Level 1

18 points

Reverting to iPhoto after Photos migration

Does anyone know if it is ok to delete the new Photos library from the Pictures folder after you've migrated your iPhoto library to Photos? This is the situation I'm in - I migrated my library to Photos but I HATE it. I am very invested in Events and being able to review each new batch of photos before categorizing them into the appropriate events, and with this new app it's like everything is in a giant shoebox, it seems to include all my Photo Stream pictures in my library before I'm ready (I typically delete a lot of dud pictures every time I import, now they are all mixed in automatically and I have to remember how far back I've gone through and culled), and there's no way to tell which pictures haven't been categorized into an event yet. Worst of all, there's no way to hide photos from all views. Not only are hidden albums/events not even a thing anymore, Photos "conveniently" makes a whole new album of all the pictures I didn't want anyone to see. So now instead of me being the only one who would know where to look for hidden photos/Events in my library when they were unhidden, they're all collected in one place at the top level of my albums view. Why anyone would want an automatic, top-level album of all photos in an entire library that were meant not to be see, I don't know. Seems to defeat the entire privacy/security purpose of the Hide feature. Not to mention, anyone can still see all hidden photos when scrolling through the Albums view.

Long story short, I am RUNNING back to iPhoto for as long as Apple allows it to be used. Now, I know that any changes I make to the iPhoto library won't carry over automatically to Photos. I'm fine with that as I don't intend to use Photos until I'm forced to. However, I know that at some point I will be forced to use it, and at that point its library will be (hopefully) several years out of date. Since Photos creates symbolic links to the photo files, I know I could easily have deleted the iPhoto library when I migrated to Photos, but does that work both ways? I guess my question is, can I delete the Photos library I have now, keep working with my iPhoto library until iPhoto is killed completely, and then re-import the entire library back into Photos? Or do my photo files actually now live in the Photos library package instead of the iPhoto library package and deleting the Photos library will delete all my photos?

Any clarification on my options would be appreciated.

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Apr 9, 2015 6:29 PM

480 replies

Ziatron

Level 5

4,214 points

Jul 23, 2015 11:33 AM in response to Yer_Man

I liked Aperture a lot, but Lightroom is a more powerful app, as are a couple of the others I checked out like Capture One.

You're right, alternatives exist. I found a great alternative for iPhoto, (not Lightroom or Capture One).

Ziatron

Level 5

4,214 points

Jul 23, 2015 11:37 AM in response to tmdsan

Use this link to talk to Apple.

https://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,972 points

Jul 23, 2015 11:45 AM in response to Yer_Man

Terrible

Level 1

4 points

Jul 24, 2015 4:17 PM in response to Ziatron

Well, which one is the invisible one on your post?

Susa3

Level 1

0 points

Aug 1, 2015 3:15 PM in response to mystwillow

I do not like Photos either. My main criticism is in regards to the editing options. I could do more in iPhoto. Possibilities in Photos are limited. They do not support nuance or variation as much as iPhoto did. Sometimes, "getting better" is actually getting worse, so-called advancement is actually falling behind. Please bring iPhoto back.

petermac87

Level 5

7,453 points

Aug 1, 2015 3:21 PM in response to Susa3

iPhoto to hasn't gone anywhere. It is still in your Applications folder. If you failed to keep it up to date then the answer has been posted here many times. I still use iPhoot until I feel that Photos is ready to suit my hobbyist needs.

Pete

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,972 points

Aug 1, 2015 3:37 PM in response to Susa3

My main criticism is in regards to the editing options. I could do more in iPhoto. Possibilities in Photos are limited. They do not support nuance or variation as much as iPhoto did.

You might want to look again. There are more tools and more variety of tools in Photos than in iPhoto. In the Edit Panel, note the ADD button to access more...

Susa3

Level 1

0 points

Aug 1, 2015 3:50 PM in response to Yer_Man

Thank you so much for your reply. I will check this out.

Susan

Sent from my iPhone

Old Toad

Level 10

215,718 points

Aug 1, 2015 3:54 PM in response to Susa3

Go to the Adjust section of the Edit tools and click on the Add button. Here check all of the editing features you want to be displayed by default in the Adjust edit window:

You'll then see this:

Aug 9, 2015 11:45 AM in response to Stevd66

Stevd66 wrote:

I agree, I prefer events than 'moments' as 'date based' sorting makes little sense in a file store UNLESS you can see the image. The folder / album sorting is one thing, but the event feature was useful for grouping, rather than geo and date based 'collections' This FEATURE should be returned as a sort and export feature too.

The Photos folder (whether albums or time-based) displays are missing all sorts of useful information that iPhoto provides; things like:

Keeping Events in a time-based order. The Albums in Photos seem to be essentially randomly shuffled.

Puttting captions under individual photos so you can see them all at a glance.

...and as for the way Photos imports stuff from iPhoto; that's little short of a complete disaster. Events in iPhoto should have been converted to Events with the same content and function in iPhoto, not shuffled and stuffed into Albums. I'm unsure whether it's even possible to render the Photos Albums useful. At the very least it's going to take ages to sort out the muddle. I've provided Apple with feedback (via http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html ) to tell them what a mess they've made of this process.

petermac87

Level 5

7,453 points

Aug 9, 2015 12:48 PM in response to Lazy Leopard

Yes, a very similar scenario to iPhoto when it was first released. It was rubbish in a lot of people's opinion.

Cheers

Pete

Terrible

Level 1

4 points

Aug 9, 2015 12:48 PM in response to Lazy Leopard

I'm with you, it's way easy when I want to show a photo of my son for example, to just use the album, it appears albums are still in Yosemite 10.10.3 in Photos but a lot more work to do than before. I'm just happy I saved my old hard drive with version 10.10.2, there you can (for now at least) still use iPhoto. Be careful, I tried to update iTunes after pushing the "more" button, which separated 10.10.4 from the iTunes update, but iTunes attempted to update it to 10.10.4 even after that?

petermac87

Level 5

7,453 points

Aug 9, 2015 12:50 PM in response to Terrible

iPhoto still runs fine in Yosemite 10.10.4

Cheers

Pete

Aug 9, 2015 1:18 PM in response to petermac87

petermac87 wrote:

Yes, a very similar scenario to iPhoto when it was first released. It was rubbish in a lot of people's opinion.

Indeed. The progression continues. Each new version is worse than the one before, and information was lost in the migration from one to the next.

...and as for running iPhoto in its place? Well, I'm trying to explain long-distance to my not-very-tech-savvy mother what she needs to do to undo the mess the migration has made of her thousand-plus Events and who-knows-how-many photos, but believe me, it's not easy, and I don't have the week or two and thousands in spare cash I'd need to visit and fix it for her. "Unimpressed" doesn't come close...

Terrible

Level 1

4 points

Aug 9, 2015 1:13 PM in response to petermac87

Not with syncing it does not.

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Reverting to iPhoto after Photos migration