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Rotating images is not working

I encountered a somewhat strange behavior with iPhoto regarding image rotation. Whenever I import images into iPhoto I have the need to rotate some of them (landscape --> portrait). While it works for most of the images it does not for some of them. The preview pane shows the images with the proper orientation but if I switch to slideshow it will only show them in landscape mode. This is pretty annoying. Sometimes this can be corrected if I quit iPhoto after rotating these photos and before starting a slideshow. It does not matter whether I created a new album or not.

Any help solving this problem is greatly appreciated.

Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Jan 15, 2011 3:15 AM

Reply
7 replies

Jan 15, 2011 9:20 AM in response to Yer_Man

Hi,

I actually created a new library prior to populating it with new pictures. After that I usually bulk select about 20 pics and rotate them. I did not experience any odd behavior using this method. But then there are always some pics you miss to select. Then I start the slideshow too check the results and this is when I notice that I missed out rotating some of the pics. I'll stop the slideshow at some point, select the photo, rotate it and then it may show up in the right orientation in the slideshow or not. Rebooting (a Windows specialty) does not help either. There must be some kind of glitch in the software. Caching algorithm maybe. I'll still have to check out whether there are multiple copies stored and which copy iPhoto references. There should only be two copies. The original one and the rotated one. I thought about rotating and saving the photo in Preview first but it generated a 3.5MB file out of a 2MB file after rotating.

Thanks
Rob

Jan 15, 2011 10:26 AM in response to macuser222222

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. Close iPhoto, delete the iPhoto preference file, com.apple.iPhoto.plist, that resides in your User/Library/Preferences folder, relaunch iPhoto and try again.


NOTE: If you're moved your library from its default location in your Home/Pictures folder you will have to point iPhoto to its new location when you next open iPhoto by holding the the Option key. You'll also have to reset the iPhoto's various preferences.




User uploaded file
OT

Jan 16, 2011 2:54 AM in response to macuser222222

Hi,

I tried both of your suggestions (create new library and load some sample pics, delete plist-file, delete file + create new lib).
The problem is still there so I had a look at the package contents. I noticed that the Modified directory does not contain the rotated files which it should. Selecting multiple files and rotating them stopped working too. However if I enter edit mode, rotate the file and click Done everything is fine. Rotating multiple pics from within edit mode is a bit awkward though.
Maybe I should rotate the pics before loading them into iPhoto. This would also help keeping the library smaller (no original + modified file). If I use a tool that does not blow up the file's size (like iPhoto and Preview does) whenever the pic is rotated I would have an additional benefit. But then, that would make my workflow more awkward and the underlying problem would still not be solved.

Thanks
Rob

Jan 16, 2011 10:59 AM in response to macuser222222

If the test library doesn't work either then it's either the application or something in your account. To check out the latter log into another user account on your Mac and try rotating there. If it doesn't work as it should it's an application issue and reinstallation is warranted. To do so you'll have to delete the current application and all files with "iPhoto" in the file name with either a .PKG or .BOM extension that reside in the HD/Library/Receipts folder and from the /var/db/receipts/ folder,



User uploaded file

Click to view full size


reinstall iPhoto from the disk it came on and apply the latest updaters.

It you can rotate correctly in the other account then there's something in your primary account that's the culprit. It could be a preference file other than iPhoto's that causing the problem. To check it out try the following:

Troubleshooting SL Prefs



Trouble Shooting Preferences in Leopard/Snow Leopard

1 - close all applications.

2 - open your Library folder, Home/Library, and drag the Preferences folder to the Desktop. A new Preference folder will be immediately created in the Library.

3 - run the application again and determine if the problems is fixed.

4 - If the problem is fixed:

A - open the working Preferences folder (HD/Users/your_name/Library/Preferences).
B - Open the Preferences folder on the Desktop, select all of the contents and drag them into the working Preferences folder.
C - When the Copy window pops up check the "Apply to All" check box and then click on the Don't Replace button.


User uploaded file

Click to view full size


5 - If the problem is NOT fixed, drag the Preferencess folder on the Desktop into the Library to replace the new one that was created.


Oh, before doing anything try deleting the iPhoto cache file that's located in the User/Library/Caches/com.apple.iPhoto folder. Then try again. Forgot to suggest that earlier.

Jan 23, 2011 1:56 AM in response to macuser222222

Thanks for your trouble shooting tips. Unfortunately the problem still exists.

I first deleted the iPhoto cache file --> same behavior
then I logged in as another user that has not yet used iPhoto and created a library --> same behavior
Then I deleted the application, the iPhoto.bom (3 files) and iPhoto.pkg (0 files) files. After that I restored the files from the very first backup I made with time machine (initial install). Still the same behavior. A restore from time machine should be sufficient but I will probably give it a try one of these days and reinstall it from DVD just to be sure.

Rotating images is not working

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