Recovered Photos Folder

Question

Level 1

10 points

Recovered Photos Folder

I am importing photos from an external HD into iPhoto '11. To save hard disk space on my Macbook Air, I imported using the alternate method where the actual photos themselves stay on the ext HD and only the "Library" (thumbnails, etc) gets created on my onboard Macbook HD under the 'Pictures' folder.

Everything went swimmingly until iPhoto crashed in the middle of importing 50,000 photos. A '"Recovered Photos" folder appeared in iPhoto with the 'recovered' jpegs. Only problem is these recovered jpegs are now copied to the onboard HD on the Macbook! There are about 10,000 of them! I Googled how to reimport only these recovered photos again so I can get rid of the Jpegs on my Macbook HD. No joy.

So I started all over again. This time splitting the imports into smaller bite size chunks (5000 photos at a go). iPhoto crashed again with the dreaded 'Recovered Photos" folder.

Can I just delete the Recovered Photos folder altogether cos it's just a 'temp' folder while iPhoto was sorting itself out during the crash? If not how can I get iPhoto to re-import just these recovered photos from the Ext HD? I don't want to start all over again 😟

iPhoto '11, Mac OS X (10.7.2), Macbook Air 13" 256GB 1.8GHz i7

Posted on Jan 7, 2012 4:21 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,402 points

Jan 7, 2012 5:35 AM in response to benedictkhoo

Your problem is that these crashes have corrupted the Library. Are you really trying to import 50k photos at one go?

Secondly, running iPhoto in Referenced Mode ("the alternate method where the actual photos themselves stay on the ext HD and only the "Library" (thumbnails, etc) gets created on my onboard Macbook HD") is not recommended by experienced users, especially when the Library is on one volume and the files on another. FOr more on this see

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3062728?tstart=0

Reply

Answer 2

benedictkhoo Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 7, 2012 11:10 AM in response to Yer_Man

Thanks Terence. The link was very useful and I am now considering going 'managed' rather than 'referenced'.

However, it also defeats my primary purpose of using iPhoto in the 1st place.

Having the thumbnails and the referenced library on my Macbook Air allowed me to see, keyword and tag my photos without the master ext HD attached. This is an important feature which was not on my favourite photo organiser Picasa. However, the managed library method does solve another issue with iPhoto '11 i.e Face recognition/tagging is eating up my internal HD space!

http://www.macworld.com/article/143828/2009/11/referenced_library.html

Reply

Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,402 points

Jan 7, 2012 12:03 PM in response to benedictkhoo

Having the thumbnails and the referenced library on my Macbook Air allowed me to see, keyword and tag my photos without the master ext HD attached.

Best solution for that set up: Aperture. No reservations about storing the Library and files on different volums as it has the tools to do it.

Regards

TD

Reply

Answer 4

Old Toad

Level 10

207,739 points

Jan 7, 2012 3:48 PM in response to benedictkhoo

Another alternative is to use Media Pro. It's a DAM (digital asset management) application that creates catalogs of the photos with thumbnails up to 640 x 480 (user selected) and leave the originals where the you would like and in your own folder system.

The catalogs can be use to keyword and annotate the photos without the original files being there. Then when the external HD with the originals is connected the metadata can be synced to the original files. MP also lets you batch rename the photos from inside the application in a number of ways. Using an external editor like Photoshop you can setup a versioning system thus preserving the original file although not as easy or seamless as with iPhoto.

There a media reader that others can use to view the catalog file without being able to make changes to it.

You can learn about Media Pro and other DAM apps by visiting The DAM Forum.

OT

Reply

Answer 5

benedictkhoo Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 8, 2012 1:24 PM in response to benedictkhoo

Thanks again TD & OT. Your suggestions are helpful and opened my eyes to options I wasn' aware of. Unfortunately, it also means purchasing another piece of software just to have one feature that iPhoto already has - if only i could get it to work the way I want! I have decided to do without this feature altogether (i.e. tagging thumbnails for syncing to ext hd later).

I think iPhoto is probably more trouble than it's worth for me at the moment. I will stick with Picasa for now which is very zippy even when handling 85,000 photos and does not insist on tagging every face!

In the end, it is not the constant crashing when importing, or the speed (which is reportedly slower for large libraries) or even the learning curve of a new program that's led to me dropping iPhoto.

It is the inability to switch off face tagging and the prospect of spending hours and hours (and I have) to 'confirm' thousdands of faces that makes me want to run for cover. That and 25GB of HD gobbled up after importing only 1/3 of my library thumbnails all due, I suspect, to the FACE feature.

I love the "photobook" features in iPhoto tho. I can get by with importing just the photos I need into iPhoto to use for photobook making.

Thanks again for the heads up on Aperture and Media Pro. They will be the first programs I consider when I decide to go for a serious mac specific application.

Reply

Answer 6

Old Toad

Level 10

207,739 points

Jan 8, 2012 1:56 PM in response to benedictkhoo

There is a way to partially disable the Face feature. What it does is prevent iPhoto from creating the mini image files for each face. Here's how:

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.

Reply