Photos are being compressed when copied WITHOUT notification

Question

Photos are being compressed when copied WITHOUT notification

I sincerely hope my comment will reach someone who has some weight in making changes to the apps. I am seriously annoyed that after years of thinking I'm backing up my photos to external hard drives (which usually happens in a rush) I finally paid a bit closer attention and noticed the file size of each photo is ridiculously small. I never noticed before that Copy and Paste doesn't mean Copy my item and Paste it exactly the way it is in Photos! I've lost countless original photographs at full size now!!! Do you have any idea what that means for a photographer (thank goodness not at professional level because I would've surely gone crazy then).

I only found the info that Apple compresses your photos automatically by searching it on Google now. Why is there not a BIG pop up warning on my screen telling me that this is the way the app operates??!!!

I think Apple had better make some big announcement of some sort to warn customers of such ridiculous settings that is far too easily missed! And I would by far prefer to change the default settings myself to override this, instead of having to do this special copy and paste or export function.

Not cool Apple, not cool at all!

Kind of ironic that I convinced yet another Android user to switch to Apple yesterday. Seriously, you have a good thing going developers, don't screw it up with stuff like this!

MacBook Air, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Sep 12, 2016 7:37 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Old Toad

Level 10

207,499 points

Sep 12, 2016 7:42 PM in response to Annefromallover

If you copy the thumbnail and paste it at the destination all you're getting is the preview version of the image that Photos creates. If you want to get the original, full sized file you must export them via the File ➙ Export ➙ Export Unmodified Original for X Photos... menu option. That will give you the full sized version that was imported into the the library.

If you want the full sized edited version (which will be smaller than the original) use the File ➙ Export ➙ Export X Photos menu option.

Reply

Answer 2

John Galt

Level 10

141,180 points

Sep 12, 2016 7:56 PM in response to Annefromallover

This is a user-to-user support site, and is inappropriate for communicating with Apple. Please read Writing an effective Apple Support Communities question.

To contact Apple use the Contact Us link below. I'll save you the time though, since Photos most certainly does not compress unmodified originals.

I only found the info that Apple compresses your photos automatically by searching it on Google now.

Let that be a lesson to you. Don't rely upon the results of a Google search for accuracy.

Reply

Answer 3

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Sep 12, 2016 8:32 PM in response to Annefromallover

No one but your can fix user error - copy and paste does not get hte original but a much smaller preview

To get the originals select the photos in the Photos App and export the unmodified originals and you you get exactly what you imported with no changes

And another user error - this is a user to user forum - Apple is not here and no one from APple will "notice" your post or be "reached"

LN

Reply

Answer 4

Sep 12, 2016 10:00 PM in response to John Galt

User to user forum. Sorry, in my frustration I totally forgot that since I almost never use forums - yes in hindsight it seems silly to have even thought that "someone who matters would notice".

Not sure about your comment that it doesn't compress because it does and everyone else specifies the same that to get the unmodified original across you'd have to use the export function - remember I was referring to just Copy & Paste. I get now that I didn't know the photo in Photos is just a preview/thumbnail. When I him Cmd-I on that thumbnail it gives me the full size info so I assumed I'm looking/working with the actual photo. So we learn.

So sorry for venting in the wrong place. But imagine my frustration after creating separate folders and copying 10,000 photos only to glance for a moment before copying the next group... why in the world is my photo size 233kb...??? Can you see why I want to rant at the developers for messing with a regular copy & paste function? Give me export for doing whatever extra tweaks I want to add but just let me copy & paste as is, please!

Either way, thanks for the reply. Will try post in the right place next time (hopefully won't be necessary)

Reply

Answer 5

léonie

Level 10

194,831 points

Sep 12, 2016 11:36 PM in response to Annefromallover

Copy and paste is a way to pass data between applications, text clippings or small images to add to a page of a document, but is simply not the way to export and save image files. "Paste" is not mentioned once in the Photos Help in connection with saving photos, if you search for it in the Photos Help: https://help.apple.com/photos/mac/1.0/?lang=en#/pht6e157c5f

I'm afraid, no one in the developer team expected the users to use this method to export photos to folders.

The different supported ways to share and save photos are explained in this section of the Photos Help: Export photos, videos, and slideshows

The bottom of each Help page has a link "Send feedback", where you can add comments and request improvements to the Help pages. There you could leave a request to explain the consequences of "Drag & Drop" or "Copy & Paste" to save or share photos and to include a warning.

Reply