Why are iOS Photos edits lost when importing to iPhoto?

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Level 1

21 points

Why are iOS Photos edits lost when importing to iPhoto?

My iMac is running Yosemite (Version 10.10) and iPhoto 9.6. My iPhone is running iOS 8.1.

On a recent trip I took dozens of pictures with my iPhone and edited most of them using Photos, either via the built-in editing features or using Camera+ via the Share Sheet capability. A few photos were also edited using Snapseed, which has no Share Sheet integration and therefore saves a separate file of the edited photo back to Camera Roll.

When I got home and connected my iPhone to my iMac, I noticed that iPhoto displayed the original image files for import. There was no option to preserve the edits (unless the image was saved as a separate file beforehand, such as the Snapseed-edited images). I selected the option to delete the images from my iPhone after import into iPhoto, so I can't confirm if the images on the phone would still have been viewable with edits post import (but I would assume so).

Why are iOS Photos edits lost when importing to iPhoto? What can be done to preserve those edits? Perhaps they aren't lost and iPhoto just displays the original image by default. If that's the case, is there an option to display the edited version?

iMac (27-inch Late 2009), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on Nov 15, 2014 10:24 PM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

195,013 points

Nov 20, 2014 4:38 AM in response to m0pher

You're welcome 🙂

Better stick with Snapseed; at least this way, my edits are preserved on import to iPhoto.

For the time being, this is the way to go.

On my iPad I can do all edits with Pixelmator. It integrates losslessly with Pixelmator and Yosemite on the mac. But it is not yet available for the iPhone.

Next year, it will be better, when we have the matching Photos.app on the Mac. The problem is, that the iOS 8 photo software is half a year ahead of the matching Mac Photos software, and the missing link, iCloud Photo Library, is still Beta.

if you have enabled iCloud Library Beta on your mobile device, you can download the edited versions from your http://www.icloud.com webpage. Use the Photos.app on that page. (Cloud Photo Library beta FAQ)

In iOS8 (with iCloud Photo Library Beta) any edits you do in Photos.app will be stored as sidecar files "IMG_20XX.AAE". These are the edited versions of your photos. Unfortunately, there is not yet an app on the Mac, that can read these files and apply the edits to the originals.

These files will be imported to your Mac nevertheless, if you are using iCloud Photo Library. I expect, the new Photos.app for Yosemite, to be released next year, will be able to read these files and apply the edits.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

195,013 points

Nov 16, 2014 1:56 AM in response to m0pher

That is unfortunately, how it is supposed to work, see Apple's support document:

iPhoto and Aperture don't have edits to photos you import from iOS 8 devices - Apple Support

When you download from your devices, you will only transfer the photos in the camera roll, and that will be the unedited versions without adjustments. The only way suggested by apple to transfer the edited version to your mac is to mail the photos. A shared photo stream will also show the edited versions, but at a reduced quality.

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Answer 3

m0pher Author

Level 1

21 points

Nov 20, 2014 4:24 AM in response to léonie

Thank you, léonie. That is such an incredible copout and reminds me of the days when another famous tech giant became infamous for considering bugs to be features. I'm so disappointed as I've lost literally hours of effort spent editing my photos. Better stick with Snapseed; at least this way, my edits are preserved on import to iPhoto.

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Answer 4

digiplay

Level 1

8 points

May 2, 2015 3:23 PM in response to m0pher

Here's a workaround that involves the new Photos app for Mac:

Make any edits you want on your pics to your phone
Open Photos on both your phone and your mac, and wait until all your edits have been synced to your computer. (Provided you have not migrated your Aperture/iPhoto library to your Photos for Mac app, and you have activated the iCloud Photo Library on both your phone and the Photos for Mac app).
Select the photos you want to transfer from the Photos for Mac, then right click -> share -> Add to Aperture. The edited pics will be imported into a new project in Aperture, with all edits and metadata preserved. (Once in Aperture, you won’t be able to revert to the original as it was taken, you would have to revert on Photos for Mac)
You can now delete from your iPhone & Photos from Mac.

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