Reverting to iPhoto after Photos migration

Photos is a joke and an insult.

Worse than the Maps debacle in iOS.

Been an Apple user since '84 "skinny Mac", and all the way since, a s/w engineer, a registered developer and a stockholder --- but this is just too much.

Absolutely unusable.

So it's Lightroom for me, reluctantly.

Do you have a technical question about Photos that the volunteers here can assist with? I do not see one

LN

I have an iMac with OS X 10.10.2 and iPhoto 9.6.1 installed. I have around 30K of photos and have used the photos as stills in iMovie and Final Cut Pro videos.

I really like the organization management of iPhotos and after reading this thread I am really skeptical of the new photos app. I do not use iCould even though I have an iPhone and an iPad. I manage my photo back-ups locally.

I have several questions:

If I upgrade to OS X 10.10.3 will I have the option not to install the new photo app? Or, is the photo app embedded in the OSX 10.10.3 code and an individual user cannot make the decision to install or not install the photo app?

If I upgrade to OS X 10.10.3 will I have the option not to install the new photo app? Or, is the photo app embedded in the OSX 10.10.3 code and an individual user cannot make the decision to install or not install the photo app?

It's part of the OS, you don't have a choice, except not to upgrade.

Upgrade to 10.10.3 and use iPhoto and do not use the photo app? Is there a different installation process or prep work to do to ensure that this approach is sound?

Upgrading the OS and just ignoring Photos is perfectly feasible. There is nothing special to do. Remember that your iPhoto icon may be removed from the dock but it's easily returned. As always, back up before any upgrade.

Or should I stay with 10.10.2 until OS X 10.11 is released?

Why? What will that gain? Going forward, iPhoto is over. It's no longer developed. Sooner or later some version of the OS will mean that it won't run any more. (Apparently it does run on the betas of 10.11, but with some issues. However, they may (or may not) be ironed out before release.) Sooner or later you're moving to another system to manage your photos. At least now you can explore the possibilities of the new app pretty painlessly and with the possibility to revert at any time.

I accidentally clicked on the new photo icon and it launched. I closed it and when I tried, the first time and very time since, to open iPhoto I get a black screen and the rotating circle. It will do this for hours but I can not access my images. How do I go back to iPhoto as my default ( and much better) program? I

Option 1

Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Repair Database. If that doesn't help, then try again, this time using Rebuild Database.

If that fails:

Option 2

Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. (In early versions of Library Manager it's the File -> Rebuild command. In later versions it's under the Library menu.)

This will create an entirely new library. It will then copy (or try to) your photos and all the associated metadata and versions to this new Library, and arrange it as close as it can to what you had in the damaged Library. It does this based on information it finds in the iPhoto sharing mechanism - but that means that things not shared won't be there, so no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your events, albums and keywords, faces and places back.

Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.

Regards

TD

OK, when you open the ALBUMS tab, do you not see iPhoto Events there?

All my events are still right there like in iPhoto

OK, when you open the ALBUMS tab, do you not see iPhoto Events there?

All my events are still right there like in iPhoto

You are seeing albums created from your events. When your iPhoto library was migrated, Photos created a new album for each of your events from the photos in the event to preserve the structure. But these items are albums and not events. And for new imports you have to create the corresponding albums yourself.

No.. I have all the original Albums from iPhoto PLUS and album that is iPHOTO EVENTS. When I click that open, all the events are there labeled as I had them labeled in iPhoto

They are not separate albums, they are EVENTS in ONE ALBUM

iPhoto events is not an album - it is a folder and contains an album for each event in iPhoto - each event has been converted into an album and those albums are stored in the iPhoto events folder - click on the triangle to the left to open it and show the albums

LN

Hey Larry

SEMANTICS - I guess my point is that people have complained that all their events are no longer accessible, That all they have is all their photos without any rhyme or reason and all their work making "Events" is now wasted. My point is, they are still organized for you.

I have over 500 "Events" and they are individual EVENTS/ALBUMS - call them what you will.. they are still organized

No.. I have all the original Albums from iPhoto PLUS and album that is iPHOTO EVENTS. When I click that open, all the events are there labeled as I had them labeled in iPhoto

They are not separate albums, they are EVENTS in ONE ALBUM

The problem is that people are expecting these fake event albums to behave like events and they don't. You cannot simply move photos between albums. You cannot be sure, that a photo is in exactly one "event", because they are albums called events. They are a memory of your original events, preserving as much information as possible.

Potato - Patato

If you had seen the questions of the users that are trying desperately to use the albums like events, you would not dismiss the difference between events and albums as unimportant. People keep asking "How can I find the photos that are in more than one album?" or "How can I find the photos not in any album"? Or "What happened to the descriptions of my events?" The descriptions . You are right, that quite a bit of the work in creating events has been migrated to the Photos Library and is available in the albums, but the events themselves have been replaced by moments.

The problem I am having is that I used the Events in iPhoto to create things. I kept my events organized very specifically and then created new ones to group special photos from a variety of sources. Now I can't do any of that in Photo. I have partially finished projects in iPhoto and no idea how I can actually complete them in Photo.