Can Faces be turned off in iPhoto 11 ?

I've tried this just now, and iPhoto seems to be working a bit more quickly than it was. I've also put in feedback to Apple for the second time complaining about the inability to disable it altogether. I love the Apple products on the whole, but some of the things that they do, like the introduction of this "feature" that I didn't ask for and I don't want and now can't get rid of, are just as bad as anything Microsoft ever did.

I haven't even heard the official justification for it. I can only conclude that there isn't one.

adding to this thread because I too cannot stand the 'Faces' feature and especially the fact that it can’t be turned off. why would something like this be mandatory to begin with? please Apple iPhoto, make this feature optional in your next update!

iPhoto menu -> Provide iPhoto Feedback

Apple don't promise to read anything here.

I get the feeling Apple just isn't listening to this post. We want to be able to turn Faces off in iPhoto. For those of us who don't use it (most users, I'd guess) it's incredibly annoying to have our machines cranking along for minues on end when we don't even have a single face registered. Please give us the simple ability to turn it OFF. I've seen posts on this back from 2010, so I don't think it'll ever be fixed.

😠

No, they're just not listening. Nor are they listening to feedback sent directly to them, as Terence Devlin keeps telling us sneeringly that we should do. Apple has obviously decided that Faces is a feature that everybody should want, even though nobody does, so we are refused permission to turn it off.

Well, I suppose that if you're the most successful computer company in the world, you can do anything you like.

Apple has benefited greatly from being perceived as the antithesis of Microsoft, which for so long simply assumed that it knew better than everybody else, including its customers. Well, Apple, with things like this, you're no better than Microsoft at its worst.

Here's another way to look at it:

iPhoto and Aperture are like iMovie and Final Cut.

The both do the same job, but the pro app is more expensive, more powerful and has more options.

In Aperture you can turn off Faces.

I think it's more likely that Apple have decided that this level of configurability is one of the variables used to distinguish the two apps. (There are many others)

But here's the thing: Apple haven't added the ability to disable Faces in iphoto so far, but that's not to say that if enough people ask them that they won't revisit the decision.

In any event, it's that or use another app.

Regards

TD

I understand your point, Terence, but I still don't think it's a good answer. Aperture costs $199, and for me as a normal, domestic user of iPhoto for managing a domestic photo library, it's completely inappropriate. For me to buy Aperture would be like buying the full Adobe Photoshop suite just so I could open pdf documents. (Admittedly not as expensive as that.)

As for sending feedback, I've been seeing threads like this one for years, all with users saying exactly the same thing, and also saying that they've sent feedback to Apple, and it hasn't produced a result yet. I really don't understand their refusal to add the "turn off" option, which can't be difficult from a programming point of view: it seems to be pure pig-headedness on Apple's part, and pigheadedness of the type that alienates those who support them generally, like me.

Aperture is $69 on the App Store.

Like I say, use another app that has the features you want.

Regards

TD

It's a valid argument, Terence, but being able to turn off a 'feature' that commands the degree of resources Faces does, while being wildly unpopular, is isn't a 'feature' but simply a reasonable UI option that should have been integrated from day one. Having to buy another application just to avoid an anoying feature that can't be turned off is unreasonable in my opinion. iPhoto is otherwise a great app- especially with RAW support. But Faces is spectacularly annoying when I import 2k photos from a 2 day wedding shoot. If refusing to impliment a simple 'off' option in preferences seems reasonable after years of requests, then perhaps my expectations are unreasonably high?

only $69? - i never realized it was that affordable.

now it makes me wonder if Apple purposely made the Faces feature annoying as **** so all of us bothered by it would pay for the upgrade to Aperture...

But Faces is spectacularly annoying when I import 2k photos from a 2 day wedding shoot.

Why are you using iPhoto? It's not designed or robust enough for commercial application.

Regards

TD

Yes, it's called inverse marketing. Give them the extra feature that means they won't upgrade. Then make it so they can't turn it off, that means they will. I bet that Board of Apple spend lots of time making decisions like that.

I'm new to these forums, but I have the feeing TD works for Apple 😝

Terence, I've been using iPhoto for ages and have no impression of it lacking 'robustness' for my applications–especially now that it supports RAW. Not what it was designed for? It's designed for importing photos, sorting them, and making minor touch-ups that don't require PS. For putting together a post-shoot collection of previews for my clients, I don't know what more I'd need–it's perfect except for the ridiculous Faces feature that grinds away for 20 minutes despite my not having a single face on the corkboard. That's just bad programing.

If a tool fails to perform the required function then fine, but there's a time-honoured marketing gimick where 'consumer' and 'pro' applications are offered. More often than not, the consumer version is just fine, and less than half the price. Again, iPhoto does exactly what I need, and it's free. Not 'robust' enough? With all due respect, that's exactly the language used to upsell people who don't need to be upsold.

I'm asking for one thing: an 'off' preference for a feature few people want on an otherwise great app. Otherwise iPhoto is plenty robust.

I'm new to these forums, but I have the feeing TD works for Apple

Nope. Just a user like you.

Regards

TD