Is iPhoto 11 as bad as reviews suggest?

Given that no one knows what you have read it is impossible to give any answer to your question

Bottom line is that it is a soid application with millions and millions and millions of users who never post anywhere because it just works

And getting the concensus of the board is a wierd request - polls are not allowed here by the TOU and the majority of the people who come here are here for one and only one reason - they have a problem of some sort they want to solve - the frequent posters are very experianced and are happy - the rest have a problem - getting a concensus here is like standing outside the emergence room looking for a concensus on teh health of the city - you either talk to sick people their families or Doctors and nurses - not a good way to learn

LN

Before evaluating the reviews on the App Store and similar sites you need to know what the experience and knowledge level of the reviewer is, right? The great thing about the Internet is that everyone can express an opinion. That's also the bad thing.

FWIW, I've used iPhoto 11 since it was released. It's a mature and capable application. It's very good value at $15 - but remember, it's a $15 app.

That's essentially the same reply I would have used, the emergency room analogy. Those who are having problems are more likely to go back to the App Store or here and vent their frustrations. In my experience iPhoto 9.4.2 works beautifully.

You can always make a copy of your current iPhoto application and library to fall back on if you find 9.4.2 isn't to you liking.

OT

I have iPhoto 11 and have zero complaints. It is an amazing app and a very useful utility.

prouss wrote:

Anyone care to offer something more useful?

People don't often go out of their way to post positive reviews and you have to consider each one with a healthy degree of skepticism. I tend to ignore ones that are barely literate, and most of the negative ones are. If someone can't spell, how much credence will you lend to his review?

Out of curiosity I read some of the reviews and have no explanation for all the negativity, but from this limited perspective it seems that some have problems that are not limited to iPhoto. RANTING IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS or full of !!!!!! - not worth my time to read.

I have not posted any reviews but if I did it would be five stars.

FWIW I did not think LarryHN's response was patronizing, just true. Apple's customer satisfaction, both hardware and software, leads the industry by a large margin. You would never know it from this site.

Archive your existing system with Time Machine or "clone" software and you could always change your mind if you don't like the upgrade.

I hope you find this "useful".

I actually had the same concerns as Prouss regarding the negative reviews on the App Store for iPhoto 11 -- specifically the apparent "crashes" some dissatisfied users experienced. Being new to this forum I found his question to be pretty much what I was looking for. I understand people are less likely to post positive reviews about a product but the negative reviews for this version were 204 1-star rating out of 442 reviews total. That was enough for me to search for other users' input as well. Every response to Prouss's question has some good points and has helped me with my decision to go ahead and purchase the iPhoto 11. As a newbie, I appreciate the question exactly how it was stated, regardless and personally think the ER analogy is not a helpful one.

Let me enter an opposing viewpoint. I am now retired after a career in many programming languages and computing platforms. I have been a loyal Mac user since the late '80's. I have been a big fan and Mac advocate. (enough experience and background for you?) I have used and loved many Mac apps, but iPhoto 11 is a disaster. Yes, there will always be disgruntled users of any app. Decent apps will have roughly 5% 1 stars. But almost 50% 1 or 2 stars shows there are major problems.

My major problems are:

1. I bought iphoto 11 specifically to backup photos from our idevices from the icloud before they disappeared.

iphoto does nothing

2. I upgraded to Mountain Lion primarily to get iphoto to sync

iphoto does nothing

3. user control of syncing/ face recognition is not existent. Example: face recognition found the back of the grandstands as a "face"

quote "you can tell iphoto to accept or reject the face to help improve recognition" HOW? not even naming Mr. Stand presented any options for rejecting or deletion

iphoto does nothing

4 an info line pops up saying "uploading 344 photos" - forever. No info, no cancel button, no count change after HOURS. (yes that's ALL CAPS - I am shouting because this is so BAD)

iphoto does nothing

So this is my one experience "out of millions" - PLUS at least 207 out 440 others. Just because by far and away Apple does make great hardware and software, that doesn't mean they can't make a mistake. (Does the sequence .mac, .me, .icloud mean anything?) Only pure arrogance would assume just because it's Apple, it can't be bad.

Gene

Your post pretty much demonstrates my point about online reviews.

As a guy who has had a career in "many programming languages and computing platforms" you have to be aware that your post is not very helpful from any point of view.

1. "iphoto does nothing" tells us nothing, and in no way explains how iPhoto might be the problem here. If you took the time to explain how you tried to set this up, perhaps we might see that iPhoto is at fault, or indeed something else.

2. Ditto.

3. What has "syncing" got to do with Face Recognition. That iPhoto Face recognition doesn't work like you wish is not a fault of iPhoto. Syncing? with What? To Where? And again 'iphoto does nothing" is a useless comment without some kind of context, some kind of description of how you tried to get this to work, and it failed. For all we know you might just have installed the app and expected everything to work by magic.

4. Upoading what to where? From where? So, another Ditto.

It's quite true that Apple make mistakes, but there is nothing in your post that suggests or demonstrates that these are Apple mistakes and not something else.

"As a guy who has had a career in "many programming languages and computing platforms" you have to be aware that your post is not very helpful from any point of view."

was is direct response to your comment:

Before evaluating the reviews on the App Store and similar sites you need to know what the experience and knowledge level of the reviewer is, right?"

I was establishing that I have been a long time Mac loyalist, not someone who says "Apple stinks" to everything. I was also establishing me knowledge level. I am a "poweruser" Wasn't that one of your criteria?

I apologize for not giving a specific configuration

MacBook Pro 13 13-inch mid 2009

iPhoto '11 vers 9.4.2

OSX versions: Lion and upgraded Mountain Lion 10.8.3

At least two people have asked the legitimate question "why all the bad reviews?" And indeed, while one certainly must use caution when reading a single bad review, trends however are significant. I just did a quick analysis of reviews on the App store. Comparing a few Apple apps for total number of reviews and per cent 1 or 2 stars

pages 244 20%

keynote 81 16%

numbers 61 39%

aperture 108 24%

iMovie 313 39%

iPhoto 448 58%

Point being, a single review by itself is not significant. A collection of reviews shows trends and iPhoto has a definite negative trend.

Why?

. I bought iphoto 11 specifically to backup photos from our idevices from the icloud before they disappeared.

From the iPhoto '11 description in the App store

iPhoto '11 works with Photo Stream, so the photos you take on your IOS devices automatically appear in iPhoto

Photo Stream

.View and automatically import recent photos on your IOS devices

iphoto does nothing means - while all three if my IOS devices sucessfully "sync" [my term] and photos "automatically appear" on other IOS devices, they do NOT "just appear" on my Mac Book Pro. it doesn't "just work"

point 2 I have tried both Lion and Mountain Lion, I have tried switching libraries, I have tried deleting and redownloading iPhoto, I have tried turning "My Photo Stream" and automatic upload and download on and off

I even looked at deleting the photo stream on the Mac, but it warned this will delete all photos in the stream. NO! I still want access from my IOS devices which are working correctly.

And still iPhoto will not "sync" i.e., iphoto does nothing

point 3 Face recognition has nothing to do with sync. It has everything to do with no user controls. When presented with faces dubious selection, the caption reads

You can name, confirm, or tell iPhoto to ignore the faces above. Named faces appear in Faces.

Confirming faces improves the suggestions for possible matches.

HOW? There are no buttons, no contextual menus, only a box to enter a name. Once entered, there are no controls to delete the face. Only to edit the original picture with this face, iphoto does nothing.

point 4

Upoading what to where? From where? So, another Ditto.

Good question. All iPhoto displays in upper right of window on Photo Stream is: "Uploading 344 photos"

I would love to know what to where. There is no contextual menu. There are no options in the menu bar. There is no information and no control anywhere. The message implies "something" is uploading. But the count never changes, there are no progress bars, no feedback. I my book, that constitutes "doing nothing"

The users asked the question "Why all the bad reviews?" I have responded with examples of my direct experience. If you still feel my

post is not very helpful from any point of view

Fine. Don't bother to reply because I won't be back to a forum that does not tolerate legitimate negative criticism.

See? There you have actual information, and that can be used for troubleshooting. But as you're not coming back, why bother.

pages 244 20%

keynote 81 16%

numbers 61 39%

aperture 108 24%

iMovie 313 39%

iPhoto 448 58%

Point being, a single review by itself is not significant. A collection of reviews shows trends and iPhoto has a definite negative trend.

But out of how many total users.

As for getting your Mac to display the Photo Stream photo give the following a try:

Disable Photo Stream in the System/iCloud preference pane

and in iPhoto's Photo Share preference pane.

Also make sure the Automatic Import check box is selected so the photos are imported into your iPhoto Library.

Reboot and reenable both respectively. See if that will jump start Photo Stream.

Fine. Don't bother to reply because I won't be back to a forum that does not tolerate legitimate negative criticism.

Huhh?????

You gave no informatipn with which to attempt to assist you and that was pointed out along with suggestions for information that would be helpful -- Your response indicates that you are the one who does not tolerate legitimate requests - the volenteer users here have expressed every intention of assisting you if you supplies information to let us - you are the one who is picking up your marbles and going home - not us

And note by the way - this is not a place for critism of anyone or anything - it is simply a place for ex[erienced iPhoto users to assist other users who are having problems - nothing more - nothing less

Spedcifically

iphoto does nothing means - while all three if my IOS devices sucessfully "sync" [my term] and photos "automatically appear" on other IOS devices, they do NOT "just appear" on my Mac Book Pro. it doesn't "just work"

1 - iCloud is NOT a backup so you failed to comprehend what you were accquiring - is is a way to transfer photos between devices - and it works just fine - IF you have it set up correctly - since yoru does not work properly clearly you have a problem - but a=once again you give no informatio that would let one try to help you

So the instructions for setting PhotoStream up along with system and software requirements arehere

The FAQs and links to trouble shooting guides are here

2

HOW? There are no buttons, no contextual menus, only a box to enter a name. Once entered, there are no controls to delete the face. Only to edit the original picture with this face, iphoto does nothing.

Since you obviously have no idea how to use iPhoto I suggest starting with the tutorials - it is very easy and almost all people find it intutative but since you do not there are some great resources for you to learn

3

Good question. All iPhoto displays in upper right of window on Photo Stream is: "Uploading 344 photos"

I would love to know what to where. There is no contextual menu. There are no options in the menu bar. There is no information and no control anywhere. The message implies "something" is uploading. But the count never changes, there are no progress bars, no feedback. I my book, that constitutes "doing nothing"

PhotoStream show uplaoding - Uploading to where -- Duhh - to your Photostream - which you somehow have set up incoorrectly and need to fix, hence the lock of either uploads comnpleting or downloads happening

again the above links will be helpful

LN

Maybe people are not complaining about iPhoto 11 because they know Apple almst NEVER listens to what consumers say and it is useless to do so. As a 25 year Mac user, I've given up complainig. I'll be voting with my wallet in the future. And your narky remark really helps nothing.

And I do know how to spell, I just don't type well and my Spell Checker obviously does not work well.

You all have a nice day you hear

LN