massive numbers of unwanted "snapshots"?

Question

massive numbers of unwanted "snapshots"?

running iPhoto '09 8.1.2, the Faces "feature" seems to have created thousands of pictures (are they called "snapshots"?) from my photos, mainly faces that are out of focus. If there is a picture of a choir with 46 people in it, it creates portrait pictures of every face it can find. It creates snapshots out of architectural pictures. It seems to increase the number of "snapshots" every time I add a new photo. It also seems to create lower resolution copies of my originals. I have read previous threads about problems with the Faces feature. My question is whether there is a way to simply group all of my original photos together, separate from the lower res pictures the software seems to have created.

The software is unusable; I would just like to recover my original photos.

thanks.

Mac OS X (10.6.8), macbook pro, several others

Posted on Oct 4, 2011 10:01 PM

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,308 points

Oct 4, 2011 10:55 PM in response to lowtoleranceforpain

I'm not really sure exactly what you're asking here. Are you seeing these Faces Thumbnails in the iPhoto Window? Somewhere else?

It also seems to create lower resolution copies of my originals.

Again, in the iPhoto Window or somewhere else? And what do you mean my "lower resolution"? You're not confusing these with the thumbnails you see in the iPhoto Window by any chance?

Regards

TD

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Answer 2

Old Toad

Level 10

207,439 points

Oct 5, 2011 11:55 AM in response to lowtoleranceforpain

Here's a way to prevent iPhoto from creating those faces files.

1 - open the library like this in the Finder.

2 - in the Database folder move this file to the Trash: Faces.db.

3 - close the package/folder and launch iPhoto. Close it after a brief moment.

4 - open the package, find the new version of the file and lock it via the Info window for the file.

5 - while viewing the contents of the package type Command+F to start a search.

6 - set the criteria of the search to: Kind is Image and Name Contains "face".

7 - select all of the files in the search results window and drag to the Trash.

8 -close the package and launch iPhoto.

You will get the faces spinning wheel as it tries to index the library the first time it's opened but it won't be able to write to the database file if you should try to add a face and won't create any new jpeg faces files. Of course make a backup of your library before trying this and no guarantee implied.

OT

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Answer 3

Oct 12, 2011 9:04 PM in response to Yer_Man

All of these extra, unwanted photos created by the program appear in the main iPhoto window.

I have a number of original photos that I uploaded, plus about 3X as many that were created by the program.

example: I uploaded a group photo. the program created photos of individual faces from the group. All out of focus and unwanted.

example: I upload a photo of something with a person in the background. the program creates a picture of that person. I assume that Faces was responsible.

I suddenly have many many duplicate photos as well. there are photo albums that consist of photos that are duplicates of photos found in other albums. these copies say "duplicate" on the back of each thumbnail. I have no idea why they were created.

some duplicate albums are labelled "untitled event". the originals are found in folders that are labelled with dates.

Again, the simple question: how can I distinguish my originals from the unwanted ones created by the program?

going through the entire library and editing out the photos created by faces would be enormously time-consuming, given the thousands of pictures involved.

Again, as a design feature, creating unwanted photos that clog up one's library and make it hard to find the originals is a massive fail. Yes, I have told Apple.

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Answer 4

Oct 12, 2011 9:09 PM in response to lowtoleranceforpain

By "lower resolution" I mean, the loss of clarity or "resolution" that occurs when a part of a relatively low res digital is enlarged.

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Answer 5

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,308 points

Oct 12, 2011 11:09 PM in response to lowtoleranceforpain

Sounds like you've managed to import one Library into another. Every version and thumbnail is imported like a distinct photo, you lose all your Albums, Keywords etc., the link between Original and Previews is destroyed, the non-destructive editing feature is ruined and so on. In summary: it's mess.

Simple solution: restore from your back up.

Regards

TD

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Answer 6

Nov 6, 2011 9:43 AM in response to Yer_Man

I did a restore from backup and I still have a huge number (prob over 1K) unwanted low res photos created by iPhoto magic.

they all have _face in the title. I can create an album with all these in it, but is there a way to delete them completely?

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Answer 7

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,308 points

Nov 6, 2011 10:14 AM in response to lowtoleranceforpain

Put them in the iPhoto Trash and Empty it. Then empty the ssystem trash. Best to do this in batches of about 100 at a time

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