Add pictures back to Photo Booth

Question

Level 1

10 points

Add pictures back to Photo Booth

Hi,

I recently purchased a new MacBook Pro to replace my iMac. I'm having a problem with my transferred pictures from Photo Booth. I've added all of my old pictures to the Photo Booth folder (User/Pictures/Photo Booth), but they do not appear in the strip on the Photo Booth application.

Is there a way to add these pictures back to view in the application? Or will it only show pictures that I take from now on?

Thanks.

15" MacBook Pro 2.8 GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on Jun 20, 2009 5:06 PM

Reply

Answer 1

swissguy Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 21, 2009 5:54 PM in response to CMCSK

1. Open your Pictures folder containing the Photo Booth folder (~/Pictures).
2. In Terminal, type cd and drag the Photo Booth folder onto your Terminal window. Hit enter.
3. Type +ls -1+ Hit enter.
4. Copy the list of picture files it gives you.
5. Open MS word and paste in the list.
6. Command-F. Find: ^p Replace </string>^p^t<string>
7. Click Replace All. Check the beginning and end of the document and make sure there aren't erroneous <string>'s. Copy the list.
8. Open ~/Library/Application Support/Photo Booth/Recents.plist with text edit. Replace the <string> and </sting>'s with the data in your clipboard.
9. Relaunch Photo Booth.

Reply

Answer 2

swissguy Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 21, 2009 4:38 PM in response to CMCSK

CMCSK wrote:

Is there a way to add these pictures back to view in the application?

No

Yes

Or will it only show pictures that I take from now on?

Yes

No

I found a way. It seems that the Recents.plist file (in the picture folder itself) which I had been editing is useless. In 10.5, the Recents.plist file for Photo Booth is in ~/Library/Application Support/Photo Booth. By simply editing that (and by using a few Terminal commands for a large gallery), all of the photos will reappear inside Photo Booth.

Reply

Answer 3

CMCSK

Level 6

11,452 points

Jun 21, 2009 5:26 PM in response to swissguy

In 10.5, the Recents.plist file for Photo Booth is in ~/Library/Application Support/Photo Booth. By simply editing that (and by using a few Terminal commands for a large gallery), all of the photos will reappear inside Photo Booth.

What exactly did you do and what Terminal commands are needed?

Reply

Answer 4

zime

Level 1

0 points

Jul 3, 2009 9:49 AM in response to swissguy

im having the exact same problem, glad to find there is a way to do it
however your instructions wont work for me
when i drag the 'photo booth' folder into terminal after entering 'cd' i get

Louenardo:~ louidge$ cd/Users/louidge/Pictures/Photo\ Booth
*-bash: cd/Users/louidge/Pictures/Photo Booth: No such file or directory*
Louenardo:~ louidge$ ls -1
Desktop
Documents
Downloads
Dropbox
Incomplete
Library
MP170 On-screen Manual
Mercury
Movies
Music
Pictures
Public
Shared
Sites
untitled folder 2

i figure the stuff above in bald is where it goes wrong
any help would be appreciated
cheers louiss

Reply

Answer 5

tigz

Level 1

0 points

Aug 10, 2009 1:30 PM in response to zime

hi zime,
the resolution is actually pretty simple. you just need to put a space between "cd" and "/Users/louidge/Pictures/Photo\ Booth" (obviously you wouldn't include the brackets)

this is because in terminal, the "cd" part is a command, (it is telling terminal to navigate to folder), while the rest is the parameters of that command (that is to say, specifying the actual folder that terminal is navigating to).

what you did was tell terminal to look for a folder called "cd/Users/louidge/Pictures/Photo\ Booth" when in fact you wanted to tell it to _navigate to_ a folder called "/Users/louidge/Pictures/Photo\ Booth"

hope this helps

Tigz

Reply

Answer 6

CMCSK

Level 6

11,452 points

Jun 20, 2009 5:30 PM in response to swissguy

Is there a way to add these pictures back to view in the application?

No

Or will it only show pictures that I take from now on?

Yes

Reply

Answer 7

CMCSK

Level 6

11,452 points

Jun 22, 2009 2:52 PM in response to swissguy

Thank you for the detailed instructions. Something that a regular home user especially those who do not venture into the terminal world would have never known.

Reply

Answer 8

iddrew

Level 1

80 points

Jul 19, 2009 3:23 AM in response to zime

Hi,

I am having the same problem as zime.

any help would be deeply appreciated.

Thanking you in advance,
Andrew DeBono

Reply

Answer 9

Aug 12, 2009 6:31 PM in response to swissguy

The solution worked like a charm....many thanks!

Reply