mezzo22

Q: remove wrong names from faces dropdown in photos app

While naming faces in the photos app, i accidentally created a few wrong name entries like "an" instead of "anna".

 

How do i remove this wrong names from the dropdown list in faces?

 

I already tried the following things (without any results):

- renaming the wrong faces

- deleting the wrong faces

- drag the wrong faces onto the correct entry

 

The faces always disappear -  and if i create a new album with the wrong faces-names the albums are empty - but the entrys in the dropdown menu won´t disappear..

MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2011), OS X Yosemite (10.10.4), Photos Version 1.0.1 (215.65.0

Posted on Jul 10, 2015 2:01 PM

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Q: remove wrong names from faces dropdown in photos app

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  • by timo.schaffner,

    timo.schaffner timo.schaffner Jul 13, 2016 8:40 AM in response to mezzo22
    Level 1 (18 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Jul 13, 2016 8:40 AM in response to mezzo22

    I got it working!

     

    So i tried the tip with the sqlitebrowser.app that a user wrote before.

     

    - Download the app, it's freeware. You will find it with google

    - Make sure the Photos app is closed!

    - Go to your Photo Library file and "show package contents"

    - Make a backup copy of person.db on any place in the System

    - Open the file with sqlitebrowser.app and click on "Search Data" (the second tab from left)

    - Choose "RKPerson" from the dropdown

    - Search in the list for the wrong name

    - Click on the number shown on the left of the line to highlight it

    - Hit the delete Key on your Keyboard (not Backspace). If you're on a MacBook, hit fn+Backspace

    - There will be around 3 warnings for every item you delete that way, just press ok and ignore them

    - The line will still exist but it will be blank now!

    - This is pretty much it. You can now open Photos and it shouldn't display the Name anymore

     

    If anything goes wrong, simply replace the backupped db file!

    Please mark this as solved, so the answer stay on top and not page 2

     

    And please Apple FIX THIS!

     

    Cheers

  • by Durf Diggler,

    Durf Diggler Durf Diggler Aug 1, 2016 2:03 AM in response to mcamilleri
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 1, 2016 2:03 AM in response to mcamilleri

    I highly recommend against restoring from a TimeMachine Backup. You could lose photos. If you roll back to a backup before some (or many) photos were imported, and if you deleted them from the source - iPhone, DSLR, etc - you'll never get them back, unless you then restore from a later backup, which will bring back the 'unused name'.

    Let's just report to Apple and cross our fingers.

     

    <Edited by Host>

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Aug 1, 2016 5:39 AM in response to mcamilleri
    Level 10 (105,736 points)
    iLife
    Aug 1, 2016 5:39 AM in response to mcamilleri

    A good idea, but repairing a library has a severe draw-back, if it is an iCloud Photo Library.  afetr each repair the complete library will upload again to iCloud.  With a large library I would rather live with a few wrong name suggestion than having to upload the complete library again.

  • by robert70,

    robert70 robert70 Aug 27, 2016 12:20 PM in response to mezzo22
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 27, 2016 12:20 PM in response to mezzo22

    I typed in a name in lower case. It is impossible to fix. The lower case name is always substituted for the name with upper case first letters even after deleting the face from the cork board. I guess someone at Apple thought that this feature was helpful.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Aug 27, 2016 4:26 PM in response to robert70
    Level 10 (105,736 points)
    iLife
    Aug 27, 2016 4:26 PM in response to robert70
    even after deleting the face from the cork board.

    Are you using iPhoto? Photos does not have a cork board, just a Faces album with Faces tiles. But in iPhoto you hcan correct lower-case errors just like in Photos. First type in a different name, for example xxx:Anna, then remove the prefix "xxx:" and the corrected case will stay.

  • by robert70,

    robert70 robert70 Aug 29, 2016 3:56 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 29, 2016 3:56 PM in response to léonie

    I am using Photos. Sorry for the incorrect terminology, I used Faces under Albums. I tried your suggestion and it accepts the capitalized name but changes it to the lower case version.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Aug 29, 2016 11:18 PM in response to robert70
    Level 10 (105,736 points)
    iLife
    Aug 29, 2016 11:18 PM in response to robert70

    Which version of Photos are you using?

     

    You have to be persistent. When Photos replaces "helpfully" the name by the lower case version, add one more letter to make the suggested faces name go away, then correct the first letter to upper case, then delete the last letter you added.

    Screen Shot 2016-08-30 at 08.15.37GMT.png

  • by robert70,

    robert70 robert70 Aug 31, 2016 1:22 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 31, 2016 1:22 PM in response to léonie

    I am using Photos Version 1.5 (370.42.0), OS X 10.11.6. I now have "First Last xxx", "First Lastx" and "first last". I can delete "First Last xxx", "First Lastx" and "first last" in the faces album, but all three versions persist in the pull down menu. When enter "First Last" it converts it to "first last". When I remove the x or the xxx it converts to the lower case version.

  • by timo.schaffner,

    timo.schaffner timo.schaffner Aug 31, 2016 2:56 PM in response to mezzo22
    Level 1 (18 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Aug 31, 2016 2:56 PM in response to mezzo22

    You guys do realize that i posted a working solution, right? Right??

  • by robert70,

    robert70 robert70 Aug 31, 2016 3:13 PM in response to timo.schaffner
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 31, 2016 3:13 PM in response to timo.schaffner

    Yes. Thanks. It is impressive work. It is on my list of projects. I was hoping for something that takes less than 5 minutes and would therefore fall into the GTD do immediately category.

  • by DavidKennedy,

    DavidKennedy DavidKennedy Sep 4, 2016 8:38 AM in response to mezzo22
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 4, 2016 8:38 AM in response to mezzo22

    Simple solution guys - well, it worked for me... - I tried most of the suggestions without success then had a thought :- Create the correct name as a contact [or edit the existing contact until it reads as you want it to - then it will show in the drop down when you try to re-name.

  • by DavidKennedy,

    DavidKennedy DavidKennedy Sep 4, 2016 8:44 AM in response to DavidKennedy
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 4, 2016 8:44 AM in response to DavidKennedy

    Nah, forget that, it seemed to work but the next time I opened photo, it had reverted...

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