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Level 1

45 points

After new iphoto upgrade 9.3 under Lion - photos distorted

I can barely express how enraged I get at Apple's incompetence sometimes. This is one of them.

I entrusted my photos to iPhoto, most of them taken with my iPhone.

When I got back to view photos I have not seen for a while I find some percentage of them either

1. Gone, and I get a black screen saying the photo cannot be found, even though the thumbnail was there.

2. Randomly rotated. Some photos are taken rotated and I rotate them to the correct aspect when I upload them to my computer. I go back at some point and these photos are rotated. I rotate them back, and then go back and forth and they get rotated again.

3. The latest one is the aspect ratio of the photo is distorted, like looking through a funhouse mirror ... usually way stretched out horzontally.

Does anyone else have these kinds of problems? The missing and rotated pictures I have always seen a few of, but the distortion is new - immediately after the last upgrade of a day or two ago.

I am pretty sure I am not doing anything wrong but this is really bugging me that I cannot trust Apple with my data, especially photos.

What could explain this ?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 27" and 24"

Posted on Jun 14, 2012 12:12 AM

61 replies

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,438 points

Jul 16, 2012 10:56 PM in response to bruxxx

The problem is who has room to do backups everytime an iPhoto or other S/W update comes out,

Who is unwise enough to update anything on any computer anywhere without an up-to-date back up?

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,438 points

Jul 16, 2012 11:00 PM in response to Wooroonden

Again, I'm not denying that you have a real issue. But before you can declare the software to be the cause of the issue you have to explain why most users don't also experience it.

Also before you urge people to run Referenced Libraries you really should warn them of the consequences and pitfalls of that. It's quite pointless. Your photos are stored in folders inside the Library package, just folders in the Finder - and you know that you can use other editors with iPhoto, right?

bruxxx Author

Level 1

45 points

Jul 17, 2012 4:36 AM in response to Yer_Man

> Who is unwise enough to update anything on any computer anywhere without an up-to-date back up?

That is a pretty silly statement. There are plenty of things one does not need a backup for to update, like memory. But If you will notice, I did not say to do that, and I don't appreciate your dishonest argument style, or the stupid implications. The fact is that most Apple users and most people are probably doing the system updates without "perfect" backups and without issues. Deal with reality and quit trying to blame the customer.

You also completely missed or avoided getting my point with backups. If you backup before you upgrade and think nothing bad has happened, eventually your backup will get over-written. You have no idea when random changes like this are introduced where and when they come from, so backups are not that useful - unless you also have infinite time to manually reproduce everything. In the case of iPhoto even a backup does not fix everything.

Since I don't have access to the code or the debug tools, not do I care to do someone else's job for them - remember, they sold me the software with my Mac. Who is to say most people do not have some of this issue? My point is that most people are not able to check all their photos every day to see that they are not corrupted, and when they find it, what do they do when you do not know where to look in your backups for that one particular photo?

And, as I said, if the untiouched original photos do exist in the library, how come iPhoto cannot rebuild the library. In an emergency I would rather have the photos back than retain all the edit information.

> Also before you urge people to run Referenced Libraries

What are you even talking about there. You are the one telling them to use iPhoto Manager, which does not do a **** if iPhoto itself is having problems. Posting that as a solution to all these issues all over these boards is not doing anything but giving people the false idea that it is fixing something. If iPhoto Manager runs, Iphoto would as well in most cases, so there is no need for it.

I also believe I mentioned several times that the original photos are stored in iPhoto folders ... so what, manually having to go in and fix this data, to have it corrupted again by iPhoto is not really the brilliant suggestions you seem to think it is.

You know, if you have ideas on how to fix this, it's great that you should speak up and get your brownie poiints, but really, when you don't, or you are just shooting in the dark, it's not helpful, in fact is mitigates against a fix by Apple because you and all your posts make it seem like there is no problem.

Apparently Apple likes the perception that it does not have a problem, because they deleted my last post here and several others where I righteously complained about the iPhoto software. It is an unacceptable situation to have a problem that mangled users' data like this - period and they ought to fix it.

Jul 17, 2012 4:57 AM in response to bruxxx

Excuse me, would it be possible for someone to tell me, a person not accustomed to looking in the library etc, how where exactly I find the originals of my photos? Think of me as someone who is halfblind. I rebuilt my library yesterday with the manager and it still returned distortedphotos and took several hours, so on a pra tical level.I don't have hours to do this today, so if I can get the couple of photos I need out of the library and import them into anothef programme that would be all I need to get on with just for now.

I thought this was a community forum and as someone who used to help out on a breadbaking forum. i am a bit bemused by this thread. I just am hoping for help, I don't expect it as a right, nor do I expect that the advice I get here will necessarily work or be correct. none of you work for Apple do you? Maybe I should go elsewhere as the tone here is quite distressing.

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,438 points

Jul 17, 2012 5:03 AM in response to JoannainBristol

Go to your Pictures Folder and find the iPhoto Library there. Right (or Control-) Click on the icon and select 'Show Package Contents'. A finder window will open with the Library exposed. Your originals are in a Folder called Masters or Originals (which exactly depends on the version of iPhoto you use.)

Regards

bruxxx Author

Level 1

45 points

Jul 17, 2012 5:07 AM in response to JoannainBristol

> the tone here is quite distressing.

You are distressed by the "tone" here but you are not distressed by the fact that iPhoto is corrupting your photos and there is no fix for it?

bruxxx Author

Level 1

45 points

Jul 17, 2012 5:08 AM in response to JoannainBristol

> I rebuilt my library yesterday with the manager and it still returned distortedphotos

Another one as well. Rebuilding the iPhoto Library is a fool's errand that as far as I can see will not fix anything unless it is already not a problem.

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,438 points

Jul 17, 2012 5:12 AM in response to bruxxx

If you don't back up before updating anything - and that is what you meant by this, right? -

The problem is who has room to do backups everytime an iPhoto or other S/W update comes out,

then frankly we have little to say to each other. I have multiple back ups of all my important data, all the time. Your logic is the same logic that says it's fine to drive without a seatbelt because you're only going down the road, when the fact is that most accidents take place within 5 miles of home.

Next, have a look at my comments about running a referenced Library. Were they addressed to you? Were they in response to you?

I have posted the link to Library Manger many times - as have other regular posters on here. At time of writing between us we have about 200,000 thousand points. That's 20,000 people who have not only found our suggestions useful, but have taken the time to come back and make a gesture to recognise it.

As to your posts being deleted... they will have been deleted because other users complained about them. That's how it works.

Good luck with your issue.

Jul 17, 2012 5:23 AM in response to Yer_Man

before you can declare the software to be the cause of the issue you have to explain why most users don't also experience it

... most users may not experience it but obviously some do... and how many simply do not report it, do you know?

Also before you urge people to run Referenced Libraries you really should warn them of the consequences and pitfalls of that. It's quite pointless.

...I do not use or recommend Referenced Libraries. As already stated, I only import photos into iPhoto for publishing purposes, and that is after I have already edited them.

and you know that you can use other editors with iPhoto, right?

... yes, but I prefer to do my editing outside of iPhoto.

Go to your Pictures Folder and find the iPhoto Library there. Right (or Control-) Click on the icon and select 'Show Package Contents'. A finder window will open with the Library exposed. Your originals are in a Folder called Masters or Originals (which exactly depends on the version of iPhoto you use.)

... the only useful information given here, so thanks for helping JoannainBristol with that.

I will now not continue to perpetuate this 'discussion', where my statements are misinterpreted and we are made to feel as if this is just our issue.

bruxxx Author

Level 1

45 points

Jul 17, 2012 5:28 AM in response to Yer_Man

Do you really not understand my point about backups when iPhoto corrruption can happen at any time unnoticed? The first time I noticed this was just a few photos maybe a year after I got my first Mac.

Your idea that a back is a cure or preventative for this problems is wrong.

Your idea that I am somehow arguing against backups is wrong as well.

Your "fix" is not working, yet you keep offering it, and defending it, and finally offending those who are trying to tell you it doesn't work.

This is the problem with a user forum. What needs to happen is that someone responsible at Apple needs to acknowlege this is a problem, and then get it fixed, not continue to allow people in the user forum to run interference for them.

bruxxx Author

Level 1

45 points

Jul 17, 2012 6:07 AM in response to Yer_Man

> But before you can declare the software to be the cause of the issue

> you have to explain why most users don't also experience it.

This is a ridiculous statement. As an iPhoto user how would I know how

or why this bug is triggered? Or how would you know that it is not a bug

- related to software. What else would it be?

There are posts all through here about random photo rotation, and some

even outside iPhoto in the screen saver. Clearly that is happening while

looking at iPhoto data stored in whatever proprietary format Apple uses

to store photos.

So now I have to have an answer to my problem before it can really be

considered a problem, is that it?

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,438 points

Jul 17, 2012 6:36 AM in response to bruxxx

Okay, this is my final contribution to this thread.

If there is a problem with the Application then it follows that the problem will affect all of the users. Why? Because all the users use the Application. If there is a limitied problem with the Application - say with it and a specific graphics card - then all the users of the Application with that graphics card will have the issue. When you have three or four people reporting an issue it's hard to see how that can be systemic to the application - unless there are 3 or 4 people using a very specific set up.

Yes, people report rotation issues from time to time. Hey, you even posted on a thread where someone reported success in fixing the issue with iPhoto Library Manager. Now if that person managed a fix with Library Manager and you didn't, what are the logical options: It's not the same problem or your doing it wrong. Well it's pretty simple so I don't think you did it wrong. So, it means it's not the same problem. Similar symptoms but different issue. If it was the same problem then the same fix would have worked.

Have a look at the ScreenSaver ones again. They're very often because people have set it to show the Pictures Folder rather than an iPhoto Album.

Apple uses no proprietary format to store photos. They are stored exactly as they came from the camera. For someone who is so certain that he has discovered an issue with the application, you seem awfully unsure about how it actually works.

Y'all have a nice day now.

bruxxx Author

Level 1

45 points

Jul 17, 2012 6:53 AM in response to Yer_Man

> Why? Because all the users use the Application.

This is simplistic thinking, not all users use the application the same way, with the same date. There may be bugs that are only triggered with a library of a certain size, or under certain operations that most people do not use. There may have been data corruption introduced by earlier versions of the software with bugs that were not discovered.

And a graphics card does not independently determine rotation of the images they get within a program either. It is extremely unlikely that this is a hardware issue.

> Now if that person managed a fix with Library Manager and you didn't, what are the logical options

The logical conclusion is that Library Manager probably had nothing to do with it.

> So, it means it's not the same problem.

Could be, and it very well could be that whatever triggers this bug has multiple routines that cause it or there are multiple bugs. However or whatever sets the aspect and rotation bits obviously is not being handled correctly in some cases.

> Apple uses no proprietary format to store photos.

That is not true, just because Apple does not change the bits in the photo does not mean that stuffing them in an otherwise inaccessible libary format is not it's own format. Why are all of your comments so passive-aggressive, you are way past discussing this rationally despite your attempts at logic.

> someone who is so certain that he has discovered an issue with the application

Well, you did get something right, finally.

Don't shove off and leave before you try to answer the question of the day, if it is not a bug in iPhoto, how else do you think that mulitple people's photos get rotated and distorted when left inside the iPhoto Library and completely managed by iPhoto software? Just how do you imagine that might happen? Why are the original photos when they can be found, OK? The only thing that touches those bits aside from perhaps a filesystem check or things like that ( still Apple software, by the way) is iPhoto. Please explain that logic that says this could not be a bug in iPhoto.

Jul 17, 2012 9:05 AM in response to Yer_Man

Thankyou !

Jul 17, 2012 11:47 AM in response to bruxxx

Re: >That is not true, just because Apple does not change the bits in the photo does not mean that stuffing them in an otherwise inaccessible libary format is not it's own format. Why are all of your comments so passive-aggressive, you are way past discussing this rationally despite your attempts at logic.<

I'll chime in here just once, as I have been following this thread for a while - and have been using iPhoto since its inception.

First, No one doubts that you are having a problem, but you just don't seem to get the idea that the problem probably isn't iPhoto, but your particular setup. Something is amiss with your system, but it If it were iPhoto, hundreds, if not thousands of people would be experiencing the symptoms. Only a few are, so it is an unusual anomaly, and therefore hard to diagnose. Mr. Devlin, very knowledgable and helpful with iPhoto problems, has tried to help you. You respond with continued rants about the program, its bugs (see above), and challenge his logic.

Second, iPhoto does NOT store photos in an inaccessible format. They are stored - in the format they came from the camera - in a folder in the iPhoto Library. All your photos are easily accessible in several ways. The fact that you don't understand how to do this isn't iPhoto's or Mr. Devlin's, (or my) fault. It's well documented on Apple's site and on this forum. The SQL database that allows iPhoto to do all of its processes references your photos, but it doesn't change them in any way, so stop beating that horse.

Third, I hope you get your problem solved. I know it's frustrating, but you are alienating the people that might be able to help you. Good Luck.

FLM

After new iphoto upgrade 9.3 under Lion - photos distorted