AM in response to Washington Apples

    When you say Title, do you really mean File Name? If so, you didn't loose them, they are visible in Info window and in Search but they are different metadata elements. In the Moments view, the actual title, if the photo has one, is what is shown (not the file name). Photos and iPhoto handle this metadata differently.  reimporting your library will not change things.

  • by blwilson48,

    blwilson48 blwilson48 Apr 9, 2015 12:28 AM in response to Washington Apples
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 9, 2015 12:28 AM in response to Washington Apples

    See my work around in my newer post "Photo's did not import all my images from iPhoto. It seems a number of people are having the same problem!

  • by léonie,Helpful

    léonie léonie Apr 9, 2015 8:05 AM in response to Washington Apples
    Level 10 (105,183 points)
    iLife
    Apr 9, 2015 8:05 AM in response to Washington Apples
    All of the titles appear as normal in iPhoto which is still on my iMac and working fine.  Can I delete the Photos app and re-import with the hope that it gets things correct on the second try?

    Have you enabled the display of the titles in Photos?

     

    the titles you have written into the Title field in iPhoto should be displayed the thumbnails of the photos.

    Go to the View menu > select the "Metadata" entry, enable Titles and badges. Or press Shift -cmd- T

    Screen Shot 2015-04-09 at 09.41.59CEST.png

    Then you should see the titles below the thumbnails:

    Screen Shot 2015-04-09 at 09.46.05CEST.png

  • by Clem,

    Clem Clem Apr 9, 2015 12:58 AM in response to Washington Apples
    Level 3 (670 points)
    Apr 9, 2015 12:58 AM in response to Washington Apples

    Yes, as leonie stated - if you actually had modified the title fields in iPhoto, so that the file name was replaced by a true title, yes those should show, by enabling them in View > Metadata > Titles

  • by nak_jp,

    nak_jp nak_jp Apr 9, 2015 2:21 AM in response to Washington Apples
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Apr 9, 2015 2:21 AM in response to Washington Apples

    Same here!

    However, the original iPhoto Library has not been deleted (it's still in the same place), and can be opened with nice and old iPhoto without losing any title.

    I think I should stick to iPhoto until this terrible problem is resolved.

  • by Washington Apples,

    Washington Apples Washington Apples Apr 9, 2015 8:32 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (18 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 9, 2015 8:32 AM in response to léonie

    Thanks so much for everyone's help.  Yes, I did have View > Metadata > Titles enabled.  What I noticed after opening Photos for the first time was that titles were randomly missing below some photos.

     

    This is what I've learned.  When I did a "Get Info" on a photo without an apparent "Title", I did see the actual filename with a .jpg suffix.  I had added my own titles to all of my photos and they all appeared under the photographs in iPhoto.  The behavior isn't exactly the same in Photos.  If the title had a .jpg suffix, it doesn't automatically treat it as a "Title" and show it under the photo in Photos.  In "Get Info", it's visible in the field just below the "Title" field.  At least this is a manageable problem as I can copy and paste to get a title back that appears below all of my photos.

     

    I guess I didn't make a big distinction between a filename and a title when using iPhoto.  They seemed to be one and the same. 

     

    Screen Shot 2015-04-09 at 8.16.15 AM.png

    "Ann in Tennessee Shirt" is the title I gave this photo and it DID APPEAR below the photo in iPhoto.  No problem.

     

     

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

    In Photos, "Ann in Tennessee Shirt.jpg" appears below the "Add a Title" field and DOES NOT APPEAR directly below the photo.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Sep 1, 2015 8:48 PM in response to PCS5
    Level 10 (84,012 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 1, 2015 8:48 PM in response to PCS5

    PCS5 wrote:

     

    http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-export-from-iphoto/

     

    tthis link has the answer

    SPAM - No relation to the question and about a totally different program

     

    LN

  • by zanyface,

    zanyface zanyface Aug 12, 2016 9:57 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (16 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 12, 2016 9:57 PM in response to LarryHN

    I am having the same problem (iPhoto filename appeared under thumbnail; Photo does not use the filename as the title, so nothing appears under the thumbnail).  I also renamed many thousands of photos with titles that make them easy to retrieve in the search field (baby Johnny for example).

     

    Any work around or update?

  • by zanyface,

    zanyface zanyface Aug 12, 2016 10:04 PM in response to zanyface
    Level 1 (16 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 12, 2016 10:04 PM in response to zanyface

    Has anyone tried this solution:

    Script: Batch Changing the Titles to the Filename w/Extension

    It is a bit beyond my ability, but I would like to know if it works.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Aug 12, 2016 10:23 PM in response to zanyface
    Level 10 (84,012 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 12, 2016 10:23 PM in response to zanyface

    zanyface wrote:

     

    I am having the same problem (iPhoto filename appeared under thumbnail; Photo does not use the filename as the title, so nothing appears under the thumbnail).  I also renamed many thousands of photos with titles that make them easy to retrieve in the search field (baby Johnny for example).

     

    Any work around or update?

    that is correct - one of several areas where the totally new application Photos is different from iPhoto - first you have to enable titles under view menu ==> metadata - check any metadata you want to see

     

    then you can run one of these two  scripts -  Script: Batch Changing the Titles to the Filename w/Extension   -  Script: Changing the Title to the Filename without Extension  - or use it compiled into an application by Old Toad  - http://www.oldtoadstutorials.net/No.P01.html

     

    And of course it works - that is why the experienced users here supplied it and recommend it

     

     

    LN

  • by zanyface,

    zanyface zanyface Aug 12, 2016 11:40 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (16 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 12, 2016 11:40 PM in response to LarryHN

    LN-

    Thanks for the reply.  I visited: Batch Changing in Photos, Tweaks to other Scripts

    It is a bit beyond my ability.  Is there a link to creating a script that is absolutely step-by-step?