Live data from Hacker News

Apple Photos app corrupts images

tenderlovemaking.com

121–130 of 471 posts

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#121
I’ve been seeing this happen on older photos that had imported properly, and I just use my iPhone and view photos on my Mac and iPhone. Looking back, I’ve lost whole chunks of my photo library. It’s a bigger problem than I realized. I don’t have these backed up elsewhere.

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#123
post #16

I feel like this is a URL that I don't want in my history

There is a very popular professional audio website called Gearspace that had a much spicier name for a long, long time. https://gearspace.com/ https://www.reddit.com/r/audioengineering/comments/mftc0g/ge...

Ha ha, I remember that name.

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is also my guess. It's really a bummer, and I'd report it to Apple but since it's nondeterministic I have no idea how to provide repro steps.

I have had extremely bad luck, reporting bugs to Apple. They constantly ask for an example project, even if it's something that is easily demonstrated, simply by running existing Apple software, and creating a project, would be a huge pain. They also ignore reports. Very rarely, I may get a ping on one of my reports, asking me to verify that it was fixed in some release. Otherwise, there's no sign that they ever even…

how is this different from any product with a billion users and 100,000+ live bug reports?

I've had pretty good luck reporting bugs to Google (notoriously bad!):

1. provide simple, crystal clear examples that cannot be due to third parties, misconfiguration or user error.

2. show that it's happening to a large number of mainstream users (not niche)

3. show that it breaks critical workflows and has no easy workaround (incl partial workarounds).

4. if you meet #1-3, then wait 6-9 months minimum (more if hard to fix). If not, wait 3-5+ years.

---

Favorite example: in the mid-2000s, I caught google maps confusing suite/apt numbers for street numbers. It got flagged as low priority. So, to get the team's attention, I reproduced the bug on a large Google offices. Six month later, bug fixed.

After that experience, I report everything to Google that breaks my workflow. Like clockwork, the biggies get fixed a couple of quarters later.

---

Want long? Try improving/fixing core issues with the API design of Linux or PostgreSQL: fix times can be measured in decades. Backward compatibility is insufficient - they rightfully worry about libraries and tools adopting the new APIs and then breaking legacy systems that cannot be upgraded even for mission-critical security issues.

---

NOTE: OP bug feels P0 and the better strategy is either mass media (incl HN) or networking to someone inside the company. I've hit those too over the years and can usually find someone at the company to send directly.

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#125

As an Olympus shooter this is good to know. But good gravy that troubleshooting path got expensive real fast. Replacing the laptop and the camera? Why not start by trying something other than Photos? It doesn’t even need to be a paid product; the Olympus software is free not to mention a good baseline since it - of all the applications - should be able to import photos without corrupting them. Edit to add: delete on…

I too sometimes use troubleshooting as an excuse to get new hardware I had been meaning to upgrade to.

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#126

I’ve been seeing this happen on older photos that had imported properly, and I just use my iPhone and view photos on my Mac and iPhone. Looking back, I’ve lost whole chunks of my photo library. It’s a bigger problem than I realized. I don’t have these backed up elsewhere.

I used to see this when I had iCloud Photo Library turned on. It randomly corrupted old photos that were correct. It corrupted both photos taken on the iPhone and photos imported from a real camera.

I have since turned off iCloud Photo Library, downgraded iCloud (no longer needed so much storage), and started using fully open source photo management with flat files on disk.

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#127

I had a weird issue with at least one photo in Apple Photos recently (possibly more that I haven't found) where the photos app showed the image, but I couldn't export it - like it was only a preview. I've upgraded my photos database over many release so I don't know if that's a part of it, the photo in question was from 2018 or so

See if you can File->Duplicate Photo it first.

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#128
post #16

I feel like this is a URL that I don't want in my history

There is a very popular professional audio website called Gearspace that had a much spicier name for a long, long time. https://gearspace.com/ https://www.reddit.com/r/audioengineering/comments/mftc0g/ge...

Modwiggler changed name around the same time.

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#129
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to hand wave-- but this feels industry standard IMO. I have a dozen PRs sitting unacknowledged and stale across a handful of FAANG (and other) repos, including Apple's. I start my first day @ Apple in a few weeks, so I ACK that my opinion might be a little biased here.

If you ever get the chance, maybe you can be the one that improves that process some day. Even if it's standard among tech giants, you could be the one that makes a new standard! Good luck in your new role, btw.

Unless one's title is going to be "VP" or "SVP", the chance that someone joins BigTech and gets to "improve the process" is usually miniscule. You're being hired as cog #21 on team #54 and there is a large backlog of JIRA (well, in this case, Radar) tickets to grind through. There will be people who tell you what the processes are, and to not deviate from them. And you shouldn't get mad at those people, either--they're just the messengers, and were told what the processes are by people above them on the totem pole and so on.

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#130

I’m a fan of the whole Apple ecosystem but I have to say that there’s a pattern here. Apple does a decent job of keeping my data safe from others but a terrible job of keeping it intact. From music libraries with song titles that got switched to long integers to this (and I’m sure more that I’m not remembering atm) they need to do a better job here. Sure security is important but integrity is too.

I stopped using apple's notes app with an ipad pen after it lost 20 minutes of my handwritten notes when trying to sync them. (Which fits the theme of apple losing people's stuff.)
Post reply on HN