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iTunes sync issues with iPhoto 9.4 (extra empty photo events and missing photos)

I post this once above but it got swarmed with the larger xml related issue that prevented syncing at all. Not complaining, just wanted to revisit this other issue now that folks are mostly able to get their syncing started. I'm pretty sure this, too, is an xml related issue. To that end, can anyone point to where iTunes is getting it's list of iPhoto Events and Albums? **


I believe we are all experiencing variants of the same issue.


Here is mine and I'd ask if others are seeing this specific issue as well.


With an iOS device attached, and looking at the photos tab, I see a number of Events with questionable names that seem to be old data from somewhere. They look like the name of test events I may have made and delted over the years. Regardless...they are are empty.


I then checked the Advanced tab within iTunes and used the share photos option I use to stream photos to my TV and the same empty Events are there too.


These first two are annoying...and now comes the really troubling part.


For the Events that are not blank and look like the ones in my iPhoto library, many of these events are not reporting the same number of photos as does iPhoto. For example, an event named "Beach" in iphoto consists of 100 photos, but that same event when selected within iTunes only has 85 photos in it. When iTunes sync'ed the first time it reported XXX items could not be sync'ed check iTunes. That error message has not yet reoccurred but I can confirm that only the 85 photos sync'ed not the 100 that are present on my iPhoto 9.4 library.


If I drag the entire contents of that same 100 photo event to the desktop and then drag it back into iPhoto, iTunes will then recognize it as containing the full 100 photos. But...of course you lose all tags, face data, etc.


I'm not yet prepared to do this major surgery, but does anyone have other ideas?


One additional thing I noted...remember that there were always more pictures in the iPhoto Event than in the iTunes list for that Event. Well, I noted that all the images that were missing from iTunes and thus my iOS device, pretty much sucked. Why is that important? It seems like they might have been pictures I previously deleted but that iPhoto still has in the Event even though iTunes doesn't "see" them.


Conversely, it seems like iTunes is seeing old Events that I had long since deleted from previous incarnations of iPhoto.


Anyway...if you have a moment check out your iTunes list of Events and Albums to see if 1) there are extraneous Events listed there and 2) if the number of pictures in those events matches the same number reported by iPhoto.


thanks!!

iMac (27-inch Late 2009), OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Sep 21, 2012 4:18 PM

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149 replies

Oct 1, 2012 3:54 PM in response to antoniofrombakersfield

Just realized it also doesn't correctly recognize dates of my auto-generated photo stream. I have it on sync events from the past 2 months. It is not syncing the "Oct 2012 Photo Stream" auto event.


It is also very odd that it is spilting the made-up Sep 23, 2012 events. The only thing I can make of it is that my Sep 23, 2012 are my most recently imported camera pics (not from an iPhone or iPad). However, within iPhoto all these pics are within the September 2012 event folder.

Oct 1, 2012 4:31 PM in response to dennis279

Yeah. I've tried to relaunch each app several times hoping they'd sync. Even tried restarting. It actually did make it better (than my jpeg above), but I still have a handful of Sep 23, 2012 events (just not as many as before). It is however no recognizing that my Oct 2012 Photo Stream is from within the past 2 months.


Long story short, getting better - but no right.

Oct 1, 2012 10:20 PM in response to antoniofrombakersfield

I feel your pain.


User uploaded file


These phantom events show up in media browsers that don't use the little icons with the thumnails that change when you mouse-over, iTunes sync options, and on my iPhone...everywhere except in iPhoto itself, and that's after downloading the newest update today. So now, my iPhoto library is apparently riddled with different events filled with photos I deleted long ago (some of which I never wanted to see again).


"It just works." Except when it doesn't.

Oct 2, 2012 1:20 AM in response to dackman

Bummer. I haven't noticed any issues with faces, but I only got my Mac a couple of months ago, so it's not like there was history there - can't set faces in iPhoto without...well, iPhoto.


But yeah, definitely file another report to Apple. I made one, jumped on here, outlined the problem in a review on the App Store, and am thinking of killing some time tomorrow morning by going into an Apple Store and making a "genius" log it into whatever system they may or may not have in place in their retail outlets.


Out of all the problems I've had with Apple products so far, this one's the worst - it's killing usability AND productivity across multiple devices. Hope this gets properly dealt with real soon.

Oct 2, 2012 2:46 AM in response to rwross1776

I never had this problem on 9.4 but now that I updated to 9.4.1 I have the duplicate events that seem to be derived from real events. The actual events in iPhoto from June-September are not showing up in iTunes at all yet some of the photos are in individual dated events. Below you will see my events for all of 2012 in iPhoto and the next shot will be hoe they actually show up in iTunes. The only way I can get these on my iOS device correctly is to set up a 2012 Album, put each event in it and then sync that album. At least I will have the proper events within an album. How the heck do I go back to 9.4?


User uploaded file

User uploaded file

Oct 2, 2012 2:52 AM in response to Mocciat

I take it you didn't do a Time Machine or other backup before you updated the software? That's the only way I know of to restore the older version - but not sure if that would work easily as 9.4.1 updated our libraries.


It's weird but the 9.4.1 got rid of more or less this exact issue for me. Apple clearly need to improve their product testing. I hope the fix comes out for you soon and that it fixes the Faces issue that I'm having while it's at it.

iTunes sync issues with iPhoto 9.4 (extra empty photo events and missing photos)

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