

Every time I imported photos, they were imported into the iPhoto Library on my DoppleZeus backup disk, and the following evening Carbon Copy Cloner deleted them as it followed my commands to keep DoppleZeus looking exactly like Zeus. I’m sure you can imagine what this means. (Although iPhoto won’t see iPhoto libraries on a disk that’s in the Privacy list in the Spotlight preference pane, if you’veĮver chosen a library on that disk before adding the disk to Spotlight’s Privacy list, iPhoto remembers the library’s location from then on in the file in ~/Library/Preferences, regardless of any Spotlight settings.) Apparently, at some point in August, I had switched iPhoto libraries to test something, and when I switched back, I accidentally chose the backup version on DoppleZeus. Since DoppleZeus is an exact clone of Zeus, iPhoto displays the same libraries on both, differentiating only by a path that’s displayed at the bottom of the dialog. Instead, it displays a custom dialog that lists all the iPhoto Library packages it can find via Spotlight. When you Option-launch iPhoto ’09 to switch between iPhoto libraries, iPhoto doesn’t give you a standard Open dialog like iTunes does.
#Iphoto library manager serial pro#
Since I got the Mac Pro in early 2008, this approach has worked fine.īut I hadn’t counted on iPhoto. Normally having DoppleZeus mounted isn’t a problem the way applications generally default either to previous locations or default locations (like ~/Documents) ensures that there’s no confusion between my main drive (Zeus) and the clone (DoppleZeus) when opening or saving files. That clone runs every night before my Mac goes to sleep. Third, for quick recoveries and in case my main hard drive (named Zeus) dies a sudden death, Carbon Copy Cloner clones my startup drive to another partition (named DoppleZeus) on the second internal hard disk. Second, to provide offsite backups and as a secondary archival backup, I use CrashPlan+ to back up my entire home folder over the Internet to a hard drive attached to a friend’s Mac. First, I use Time Machine, sending archival backups to a partition on a second internal drive in my Mac Pro. My backup strategy, which I’ve previously been quite proud of, is threefold. But after my pulse settled down, I realized that Time Machine was not at fault, and that the blame instead lay with my backup strategy, aided and abetted by iPhoto (this was iPhoto ’09, but I suspect that iPhoto ’11 would also be vulnerable) and another nemesis, Spotlight. In my panic, I initially blamed Time Machine because, well, I don’t trust it. I realized quickly that the problem was that I had somehow been using an iPhoto Library package on a backup disk. Uh oh.ĭata loss always gives me the horrible sinking feeling in my stomach that I get when I know I’ve done something stupid and There Will Be Consequences.

And when I looked more closely, the last event showing was from two months ago. But when iPhoto launched, the photos I wanted In an effort to explain this to the PR person, I launched iPhoto to snag a recent panorama I’d made, along with a single image of roughly the same scene that I wanted to show her for comparison. The app worked fine, but because of the extremely wide aspect ratio of the panoramas, the results didn’t ring my bells. That’s right, my backups ate my data.ĭown the Rabbit Hole of Data Loss - It all started when I received email from a PR person asking if I’d had a chance to check out Boinx Software’s You Gotta See This iOS app, which makes it easy to create a panorama with an iPhone or camera-equipped iPod touch. I’m sure you all know by now how obsessive I am about backups, so I’m sure you’ll enjoy a bit of schadenfreude related to this story of how I’ve been losing data for two months without even noticing, thanks to my backups.

#1606: Apple's self-sabotaging App Store policies, edit Slack messages easily, WWDC 2022 datesĪn occasional public admission of stupidity can be good for the soul, a bit of psychic self-flagellation.#1607: TidBITS 32nd anniversary, moving from 1Password to KeePass, pasting plain text, Mail fixes anchor links, RIP Eolake.
#Iphoto library manager serial how to#
#1608: How to test Internet responsiveness, Wordle takeoffs, understand cryptocurrency.#1609: Apple Q2 2022 results, Apple's Self Service Repair program launches, escaping the cloud with a Synology NAS.#1610: Avoid hacked email scams, disable a known AirTag's alerts, battery technology tricks, industry support for passwordless login.
