mattpshaw

Q: iPhoto faces disappeared!

I have been slowly getting round to identifying the faces on iphoto and after a software update on the mac recently all my faces have dissapeared. The photos have remained, the events have remained and the places have remained, but the faces have all gone. Can anyone help?? I had logged close to 9000 faces which took a long time, so would like to know if they are recoverable. Note: I haven't backed anything up on time machine (Although I have got the photos backed up on an external hard drive and disks which were from when I had a PC) I was hoping that owning a mac would avoid nonsensicle issues like this!!!

 

Thanks,

 

Matt.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on May 25, 2012 9:35 AM

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Q: iPhoto faces disappeared!

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  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN May 25, 2012 10:00 AM in response to mattpshaw
    Level 10 (84,073 points)
    Photos for Mac
    May 25, 2012 10:00 AM in response to mattpshaw

    Actually not backing up regularly is the ultimate in "nonsensicle" behavior   Computers, software and humans all fail and when they do without a good, current backup you will lose things. If you continue to refuse to backup you will (as the current Carbonite ad says) lose everything

     

    Since we know nothing except you updated from an unspecified version of iPhoto to an unspecified version of iPhoto and you have chosen not to back up (even though it is especially critical to backup prior to any update or upgrade) it is not possible to help much. If we knew exactly what you did and what happened maybe there is a solution. But please use this as an important lesson and start backing up immediately

     

    LN

  • by pauliusl,

    pauliusl pauliusl May 26, 2012 11:17 AM in response to mattpshaw
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 26, 2012 11:17 AM in response to mattpshaw

    I have exactly the same issue. Last update several days ago removed all faces. I do have something in time machine but the backup is 1 month (or so) old during which I tagged substantial number of people. Any solution to getting it back?

  • by warrencheswick,

    warrencheswick warrencheswick Jun 4, 2012 7:43 PM in response to mattpshaw
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 4, 2012 7:43 PM in response to mattpshaw

    Same thing happened to me. If you hold command and option as you open iPhoto it will bring up a menu allowing you to restore. I did that and got some of my faces back. Not all of them unfortunately. The cork board does have all the people that once were tagged but some of them are blank. I'm now updating the thumbnails using the same method and hopefully it'll help with some blanks.

  • by pauliusl,

    pauliusl pauliusl Jun 5, 2012 4:20 AM in response to warrencheswick
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 5, 2012 4:20 AM in response to warrencheswick

    This method didn't work for me, still no faces.

  • by mattpshaw,

    mattpshaw mattpshaw Jun 5, 2012 6:36 AM in response to mattpshaw
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 5, 2012 6:36 AM in response to mattpshaw

    Thanks everyone for the responses so far. No luck unfortunately. in the mean time i'll just continue to backup my photos onto DVDs as before to avoid any catastrophes. Unfortunately this method doesn't seem to easily allow a back up of the faces. (It would be great if someone knows of a way of backing up faces if I backup photos to DVD).

    Next step will be to save money for a NAS drive and then use time machine on that to have an all consuming backup.

     

    Cheers,

     

    Matt.

  • by Dennis Seitz,

    Dennis Seitz Dennis Seitz Aug 7, 2012 8:20 AM in response to LarryHN
    Level 2 (212 points)
    Aug 7, 2012 8:20 AM in response to LarryHN

    I've had the same problem. It appears to be a bug. I back up regularly but I'm not sure this will be corrected by a restore. iPhoto 9.3.2 update did it to me.

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Aug 7, 2012 8:24 AM in response to mattpshaw
    Level 10 (139,470 points)
    iLife
    Aug 7, 2012 8:24 AM in response to mattpshaw

    Backing up to DVD using the Share -> Burn command will preserve Faces.

     

    Before you buy a NAS make sure Time Machine will work with it. You don't need either a NAS or Time Machine to back up an iPhoto Library. Any external disk will do.

     

    Most Simple Back Up

     

    Drag the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to another Disk. This will make a copy on that disk.

     

    Slightly more complex:

     

    Use an app that will do incremental back ups. This is a very good way to work. The first time you run the back up the app will make a complete copy of the Library. Thereafter it will update the back up with the changes you have made. That makes subsequent back ups much faster. Many of these apps also have scheduling capabilities: So set it up and it will do the back up automatically. Examples of such apps: Chronosync or DejaVu . But are many others. Search on MacUpdate

  • by Dennis Seitz,

    Dennis Seitz Dennis Seitz Aug 7, 2012 8:31 AM in response to Dennis Seitz
    Level 2 (212 points)
    Aug 7, 2012 8:31 AM in response to Dennis Seitz

    OK, I ran through the command-option Repair Permissions and Repair Database. Still all of my Faces are gone.

     

    I'm running 10.7.4. This occurred after the upgrade to iPhoto 9.3.2. I suspect it is an upgrade bug.

     

    This is not good, to put it mildly.

     

    I can restore from backup but it will take time to search for a backup prior to the 9.3.2 install, and I will lose some photos. I just haven't gone to Faces for awhile after installing 9.3.2 so restoring is not the most elegant solution.

     

    Does anyone have any useful advice to provide an alternative, besides restoring from backups? Has anyone restored from a backup and solved this problem? I see no posts here since June.

  • by Dennis Seitz,

    Dennis Seitz Dennis Seitz Aug 7, 2012 8:38 AM in response to Dennis Seitz
    Level 2 (212 points)
    Aug 7, 2012 8:38 AM in response to Dennis Seitz

    Never mind, in my case I was just being stupid. Somehow iPhoto was pointed to a different library that I had created with just a subset of my photos. Once I realized that I relaunched with option down and pointed it at my main library and all of my photos, events and faces are fine.

     

    Sorry I can't help the other folks.

  • by ToastyFlake,

    ToastyFlake ToastyFlake Nov 13, 2015 9:52 AM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (44 points)
    Nov 13, 2015 9:52 AM in response to LarryHN

    That was rude.

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Nov 13, 2015 10:08 AM in response to ToastyFlake
    Level 10 (140,898 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Nov 13, 2015 10:08 AM in response to ToastyFlake

    No, it wasn't rude.  Just direct and telling it like it is.  Not having current backup of your data is a sure receipt for losing your data and/or organizational efforts as the OP is finding out.

     

    It's like driving without the seatbelt connected.  You sure don't need it until there's an accident.

    OTsig.png

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Nov 13, 2015 11:15 AM in response to ToastyFlake
    Level 10 (139,470 points)
    iLife
    Nov 13, 2015 11:15 AM in response to ToastyFlake

    And three years later you come to tell us that?