Apple Photos app corrupts images • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#91

Post by mcflubbins » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 1:49 PM UTC

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

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#92

Post by stillworks » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 1:51 PM UTC

hk1337 wrote: post #30

> Turns out “delete after import” was a huge mistake. That's a mistake no mater what application you're importing to, else we'll be graced with another blog post, "Darktable app Corrupts Photos". What's the purpose of RAW+jpg though? Seems rather redundant?

Is this downvoted because of the last line i.e.

  What's the purpose of RAW+jpg though? Seems rather redundant?

Otherwise, it is wise to highlight that "delete after import" is not a good choice in general.

I personally would not let device A to automatically delete files from device B while files are being copied from B to A.

My workflow is quite manual when bringing pictures in from camera to my MacBook.

- I simply take the SD Card from the camera and then use the SD Card reader on MacBook itself to copy the files (RAW + JPEG) into a working directory.

- Move just the JPEGs into Apple Photos library

- The ones which I think I can/should improve using RAW processing, are processed in DxO Photo Lab and exported to JPEG with a *_DXO.JPEG filename

- DXO Processed JPEGs are added to Apple Photos again. This time due to the naming scheme, the DXO processed JPEGs and camera baked JPEGs are next to each other which helps in quickly checking the results.

- Delete the camera baked JPEG once I am happy with DXO's output

Regarding...

  What's the purpose of RAW+jpg though? Seems rather redundant?

...as others have pointed out. Shooting RAW+JPEG is like an insurance policy where if the camera was unable to produce a result which I would like to keep, I have the RAW to play with.

I only keep JPEGs in Apple Photos as all of my image library is backed up to iCloud and don't want that duplication.

RAW files get backed up to another SSD. Looking into a better backup for RAW files.

Also, since I switched recently to a camera which uses CFeB cards for best experience (but also has a SD card slot), the onboard SD Card reader on my MacBook will become useless for this once I get an external CFeB reader.

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#93

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 1:52 PM UTC

eru wrote: post #76

Y_Y wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See also: Experts Exchange, Pen Island

There was also a website for a mole station, but I'm not sure if that one was satire.

[deleted]

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#94

Post by spuz » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 1:53 PM UTC

It would be very helpful to document the version number of the Photos app that demonstrates this behaviour so anyone else who is affected can use this article to keep track of potential fixes.

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#95

Post by mcflubbins » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 1:53 PM UTC

What are some good Open Source / Self Hosted alternatives to Apple Photos (Desktop)? I pretty much keep my Mac Mini around solely to import photos from our phones, free up space on the phone, and backup the Photos DB. We like to go back and look at old photos from time to time too, and the feature that shows them on a map is a big one for us.

Last time I looked (pre-COVID) there wasn't a lot of promising options, and some didn't support HEIF images

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#96

Post by freedomben » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 1:55 PM UTC

alterom wrote: post #68

itake wrote: post #23

Apple corrupted images on my iPhone where I can’t import them to my PC via photos, but I can backup the whole phone. They finally recognized there is an issue, but there is no fix, as of a few weeks ago :(

Yeah, that's one of the billion reasons I'm sticking to Android phones with gasp file managers and shock expandable storage via an SD card slot. I never need to import anything when I can simply copy the data from the card.

But files are hard, scary and dangerous! What if a scammer asks Grandma to open the files app or copy photos directly to her pc!?

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#97

Post by rwky » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 1:56 PM UTC

mcflubbins wrote: post #95

What are some good Open Source / Self Hosted alternatives to Apple Photos (Desktop)? I pretty much keep my Mac Mini around solely to import photos from our phones, free up space on the phone, and backup the Photos DB. We like to go back and look at old photos from time to time too, and the feature that shows them on a map is a big one for us. Last time I looked (pre-COVID) there wasn't a lot of promising options, and…

I'm fond of digikam https://www.digikam.org/ it's simple enough for most users and has complex features for more advanced users its open source cross platform and doesn't do some weird rearranging of files so you can still use your file browser too.

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#98

Post by tom1337 » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 1:56 PM UTC

mcflubbins wrote: post #95

What are some good Open Source / Self Hosted alternatives to Apple Photos (Desktop)? I pretty much keep my Mac Mini around solely to import photos from our phones, free up space on the phone, and backup the Photos DB. We like to go back and look at old photos from time to time too, and the feature that shows them on a map is a big one for us. Last time I looked (pre-COVID) there wasn't a lot of promising options, and…

Immich could solve what you are looking for. It supports wireless upload to the server, everything is stored locally and it has some neat additional features.

https://immich.app/

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#99

Post by sodality2 » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 1:57 PM UTC

mcflubbins wrote: post #95

What are some good Open Source / Self Hosted alternatives to Apple Photos (Desktop)? I pretty much keep my Mac Mini around solely to import photos from our phones, free up space on the phone, and backup the Photos DB. We like to go back and look at old photos from time to time too, and the feature that shows them on a map is a big one for us. Last time I looked (pre-COVID) there wasn't a lot of promising options, and…

Immich.app, with their import from iCloud CLI command to seed it: https://github.com/simulot/immich-go#from-icloud-sub-command

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#100

Post by imchillyb » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 2:03 PM UTC

lapcat wrote: post #65

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> I guess you can't argue with the results, as they have a market value North of 3 trillion dollars This was financed by equally massive technical debt.

How does one finance a project or a company with increased maintenance costs and lower quality production?

That’s what technical debt is. It’s the cost for moving forward quickly. I’m not sure I understand what you’re trying to state.