Spotlight doesn't search iPhoto for included data, such as titles!!!

Think the main problem is that all that extra stuff - titles, descriptions, film roll, event title, etc. - is not actually written to the metadata of the file. It is stored as an entry in the iPhoto Library database file and only associated with the image file.

Perhaps, this reflects the general rule of management in iPhoto which suggests that everything you do to files imported to iPhoto be done through iPhoto. In other words, you are not supposed to search for and find iPhoto pictures through Spotlight or Finder searches-as this may tempt you to manipulate them directly through Finder- instead, you are supposed to use iPhoto to find those images and use iPhoto to export them if you need a copy for something else.

Scott

Perhaps - and I'm guessing here - it's because both iPhoto and iTunes are databases. Does Spotlight within FileMaker docs?

Regards

TD

+Perhaps - and I'm guessing here - it's because both iPhoto and iTunes are databases. Does Spotlight within FileMaker docs?+

Technically Mail is a database too and Spotlight can find items in Mail.

Apple may have deliberately left iPhoto metadata search capability out of the Spotlight default parameters to prevent intrusions from the Finder into the iPhoto file structure. However, as I've pointed out in other threads, this does NOT apply to photo filenames, which can be in 2 places at once e.g. on a mounted SD card and in iPhoto. Then Spotlight can find them, if fully indexed, leading to the potential problem of getting into iPhoto's innards via the Finder.

So, Spotlight's limitations are actually a good thing, to a point. In the future we'll have 5 TB of RAM and all aplications open at once, so this won't be an issue. Right? ;*)

Technically Mail is a database too and Spotlight can find items in Mail.

Well I did say I was guessing...

Regards

TD

Technically Mail is a database too and Spotlight can find items in Mail.

The difference is that for Mail, Excel, Word, etc... Spotlight is indexing (and searching) each individual file and the content and metadata that it is searching for is a part of each file. There is no reason to search the index file in Mail since all the headers and everything are in each .emlx file.

With iPhoto, once you import the image, changes from that point on are generally made in the iPhoto Library file... the image files remain untouched for the most part. Now, they could perhaps do something that would mine the iPhoto Library file for all of it's keyword associations, titles, etc and use them for the Spotlight index associations for each file, but right now it doesn't seem to do that.
Probably when Jobs enters keywords for photos, they are actually written to the metadata of the file-like what would happen if you added the keywords in Photoshop. Searching via Spotlight for iPhoto keywords or titles would most likely hit for the Library file -since that's where they are- not the image file(s).

I think spotlight should search in the photo titles and, when you click in one photo, open iphoto, and when you want to see its location, simply say iphoto library, that way you can not do bad things frm the finder to the iphoto library, BUT you can search photos from spotlight. right?

What's frustrating for me is that Spotlight searches iPhoto '05 just fine for keywords, titles, &c. I can find images easier in Spotlight using my G4 iBook, iLife '05, and 10.4, than I can running a new 2.4 iMac, iLife '08, and 10.5! It seems like we've gone backward, not forward! Apple needs to fix this. Lots of times I need to find a photo within Finder, like when uploading to a blog and such. Why should I have to use an old iBook and iLife '05 to do this?

Lots of times I need to find a photo within Finder, like when uploading to a blog and such.

Of course, that's not supported, you know. And part of not supporting it is that the OS doesn't help you do it.

There are three ways (at least) to get files from the iPhoto Window.

1. *Drag and Drop*: Drag a photo from the iPhoto Window to the desktop, there iPhoto will make a full-sized copy of the pic.

2. *File -> Export*: Select the files in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export. The dialogue will give you various options, including altering the format, naming the files and changing the size. Again, producing a copy.

3. *Show File*: Right- (or Control-) Click on a pic and in the resulting dialogue choose 'Show File'. A Finder window will pop open with the file already selected.

To upload to MySpace or any site that does not have an iPhoto Export Plug-in the recommended way is to Select the Pic in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export and export the pic to the desktop, then upload from there. After the upload you can trash the pic on the desktop. It's only a copy and your original is safe in iPhoto.

This is also true for emailing with Web-based services. If you're using Gmail you can use THIS

If you use Apple's Mail, Entourage, AOL or Eudora you can email from within iPhoto.

If you use a Cocoa-based Browser such as Safari, you can drag the pics from the iPhoto Window to the Attach window in the browser. Or, if you want to access the files with iPhoto not running, then create a Media Browser using Automator (takes about 10 seconds) or use THIS

Regards

TD

Hmm. While it might not be supported, it worked in iLife '05 in Tiger (maybe it would in iLife '05 in Leopard, too, but I haven't upgraded my iBook yet). It is counter-intuitive not to have images show up in Spotlight search results when the search terms are the title or keywords of the image in iPhoto. Whatever the theory behind it, it is not user-friendly.

Scott

Any Image Browser (such as the one in Mail 3 or Pages or THIS will do that. This is because they all access the same xml file.

Regards

TD

Doesn't it bother you that to find a picture you can't just use spotlight, that you have to separately open iPhoto and use it's search feature?

Not at all because I don't have to have iPhoto running to search - I can use a media browser.

What's the point of Spotlight telling you that your pic is in

iPhoto Library / Originals / Event 12345

if you cannot access the file without using iPhoto or a media browser?

Regards

TD