found faces moved
In a few instances, the selection rectangle delimiting faces which iPhoto found and I have identified gets moved, either off the face or to a different part of the face. The selection rectangle still has the person's name but it has taken a different shape, taller and narrower than originally. I have seen this error a number of times in the past but not reported it because it was so strange and infrequent that I was not confident I could describe it. Now I have a way to show it for sure, and to reproduce it sort of. I am using iPhoto '09 (8.1.1) and iPhoto Library Manager 3.5.6. My iPhoto library has 13,335 photos in 301 events, with 436 Faces and 17 Places identified.
To see the bug for myself I merged two iPhoto libraries, one with about 1,000 photos taken in 2009, and one with about 12,335 photos taken in years up through 2008. Before the merger for both libraries I deleted the face_blob.db and face.db files after updating iPhoto to 8.1.1. The subsequent rebuild of Faces information included manually identifying most of the found faces since the accuracy of iPhoto suggestions decreases to no more than about 10% correct as more photos are identified. In both libraries I named almost all the faces that iPhoto found, leaving only the ones where I did not know the person as "unnamed". Then via iPhoto Library Manager I merged the two libraries into a new library. The merged library was thus a completely new library built through the combination of iPhoto and iPhoto Library Manager. For simplicity of reference I will call the new library Merged.
A small number of faces in Merged show the errors reported above: the selection rectangle delimiting faces which iPhoto found and I had identified was moved off the face. The selection rectangle still has the person's name but it has taken a different shape, taller and narrower than originally. Faces with this error can easily be found because the thumbnail in the Faces database display does not show the face. Because this library was created by merging files with iPhoto Library Manager the original libraries are available. Comparison shows the error is present in the new library but not the original.
The error can be corrected. Select the incorrectly tagged photo, Control-Click and choose Detect Missing Faces. After iPhoto finishes its detection, open the photo and click Name. Now the face will be detected in two places, one the moved detection rectangle and now also the correct one. Strangely, both detected faces will have the assigned Name, not as a recommendation but as confirmed, and the correct thumb is displayed in the Faces database. Deleting the incorrect detected face completes correction of the error.
After the merge iPhoto Library Manager reports "246 errors occurred during the process." Examples of most of the reported errors are
"10-01-15 13:43:13.363 * Error: Could not copy province place data for item "(unknown name)" (No place data could be found for place ID 29)"
and
"10-01-15 13:43:14.340 * Error: An error occurred while trying to find a matching user defined place (Could not find user place in /Users/ritch/Pictures/iPhoto Library/iPhotoMain.db with ID 18)"
These error messages suggest problems with Places, not Faces. However, one error did mention face thumbnails:
"10-01-15 14:32:55.060 Regenerating face thumbnails...
10-01-15 14:33:03.547 * Error: An error occurred while regenerating face thumbnails (The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSStatus error -1728.))
10-01-15 14:33:03.547 Regenerating face thumbnails..."
The meaning of these error messages I do not know. The great bulk of the reported errors have to do with Places rather than Faces. My use of Places has been minimal since problems with Faces has consumed so much time, so I do not know the extent of problems generally found in Places. I worry because errors reported with Places involve iPhotoMain.db. I do not know the internal workings of iPhoto, but I suspect that all parts depend on iPhotoMain.db. I wonder if problems with Places could damage iPhotoMain.db, leading to errors in Faces. I also wonder if I should have deleted iPhotoMain.db when I updated iPhoto from 8.1 to 8.1.1. When I followed Apple's instructions for the update and had iPhoto Detect New Faces for my entire library, many errors remained, such as blank thumbs, or pictures in which all found faces were named but iPhoto designated to have "unnamed" faces. Manual deletion of the face_blob.db and face.db files eliminated these errors but required a huge amount of work repeating the manual identification of most faces, suggesting Detect New Faces did not correct all damage to those database files. Now I wonder if iPhotoMain.db similarly retains damage, or is damaged by Places, and should be deleted. I don't like to think of the amount of work that might be required to reconstitute my iPhoto library if deletion of iPhotoMain.db is required to correct problems.
These results suggest a database error interferes with iPhoto reliably locating detected faces. As well as the problems for the user interface reported here, such lack of reliability could have a large negative effect on the detection algorithms. Conversely, and hopefully, correction of this putative error could result in major improvements in iPhoto/Faces predictions.
To reproduce this error,
1. Create two libraries and ensure all detected faces are properly named.
2. Merge the libraries.
3. In the Faces library of the merged library look for thumbs which do not show the proper face.
The error seems random, but I think with a large enough number of photos and faces this procedure will turn up enough errors to verify the issue.
Clearly there is some software problem, but whether iPhoto or iPhoto Library Manager is the culprit is not clear. I will report this to Apple and Fat Cat Software. I hope others find useful my workaround for improperly found or re-found faces.
To see the bug for myself I merged two iPhoto libraries, one with about 1,000 photos taken in 2009, and one with about 12,335 photos taken in years up through 2008. Before the merger for both libraries I deleted the face_blob.db and face.db files after updating iPhoto to 8.1.1. The subsequent rebuild of Faces information included manually identifying most of the found faces since the accuracy of iPhoto suggestions decreases to no more than about 10% correct as more photos are identified. In both libraries I named almost all the faces that iPhoto found, leaving only the ones where I did not know the person as "unnamed". Then via iPhoto Library Manager I merged the two libraries into a new library. The merged library was thus a completely new library built through the combination of iPhoto and iPhoto Library Manager. For simplicity of reference I will call the new library Merged.
A small number of faces in Merged show the errors reported above: the selection rectangle delimiting faces which iPhoto found and I had identified was moved off the face. The selection rectangle still has the person's name but it has taken a different shape, taller and narrower than originally. Faces with this error can easily be found because the thumbnail in the Faces database display does not show the face. Because this library was created by merging files with iPhoto Library Manager the original libraries are available. Comparison shows the error is present in the new library but not the original.
The error can be corrected. Select the incorrectly tagged photo, Control-Click and choose Detect Missing Faces. After iPhoto finishes its detection, open the photo and click Name. Now the face will be detected in two places, one the moved detection rectangle and now also the correct one. Strangely, both detected faces will have the assigned Name, not as a recommendation but as confirmed, and the correct thumb is displayed in the Faces database. Deleting the incorrect detected face completes correction of the error.
After the merge iPhoto Library Manager reports "246 errors occurred during the process." Examples of most of the reported errors are
"10-01-15 13:43:13.363 * Error: Could not copy province place data for item "(unknown name)" (No place data could be found for place ID 29)"
and
"10-01-15 13:43:14.340 * Error: An error occurred while trying to find a matching user defined place (Could not find user place in /Users/ritch/Pictures/iPhoto Library/iPhotoMain.db with ID 18)"
These error messages suggest problems with Places, not Faces. However, one error did mention face thumbnails:
"10-01-15 14:32:55.060 Regenerating face thumbnails...
10-01-15 14:33:03.547 * Error: An error occurred while regenerating face thumbnails (The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSStatus error -1728.))
10-01-15 14:33:03.547 Regenerating face thumbnails..."
The meaning of these error messages I do not know. The great bulk of the reported errors have to do with Places rather than Faces. My use of Places has been minimal since problems with Faces has consumed so much time, so I do not know the extent of problems generally found in Places. I worry because errors reported with Places involve iPhotoMain.db. I do not know the internal workings of iPhoto, but I suspect that all parts depend on iPhotoMain.db. I wonder if problems with Places could damage iPhotoMain.db, leading to errors in Faces. I also wonder if I should have deleted iPhotoMain.db when I updated iPhoto from 8.1 to 8.1.1. When I followed Apple's instructions for the update and had iPhoto Detect New Faces for my entire library, many errors remained, such as blank thumbs, or pictures in which all found faces were named but iPhoto designated to have "unnamed" faces. Manual deletion of the face_blob.db and face.db files eliminated these errors but required a huge amount of work repeating the manual identification of most faces, suggesting Detect New Faces did not correct all damage to those database files. Now I wonder if iPhotoMain.db similarly retains damage, or is damaged by Places, and should be deleted. I don't like to think of the amount of work that might be required to reconstitute my iPhoto library if deletion of iPhotoMain.db is required to correct problems.
These results suggest a database error interferes with iPhoto reliably locating detected faces. As well as the problems for the user interface reported here, such lack of reliability could have a large negative effect on the detection algorithms. Conversely, and hopefully, correction of this putative error could result in major improvements in iPhoto/Faces predictions.
To reproduce this error,
1. Create two libraries and ensure all detected faces are properly named.
2. Merge the libraries.
3. In the Faces library of the merged library look for thumbs which do not show the proper face.
The error seems random, but I think with a large enough number of photos and faces this procedure will turn up enough errors to verify the issue.
Clearly there is some software problem, but whether iPhoto or iPhoto Library Manager is the culprit is not clear. I will report this to Apple and Fat Cat Software. I hope others find useful my workaround for improperly found or re-found faces.
Mac Pro 3,1, Mac OS X (10.6.2), HP Photosmart C6180, Canon SD 950 IS, Canon Vixia HF100