Helping you rebuild your iPhoto Library  
 

 

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 Last Updated February 18, 2006

iPhoto 6 Compatible?

Feb. 18, 2006 -

Sorry for the long delay in writing. I did order my copy of iLife '06 on the day it was announced and dutifully installed it a week later when it arrived. It has radically changed the iPhoto library structure for storing photos! Instead of the Year:Month:Day structure, you get two new folders called "Originals" and the other called "Modified". Inside each are the year folders, then folders for each roll of film downloaded. All pictures are in the Orginals folder, and if you ever edit them, a replicated structure is created in the Modified folder containing only your edited pics. So once you modify that birthday shot, it is now stored in the "Modified" structure. You can't simply erase the "Originals" folder of course, since unaltered pictures are there as well, and if you remove the "Modified" folder - you are stuck too.

Needless to say - iPhoto Extractor has it's work cut out for itself. Since the structure has changed so radically, iPhoto Extractor (if run against this new library) will end up merging the pictures from both parent folders, and you will be left wondering which is the original and which is not.

Given the new structure - I'm wondering if iPhoto Extractor is still needed since I would end up messing up the nice structure of "roll" names that people would want preserved after an extract and rebuild. So - let me know your thoughts - should I continue to enhance iPhoto Extractor to work with this new library? If so - what do you expect the extracted output to look like (compared to what you are used to)? Use the Contact Me page to send me your thoughts via email.

In the meantime - please note that no version of iPhoto Extractor to date understands this new structure and will end up merging your photos and making a mess of any rebuild attempt.

Sean

What is iPhoto Extractor?

A friend had her iPhoto Library "disappear" on her one day, such that iPhoto showed no pictures, but the files were all still tucked away in the iPhoto library structure. We couldn't seem to rebuild the library without importing everything back into iPhoto and manually weeding through the "thumbnails" and "altered" files created by iPhoto.

Thus iPhoto Extractor was born. It's function is simple: traverse the iPhoto library structure, copying the target files into a sorted destination. This way you can import all or some of your files back into iPhoto and not worry about thumbnails and other files you would have to manage manually.

The download package has 2 files. An AppleScript droplet that you can run in any version of the Mac OS (9->10.3.x) and a "Pro" version that is a Mac OS X application that runs in Mac OS X 10.3.x or higher. Check out the READ ME for more information on which to use and why.

 

 

Latest Version- 2.0b12

This version includes all previous fixes as well as restores Panther compatibility.

Replacing 2.0b11 this version adds the following over 2,0b9:

  • More Tiger compatibility. Worked around a Tiger bug with the log window.
  • Fixed a drag-n-drop issue and Tiger (thanks to Deb S.)
  • New icon - thanks to Matthew B. for the new icon.

Also includes these features added in previous versions:

  • Addition of a "Add to List" button, to ease use. Instead of only drag and drop (which might not be intuitive to all users) you can now select folders to extract from using this method. Simply navigate to the folder you want to extract from, to add it to the list.
  • Continuing the "ease of use" theme, also added a "File" menu that allows you to use the "Add" command from the menu to add to the list.
  • Restored the row shading to the window (å la iTunes).
  • multiple rows can be deleted from the window at once. Previously you had to delete items 1 at a time.
  • More additions to the log file. If you use the "Extract by Date" options these are now captured in the log file for later reference.
  • Added the ability for it to skip the iDVD folder sometimes created by iPhoto, so that it won't pick up any pictures in this folder should they exist.
  • When extracting by date - I added another option named "between", so that you can search for pictures between dates set by you. Thanks to Brad L. for the great suggestion.