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Photo corruption following Sierra upgrade

Hi.


Since upgrading to Sierra, I see corruption issues with newly imported photos. The attached photos show examples.


When entering Edit mode, the corruption clears, but will sometimes still Export with the blocking present.


The issue only appears to affect photos which have been imported since moving to Sierra (RAW format at 5047 x 3361 resolution).


Any thoughts..?


User uploaded file


User uploaded file

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6), 2.4GHz i5 | 16Gb RAM

Posted on Nov 30, 2016 7:57 AM

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14 replies
Question marked as Helpful

Nov 30, 2016 10:59 AM in response to UnsungHeroGuitars

When entering Edit mode, the corruption clears

That is indicating, that the imported original master image files are still o.k.

but will sometimes still Export with the blocking present.

Are you exporting with "File > Export > Export unmodified original", or with "File > Export > Export ... files"?


If exporting as "unmodified original"will result in a photo without any visible corruption when opened in Preview, try the following:

  • Select a photo and export with "File > Export > Export unmodified original"
  • Delete the photo from Photos and clear the "recently Deleted" album.
  • Reimport the exported photo to Photos.


Is it still corrupted?

Nov 30, 2016 10:59 AM in response to UnsungHeroGuitars

Thank you for you response leonie 🙂


I am usually exporting modified, not unmodified files.


In running your suggested test, I can confirm that despite the image appearing corrupted in Photos, the unmodified export was clean.


We can therefore assume that the original data thankfully remains uncorrupted, so there must be an issue with the way the pictures are being presented within the Photos app, yes..? (see attached screenshot for further evidence)


User uploaded file

Question marked as Helpful

Nov 30, 2016 12:22 PM in response to UnsungHeroGuitars

, so there must be an issue with the way the pictures are being presented within the Photos app, yes..? (see attached screenshot for further evidence)

Either the thumbnails need rebuilding, or your Photos Library needs repairing.


I'd try first to recreate the thumbnails by selecting several thumbnails at once and rotating them back and forth with ⌘R and ⌥⌘R. See this user tip: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-8521


If this does not suffice, repair the library, but make a backup of your Photos Library before you try it, see: https://help.apple.com/photos/mac/1.2/?lang=en#/pht6be18f93


Is your Photos Library an iCloud Photo Library? Repairing will upload all photos again to iCloud, so repairing is very expensive. Before repairing try to find out, why this corruption occurred. Is the drive with your library correctly formatted? If your library is on an external drive, the file system should be MacOSO Extended (Journaled). And the drive should be locally mounted and not a network volume.

Nov 30, 2016 12:40 PM in response to UnsungHeroGuitars

Thanks once again leonie 🙂


I have previously rebuilt the library - that didn't solve the issue.


It's all internal HDD based (formatted to Mac OSX Extended Journaled), not external or iCloud etc, so no problems there.


I did the '⌘R and ⌥⌘R' routine - that initially fixed the thumbnails on first rotation and re-render (screenshot 1). However, whilst flipping them back again appeared to be fine, when running through the photos in full screen (Spacebar, not Edit mode) one of the photos (a different photo this time) corrupted yet again 😐 (screenshot 2)


Re-doing the flip yet again seemed to return it to normal, but I guess the over-riding question still remains, why after seven years of using iPhoto and latterly, Photos, is this now happening for the first time and ONLY since upgrading to Sierra..?


On a lighter note, it does remind me of the old Atari bombs each time it happens! 😁


User uploaded file


User uploaded file


User uploaded file

Nov 30, 2016 11:32 PM in response to UnsungHeroGuitars

😁 I saved the Mac version of the bomb. It had more colors:

User uploaded file


It's all internal HDD based (formatted to Mac OSX Extended Journaled), not external or iCloud etc, so no problems there.

It might be a permissions problem with the permissions and file ownership in your Home folder.

Are you using File Vault to encrypt your Home Folder?


You may want to run a file system check on your system drive by booting into the Recovery partition, to see if your system drive needs repairing.

It might also be a problem with the graphics card. Reset the NVRAM, if you have not done so:

See: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063#

And if you have not done so, restart your Mac in Safe Mode and then restart normal again. This will reset some caches: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262


Are your photos RAW images or JPEGs?


And did you ever run any cleaning applications to save storage? Some of them are not safe, if you let them clean a Photos Library.

Dec 1, 2016 3:25 AM in response to léonie

Hi leonie


Thank you for your thoughts once again 🙂


Just to clarify some or your queries:


  • No File Vault used
  • No cleaning apps used
  • Photos are RAW format


Resetting the NVRAM and then opening Photos initially gave no signs of corruption anywhere within the recent collections - was looking good!


I did a rotation flip on the same set of photos as before and whilst the process somehow seemed quicker than before (placebo or other factor may influence that of course), there is actually now even more corruption after the thumbnails had re-built.


That corruption follows through into the enlarged screen / zoomed previews too - although as before, entering edit mode will return the picture to normal.


User uploaded file


I'll try rebooting in safe mode next.

Dec 1, 2016 4:06 AM in response to UnsungHeroGuitars

Fully rebooting in Safe Mode, then restarting normally didn't directly solve the issue - the collection of photos were still corrupted as per the photo above.


Doing the flip and re-flip dance did clear the corruption on each once the thumbnails had rebuilt, but I'm not entirely convinced things will stay that way... that said, perhaps the fixes we've tried 'might' help prevent the problem occurring with future imports..?


Again, in the seven years and various OS changes since I started using Mac / Leopard / iPhoto / Photos etc, I've never encountered this issue before.


Considering the immediate history preceding and following the first occurrence of this issue, I can confirm that the camera is the same, the format and resolution are the same, the memory card is the same, the MBP card slot is the same... the ONLY thing which has changed recently is Sierra.


Complete coincidence perhaps, but it's a clearly identifiable change in an otherwise entirely consistent arrangement.


Will continue to use as normal and see how things pan out.

Feb 15, 2017 3:18 PM in response to ParaDara

You can not delete Photos - when you reinstall the OS you reinstall Photos - BUT that is not going to resolve this - if none of the helpful posts above resolve this then start a new thread with your specific details on your problem and we will try to help your with it

For help is writing an effective question see Writing an effective Apple Support Communities question




LN

Nov 19, 2017 5:04 PM in response to UnsungHeroGuitars

I can confirm this issue. I too have had this problem. On multiple macs. A 2010 MacBook Pro and a new TouchBar mac. Both on High Sierra.


The first time i came across this was importing from iPhone via Image Transfer using iPhoto. Images came out just like the original poster showed, blocks on some images.


The second time this has happened is when importing into Lightroom from a SD card plugged in to a USB-C Hub. At first, I thought it was my camera. I stripped the JPG out of the RAW file and the JPG had no corruption. In some cases, I was not even able to do that as exiftool could not open the RAW. The images display with digital glitch bars across them. I checked the SD card and opened the file from there and it was fine - no corruption. I copied the same files back to my Mac and this time they wrote fine. Clearly, this is an issue with APFS and has not been resolved in the latest betas.


I have attached a image showing the corruption. The left side is the SD card version and the right side is the version that was copied to the Mac from the SD card. The file sizes are exactly the same. User uploaded file

Photo corruption following Sierra upgrade

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