Photos rotated, squished and distorted

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Level 1

4 points

Photos rotated, squished and distorted

Hi, my Photos for Mac library is randomly distorting some of my older photos.

In thumbnail view they appear rotated and squished.

For example a portrait photo is displaying as a landscape thumbnail and the image is upside down. It is also distorted when I open the image larger. Sometimes the images automatically rotate the view when I open them bigger, but they are still squished, just rotated.

In the past, I was able to rotate some of the affected images to rectify the issue but now it doesn't do anything, it just rotates the distorted image. I've tried rotating the thumbnail and I've tried rotating the enlarged version.

I've also tried reverting to the original and in case it was just a preview issue, I've also tried exporting the photo, but it exports out the distorted version.

These are older photos in my library and I suspect something may have happened when my Mac converted my iPhoto library to Photos. (which was years ago, I'm just getting around to trying to sort it out now!)

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

MacBook Pro 15", macOS 10.14

Posted on Jul 11, 2019 10:31 PM

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Answer 1

ParkerPower Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 12, 2019 5:43 AM in response to léonie

Thanks so much Léonie, that's super helpful. I do have an old iPhoto back-up so it's a relief I can replace some of the corrupt files. Thanks for the link also.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

200,531 points

Jul 11, 2019 11:41 PM in response to ParkerPower

What is the file format of the image files? Are the files JPEGs? Occasionally older photos get damaged, when they are moved to bad disk blocks or if the memory card card is defective. Usually we may not notice the problem for several years, because we only are seeing the thumbnails and previews, unless we are trying to edit an image. Older photos can decay silently in the background, due to hardware problems or transmission errors.

Have you recently checked the drive with your library and the installed memory?

If the original is damaged, there is nothing you can do but try to restore the original image files from a backup you made when you first imported the photos. Over the years I had to restore roughly 100 corrupted JPEGs in my Aperture library and Photos Library. For some of the photos I had to get back to the backups of the original iPhoto Library from 2003. It helps a lot to make backups of the originals right after importing them. I am occasionally running the corrupt jpeg checker on the Masters folder, to find damaged files and to be able to notice such damages early. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/corrupt-jpeg-checker/id635753975?mt=12

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Photos rotated, squished and distorted

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