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Reverting to iPhoto '09?

Anyone know the smoothest way to go back to '09?
TimeMachine back-up?

There are just too many bugs and too many missing features in '11.
It really is next to useless.
I hope these are short term problems & that Apple will bring it back to being a useful (and useable ap') if not '11 marks the death of a otherwise great ap' that had until now been evolving well.
Seems they have concentrated too much on the 'cute' factor & forgotten that people do actually need iPhoto to do stuff.

27" 2.8ghz i7, 3.06ghz intel c2d 24" iMac 4g ram, 2ghz 13" Uni B MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Oct 23, 2010 8:28 PM

Reply
64 replies

Oct 23, 2010 10:22 PM in response to Adam Woodhams

Okay, I've replaced the iPhoto ap' with the version from TimeMachine.
I'm replacing the updated library with the one from TimeMachine (that'll take 6 hours...)
I assume I also need to trash/replace the p.list and other things in application support & user library?

I hope Apple opens a support document on how to revert. I don't think I'll be the only one having to do this.

This release is just a dumbed-down, feature-poor piece of eye-candy designed for people who's primary need is to post their images to FaceBook.
Well, that's as far as I can see anyway.

Oct 24, 2010 8:08 AM in response to Adam Woodhams

"This release is just a dumbed-down, feature-poor piece of eye-candy designed for people who's primary need is to post their images to FaceBook."

Really? I guess i must be in the majority (based on the feedback you have so far) who think that yes, there are a couple of bugs, and yes a feature or two is missing, but overall this app is a great usability improvement over the old one.

I've spent the last couple of days going though my library, tidying up the metadata, filtering out duplicates and so far i've found the experience a lot more enjoyable than previous versions, probably why i have so many duplicates in the first place.

Please expand on what features you have noticed are missing, and what is dumbed down. I for one would be interested as i have obviously not noticed.

Oct 24, 2010 3:59 PM in response to Sparkstack

Sparkstack wrote:
Please expand on what features you have noticed are missing, and what is dumbed down


I would be the first to agree that there are dramatic improvements but they have come at too great a price.
Full-screen is great & the new editing tools buttons are too but there are just way too many bugs and poor changes.
Many of the changes are what I would describe as form over function - i.e. - look great but don't work as efficiently.

*Missing -*

*There is no longer a zoom slider when viewing an individual image.*
When you combine this with the bug that stops the keyboard shortcut from zooming it means you have a serious ommission. In my case this inability to zoom renders iPhoto useless until fixed.

*The right-click menu has had most of its useful options removed.*
Those options are now up in the menu bar or are keyboard shortcuts, a step backwards from a productivity perspective.

*Merge and split buttons are gone.*
I don't think this needs any further explanation.

*Dumbed down/dumb changes -*

*No option to export images to anything other than Apples 'share' choices when in full-screen view.*
This means you can't export to desktop or a thumb-drive or an external disc without backing out of fullscreen. That's just dumb when they are pushing the full-screen feature.
From a productivity perspective this makes full-screen less useful which is a shame as the full-screen improvements are otherwise fantastic. It's an odd omission or oversight in my view.

*Editing tools are now fixed in place, not floating.*
When you have a lot of editing to do on a wider screen (27") it is difficult to make tiny incremental adjustments to a slider on the far right of the screen while you watch the changes in the centre of the screen.

*Right-click menu* (see missing)

*Keywords are now over in the far right panel.*
Sorry, that is just seriously dumb.
You need them under your images or at least there in a way that can be revealed. It means that to see a keyword you have to highlight/select the individual image and then look to the extreme right to find its keywords. No longer can you just look at an entire event and see all of the images to which you have applied keywords or the RAWs in with the JPEGs. You have to hunt them all out one-by-one.
I know it looks nice and neat and cool to have them in that panel but again not very useful.

*Bugs -*

*Zoom keyboard shortcut not working.*
I don't think this needs any further explanation.

*View/compare more than one image at once not working* (so you can't open two or more images at a time to compare).
This seems variable.
For me it didn't work using the standard shortcut of holding command, selecting images & double-clicking to open (or any other way I tried).

These two bugs alone make iPhoto useless for me until they are fixed.


And a couple of minor things that really would have been nice to have seen;

When you turn things 'off' they should be OFF.
For example in full-screen Locations still shows as a panel when it's turned off. I would imagine that it is quite logical to think that if someone wants something off they don't want or need to see it.

Faces - there really should be an option to switch Faces off.
On our family machine we use it all the time & it is great.
On my home-office machine I don't need or want it but when I load images it runs & runs & runs slowing the machine down doing something I don't want or need.
Would it be so hard to have it as something you can turn off?

These are my 'only' issues with '11.
I didn't find any more as I have now gone back to '09.
Two of these issues are 'mission critical' to me and rendered iPhoto '11 useless.
Others decreased its usefulness and were steps backwards from a productivity perspective.

Just my observations & opinions.

Message was edited by: Adam Woodhams

Message was edited by: Adam Woodhams

Message was edited by: Adam Woodhams

Oct 24, 2010 6:25 PM in response to Andrew Mitchell

Okay, for anyone that needs to go back to '09 here is what I did...
Found iPhoto image library (in pictures in home folder) and remaned it iPhoto 11 (just in case something went wrong).
Found iPhoto preferences list in home folder, library, preferences and deleted it.
Found iPhoto folder in application support and deleted it.
Fired up TimeMachine and went back to pre-install.
Restored all of the above crossed my fingers, restarted iPhoto and with a sigh of relief found it was back to '09 and functional.
I then trashed the renamed library.
This did take quite some time mainly because the transfer of the actual library was a big one.
I won't be looking at '11 again until they fix those serious bugs and make some smart changes.
Sadly I don't think they'll do anything other than fix the bugs as they have obviously decided that this is the experience people want - cool not functional.

Message was edited by: Adam Woodhams

Oct 25, 2010 5:45 AM in response to Adam Woodhams

You forgot to mention that the "full screen" mode for a single photo is actually smaller now than in '09 because of the new boarders. I happen to prefer simple editing in this plane, but now instead of a layered editing menu, I get the side bar reducing the work area even more. If you think it's more difficult on your 27 inch monitor, you should see how small they've made it on my MacBook Pro. It's easier to do all my editing in PhotoShop now.
Very dissatisfied.

Oct 26, 2010 5:39 AM in response to Adam Woodhams

I agree that putting keywords over on the right hand panels is just seriously dumb. With iPhoto 09 I could see the thumbnails of several rows of photos, with the rating and keywords under each one. Very handy. With iPhoto11 it looks like I have to click on 'info' and look at each photo individually to see its keywords. Very disappointing. If I had known this I would not have upgraded to version 11. One of the biggest features for low tech users like me is keywords. I don't care about 'facebook enhancements', and 'places', and 'detecting missing faces'. I want to be able to look at several rows of photos at a time and be able to tell what they are about (keywords) and how much I like that photo (rating). Apple seems to be more interested in dazzling us with features we will never use than giving us the practical features that we do use.

Oct 28, 2010 5:45 PM in response to Adam Woodhams

I didn't have an iphoto folder in the Application Support folder. Other than that, I did everything you said and it didn't work. When I go back past the day I installed iphoto '11, the time machine backup doesn't show the iphoto library with the color icon. When I install that backup, and run the installed backup of iphoto, it says it can't read the files because they are newer than the iphoto program. My iphoto program is the '09 model, but it can't read any of my time machine backup files. It seems iphoto '11 must have changed all of them on my time machine? Can't figure out where the iphoto library icon went either. Any other ideas?

Oct 28, 2010 9:59 PM in response to spydie2

I've tried using that method as well. Same result as spydie2. I've restored a few times now. Will send the time machined original iPhoto library to an older mac and see if it can open it in earlier version. Might give me some clues if it works. Her's hoping. Also iPhoto would not import the screenshots done on my iPad. It refuses to accept .png files. format. The most common graphic filetype on the planet!Unrecognized

Oct 28, 2010 10:04 PM in response to Paul Netterfield

That *****.. I wish apple would step up to the plate and tell us the correct way to get our beloved iphoto 9 back without doing a full TM restore to the entire computer! I'd hate to lose my emails and everything else I've done since a week ago! I wonder if just putting my ilife '09 disk in and running that would restore everything I need, then go back in time and bring my iphoto library up to the present?

Reverting to iPhoto '09?

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