mystwillow

Q: 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I know that at some point I will be forced to use it, and at that point its library will be (hopefully) several years out of date.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

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Q: Reverting to iPhoto after Photos migration

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  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Apr 17, 2015 10:10 AM in response to wgposwego
    Level 9 (51,382 points)
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    Apr 17, 2015 10:10 AM in response to wgposwego

    wgposwego wrote:

     

    We get it. We will never, ever criticize Apple. We are just lowly customers and we will remember our place.

     

    For the record. Photos is awful. I have given it a try and reverted to Aperture. Since Apple is also abandoning Aperture, I'm exporting everything to use in Lightroom. Lightroom, by the way, also runs on Windows.

    Photos was/is not a replacement for Aperture, I am surprised that you even considered that it might be frankly. It is the replacement for iPhoto, as was clearly stated by Apple.

     

    Aperture is not being replaced as far as we know.

  • by Richard3030,

    Richard3030 Richard3030 Apr 17, 2015 10:12 AM in response to MrPheasant
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Apr 17, 2015 10:12 AM in response to MrPheasant

    > The issue at hand is how to migrate iPhoto libraries to a product better/friendlier/more robust than Apple's unfortunate Photo.

     

    I agree. To me, a couple of years back, Aperture was the answer. But we all know what happened.

     

    For casual users, I wouldn't recommend Lightroom even though I use it myself (being masochistic, haha). Photos actually is better than iPhotos in someways (better editing tools, multiple libraries, syncing etc). But Apple botched the transition process.

     

    And then there's this whole iCloud syncing confusion. Do I need both My Photo Stream and iCloud Photo Library on? What happens if some of my devices have one, some have the other, or both? What happens when I delete stuff from one device when the sync is off, and I turn it back on later? How do I sync some photos but not others?

     

    Does anyone know of a place that clearly and comprehensively explain all this?

     

    Richard

  • by Richard3030,

    Richard3030 Richard3030 Apr 17, 2015 10:17 AM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Apr 17, 2015 10:17 AM in response to Old Toad

    > Have you personally copied an iPhoto Library to the Dropbox and restored it back from the online copy and run it?

     

    Not exactly 'restored' but it perfectly sync'ed from one Mac to another Mac and vise versa. I have one Mac at work and one at home and I can add photos from either computer and it would show up on the other computer. 

  • by MrPheasant,

    MrPheasant MrPheasant Apr 17, 2015 10:18 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 17, 2015 10:18 AM in response to Csound1

    I recall a conversation years ago with the owner of a huge commercial construction contractor.  My friend was complaining about every general contractor for which he had worked.  The list was impressive.

     

    "So, Ed," said I, posing a question his comments demanded, "Why do you keep bidding to guys who burn you?"

     

    He grinned.  "Because if I didn't, I'd be out of business."

     

    His point was that no general contractor (of that time - it probably remains the same) treats every sub or supplier fairly even most of the time.  Of course, I was hearing just one side of a common argument.

     

    If we bought products only from companies with impeccable morals (perception differs from researched fact, of course), we would still be creating fire by scratching stones together.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Apr 17, 2015 10:21 AM in response to Richard3030
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    Apr 17, 2015 10:21 AM in response to Richard3030

    Richard3030 wrote:

     

     

    And then there's this whole iCloud syncing confusion. Do I need both My Photo Stream and iCloud Photo Library on?

    If all of your devices/Macs support the iCloud Photo Library there is no need to have PhotoStream on, if you have a pre Yosemite Mac or an IOS device earlier than IOS8 then you should leave it on for compatibility.

    Richard3030 wrote:

     

    What happens when I delete stuff from one device when the sync is off, and I turn it back on later? How do I sync some photos but not others?

    You need to understand that there is no 'sync' you have one photo library, it's on iCloud and all clients read from and write to it, if you delete a photo from the library then all devices will read that, if they are not connected when it happened, it will happen when they connect.

    Richard3030 wrote:

     

    How do I sync some photos but not others?

    Only put the ones you want in the iCloud Library in the iCloud Library

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Apr 17, 2015 10:23 AM in response to MrPheasant
    Level 9 (51,382 points)
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    Apr 17, 2015 10:23 AM in response to MrPheasant

    But we can make a personal choice based on their past history, and I have, in addition to the main reason I do not advise storing Photo or iPhoto (or iTunes) libraries on synchronized storage.

     

    I hope that's clear?

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Apr 17, 2015 10:30 AM in response to Richard3030
    Level 9 (51,382 points)
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    Apr 17, 2015 10:30 AM in response to Richard3030

    Richard3030 wrote:

     

    > Have you personally copied an iPhoto Library to the Dropbox and restored it back from the online copy and run it?

     

    Not exactly 'restored' but it perfectly sync'ed from one Mac to another Mac and vise versa. I have one Mac at work and one at home and I can add photos from either computer and it would show up on the other computer.

    By having 2 Macs reading and writing to the same database your chances of index or data corruption are high, please be careful. Start by actually downloading the copy on Dropbox, for it is the one that you will need in an emergency and if you have only used the local copies you have not tested it.

     

    FYI, take a look at a genuine sync service, SugarSync, if you attempt to upload a database to it you get some warnings. 1, synchronization will be disabled, only uploads will be allowed, 2, simultaneous access will be disabled, multiple user profiles will only be allowed if the app sports it natively. This includes iPhoto, Photos, iTunes as well as some 3rd party databases, such as Filemaker.

     

    You are taking risks in my opinion.

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Apr 17, 2015 10:38 AM in response to Richard3030
    Level 10 (141,664 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 17, 2015 10:38 AM in response to Richard3030
    Not exactly 'restored' but it perfectly sync'ed from one Mac to another Mac and vise versa.

    That's not the same as storing a backup library online and that's what we're talking about.

     

    I've used Dropbox for syncing between two Macs but great care must be taken so as not to have two user access the library and make changes at the same time or user #2 start in on the library before the changes make buy user #1 have fully been synced.  It's iffy at best if it for more than one user rather than one user on two different machines.

  • by Richard3030,

    Richard3030 Richard3030 Apr 17, 2015 10:39 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Apr 17, 2015 10:39 AM in response to Csound1

    Thanks for the helpful explanation, Csound1. Like many, I have a giant Photos library on my Mac. Since I I don't want my phone to have that giant library, I would turn off iCloud Photo Library on my phone and leave the Photo Stream on. The question is, how do I move only some photos from the big library to Photos on my phone?

  • by Richard3030,

    Richard3030 Richard3030 Apr 17, 2015 10:43 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Apr 17, 2015 10:43 AM in response to Csound1

    > By having 2 Macs reading and writing to the same database your chances of index or data corruption are high, please be careful.

     

    I know. Since I can't be two places at the same time, and I have tight control of the process, so far so good. What Dropbox would do if you accidentally access the same file from two different computers, it would create a conflicted copy on both computers. So I am careful to always close the file before I step away from a computer.

  • by MrPheasant,

    MrPheasant MrPheasant Apr 17, 2015 10:45 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 17, 2015 10:45 AM in response to Csound1

    Sure.  You're squeaky clean, right?

     

    So, in the wake of Ms. Lerner's admissions, do you still file your taxes?

     

    Trick question -

     

    Do you own any devices with a Samsung label?

  • by Richard3030,

    Richard3030 Richard3030 Apr 17, 2015 10:47 AM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Apr 17, 2015 10:47 AM in response to Old Toad

    > That's not the same as storing a backup library online and that's what we're talking about.

     

    Well, it kind of is. Say you drop your computer into the camp fire in a wild drunken party (purely fictional of course), you can just go out, buy a new Mac, load up Dropbox, sign into the same account and viola you are back. If you have Dropbox unlimited backup on, you can retrieve any earlier version of the same file.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Apr 17, 2015 10:49 AM in response to MrPheasant
    Level 9 (51,382 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 17, 2015 10:49 AM in response to MrPheasant

    1. Yes

    2. No

     

    How about you?

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Apr 17, 2015 10:51 AM in response to Richard3030
    Level 9 (51,382 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 17, 2015 10:51 AM in response to Richard3030

    Richard3030 wrote:

     

    > By having 2 Macs reading and writing to the same database your chances of index or data corruption are high, please be careful.

     

    I know. Since I can't be two places at the same time, and I have tight control of the process, so far so good. What Dropbox would do if you accidentally access the same file from two different computers, it would create a conflicted copy on both computers. So I am careful to always close the file before I step away from a computer.

    Provided that the file is never open on both machines at the same time (preferably the 2 machines are never on at the same time, there are background processes) it should be safe, but it is open to error.

     

    But it is still not a backup. make an error on one machine and it is repeated on DB and the other machine, where is the backup?

  • by Richard3030,

    Richard3030 Richard3030 Apr 17, 2015 10:53 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Apr 17, 2015 10:53 AM in response to Csound1

    > You are taking risks in my opinion

     

    Yeah, I like to see where the boundary is. I found out when I step over it.

     

    I love Time Machine. I also have a couple of spare TB drives around where I would copy the files off the main drive and store the external in a separate location (work < > home). That way if my house burns down completely I still have Dropbox and another spare backup at work.

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