Where are screen saver photos stored?

Question

Where are screen saver photos stored?

When I go to system preference>Desktop & Screen Saver and click on pictures Folder I get a series of 3 photos that appear one at a time and fade into each other.
Where can I find these photos.
One photo was taken when I first used mail. The other 2 are photos I'm using in a book and reside in a separate book folder.
Can someone guide me as to where they are and can I substitute other photos?
Thank you.

iMac 20", 2GHz Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.5.6), 3Gb, Titanium 250Gb Ext FireWire Drive. Quark 6.5, PS CS2, Office 2004

Posted on May 12, 2009 8:44 AM

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Answer 1

May 12, 2009 9:41 AM in response to Frank Abramonte1

Do you have iPhoto? If so, open that and select Photos in the left sidebar.

Otherwise, look in the Macintosh HD/Users/yourusername/Pictures folder.

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Answer 2

May 12, 2009 11:23 AM in response to Bruce Etnyre

Bruce, nothing in either of the places you suggested.
Do you have any other thoughts on this?
Thanks

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Answer 3

nerowolfe

Level 6

13,084 points

May 12, 2009 11:36 AM in response to Frank Abramonte1

Using Finder, you can either go through all the images, by looking in the All Images Smartsearch, using the Icon view, or you can select a candidate folder, such as Pictures, and after entering a blank space in the search window to bring up the Show Search Criteria Action (use the gear) you can then select
Kind, Images and Type. Use the Icon view and you should see it.
You can restrict the search to any folder on your computer.

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Answer 4

May 12, 2009 12:54 PM in response to nerowolfe

nerowolfe, even if I can find the image it doesn't tell me where it comes from. I can find 4 copies of the same image. They link back to a book I created, however there are 20 images in the book why are not the others showing in screen saver?
Do you have any other thoughts on this?

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Answer 5

May 12, 2009 1:12 PM in response to Frank Abramonte1

In the Finder’s Find window, when you select a file it should show the path at the bottom of the window.

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Answer 6

nerowolfe

Level 6

13,084 points

May 12, 2009 1:39 PM in response to Frank Abramonte1

Frank Abramonte1 wrote:
nerowolfe, even if I can find the image it doesn't tell me where it comes from.

Yes it does. Just select the image and look at the line in the bottom of Finder.
As you mouse over the line, it expands, if necessary, allowing you to find the file location.
You can also right click the file and select "Get Info" and see the path to the file.

Some of the files may not be in the Pictures folder and therefore not showing in the screensaver.

Message was edited by: nerowolfe

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Answer 7

May 12, 2009 7:27 PM in response to nerowolfe

I traced one of the 3 photos that appear as screen saver and found it in
User>My Computer>Pictures>Photo Booth
The other 2 trace back to
User>My Computer>Pictures>iPhoto Library>Data>2009>Feb 24, 2009>holden 1stDayPage03.jpg
The only problem is that the iPhoto Library is not a folder, but an icon.
http://i42.tinypic.com/2v3fqzp.jpg

When I double click the Data folder it opens the other 2 photos. I can't figure out where the Data folder is.
http://i41.tinypic.com/1y1rnn.jpg

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Answer 8

CMCSK

Level 6

11,452 points

May 12, 2009 7:38 PM in response to Frank Abramonte1

The screen saver photos are stored in Machintosh HD/Library/Desktop Pictures

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Answer 9

May 12, 2009 7:54 PM in response to CMCSK

CMCSK, I went to where you pointed and found Abstract, but not Beach and the others.
I found the photos in Photo Booth.
What I'm looking for is where is the Pictures Folder.

http://i42.tinypic.com/260tt80.jpg

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Answer 10

cornelius

Level 6

17,826 points

May 12, 2009 8:05 PM in response to CMCSK

You might check Home Folder > Library > Screen Savers. My folder is empty, but then I have not been using screen savers on this Mac.

😉 cornelius

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Answer 11

CMCSK

Level 6

11,452 points

May 12, 2009 8:16 PM in response to Frank Abramonte1

The photos inside the screensaver Picture Folder were found here on my computer-Home/Library/Pictures

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Answer 12

b99

Level 2

292 points

May 12, 2009 8:47 PM in response to Frank Abramonte1

The photos are probably inside iPhoto Library as indicated. iPhoto Library is a "package" not just an icon. If you open the Library you will get access to them (right click, or control-click on the Library and access "show package contents") but be very careful not to change anything in the Library or iPhoto may be seriously compromised. Usually the Library contents do not need to be accessed because each photo can be exported to an outside folder of your choice.

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Answer 13

May 13, 2009 6:28 AM in response to b99

b99, I followed your suggestion of control-click, and there they are.
One photo is in the Data>2009>Feb 24, 2009>holden1stDayPage03.jpg
and the other in Data>2009>Feb 24, 2009>holden1stDayPage05.jpg

The same photos also appear in the Originals folder.

What I don't understand is I don't have a 2009 folder.
When I do a search I get the following, can't find a source link:
Feb 24, 2009–Data
Feb 24, 2009–Original
Feb 24, 2009_2–Data
Feb 24, 2009_2–Original

How did these two photos end up here?
Is it safe to delete these items, or should I just let them stay where they are?
Why does it only display page 3 and page 4 of a book that has 20 photos.
Is because they happen to be the first 2 photos in the book?
If there is no explanation, then I'm at least satisfied knowing where they are.
I don't use screen saver, just happen to notice it by accident.
Thanks for the help.
Cornelius and CMCSK, I really appreciate your interest and suggestions.

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Answer 14

b99

Level 2

292 points

May 13, 2009 9:32 AM in response to Frank Abramonte1

No, I don't advise deleting anything directly from within the iPhoto Library. The way to delete photos is through iPhoto itself when it is open and showing you the photos. Highlight the ones you don't want and delete them in the usual way (delete key or Photos>delete from album).

"I don't have a 2009 folder". Do you mean elsewhere on your computer? If you download photos from your camera directly into iPhoto the only place they will be located is in your iPhoto Library. If you download them with Image Capture or some other program into a folder in your home folder that would be different and you should be able to find them. You would have had to import them from there into iPhoto. (The same applies to photos from emails which can be saved directly into iPhoto or put elseswhere.) iPhoto names the folders within the iPhoto Library by the date associated with the photo or photo download.

Aren't these photos ones that you have taken or saved?

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Answer 15

May 13, 2009 11:55 AM in response to b99

b99, You've been very patient with me and I appreciate it, however, it this is getting to be too much we can drop it here.
Since I do not use Screen Saver I can let everything stand as it is.

To answer your questions:

1. I launched iPhoto and there is absolutely nothing there, no photos any where.

2. When I download from my camera I use Kodak Easyshare and download onto my desktop.
I then save them in a folder named for the event or date on my HD nested in a folder called Photo Archive.
I never use iPhoto, instead I rely on Bridge which is simple and efficient.
I can view, launch, delete, and move any photo I wish within Bridge, why would I want to go thru the extra step of using iPhoto.
I've read of people who have as many as 10 thousand photos using iPhoto to manage, I have less than 300 photos.

"I don't have a 2009 folder". Do you mean elsewhere on your computer?"
I have a folder called Seattle 07/2009, but the photos inside are all straight from my camera with numbers for names.

"You would have had to import them from there into iPhoto"
I have never used iPhoto other to launch it to see what it was all about.
I created an event but deleted it and don't remember importing anything into the event before deleting it.

Here's what I get when I do a spotlight search:

http://i39.tinypic.com/23kpy52.jpg

I made a search of the jpeg photo and got this info, all the same photo.
I know that I only put a copy in Photo Booth not in the other places.

Users/Home/Desktop/holden1stDayFinals (This is a copy of my desktop folder which has 19 photos)
Users/Home/Pictures/iPhotoLibrary/Original/2009/Feb 24, 2009 (This is the icon you said to option click)
Users/Home/Desktop/All 1st day holden Info/hold x pages (This is a copy of a desktop folder which has 3 folders nested each folder having at least 10 photos)
Users/Home/Pictures/iPhotoLibrary/Data/2009/Feb 24, 2009 (This you see only after control+click on the iphoto library icon)
Users/Home/Pictures/iPhoto Booth (This contains copy of the photos that I dragged into)

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