How Can I Troubleshoot Missing Photos Extensions?

Question

How Can I Troubleshoot Missing Photos Extensions?

Yesterday I installed and tested Skylum's new application "Luminar 2018", side by side with last year's version "Luminar". When I checked the Photos Extensions (in Photos as well as in System Preferences), only the old app was listed there.

I thought I perhaps needed to delete the old version to let the new version appear in the extensions list, but that did not work, and worse, after I reinstalled the older app, now both extensions are missing.

How can I fix missing Photos extensions?
Would it help to uninstall the app completely and to reinstall it from scratch?
Do Photos extensions "register" only on the first start of an application?
Are extensions registered in a kind of database only, and can the user rebuild that database somehow?
Or are the extensions copied to a place in a Library (e.g. Application Support)?

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), macOS High Sierra (10.13), null

Posted on Nov 17, 2017 2:13 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Kurt J. Meyer Author

Level 1

29 points

Nov 17, 2017 5:25 AM in response to LarryHN

I am still waiting for Skylum's individual answer.

Regarding your hint: Right-Click on a picture and selecting "Edit with …" did not show Luminar (2018); I was able to choose it then with "Other …". But this would be external editing (that produces new JPG pictures), not the desired plug-in way of editing that stores all modifications as database entries in Photos only.

Since I did not find Luminar in the popup menu there, I now did some system maintenance with OnyX (rebuilding the Launch database, dyld's Cache, the XPC Cache, and the Spotlight index.

Mission accomplished: Now both Luminar versions show up as Photos extensions!

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Nov 19, 2017 10:50 AM in response to Kurt J. Meyer

". But this would be external editing (that produces new JPG pictures), not the desired plug-in way of editing that stores all modifications as database entries in Photos only.

Both the extensions and the external editor will frequently create new JPEGs. You just do not see the files returned by the extensions, because the jpegs created by the editing extensions are stored directly in the library.

I just tested again with the Luminar 2018 extension: After editing a 5 MB JPEG, I am seeing a huge additional JPEG (96 MB) in the folder

/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/resources/media/version/59/01/fullsizeoutput_15911.jpeg

When using the external editor, we can at least control the size of the returned image files 😁

The free storage is decreasing rapidly, since I started to use editing extensions.

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Nov 19, 2017 11:27 AM in response to léonie

Repeating the test with Luminar 2018 for the same photo after reverting to original - this time the edited version in the Photos Library has a size of more than 600 MB: All edited version in this list have been created with photo editing extensions. most of them with Luminar.

At this rate, the storage on my 1TB system drive will not last much longer.

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Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Nov 19, 2017 12:38 PM in response to Kurt J. Meyer

Then Luminar 2018 opens this picture in (a slightly reduced) editing mode. You make your changes, and all those edits are saved back to the Photos database. The size of the photo does not change significantly, and you can always revert the picture to the original. There are NO additional imported pictures in Photos library.

Exactly.

I edited all photos with the Luminar Photos editing extension from the edit panel in Photos.

In Photos I do not see any added files. The size of the photo is in the Info panel is looking alright. Photos is not showing an additional photo. But the size of the Photos Library is increasing by 500 MB or so.

When I open the Photos Library (ctrl-click > Show Package contents) and search for the most recently added photos, I am seeing the gigantic jPEG files in the resources folder inside the library bundle.

~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/resources/media/version/

I was amazed about the size of the jpeg files, but when I opened them in Preview, I could see that the JPEGs are actually TIFFS, TIFF images camouflaged as JPEGs.

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Answer 5

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Nov 17, 2017 2:19 AM in response to Kurt J. Meyer

Generally the extensions are added when you run the program - since this is a new program I would contact Skylum support and see if they have any help

Have you tried using the edit with command to edit with the new program (right click on the photo and select edit with - Luminar should be in the list of available programs for editins)

LN

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Answer 6

léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Nov 19, 2017 10:10 AM in response to Kurt J. Meyer

For me it sufficed to run Luminar 2018 as a stand-alone application once, enter the registration code, then use the command "Luminar 2018 > Install plug-ins" and to restart the Mac. Afterwards the extension was showing in System Preferences > Extensions.

Uninstalling the Luminar Trial was not necessary, because the Trial version has a different name from Luminar 2018.

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Answer 7

Nov 19, 2017 12:16 PM in response to léonie

What you are describing is exactly what the full application does, NOT the extension.

So to be clear: You are in Photos and editing a picture. You click the "ellipse (…) in a circle" symbol and choose the appropriate extension. Then Luminar 2018 opens this picture in (a slightly reduced) editing mode. You make your changes, and all those edits are saved back to the Photos database. The size of the photo does not change significantly, and you can always revert the picture to the original. There are NO additional imported pictures in Photos library.

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Answer 8

léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Nov 19, 2017 12:43 PM in response to Kurt J. Meyer

Theme of this thread was what to do it if does not work as expected.

And my suggestion was to make sure that the command "Luminar 2018 > Install plug-ins" has been run on the first run of Luminar and to restart the Mac. I could not tell from your original post if you had done that. You mentioned only the System Preferences > Extensions.

Running an app cleaner had only been necessary to get the trial version to install the extension, but not for the most recent Luminar release.

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Answer 9

Nov 19, 2017 1:06 PM in response to léonie

I had run the "Install plugins …" command before I started this thread — without success.

IMHO this command tries to install plugins for Photoshop, Lightroom and Aperture, if those applications are installed. In my perception this has nothing to do with the registration of the application's extension. The extension should show up automatically (in Photos and in System Preferences > Extensions), after the application was launched, but it did not. Clearing those caches with OnyX (my main suspect is the XPC cache) finally solved the irregular behavior here.

I can confirm what you reported about the exported TIFF/JPG files. In my case they are smaller, between about 500 kB and 50 MB in size.

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Answer 10

léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Nov 19, 2017 2:26 PM in response to Kurt J. Meyer

IMHO this command tries to install plugins for Photoshop, Lightroom and Aperture, if those applications are installed. In my perception this has nothing to do with the registration of the application's extension.

That is true, but the installation instructions I received in the email with my licence key said to run this command to install it for Photos. It is also listed in the User Guide: https://storage.macphun.com/Luminar-2018-User-Manual-Mac.pdf?_ga=2.75745621.1365 138796.1511129407-122679478.1468011883

On the Plug-ins installation it says:

Click the Install/Uninstall button for the corresponding apps in which you’d like Luminar to run. In addition (though it’s not listed in this plug-in dialog box) Luminar will operating as an editing extension in Photos for Mac.

Since it is not obvious that we need the plug-in dialog to install the extension, I thought to mention it.

Did you also purchase Luminar directly from the vendor and not from the AppStore? The versions are different. The AppStore page does not even mention the photo editing extension.

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Answer 11

GlennieS

Level 1

4 points

Nov 19, 2017 8:58 AM in response to Kurt J. Meyer

This worked for me! Thanks!

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Answer 12

Nov 19, 2017 12:06 PM in response to léonie

Nice when the extension is recognized after first application start. That's the expected way how it should work.

Theme of this thread was what to do it if does not work as expected.

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