How do I turn off Faces in iPhoto? I have no use for this function and it slows my computer down trying to access all the photos every time I open iPhoto.
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.4)
You can't turn off Faces in iPhoto. Just let it complete it's first scan and then ignore.
OT
A poster called lopezio claims the following will do the job:
This is how you can disable (turn off) Face detection, without deleting faces found so far (just in case you want to restart processing at another time):
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Open Terminal Application (Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app)
3. Type the following (exactly as is):
defaults write com.apple.iPhoto PKFaceDetectionEnabled 0
(then return)
4. - Start iPhoto - Faces stops getting on your nerves...
If you ever need to re-enable faces, just do the same again and replace the 0 with 1.
I've not tested this so I'd offer a significant warning to back up first and even if it does work then to be wary if you're updating or upgrading as it may have an impact there too.
What definitely works, and safely, is to upgrade to Aperture as that has an option to disable faces. Pay more get more options.
Tried the terminal command and it works like a charm. No photos lost, No crashes.
Go ahead give it a try.
This worked for me. Thank you!
Is it just me, when I attempted that Terminal command and instructions, now my Faces feature in iPhoto is showing its refresh icon constantly spinning instead of the intermittent spinning it was doing before? And it's bogging down my computer even more!
unfortunately when you do unsupported things the results are not predictable
undo what you did and see if that resolves it -- turning faces off is not a feature of iPhoto and any hack to do it involves risk of problems
You can't turn off Faces in iPhoto. Just let it complete it's first scan and then ignore.
I've not tested this so I'd offer a significant warning to back up first and even if it does work then to be wary if you're updating or upgrading as it may have an impact there too.
What definitely works, and safely, is to upgrade to Aperture as that has an option to disable faces. Pay more get more options.
LN
Thank you LarryHN.
I frequently upload hundreds of photos that might have dozens of new people in them and Faces insists on doing a scan every single time I try to use iPhoto and I'm never in iPhoto long enough for it to complete a scan. It's unfortunate Apple created such a slow feature that isn't optional. And I dread to think how long it would take me to upgrade my library to Aperture.
Download and runPref Setter to view the com.apple.iPhoto.plist file. Launch Pref Setter and search for iPhoto:
Double click on com.apple.iPhoto and search for PKFaceDetection.
There you will see what it is set to. If it's True change it to False, save and try again.
And I dread to think how long it would take me to upgrade my library to Aperture.
There is no upgrading involved. iPhoto and Aperture are sharing the same library format. Aperture can open your iPhoto library just as it is, if your versions of Aperture and iPhoto are compatible, iPhoto 9.5.1 and Aperture 3.5.1. Only Aperture is a professional applications with more features than iPhoto, and you would have to learn to use it. And it is not cheap. And Apple announced that the upgrade to the new system Yosemity will bring the last update to Aperture and iPhoto. After that, a new Photos.app will be the new application to manage photos on a Mac. So you may want to wait and see, if the new Photos application will solve your problem.
And this is why all of you are Level 9 and 10 and I'm just a 1. Thanks for all the awesome input. Good to know Aperture leverages iPhoto's existing library! Better to know that they both are at the end of their road in the upcoming OSX Yosemite release before I invest effort in Aperture.
Just one of the many reports on this:
My solution was to switch to Aperture.
With Aperture, one check-box disables faces. Moreover, Keywords can be displayed under each thumbnail !
Love it.
Perhaps you need to explain that this 'solution' costs $80 and Aperture, like iPhoto, is EOL'd.
I tries the terminal command with out success. I made one change and it now works for me.
defaults write com.apple.iPhoto PKFaceDetectionEnabled false
I do not want it because of all the processing and disk space it takes up. You can find the files it uses for faces if you view the Photos package contents resources\model resources. Just delete everything in that folder and recover the disk space.
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how to turn off faces
