What are the jpg.tmp files in iPhoto?

LarryHN wrote:

are you using a referenced library - (The iPhoto advanced preference to "copy imported items to the iPhoto library" has been unchecked) which is strongly NOT recommended. - or a managed library - that preference is in its strongly recommended and default checked state?

I'm using a referenced library, not a managed one. I have my images sitting in a folder outside of iPhoto. iPhoto contains links to those images. Hadn't realised that this approach was strongly not recommended.

LarryHN wrote:

as to the .tmp files - are they inside of the iPhoto library (you should not be in there - there are no user serviceable parts in the iPhoto library) or outside of it in which case they were not created by iPhoto and have nothing to do with iPhoto

The .tmp files are not inside the iPhoto library (I'm not messing about with anything in there).

They are located outside of iPhoto at Documents/Photos/Folder1—the same folder where I have my original images. So now this folder has img_001.jpg and img_001.jpg.tmp and img_001.jpg_2.tmp.

LarryHN wrote:

iPhoto never does anything with any photo outside of its library.

Hmmm...this doesn't tally with what I observed last night:

• I checked the contents of Folder1: it only contained .jpg files; no .tmp files were present.
• I dragged, say, Folder1 onto (an open, running) iPhoto, thereby importing them.
• Within iPhoto I adjusted the time of the files (Modify original files checkbox was ticked), added keywords, location and faces to the images.
• When I checked the contents of Folder1 again, the .tmp files were present.
• The only application that I was using was iPhoto; the only actions that I took were those described; I don't believe there was any other process running on the computer that could have manipulated the images or created the .tmp files.

Anyone got any ideas about these .tmp files? What are they? Can they be deleted?

Many thanks,

Ken.

Here's what I've done so far:

1. Kicked off Time Machine to back-up everything.
2. Started iPhoto.
3. Went through the images in all the affected folders, clicking 'Show File' for each one. In each case, iPhoto was referencing the .jpg file, not the .tmp.
4. Moved all the .tmp files to trash.
5. Re-started iPhoto.
6. Checked that all the images displayed at full size (rather than merely thumbnails in the events).
7. Modified one image (changed its Location and adjusted its date and time. I didn't notice any .tmp files being created in the external folder where the images are located.
8. Quit iPhoto and then re-started. The modified image still had the new Location and date/time settings.
9. Changed the Location and date/time back to their original values. Again, no .tmp files created.
10. Quit iPhoto and then re-started. Image still had the original values. Still no .tmp files.

So far, seems like things are behaving the way they should. Will keep an eye on it for any further funky stuff.

Thanks for everyone's help and input.

Wonderful! The problem might be worse that I had originally suspected. That's great news! Hee hee! ;-)

Okay Terence, I'll check that my OS is fully up-to-date once I get home later. I suspect that it is.

A HD problem would certainly displease me; the machine is only a couple of months old.

I'll run Time Machine, then delete the .tmp files and check that the images in iPhoto are all intact with their locations, keywords, etc.

Will let you know how I get on.

Regards,

Ken.

Just to update: was adding further images to iPhoto again today. Same problem arose. Just deleted the .tmp files. Hope this isn't to become the norm. 😟