how does iPhoto decide what year an event belongs in?

[btownguy]

Sounds simple, right? What if I have an event (folder) that spans multiple years. I have one in particular that spans 6 years. When I move everything into iPhoto, what year will it choose? The first, the last, the one with the most pictures, etc? What logic does it use?

Or say I take pictures at a New Years Eve event. Lots of pictures taken on 12/31. Lots of pictures taken on 1/1. They're both the same event, but different years. What logic does iPhoto use to put this event folder into a year?

 

[mrchinchilla]

Sounds simple, right? What if I have an event (folder) that spans multiple years. I have one in particular that spans 6 years. When I move everything into iPhoto, what year will it choose? The first, the last, the one with the most pictures, etc? What logic does it use?

Or say I take pictures at a New Years Eve event. Lots of pictures taken on 12/31. Lots of pictures taken on 1/1. They're both the same event, but different years. What logic does iPhoto use to put this event folder into a year?

Exif data.

 

[btownguy]

I'm not sure you understand my question. When I browse the iPhoto library - originals, it first separates everything by year. There is a folder for every year that I have photos. Within each year, is a folder (event). However, I have some folders that have pictures taken over 7 years. How does iPhoto decide what year folder to put an event in that has pictures taken over 7 years?

 

[Ashka]

I have some photos 60 plus years old ~ the date is from a scanner in 2005
You can select a photo in iPhoto then go to (Menu bar) Photos > Adjust time & date, there are also batch change options..

 

[btownguy]

Maybe I'm not communicating this correctly - you guys aren't understanding what I'm trying to ask. I understand what exif data is and how to change it. What I have is a HUGE photo library that I'm migrating from Windows to my new Mac in iPhoto. This Windows library is in a folder structure (one folder per event). When you import into iPhoto and go look at the originals in the package, you first see folders like this:

2001
2002
2003
...
2009

If I have a folder (event) with pictures taken over 7 years, how does iPhoto decide which top level folder (year) to put it in?

 

[brn2ski00]

If I have a folder (event) with pictures taken over 7 years, how does iPhoto decide which top level folder (year) to put it in?

iPhoto will use the photo's data (i.e. date/time stamp) and arrange them accordingly within the file system. Not sure what you/other posters are missing, seems pretty cut and dry.

If you do find that the pictures you imported from Windows appear with the wrong date, then change them via iPhoto's date/time change option and go from there.

When importing, I would do it year by year and not just one mass import - this way you can catch any mistakes as you go.

HTH

 

[Krikke68]

@btownguy

What version of iPhoto are you using?

 

[LouisBlack]

I'm pretty sure that iphoto places the photo file into the relevant year folder no matter what the event settings... This may lead to duplicate event entries spanning years. However if you are using iphoto then you shouldn't really worry about the folder structure. Just let iphoto do it's thing (do not try to fiddle with the iphoto package file as it can screw it up).

If iphoto splits your event due to going over to the next day/year just highlght both events and merge them.

 

[Mavimao]

It chooses the photo with the earliest date. So if the earliest photo you have is from March of 2004, the album will be created with 2004 at its initial year.

 

[btownguy]

It chooses the photo with the earliest date. So if the earliest photo you have is from March of 2004, the album will be created with 2004 at its initial year.

I thought that would be the case too, but I have a folder with pictures from 2002 - 2008. iPhoto just decided that event should go in 2006. Made no sense to me.

 

[Mavimao]

It could be that even though the photo was taken in 2002, the filedata says it's from 2006 for any numerous reasons (maybe it's a scan from 2006, maybe the time/date in the digital camera was set wrong) Did you check that?

 

[btownguy]

It could be that even though the photo was taken in 2002, the filedata says it's from 2006 for any numerous reasons (maybe it's a scan from 2006, maybe the time/date in the digital camera was set wrong) Did you check that?

No, I've taken pictures of this particular thing every year since 2002. The exif data is correct. I just have no idea how iPhoto decided to put them in 2006. I don't guess it really matters if I'm running iPhoto the way it was intended, but I'm so used to having this careful hierarchy of folders of my photos.

 

[jzuena]

No, I've taken pictures of this particular thing every year since 2002. The exif data is correct. I just have no idea how iPhoto decided to put them in 2006. I don't guess it really matters if I'm running iPhoto the way it was intended, but I'm so used to having this careful hierarchy of folders of my photos.

Maybe the first picture iPhoto imported was the 2006 one, so the event was created in 2006? I've noticed when selecting multiple files in Finder or Windows Explorer that the computer won't always work on the files in the same order that I would expect based on the view shown. Windows Explorer seems to consistently work on the last file of a selection first, then work its way through the rest of the files until it gets back to that last one. On large file copies I've seen Finder move files in an order other than what I would expect, too.