While at Home in my iMac I use iPhoto to import photos from my camera/devices, edit and manage them. Once edited I copy the pictures and save them in a regular folder which is synced to cloud using SugarSync for save keeping. Though the entire hard-drive in my iMac including iPhoto data is automatically backed up with Time Capsule, I am not comfortable trusting my photos only to iPhoto due to its proprietary database format for storing.
My doubt got validated today. I was trying to copy all photos (about 345) in an event by pressing Command-A & Copy, then going to a Folder in Finder and then Pasting (Command-V), surprisingly Finder reported only 245 Items, 100 items simply went missing. No amount of restarting iPhoto or iMac or trying it out in other folders help, the same 245 items kept reporting. I tried syncing the album to my iPad using iTunes and there all 345 pictures went through fine, I counted the photos manually – still 345. But 100 photos kept missing while copy/pasting to Finder. Manually comparing both folders I could spot many of these missing 100 photos and there was nothing unique about them to be missing.
I am using iPhoto ‘11 (Version: 9.4.2) in OS X Mountain Lion.
Doing a web search I learnt iPhoto is notorious for these missing items in general and it is better to rebuild the database. I followed the instructions here (below) and then Rebuild Database, then Rebuild Thumbnails in iPhoto.
To rebuild the iPhoto library:
- Quit iPhoto if it is open
- Hold down the Command and Option keys on the keyboard
- Open iPhoto
- Keep the keys held down until you are prompted to rebuild the library
- A dialog will appear with rebuild options. Select the options you want to use.
After these steps I tried copy ‘n’ paste again and this time all 345 pictures got copied correctly.
In 2012, Apple’s quality of Software has been disappointing – both with Mountain Lion and iOS 6.0. I feel Microsoft with Windows 7, Windows 8 & Windows Phone 8 have mastered the art of building quality OS and Apple has been sitting on its laurels. My purchases in 2013 for a Mobile is going to be Windows Phone 8 and my next PC is going to a Windows 8 All-In-One with touch.