High Sierra Photos Editing Issue

Photos has become unusable for me since upgrading to High Sierra. Clicking on edit with 16MP raw photos from my Olympus OM-D EM-5 Mark I causes delays of a minute or more where the computer becomes unresponsive and unable to switch to other applications. Not quite a freeze, since I can edit after the delay, but then it happens all over again when I switch to the next photo. Not a problem with my Sony RX100. I suspect this is due to a lack of testing on Apple's part. I am using a 2011 iMac, so 6 year old computer and 5 year old camera raw file. I shoot everything in raw, so I can't edit from the Olympus in Photos until this is fixed. No problems with 20MP raw files from the Sony RX100.

Also, photo sync has broken on my iPad with retina display. The photo sync problem was pervasive with the original retina iPad but seemed to be fixed. Now it has returned. 5 year old piece of hardware, probably not tested by Apple.

Ian,

Thank you . . . Actually, I was on with Apple tech today and we found the missing files. For some reason, when the software update was done they had disappeared from my photos libraries. Fortunately, they were still in the time machine back up drive.

My crashing issues have certainly stopped with the update, but the photos editing still is essentially useless due to extremely slow responsiveness and lagging cursors. The Apple tech assured me that they are working on a fix.

Thanks again for your concern.

Rob

Hi!

I'm having the same exact problem.

RAW files from my Nikon D40X (10MP) work perfectly in Photos. Editing is very fast.

But RAW files from my Nikon D300 (12MP) are useless. It's impossible to edit them.

I downloaded several RAW of newer Nikon cameras, and all of them were impossible to edit.

I believe this is related to the way Photos is processing RAW files. Because all these files work perfectly in Lightroom and Affinity Photo.

I'm really so close to ditching Photos/iCloud and going to Lightroom. I can't trust in Apple anymore. First they ditch Aperture, now they break Photos and take months to fix the problem.

Jpeg and RAW for me as well, though I'm thinking RAWs are worse. Sometimes I can get away with doing minor adjustments with RAW, but more often the computer freezes up entirely and I have to wait while Photos thinks its way through an adjustment. Not so with Sierra.

Unfortunately deleting drop box is not the solution, not ever having your library on DB is the solution - once the library has been damaged by being on Dropbox you can not resolve it except by restoring a backup form before it was damaged

LN

Yes, it is terrible. There's nothing to be done until Apple figures out how they have screwed up. I've been with upper level tech support and the only advice he can give me is 'watch for a software update'. No idea when it might be coming.

Rob

Photos stopped working properly after 4 days - As you all know this is Apple's problem. Dropbox has nothing to do with this. The problem seems to be tied photoanalysisd process that buries my processor as soon as I start Photos. I think it is tied to facial recognition(which we used to be able to turn off!) and other photo processing. This is horrible - about to jump to another photo solution - my family is very frustrated.

It is more than upsetting! (By the way, Apple has my case number, I've been with upper level tech support, have shared information with their engineers, and am told there is a software issue that they are aware and are 'trying to find a fix' with no further information as to what is on the horizon. 4 months now - for me since upgrading - and a totally useless, dysfunctional Photos program - which APPLE urged on me with their advice to upgrade!)

I am going to write a letter to Tim Cook/ Apple to see whether they are completely tone deaf. The customer service person I spoke with was useless. (He offered me $100 towards the purchase of a new computer!)

Absolutely terrible - Apple's handling of the problem. But, look what they did with the iPhone battery issue as well. Makes me wonder where the corporate ethics are headed.

I am as frustrated as everyone else, particularly by Apple being tone deaf as to solutions.

I generally have many fewer issues with jpegs, but, with RAW photos it is a nightmare. The computer can completely slow down for minutes, or the program frequently crashes. There were comparatively very few issues with photos prior to Apple urging 'everyone' to upgrade to High Sierra.

As far as I am aware there is NO fix at the moment for the multitudes that have these issues. (I had even asked Apple whether I could re-install the prior OS version, and that was not an option either. Why they released such a flawed program, or did not realize from the beta testing is beyond me).

I have been simply told: 'Keep an eye out for a software upgrade' as the 'engineers' are aware and working on it. 6 months and going . . .

Rob

CiChick: So you opted to purchase a new iMac (latest version?) and the issue with PHOTOS still persisted? I am at wit's end, after downloading the new software (which the higher tech support guy called me to do), with the failure of PHOTOS to effectively edit raw files.

"We" gathered more information for Apple's engineers. We also tried a new partition on my computer and reinstalling a new version of HIGH SIERRA, again, without success!

It seems that the editing of jpegs works. So, as of the moment, there is no fix for RAW photos in PHOTOS.

Rob

Hi Robert,

I should have said "newer" iMac... It is a few years old. But the photos imported from the 2008 MacBook, back in the days of iPhoto are the ones that shut down the whole app now.

I always almost work with jpeg, not RAW files. None of them work fine since High Sierra and I have had problems since Sierra. Clearly, the heavier the photo is, the worse it gets.

Too bad my project is now over. It was **** getting those photos retouched & cropped in the past 6 months...

Major Fail on Apple.

Thanks, Cichick. Yes, I agree that Apple dropped the ball. I feel as though 'we' are/were the beta testers, as it is fairly unimaginable that a company that built its reputation on graphics could have missed the mark so badly with its photos program. Whoever at Apple is responsible for the release of this software should be 'tarred and feathered'.

Nonetheless, the new software fix, available as of yesterday, supposedly has resolved the issue with jpeg editing. So, for those limited to that format, there should be some relief. My issues are with RAW editing and that remains problematic - never so before the release of High Sierra.

If "patience is a virtue", I'm running out of any and all virtue. 😁

Good luck to you with photos moving forward.

Rob

When does Apple update the version numbers on their individual apps?

When the application changes.

But the Photos.app is just a wrapper for many system services. You can tell by the size of the Photos.app that the application itself does not have much code. For example, iPhoto 9.61 is huge with 1.7GB, Aperture 3.6 with 1.2 GB, while Photos is tiny and has just a size of 56.4 MB, the size of a large image file. Photos is frequently updated indirectly, when the system libraries change, that are used by Photos.

You may besting the build number of Photos change, however. The built number is shown in the About panel:

In the main menu bar: Photos > About Photos. The panel is showing a build number behind the version number in parentheses.

I just got a response from my bug report requesting that I upload a sysdiagnose and raw file from my camera. I was able to reproduce a one minute freeze right before generating the sysdiagnose and also sent the raw file that caused it. Previously, when I spoke to tech support on the phone, I was not asked to send any files. Fingers crossed that they are getting closer to a solution.

Since lots and lots and of of people use photos and lots and lots and lots o people post issues here and very few of them are about this it is clear that there is a problem and it affects very few people

I just looked through about 50 of the latest discussions in "Photos for Mac". "High Sierra Photo Editing" Issue gets 150 replies and 5403 views. "High Sierra photo editing slow" gets 169 replies 9352 views. Next posts are 0 replies/15 views, 12 replies/66 views, 4 replies/20 views, 2 replies/10 views, 26 replies/78 views. After that is "Albums in Photos not showing up on iPhone" 71 replies/24,626 views. I've had that problem starting with Sierra by the way. "Very few" is relative. The vast majority of Photos users probably have photos from their iPhone and no other camera. Very few probably use raw files, even if they have a digital camera. Only a very few cameras are probably affected. My wife pretty much only uses her phone now to take pictures and would never have experienced a problem on her MacBook Air if I hadn't sent her a raw file. And, if I only shot raw with my Sony RX100, I would never have experienced it either. That said, I would guess that there are tens of thousands of people with the problem and that the vast majority have not participated in these discussions. That is a very small percentage of Mac Users, but a lot of customers. I've only had direct contact with four people on the subject. Myself, a friend who uses Photos but does not shoot raw files, my wife, and the Apple tech I spoke with on the phone. Three out of four of us have the problem and one of them works for Apple. IOS11 has been pretty buggy. The latest release of High Sierra has broken Duet for everyone, including me. I've had a Mac since 1984 and this has not been a good year for stability.