iphoto won't let me drag

Select the photo(s) and export (file menu ==> export) to the desktop

LN

Ok - no mind readers here - what version of iPhoto? what happens? what error message do you get? what happens when you select the photo, right click and reveal in finder? what has recently changed? what else can you share that might help?

LN

When you select more than one photos and try to drag do you get a red dot with the number of photos in it in white?

OT

If I may bump this discussion: I have this problem running the latest version of iPhoto. If I try to drag more than one photo, I get a red number indicator. It won't let me drag and drop. If I do just one photo, it will let me drag and drop. But this is inconsistent. A few hours before my writing this, I was able to drag and drop an entire event of 100 photos. Then it started acting buggy and would only allow me to drag and drop a handful at a time. Now just one. Nothing has changed since earlier today.

Select the photo(s) and export (file menu ==> export) to the desktop

LN

This seems to be the reply to every post I've found on the net regarding this bug. Incidentally, I'm not working for a work around; I'm looking for a solution, but thanks for the suggestion. And besides, I don't trust the export functions ability to resave losslessly. Should I?

1. Using the File -> Export command tests whether the Library is intact. If it fails too it tells us that the issue is with the Library and not drag and drop

2. If it doesn't fail then we know the issue is with Drag and Drop. But before we go anywhere with that, we need information from you - OS version? iPhoto Version? Mouse? Trackpad? things like that.

3. Drag and drop gets you the iPhoto Preview. What's that? It's a "good enough for most things" copy of the show - medium quality, missing lots of metadata.

4. Export gives you the optiion to choose between the Original and edited version, to chose the file format (jpeg, tiff, png), to choose the quality of Jpegs, to write the metadata to the file, to rename the file, to size the photo and so on - so drag and drop is handy, but Export is the real deal.

5. This makes no sense:

I don't trust the export functions ability to resave losslessly.

If you explain what you mean by this, I might be able to give you some feedback on it

Thanks for the clarifications. I had thought d&d was exporting the highest quality version of the photos and in the case of an edited photo, it would export that. I'm not sure why I thought that since I don't remember ever checking closely.

What I meant to say about the export function is that even with the highest quality jpeg setting, by the design of jpeg, there's some loss going on every time it's saved, so I've always avoided program functions that exported the photo fully. And while the 'original' setting is, I think, lossless, it won't grab any edits on the photos.

But now that you've got me thinking about the d&d functionality, am I to assume its no better than the export jpeg-> highest setting, and in fact, worse since it doesn't keep all the metadata? It keeps some, though, right? Date&time, camera settings? Now I'm questioning the many, many pictures I've dragged and dropped to move between my personal iPhoto library and my business library. What info have I lost???

Should I just get used to using the export on maximum jpeg setting to catch the photo edits I've done? Without having extensively tested how much loss the pictures will take when exported, I don't have much trust in the system, like I was saying before. Should I trust it? Ratings still won't be exported, though, will they?

Thanks for your expertise.

Drag and Drop and Export are the same thing. The first is a handy shortcut with no options, but it's still exporting. Export is exporting with more options and settings. So this

so I've always avoided program functions that exported the photo fully.

makes no sense at all. What you've been doing is exporting (fully - is there another way?) with no options.

Lossless is a bit more complex than this.

iPhoto is a lossless processor. Bear with me. There's a key distinction to be made here. You import a Photo into iPhoto. Doesn't matter if it's jpeg, tiff, raw or whatever. It's the Photo that's imported.

Note that there is a profound difference between the Photo and the File.

The illustration I use is as follows: In my iTunes Library I have a file called 'Let_it_Be_The_Beatles.mp3'. So what is that, exactly? It's not the song. The Beatles never wrote an mp3. They wrote a tune and lyrics. They recorded it and a copy of that recording is stored in the mp3 file. So the file is just a container for the recording. That container is designed in a specific way attuned to the characteristics and requirements of the data. Hence, mp3.

Similarly, that Jpeg is not your photo, it's a container designed to hold that kind of data. iPhoto is all about the data and not about the container. So, iPhoto will manage the photo, edit the photo, add metadata to the Photo but never touch the file. If you choose to export - unless you specifically choose to export the original - iPhoto will export the Photo into a new container - a new file containing the photo.

So, that New Jpeg is not a lossy version of the original one. It's the Photo - edited - put into a whole new jpeg.

When you Drag and drop you get to make no decisions about the jpeg and it's characteristics.

When you use File -> Export you can decide the quality (or level of compression applied) add metadata and so on. If you want further demonstration of the fact that this is a new file - you can even export a Jpeg larger than the one you imported!

am I to assume its no better than the export jpeg-> highest setting, and in fact, worse since it doesn't keep all the metadata?

Yes. It's just not as good quality. At best it corresponds to the medium quality. As to what metadata it keeps, well a little inspection will tell you, but that has varied from version to version.

Now I'm questioning the many, many pictures I've dragged and dropped to move between my personal iPhoto library and my business library. What info have I lost???

At the very least: the edit history (and hence lossless processing), quality and metadata. To move photos between Libraries using iPhoto Library Manager is far and away the best method - keeps everythign.

iPhoto exports a subset of Standard Metadata. There is no standard for Ratings, so no it doesn't export those. But you simple keyword (1star, 2star, 3star etc) will do the same job.

You're always going to have trouble trusting any tool when you're only guessing at what it does.

Regards

TD

I've read the file container vs photo explanation before , probably from another of your responses, so that makes sense to me.

Again, thanks for helping unconfuse me.

Does the free version of iPhoto library Manager allow moving individual photos, not just whole events or albums, or is that just in the paid version?

Have a look at their website, I don't recall the details of the limiations on the trial, sorry.

The free version of iPLM will let you copy up to 10 photos at a time from one library to another.

I'm making a segue here, but how about videos? They don't seem to be exportable from the menu. When I drag and drop them, am I losing data?

Export them with the option Format = Original. That will give you the movie file.