iPhoto reduced file size of older photos

Question

iPhoto reduced file size of older photos

Hi there!

Please help me get my precious photos back to the normal resolution. Yesterday I was looking for some old pictures in my one and only iPhoto library. Had found the right ones and dragged them to the desktop.

Unfortunately all the files are 360x269 or 640x480 resolution! It's killing me literally, cos I didn't do any resize myself anytime (those are my old photos and there was no need to do any enhancements).

I've discovered that iPhoto keeps different versions of each photo (master or the original and thumbnail or preview). BUT all the photos in the master folder ARE SMALL TOO!!!

here is the link to dropbox with screenshot of the folder:

http://goo.gl/Q3oM8

As you can see all folders inside the Master folder are in kB sizes. That's rediculos.

Revert to original option in the the iPhoto Photos menu is not active when selecting the photos with reduced sizes.

Please help me recover my precious-precious photos!

Thanks in advance!

Mac OS X (10.6.8), iPhoto 9.2.3

Posted on Oct 24, 2012 11:00 PM

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

166,020 points

Oct 25, 2012 12:31 AM in response to Stas Slobodyanik

What's the history of this library? Was it imported from another machine at some point?

iPhoto does not reduce the size of your originals.

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Answer 2

Oct 25, 2012 12:37 AM in response to Yer_Man

This library is my only one. I'd made a copy of it while I was reinstalling OS. The same version of Snow Leopard was installed on the same notebook. After the Mac OS was installed, I just pointed iPhoto to the place where the library is stored.

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

166,020 points

Oct 25, 2012 1:05 AM in response to Stas Slobodyanik

Ever had a duplicates problem with the Library?

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Answer 4

Oct 25, 2012 1:10 AM in response to Yer_Man

I think so - there are duplicates of large amount of photos. Also (just remembered) - before reinstalling OS and before reassigning old library to new iPhoto there were different albums inside the library directory on the left side of iPhoto UI. Now there is onty one album called iPhoto Library and no way to expand it to see previously contained albums.

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Answer 5

Yer_Man

Level 10

166,020 points

Oct 25, 2012 3:27 AM in response to Stas Slobodyanik

This is what happens when you import one Library into another by dragging the Library to the iPhoto icon, for instance. 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.

So, when you get the 300kb images, they're the thumbnails from that library, being treted as individual images.

Do you still have that back up library?

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Answer 6

Oct 25, 2012 4:39 AM in response to Stas Slobodyanik

Yes I have it. Not sure it is the same old lib inside as you describing the mess happened. Here is how the migration was made: I've moved the whole library (one iPhoto logo package of several dozens of Gb) to my pictures folder and then pressed alt or command while first loading iPhoto so that the option window appears to specify the library I want to use.

Is there any way to get the photos back at their original sizes? Even manually with some kind of EasyFind app or smth?

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Answer 7

Oct 28, 2012 9:25 AM in response to Yer_Man

Yes I have it. Not sure it is the same old lib inside as you describing the mess happened. Here is how the migration was made: I've moved the whole library (one iPhoto logo package of several dozens of Gb) to my pictures folder and then pressed alt or command while first loading iPhoto so that the option window appears to specify the library I want to use.

Is there any way to get the photos back at their original sizes? Even manually with some kind of EasyFind app or smth?

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Answer 8

Feb 12, 2013 7:21 PM in response to Stas Slobodyanik

did you ever solve this problem? i think i have the same issue, and can't see a solution either.

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