I've recently upgraded from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion. I now find that when I import photos into iPhoto '09 from my (internal) hard drive, they are no longer automatically orientated correctly (portrait/landscape). Can I correct this?

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Level 1

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I've recently upgraded from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion. I now find that when I import photos into iPhoto '09 from my (internal) hard drive, they are no longer automatically orientated correctly (portrait/landscape). Can I correct this?

I've recently upgraded from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion. I now find that when I import photos into iPhoto '09 from my (internal) hard drive, they are no longer automatically orientated correctly (portrait/landscape). Can I correct this so that they are once again automatically orientated correctly on import?

MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2010), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), iPhoto '09

Posted on Apr 15, 2013 1:45 PM

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Answer 1

LarryHN

Level 10

106,142 points

Apr 15, 2013 1:49 PM in response to MTAUK

I have no idea what you are seeing - there have been no reports of anything like this - check your camera setting - that is where the auto rotate flag is set

LN

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Answer 2

Old Toad

Level 10

215,960 points

Apr 15, 2013 3:38 PM in response to MTAUK

As Larry mentioned make sure the camera's settings are set enable the Auto Rotate feature.

OT

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Answer 3

MTAUK Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 16, 2013 2:50 AM in response to LarryHN

Thanks Larry, and Old Toad. I haven't changed the auto rotate setting on the camera (ever!) but nonetheless I've just checked it and it is set correctly. I expected this since if I open the same photos in Preview (as I said, they are on the hard drive), they orientate correctly. Only two things have changed: the upgrade to ML and the fact that these are new photos. It surely has to be an iPhoto problem.

MTA

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Answer 4

Old Toad

Level 10

215,960 points

Apr 16, 2013 8:46 AM in response to MTAUK

Try this: launch iPhoto with the Option key held down and create a new, test library. Import some photos that should rotate automatically and test to see if the same problem persists.

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Answer 5

MTAUK Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 16, 2013 12:29 PM in response to Old Toad

Thanks. I'll give it a go and report back!

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Answer 6

MTAUK Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 16, 2013 1:50 PM in response to Old Toad

Hi again. I've now tried this and the problem does persist. I imported 20 or so photos which all orientate correctly in Preview but do not in iPhoto. However, there was one photo which I had opened in Photoshop and simply saved at a lower resolution with no other changes, and that orientated correctly both in iPhoto and Preview! This is strange.

MTA

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Answer 7

Old Toad

Level 10

215,960 points

Apr 16, 2013 3:06 PM in response to MTAUK

So the problem is either associated with the application or your account. Log into another user account and see if the problem repeats itself there in iPhoto. If it does then a reinstall of iPhoto is indicated.

If it doesn't it could be a preference file, either iPhotos or another one. Report back with the results and we'll go from there.

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Answer 8

MTAUK Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 17, 2013 5:02 AM in response to Old Toad

Thanks. I've logged in as another user and tried the simplest thing. I've taken an SD card from another camera (my camera does not use them), plugged it into my MacBook and transferred some photos to the HD. I then opened iPhoto and imported them. The problem persisted - the photos did not orientate correctly. The SD card was still inserted and so appeared under 'Devices' in iPhoto. Clicking on this showed all the photos on the card, all orientated correctly. Very strange! How do I uninstall and then reinstall iPhoto correctly (i.e. without leaving problematic traces of the original)?

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Answer 9

Old Toad

Level 10

215,960 points

Apr 17, 2013 9:33 AM in response to MTAUK

Log into another user account on your Mac and try importing into iPhoto there. If the problem persists a reinstall of iPhoto is indicated.

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Answer 10

MTAUK Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 18, 2013 3:50 AM in response to Old Toad

Yes, that's what I did. I logged in as another user and the problem persisted. I imported new photos from the SD card because that user had no photos on the HD. How do I uninstall and then reinstall iPhoto correctly without leaving problematic components of the original installation in place? Thanks.

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Answer 11

Old Toad

Level 10

215,960 points

Apr 18, 2013 8:42 AM in response to MTAUK

To reinstall iPhoto you'll have to delete the current application and all files with "iPhoto" in the file name with either a .PKG or .BOM extension that reside in the:

HD/Library/Receipts folder (10.5 and earlier)

or from the /var/db/receipts/ folder (10.6) .

or from the /private/var/db/receipts folder (10.7 or later)

Then install iPhoto from the source it came from originally, i.e. the disks that came with your Mac, an iLife disk or the App Store if your Mac came with Lion or Mt. Lion preinstalled.

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Answer 12

MTAUK Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 18, 2013 1:13 PM in response to Old Toad

Thanks for the detailed help, I'm really grateful. I am logged in as the main user, which is where the trouble with iPhoto began. I am currently running 10.8.2. I have looked in /private/var/db/receipts and have no files with iPhoto in the name. In case I misunderstood, and because I was previously running Snow Leopard (10.6.....?), I also looked in /var/db/receipts but did not see any change in the finder window (from /private/var/db/receipts). I cannot find any files of the form com.apple.pkg.iPhoto...... Should I be concerend about this? I have the disk that came with the MacBook to reinstall iPhoto.

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Answer 13

Old Toad

Level 10

215,960 points

Apr 18, 2013 3:12 PM in response to MTAUK

Go ahead and try to reinstall iPhoto from those disks. Then run any updaters necessary to get to the highest version of that particular iPhoto verson..

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Answer 14

MTAUK Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 19, 2013 2:46 AM in response to Old Toad

OK. I dragged the iPhoto icon from the Applications folder to trash and emptied tash. This also removed the iPhoto icon from Launchpad. I removed the icon from the dock. I reinstalled the bundled software package that came with the MacBook and iPhoto appeared to be installed correctly, with the icon back in the dock. I also now have files in /private/var/db/receipts, viz.

file://localhost/private/var/db/receipts/com.apple.pkg.iPhoto.bom

file://localhost/private/var/db/receipts/com.apple.pkg.iPhoto.plist

file://localhost/private/var/db/receipts/com.apple.pkg.iPhotoContent.bom

file://localhost/private/var/db/receipts/com.apple.pkg.iPhotoContent.plist

Unfortunately,

a) iPhoto quits unexpectedly after 10 - 15 seconds. The first time I sent the report to Apple.

b) I had enough time to import a few photos into the library and the old problem persists

I had time to click 'Check for Updates' in the iPhoto menu and it just told me about iLife '11 (I'm using '09). I assume therefore there are none for '09.

Clearly some trace of the previous installation remained after I deleted iPhoto because after reinstallation, it still knew about the test library I created in one of our earlier steps.

I'm now in a worse state than I was!

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Answer 15

MTAUK Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 19, 2013 4:11 AM in response to Old Toad

I've found an update for iPhoto '09 (and one for OS X - not sure why this wasn't found automatically since I have that option selected in System Preferences!) and have installed it. iPhoto no longer crashes, so it's just the original problem that remains (I've checked after updating). If you have any further suggestions, I really would like to get this fixed! Thanks.

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