iPhoto Woes...Please help me clean it up!

[coolbreeze]

Since I've upgraded to Panther, I have had nothing but trouble with my iPhoto library (among other things). Here is what I did:

Using backup.app, I backed up my entire iPhoto library (~1.5 gigs) onto discs. I upgraded to Panther, and did a restore of my photos. I re-imported them into iPhoto (my 2001/2002/2003 folders). In addition to taking forever to import, I now have duplicates of every photo in my album.

Now before you say use iPhoto Diet, let me mention something. They appear to be duplicates, but consist of the original (~2.1 MB file) and right beside it is the "thumbnail" (~19kb). I obviously want to delete every imported "thumbnail" image, leaving only the original photos. Things I've done:

I did iPhoto Diet. Tried every combo of options. They are still there.

I've tried deleting all the "Thumbs" folders. Well, this created a nightmare because when I opened iPhoto after deleting these files, all I saw were .jpg icons in iPhoto instead of previews. Don't do this!! I had to re-import 1.5 gigs of photos (took several hours).

I guess what I'm looking for is an Applescript that will scan my iPhoto library, and, say, delete everything under 100kb. Does this exist?

Thanks.

 

[jxyama]

don't mess with iPhoto libraries. they are governed by some weird rules defined in iPhoto and tweaking them is nearly impossible.

wipe your library clean, and copy them back from the disc. compare the sizes of files... there's no need to erase "Thumbs" they are quite small, i imagine. they are not duplicates... those are the pictures you see when you open iPhoto in the "Organize" mode. (those scalable ones...) erasing them will (as you found out) make pictures not appear in the iPhoto organization page and will not save you much space to begin with.

 

[coolbreeze]

Thanks for the quick reply. It's not the space that's the issue...it's seeing double of every single photo in my library (and my photo # count being double what it really is). It is very irritating. Is there a way to sort by size, and then delete everything under ~25kb?

EDIT: These are not previews...well, maybe they were previews in my previous iPhoto library, but when I re-imported my library in Panther, it re-imported the previews, and created new ones too.

If I manually delete the ~19kb file from the iPhoto preview sorter (Organize) the original photo is still there, and is shown as a preview in iPhoto. I just need a way to mass delete all these small files (not preview files) that iPhoto thinks are real photos.

EDIT AGAIN: Another thing I just noticed is a suspicious naming sceme for the small photos. For example, my orignal, 2.5 MB photo is called "IMGP0355_1" and the 19kb mirror image is called "355_1" Maybe this info will help...

 

[jxyama]

i see what you are saying now.

ok, hmm... i am not familiar with the backup.app as i've never used it. the way i've been dealing with iPhoto library backup is to copy the entire User/Pictures/iPhoto Library directory and "restoring" it by copying the entire directory back.

i'm not sure if the backup.app has split the directory or not. the best bet is to go back and re-build the directory the best you can, or, if available, backup the original iPhoto Library as a whole...

you don't want to go in and start messing with the iPhoto Library stuff in the inside. as you've found out and i've dealt with in the past, it's a nightmare because things quickly get out of hand messed up when you change stuff inside...

tell me more about what you had before, what you have now and in what format they are in. (Ext. HD? CDs?) what kind of machine do you have?

edit: the problem might be the fact you re-imported directly into iPhoto... that will explain why you see thumbs - because iPhoto will grab all the pictures you drag-drop and you dropped the previews in the original iPhoto Library... what you could probably do is erase iPhoto Library and instead of drag-drop into iPhoto, restore the files in the User/Pictures directory and re-name it as iPhoto Library.

if you launch iPhoto after this restore, it should take all the pref. and xml files correctly and truly restore your original pictures...?

 

[jeremy.king]

Cant you use find?

Couldn't you just use Find to locate files in your iPhoto Library that are less than 25KB and when you get the results send all the files to the trash?

You can also do the same with a one liner in terminal, but its a bit more tricky.

**Removed one liner...it didn't work.

 

[krimson]

what about sorting by file size, and deleting everything at the top?

 

[jxyama]

those are good suggestions on deleting specific sized files in Finder, however, my point is that erasing them in Finder under within iPhoto Library will likely cripple the iPhoto. even if the images (thumbs, as the orig. poster said) are gone from the directory, references to them will remain in the pref. and xml files...

 

[coolbreeze]

Originally posted by jxyama
those are good suggestions on deleting specific sized files in Finder, however, my point is that erasing them in Finder under within iPhoto Library will likely cripple the iPhoto. even if the images (thumbs, as the orig. poster said) are gone from the directory, references to them will remain in the pref. and xml files...

That's very true. This is the method I tried the first time, which seriously screwed up iPhoto. The only way I can effectively clean up my iPhoto collection is to click on the preview in iPhoto, look at the file size on the left, and if it is <25kb, then I can delete it.

Do you have any idea how long that will take with over 1800 photos? Especially when I get a ~5 second beach ball after every single time I hit the delete key. How irritating.

I am running 10.3.1 on a very-well maintained iBook 900 w/640MB RAM. I did a clean install and repaired permissions/ran cron scripts/ blabla. If I could just get my iPhoto collection cleaned up another way instead of deleting one at a time, my iBook would be just as I want it. But these damn duplicates are driving me CRAZY.

 

[coolbreeze]

Originally posted by krimson
what about sorting by file size, and deleting everything at the top?

That's a wonderful idea. Could you please tell me how to do it? While no expert at iPhoto, I've tried to do this and have failed.

You are talking about sorting in the preview mode while iPhoto is open, right? (not via the finder)

 

[jxyama]

Originally posted by coolbreeze
That's a wonderful idea. Could you please tell me how to do it? While no expert at iPhoto, I've tried to do this and have failed.

You are talking about sorting in the preview mode while iPhoto is open, right? (not via the finder)

i think he was talking about Finder.

seriously, give what i said a try. wipe your iPhoto Library folder under Finder. drag the iPhoto Library folder using Finder from your back up CD to the computer. (and NOT into iPhoto!) launch iphoto.

should work...

 

[MisterMe]

Originally posted by coolbreeze
That's very true. This is the method I tried the first time, which seriously screwed up iPhoto. The only way I can effectively clean up my iPhoto collection is to click on the preview in iPhoto, look at the file size on the left, and if it is <25kb, then I can delete it.

Do you have any idea how long that will take with over 1800 photos? Especially when I get a ~5 second beach ball after every single time I hit the delete key. How irritating.

I am running 10.3.1 on a very-well maintained iBook 900 w/640MB RAM. I did a clean install and repaired permissions/ran cron scripts/ blabla. If I could just get my iPhoto collection cleaned up another way instead of deleting one at a time, my iBook would be just as I want it. But these damn duplicates are driving me CRAZY.

Deleting files in iPhoto doesn't delete them from your computer. It merely removes them for the browser window. The file remains in one of the "Originals" folders. The same is true of files that are edited in iPhoto. The original unedited file remains in one of the "Originals folders. To actually delete an unwanted image, you have to drag it to the Trash. By the way, I have deleted many digital photographs this way--even with iPhoto open--with no adverse effects on the application.

 

[svinto]

Save the originals

Every folder in iPhoto has an "originals" file in it. Go to the finder, Press "apple+f" to get the find function. Press "+" and located your iPhoto library folder, add it to the list of things you can search. Now in the "find" window, deselect all but your iPhoto Library folder (it will only search in there now). Search for "originals", COPY (as opposed to move) the list you get to a new folder. Drag your iPhoto Library folder to the trash, Don't Delete!
When you start iPhoto the next time, it will ask you to locate the library or create a new one. Choose "create a new library". Find the "Import" command in one of the menus. Direct it to the folder to which you copied all the "Originals" - and away you go!
The only thing I can see is a problem with this method is that all the shots that you have rotated will be back to the way you shot them, a big problem for someone with 25000 images - 1800 should be manageable.

Good luck!

Svinto