RAW Files become corrupt in Apple Photos app

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Level 1

4 points

RAW Files become corrupt in Apple Photos app

I am using a MBP 13" late 2011, operating on macOS High Sierra (10.13.6).

Camera setup: Canon 5D MkIII

Hi, I have an issue with using Photos on the Mac.

I'm not a professional user (just happen to have a great camera), but whenever I do import photos from my SLR, shooting in RAW only mode, the images usually seem to import fine, but whenever I then go to edit an image, it will often become corrupt. Every time I make an adjustment (and therefore it renders the new image), or click 'Done' the image is corrupted in some way. Sometimes simply odd splitting/repetitions of the image, such as this...

...right through to wild looking corruptions like this...

When I look at the masters (using Show Package Contents etc.), the RAW files are all intact, so I assume Photos struggles to read the RAW data and output it in the format that Photos now uses for jpegs.

I've had this issue for years, ever since starting to use the Photos app, and whenever I search, I find people with similar-ish issues, but never find any solutions or ones exactly the same, and then I go and get on with my day because I don't find time to get to the bottom of it.

I feel that getting into a big complicated process using Lightroom etc. would be too much, plus I've never used Lightroom. For now, I just want to import my SLR photos into the Photos app, select a few of the good ones using the favourite button, maybe edit them a little, and have them immediately available on my iPhone/iPad to show my mum when I go round and visit!

Does anyone have any solutions please? It's really sad that I once had an interest in photography and once enjoyed using Aperture, but since making the switch to Photos to take advantage of iCloud library, I mainly resort to sticking with my iPhone. If that's Apple's intention, *puts on tin-foil hat* I really do feel betrayed by the company I used to admire.

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.13

Posted on Mar 26, 2019 12:10 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 26, 2019 7:01 AM in response to adibell

Are you using any of the compressed raw formats like mraw? Try using full raws.

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Answer 2

dth1992

Level 1

4 points

Mar 28, 2019 8:29 AM in response to adibell

I've been having the exact same problem (and have done for a couple of years now). I never had this problem with it's predecessor, iPhoto.

My setup is:

MacBook pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014), operating on macOS Mojave (10.14.3)

Camera - Canon 5D Mark IV (I had the same issue with my previous camera though, Canon 100D)

It's only when the image is edited that there is often an issue. The more editing I do to an image, the more likely it is to happen. I've realised just now that not using (turning off) 'retouch' stopped an image I had edited from splitting/repeating. Perhaps using 'retouch' is the issue? Obviously, if you need to use 'retouch' though, this won't help. Also, I only edit images from time to time, so I don't know whether using 'retouch' is the only trigger for the splitting/repeating - I can't remember whether I've used 'retouch' every time it's happened.

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Answer 3

David AM

Level 1

39 points

Mar 30, 2019 3:57 AM in response to adibell

From the moment the RAW files are intact (and it's not a camera failure), Photos is the faulty. I've experienced this issue in the past with either Photos or Aperture 3. The (random) bug occurs more often with Intel's integrated graphics processor than with nVidia cards. More RAM prevents the problem from occurring too quickly with large RAW files. This is unfortunately not new and has nothing to do with a hardware failure of your MacBook. If this were the case, this display issue would occur in all applications, including the Finder.

One possible alternative is to use the new Lightroom CC with a Cloud subscription, which is not the most perfect solution, but this version is not too difficult to use for family use.

I hope my testimony will help you. Have a nice week end.

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Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

200,525 points

Mar 26, 2019 7:56 AM in response to adibell

Have you run a hardware check? It might be a problem with the memory or the graphics card.

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Answer 5

adibell Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 15, 2019 5:43 AM in response to adibell

Hi all, thanks for the replies. Thought I'd get email notifications when I got replies but just checked back now and seen these!

I'm using full RAWs straight from the camera. I import directly into Photos, go to edit, and this happens pretty much every time. My laptop is fairly old (2011), so it struggles with edits, but I just don't get the feeling it's because of lack of computational power.

I haven't found any link to the 'Retouch' command, other than that it actually sometimes helps to solve the split/repeat corruption errors, but only in a rectangle around the region where I use it.

Seems really strange that there's no real answer as to why this is happening. I've had this for years and never found a proper solution.

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RAW Files become corrupt in Apple Photos app

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