Tiger, iPhoto keywords not picked up by Spotlight

[diehlr]

Since installing Tiger, I have run into some snags with Spotlight. I have iPhoto 5 installed and have been labeling my photos with keywords and comments, and none of them are picked up in Spotlight searches. Has anyone else run into this issue?

[toneloco2881]

Originally Posted by diehlr

Since installing Tiger, I have run into some snags with Spotlight. I have iPhoto 5 installed and have been labeling my photos with keywords and comments, and none of them are picked up in Spotlight searches. Has anyone else run into this issue?

Just a thought but have you upgraded to the latest iPhoto version(5.02). I noticed when i did this it created a file named iphoto.ispot in my iPhoto library. With that being said I've had no issues with Spotlight finding my tagged images.

[Androit]

Originally Posted by toneloco2881

Just a thought but have you upgraded to the latest iPhoto version(5.02). I noticed when i did this it created a file named iphoto.ispot in my iPhoto library. With that being said I've had no issues with Spotlight finding my tagged images.

Wow, thats great to hear. I was worried about that.

[mingisback]

I have the latest iPhoto version(5.02) installed under Tiger and he's right...

Tiger's spotlight feature doesn't search the keywords and comments attached to images in iPhoto.

I hope this is resolved in 10.4.1

[toneloco2881]

Ummm.... All I can do is once again state my success with iPhoto and Spotlight. I don't believe my case is abnormally unique, and I'm the only one who has spotlight integration. Mine works instantaneous by the way. Meaning, if I edit the comment section for a picture in iPhoto then perform a spotlight query, the result shows up immediately. Sometimes it's quirky, and I'll have to either browse around in iPhoto, or restart it for the picture to get indexed, and show up in Spotlight. I know that i had an issue with Spotlight not finding some lower-level finder items but after a system restart, all seems well. Perhaps im just lucky

[mingisback]

i'm thrilled with ur success... but that doesn't fix the problem.

[Androit]

Originally Posted by mingisback

i'm thrilled with ur success... but that doesn't fix the problem.

Does your library contain the " iphoto.ispot" file that he was talking about? Try rebuilding the library. Start up iPhoto while holding down command and option and then it'll give you options on how to rebuild it. Mind you I don't have Tiger and I have no idea if this will work. But it's possible rebuilding the database will fix whatever hiccup spotlight is having reading the metadata from the iPhoto index.

[adam1185]

Do this. I guarantee it will work.

Make sure you have iphoto 5.0.2 installed. If you still get nothing, apply a dummy keyword to all the photos in your iphoto library (for example 'spotlight') Spotlight should now find all your photos with whatever keywords you had previously applied to them. Now you can remove that dummy keyword from all your photos in iphoto and everyone should work great.

[Inspector Lee]

Originally Posted by mingisback

I have the latest iPhoto version(5.02) installed under Tiger and he's right...

Tiger's spotlight feature doesn't search the keywords and comments attached to images in iPhoto.

I hope this is resolved in 10.4.1

Yeah, this will wreck my camp. I have many many keywords attached and I have blipped all of the photo names because it can get awfully redundant and aesthetically slipshod. Although not absolutely critical, it would have been nice to gain access via spotlight.

Still, I won't be getting Tiger until mid-May. I have a vacation coming up where I won't be taking my system so I'll let everyone else iron out the wrinkles for me.

[adam1185]

Originally Posted by Inspector Lee

Yeah, this will wreck my camp. I have many many keywords attached and I have blipped all of the photo names because it can get awfully redundant and aesthetically slipshod. Although not absolutely critical, it would have been nice to gain access via spotlight.

Still, I won't be getting Tiger until mid-May. I have a vacation coming up where I won't be taking my system so I'll let everyone else iron out the wrinkles for me.

If you follow what I said above, it will work. No worries.

[mac-er]

Oh, for God's sake...

Are you people not reading what toneloco2881 is saying?? (I really don't think its that hard to understand).

If you install the last update to iPhoto that was sent out via Software Update, it will fix the iPhoto/Spotlight problem.

10.4.1 won't fix it because it has already been fixed with the last iPhoto update.

[adam1185]

Originally Posted by mac-er

Oh, for God's sake...

Are you people not reading what toneloco2881 is saying?? (I really don't think its that hard to understand).

If you install the last update to iPhoto that was sent out via Software Update, it will fix the iPhoto/Spotlight problem.

10.4.1 won't fix it because it has already been fixed with the last iPhoto update.

Some people have applied the update but it still doesn't work completely, but doing what i said above will fix it for good.

[mingisback]

i'll try that when i get off work and let you know how that works.

.... thanx adam.

[Chris Grande]

For those of you who have this working does it also show albums in the list? and when photos show up how do they? File name or by the name that you gave them in iPhoto. Also when you select one of these photos does it just open the photo in say Preview or does it open iPhoto and take you to the photo?

[loOd]

I found a trick that worked for me, others might be interested:

once tiger is installed and spotlight active in the background, every NEW iPhoto comments is indexed correctly. Spotlight manage to browse them.

Considering this point I thought of a simple trick to force spotlight to read the old comments (made before Tiger was installed) : simply select the pictures you want to refresh, then group changes, comments and here I just put whatever character ';' for example (blank doesn't work). After this manipulation each photo is updated and spotlight is then up to date.

I hope apple will provide a clean fix though.
cheers

[adam1185]

Originally Posted by loOd

I found a trick that worked for me, others might be interested:

once tiger is installed and spotlight active in the background, every NEW iPhoto comments is indexed correctly. Spotlight manage to browse them.

Considering this point I thought of a simple trick to force spotlight to read the old comments (made before Tiger was installed) : simply select the pictures you want to refresh, then group changes, comments and here I just put whatever character ';' for example (blank doesn't work). After this manipulation each photo is updated and spotlight is then up to date.

I hope apple will provide a clean fix though.
cheers

i already mentioned that above

[mkrishnan]

In a related vein, has anyone tried this:

- In spotlight, use a search term that will ID a *photo album* in iPhoto
- The album will come up as a hit under documents, without an icon
- Selecting it *will* trigger iPhoto, but for me, it always seems to push iPhoto into the full library view, showing photo 1 out of all the photos in iPhoto.

Anyone confirm this? I guess I could "trick" à la what Adam and loOd said and add the album name as a comment....

This isn't that useful in general, but I have a bunch of photos for the camp I volunteer at that are organized by the weekend. So if I want all stuff related to Boggy Creek's Heart Disease 2005 weekend, I can use spotlight terms, but I get the album and not the photos, and the album link doesn't really work....

[Applespider]

Originally Posted by mkrishnan

In a related vein, has anyone tried this:

- In spotlight, use a search term that will ID a *photo album* in iPhoto
- The album will come up as a hit under documents, without an icon
- Selecting it *will* trigger iPhoto, but for me, it always seems to push iPhoto into the full library view, showing photo 1 out of all the photos in iPhoto.

Yup - mine is doing the same but not in library mode, it opens in edit with the first picture in the library. If I search on an image's iPhoto comments/title etc, it opens the image but for some reason it still opens it in edit mode and not in the library.

[mkrishnan]

Originally Posted by Applespider

Yup - mine is doing the same but not in library mode, it opens in edit with the first picture in the library. If I search on an image's iPhoto comments/title etc, it opens the image but for some reason it still opens it in edit mode and not in the library.

It seems to go to edit for me too, sometimes, depending on what I was doing in iPhoto immediately previously, although not in a pattern I completely understand. Thankfully for me, comment searching works fine -- if I get a match to an actual photo, iPhoto handles it correctly. I need to take the time to put all the kids' names in the comments!

[powerbook911]

I have a strange one guys. When I choose "edit in external editor" in iPhoto, it opens Photoshop, but it doesn't open the picture. This is driving me made, for I do this all the time. Any help? I'd appreciate it. thanks.

[mkrishnan]

Originally Posted by powerbook911

I have a strange one guys. When I choose "edit in external editor" in iPhoto, it opens Photoshop, but it doesn't open the picture. This is driving me made, for I do this all the time. Any help? I'd appreciate it. thanks.

Did this appear with Tiger? If you drag and drop from iPhoto to PS, what happens? There are some threads (for which I searched and could not find! ) about an issue in CS where some people lose this ability -- the pic doesn't load anymore when its dropped on the dock icon -- I think. Not sure if there was a fix. Sorry to be so vague. I'm hoping I will pique someone else's memory about this.

[Applespider]

Here's the thread about the dock icons/double clicking (sounds like it might be a similar thing)

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthre...ighlight=adobe

[powerbook911]

Originally Posted by Applespider

Here's the thread about the dock icons/double clicking (sounds like it might be a similar thing)

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthre...ighlight=adobe

Many thanks . My answer was solved there.

[mkrishnan]

*high fives Applespider*

[lord_flash]

For those of us who didn't upgrade from iPhoto 4 (4.0.3 to be exact), does anyone know of a fix to get the metadata to appear in Spotlight. To be honest, if it doesn't then what's the point using iPhoto at all? Metadata from Adobe applications seems to work, after all. Shouldn't these be embedded into the files?