Aperture tip for duplicating smart albums structure?

I have folders setup for each year 1996...2012. In the last couple of years I've created smart albums w/i each folder: 01 Jan 2012; 02 Feb 2012; etc.
It's a simple smart album based on date. I want to copy these smart albums to each year. But I hate going in and renaming each album and resetting each date. And on SOME of my duplicated albums the source stays as the year I copied it from, altho this doesn't happen all the time, don't know why.
Anyone have an easier way to create this structure? Thanks!

Hum, i'm not sure I understand what is going on, or what you are describing.
you say: "... Aperture is correct in it's assertion the image was taken on 12th"
I dont understand.
When i've done the import, and look at that pictures metadata, the date/time is corrected. It shows up as 15:42 20080811 (youre writting).
So if the metadata is correct, I really dont understand how the computers time and timezone has any effect on the smart albums ... could you explain ?
Unless what you are suggesting, is that the smart album date is applied to the computers time zone, and thus when searching for the files, it automatically does a conversion of the time of the picture to fit the computers timezone => thus my 15:42 20080811 set to Los Angeles time zone, is researched using a French timezone and thus found on 00:42 20080812 ?
Wow, if so, this would be a stretch !
And if this is the answer, I do not understand the "feature" to import using a different time zone, and not be able to search according to it ?
There is effectively no point?
In respect to the workaround you describe. Its effectively what I did, I sorted using 3 criterias: exif day of the month = 11, month of the year = 08, year = 2008. And for some reason that works !
Would there be another workaround? Instead of using the TimeZone panel, import them untouched, and doing a batch Time change on the pictures once imported and leaving them at the same Paris timezone, but compensating for 9 hours, effectively, bringing them to 15:42 Paris time, instead of Los Angeles time ?
If my memory is correct when having played with this, the batch time modification, did not compensate the days: Effectively, clicking 9 times on the down arrow when showing 00:42 12th did not change the 12th into an 11th ...

Similar Messages

Specifying a blank criteria for a smart album

In iPhoto 9.2.1, how do I create a smart album of photos with blank descriptions?

I managed to use
Description -> does not contain -> and I typed a space.
Strictly speaking this will still find one word descriptions but at least will narrow things down.

Smart Album Scope

I have been using Aperture 1.5.1 and have noticed what I consider to be strange or, at least, non-intuitive behavior for smart albums. I'm wondering if others have had the same experience and if Apple considers this normal behavior.
First, some background. I have 6 projects in three different folders that are stored at the root level of the Aperture library. Outside of these folders I have other folders containing smart albums that are intended to search all the projects for the appropriate images. These folders are, again, at the root level of the Aperture library. The smart albums were originally created in Aperture 1.1 inside the folders in which they currently live.
Prior to my update to 1.5, this worked spectacularly. However, after my update to 1.5, I found that all my smart albums were empty. The Apple documentation for Aperture claims that the scope of smart album search is influenced by where the smart album resides. Smart albums, according to the documentation, only search projects that are 'downstream' from the smart album. My smart albums were, therefore, not searching any projects because they were created in a folder with no projects. This information can be found here.
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n302626
With this information, it made sense that my smart albums were empty. I'm not sure it was wise of Apple to change smart album behavior in this way between 1.1 and 1.5, but there you have it.
This was really disturbing because I like to keep my smart albums outside my folders with projects. Worse yet, it appeared as though I would have store all my smart albums at the root of my Aperture library to get them to search all my projects in the three different folders. That just felt ugly and very unaesthetically pleasing.
I found, however, that if I created a smart album at the root of the Aperture library and then moved that smart album to any other folder at any level relative to the projects, it retained its scope for searching realtive to where it was created.
In other words, it appears that the Apple documentation at http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n302626 needs to be changed to replaced every reference to where a smart album is placed to where a smart album is created. The scope of smart album searches appears to be dictated by where that album is created, not where it is stored.
So, my question to all of you is whether this is something the rest of you are observing? It seems strange to me, and I'm worried this is not what Apple intends and therefore represents a bug to them that they'll "fix" in the next release and thus destroy my smart albums again.
It seems to me it would make much more sense for Apple to remove this silly "scope of search based on location of album creation" behavior and just insert a line in the smart album setup that allows one to search particular projects or all projects. It seems that Apple has made an elegant search interface way to complex with the scoping issue.
Powermac G5 Dual 2.0 GHz PCI Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2 GB RAM

Dale
what you experience is exactly how it works. there are other threads about the smart album "problem", with the same outcome.
the problem is not really, how smart albums are working. if a smart album is CREATED based on the entire library, it will therefore search the entire library, regardless where you move it afterwards. if you create a smartfolder within a project, it should be project-bound, regardless where you finally store it. that makes sense.
however, the problem is the changed behaviour between previous versions and 1.5.1. smart albums that were created "unlinked" (somewhere in your structure but not within a project or while the library was selected) worked fine before but show no results since 1.5.1.
if someone only has a few smart albums, then this is quickly solved, just re-create them in the right location and move them to wherever you want afterwards. if you have created over a hundred smart albums for subjects, ratings, clients, models, agencies etc etc already, you're in trouble. and this would be me as example.

How to find out which keywords were used to create a smart album?

Hi,
I actually have 2 questions;
a) Short of scrolling down my very long list of password on the HUD - is there an elegant way to do it - How to find out which passwords were used to create an existing smart album? It's a recurring challenge for me.\ 'cause I like using smart albums, but once in a while need to check or chane the passwords.
b) With annoying regularity when I try to get to this forum and choose Aperture, I get the following message - in pink, no less: It appears you're not allowed to view what you requested. You might contact your administrator if you think this is a mistake.
Any clues?
Thanks guys,
Raphael
<Edited by Host>

b) With annoying regularity when I try to get to this forum and choose Aperture, I get the following message - in pink, no less: It appears you're not allowed to view what you requested. You might contact your administrator if you think this is a mistake.
Any clues?
Raphael,
that message may occur for four reasons at least:
Most frequently, when you are using an outdated link to a post that no longer exists, for example from an email notofication. Sometimes our community host will remove posts, that are in violation of the terms of use: see:
Apple Support Communities Terms of Use
Or you are using the edit button or a bookmark to an "Edit" window, after the fifteen minutes allowed for editing are up.
Or you want to view a page in a restricted section of the ASC - soem perta are only open for members of level 6 or higher.
Or it is one of the unexplained problems with the forum software right now.
a) Short of scrolling down my very long list of password on the HUD - is there an elegant way to do it - How to find out which passwords were used to create an existing smart album? It's a recurring challenge for me.\ 'cause I like using smart albums, but once in a while need to check or chane the passwords.
I really like Kirby's suggestion with the IPTC rule Keyword is. This is very useful for smart albums global to the library.
Frequently a different approach helps for my smart albums. Many of my smart albums are local to projects or folders. In this case the smart HUD will only show those keywords that have been used for the images in the selection. So if I only have tagged the images with the keywords "birds" and "slideshow", the smart settings HUD will only show these two keywords and the list is very short.
My Keywords HUD, is organized hierarchically; this way I can collapse large sections at once, and it is easier to focus on the keywords needed for a specific task.
I use the search field in HUD a lot, to filter the set of keywords shown.

Can't set smart album pictures as desktop backgrounds.

i have imported 'without copying to library' a whole bunch of pics into iphoto and have created smart albums. now i went to 'change desktop background' by control clicking on the desktop and am selecting a pictures from one of the smart albums but its only displaying a blue background. this is true for all smart albums and normals ones as well. when i select an image from the other folders they work fine. what could be the reason?
the primary reason of importing stuff to iphoto was so that they are easily available across applications.

simport
Do you know of any reason why the Desktop pref pane should not be able to use photos in a "referenced" iphoto library
It's just the nature of the beast.
but I just don't trust it enough to do what it will with my photos by having them stored in the iPhoto library.
What are you afraid of?
When you import a pic into iPhoto in the default Managed mode all it does is make a byte by byte copy of the pic. Nothing else. It's an exact copy. It makes no alterations, adds nothing, removes nothing.
The pic is stored in the Finder. Yes, it's in a Unix Style Package file, but apart from all the ways to access your pics I'll describe in a moment, if you want to look inside the package you can do so at any time: Simply right click on the iPhoto Library and select 'Show Package Contents' from the resulting menu. A Finder window will open and you'll see the Library inside.
There are various files, which are the Library itself and some ancillary files. Then you have three core folders
Originals are the photos as they were downloaded from your camera or scanner. (As your Library is referenced the files will be aliases rather than the actual files.
(ii) Modified contains edited pics, shots that you have cropped, rotated or changed in any way.
(iii) Data holds the thumbnails the the app needs to show you the photos in the iPhoto Window.
Remember: iPhoto depends on the structure as well as the contents of this folder. Moving things, renaming things or otherwise making changes will prevent iPhoto from working and could even cause you to damage or lose your photos.
Running a referenced library has a number of pitfalls - apart from the fact that System Preferences cannot use the files.
1. Import and deleting pics are more complex procedures
2. You cannot move or rename the files on your system or iPhoto will lose track of them on systems prior to 10.5 and iPhoto 08. Even with the later versions issues can still arise if you move the referenced files to new volumes or between volumes.
3. Most importantly, migrating to a new disk or computer can be much more complex.
Always allowing for personal preference, I've yet to see a good reason to run iPhoto in referenced mode unless you're using two photo organisers.
If disk space is an issue, you can run an entire iPhoto Library from an external disk:
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library as an entity from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
If you're concerned about accessing the files, there are many, many ways to access your files in iPhoto:
For 10.5 users: You can use any Open / Attach / Browse dialogue. On the left there's a Media heading, your pics can be accessed there. Apple-Click for selecting multiple pics.
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!
To upload to a site that does not have an iPhoto Export Plug-in the recommended way is to Select the Pic in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export and export the pic to the desktop, then upload from there. After the upload you can trash the pic on the desktop. It's only a copy and your original is safe in iPhoto.
This is also true for emailing with Web-based services. If you're using Gmail you can use iPhoto2GMail
If you use Apple's Mail, Entourage, AOL or Eudora you can email from within iPhoto.
If you use a Cocoa-based Browser such as Safari, you can drag the pics from the iPhoto Window to the Attach window in the browser.
Or, if you want to access the files with iPhoto not running, then create a Media Browser using Automator (takes about 10 seconds) or use THIS
Other options include:
1. *Drag and Drop*: Drag a photo from the iPhoto Window to the desktop, there iPhoto will make a full-sized copy of the pic.
2. *File -> Export*: Select the files in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export. The dialogue will give you various options, including altering the format, naming the files and changing the size. Again, producing a copy.
3. *Show File*: Right- (or Control-) Click on a pic and in the resulting dialogue choose 'Show File'. A Finder window will pop open with the file already selected.
Your choice, obviously, but best to be aware of all the ramifications. By all means post back if you require more info.
You can set Photoshop (or any image editor) as an external editor in iPhoto. (Preferences -> General -> Edit Photo: Choose from the Drop Down Menu.) This way, when you double click a pic to edit in iPhoto it will open automatically in Photoshop or your Image Editor, and when you save it it's sent back to iPhoto automatically. This is the only way that edits made in another application will be displayed in iPhoto.
Other information that may offer comfort:
Events in the iPhoto Window correspond exactly with the Folders in the Originals Folder in the iPhoto Library package file (Right click on it in the Pictures Folder -> Show Package Contents).
You can move photos between Events, you can rename Events, edit them, create them, as long as you do it via the iPhoto Window. Check out the Info Pane (wee 'i', lower left) the name and date fields are editable. Edit a Event Name using the Info Pane, the Event Folder in iPhoto Library/Originals will also have the new name.
Mind you, I don't suggest that you change over in one go. I think the best thing to do is create a new Library (Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Create Library') and set it as a Managed Library. Import 50 or 100 pics an explore it, see how it works and see if that does anything for your confidence.
Regards
TD

Limit smart album to a number of pictures ? like last 100 pictures...

Hi,
Using Aperture 3, is it possible to limit the amount of pictures that appear in a smart album ?
A bit like what you do with a smart playlist in iTunes.
So is it possible to create a smart album that says something like the last 100 pictures added, etc. ?
Thanks,
Keith.

Hi,
Yes, i know I can do this with a date.
But using something like 'in the last week' could return thousands of pictures if i'd just returned from a vacation for example, and then a week later, have zero pictures.
I'm just looking for a smart album that will be copied to my iPhone whenever I sync, with like the last 2000 pictures I took, and so that it always has 2000 pictures, even if there is nothing new recently.
Hope that makes more sense.
Thanks
Keith.

I'm finally moving my photos from my PC to my MacBook Pro. I have 8 years worth of photos organized into very specific albums. Can I import the album structure directly into iPhoto or am I going to have to recreate everything in iPhoto?

I'm finally moving my photos from my PC to my MacBook Pro. I have 8 years worth of photos organized into very specific albums. Can I import the album structure directly into iPhoto or am I going to have to recreate everything in iPhoto?

If you want to duplicate your Folder Tree in iPhoto:
Start at the bottom of the hierarchy and drag a folder of images to the Album Heading in iPhoto. The pics will be imported and an Album of the same name created.
You can then create the Enclosing Folders in the iPhoto Window (File -> New Folder) and drag the Album to it. Folders can contain other Folders (Nested Folders) and Albums.
However, is your folder system date based? Then this form of organisation is a bit pointless in iPhoto when Smart Albums or the Calendar tool (Click on the wee magnifying glass in the Search Box) mean you can find the photos taken on any day, month or year at a click. With Smart Albums it's easy to find photos from specific range - say, June 3 to August 25, 2009 etc.
If your folder system is theme based - Xmas pics, Birthday pics etc, then you'll find Keywords are much more flexible, and can be used in conjunction with other criteria for making Smart Albums and searches.

Disappearing thumbnails and smart albums

Hi to you all,
I made a smart album of images that have missing faces data which works well. However, once I leave the smart album by selecting another project folder (that has images in it), I don't see any thumbnails in the browser view! The project has the total number of images in the folder but none are visible. I don't have any filters set either. The only way to view the thumbnails in a project is to restart AP. Seems it only happens when I select the smart album, add a few faces then click back to a project. Anyone had any issues like this? Can anyone replicate it? Thanks! Oh and I've repaired permissions, rebuilt the library

There seems to be a glitch with Stacks and Smart
Albums. If I base a smart album on a set of
parameters and the photo is not the select of a stack
it does not get selected for the smart album. For
example if I make a select based on a client then
choose later to make a 5 star rating out of the stack
that is not the select it will not appear in the 5
star library smart folder until I break the stack.
So I have to go back to the original stack and break
it to allow the search to work. Does anyone know
how to fix this?
In the parameters for the smart album you need to check "Ignore Stack Groupings".
Be aware of an interesting issue you may run into later around this. If you drag a set of images out of a smart album that ignores groupings into a "normal" album that holds images, you will only see images that are also stack picks show up in the destination album. I have lobbied via feedback for Aperture to always make an image drug into an album from a smart album the "Album Pick" for that album to eliminate that exact problem.
Another odd behavior of smart albums you may find useful is that whatever level you define a smart album at is the level it always searches, no matter where you move it after. So you can make a top-level smart album doing a search across many folders and projects, and keep it neatly stored under a different top level folder where if you had tried to put the smart album to start with it would not see images.

Photocasting Smart Albums?

I'm having some problems with photocasting. I can share a regular album of images, but for some reason a smart album won't work. I get the photocast icon for the smart album, and when I click it, I get the dialogue box with all the usual photocast options, but it doesn't actually do anything - no progress indicator next to the album name in the source list, and no icon to show it is being shared . This works fine with a regular album.
Any ideas?
Thanks .

Dave:
I just tried a photocast from a smart album and it completed fine. As Terence suggested check for unusual characters in album name.
Also the next step would be to rebuild the library and select just the database option. See if that will help.
Do you Twango?
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've written an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger), iPhoto dB file backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

Creating Smart Albums problem

I'm on pg 132 of Aperture 2 Pro training book. I'm stuck at #4 which states "The images matching the search criteria appear in the Browser." They don't for me. The HUD is set up for, Rating (checked) "is greater than or equal to" is selected and set at 5 star as per instructed. After completing and closing HUD as instructed, why are all the images in lesson 2 still showing in the browser instead of just the 5 star for this Smart Album? Maybe I'm missing the point but according to what they state as I repeated above this seems incorrect.
So far I'm not too impressed with the way this book is written. On the same page of Creating Smart Albums, #2 states to rename the untitled Smart Album and then press Return. According to the book this would apply the name to the Query HUD, which it didn't. It wasn't until I finally pressed the Magnifying Icon that I could get it to register onto the Query HUD. They left that bit of info out. One of several over looked steps.
Your help will be appreciated.
John

Hi Tony,
The steps you suggested were previously done and yes the smart album was selected. Nothing would work until I clicked on an (x) in the right side of the "Full text search or Limited text search" field just to the right of "match." Once I hit that (x), it disappeared and every thing began to work as expected. Why the (x) was there while nothing appeared in that field is puzzling but I will probably figure it out as I proceed. I did click in that field once in my attempts. That must have froze the operation some how.
Many thanks for your contribution. I'm sure you will be seeing more of me here as I plow through this not so well edited tutorial.

IPhoto '11 Smart Album Not Updating

When importing photos from my iPhone into iPhoto '11, any events that contain pictures of my son are titled with his first name. I have a smart album set up to include any events that include my son's name. Suddenly, events I import and title accordingly are no longer showing up in the smart album. At first I thought the fact a couple of those events have videos in them might be the problem, but I also have recent events with no videos not syncing to the album either. Any thoughts from the community welcome!

No. A Smart Album is really a list of images found in response to a search. So you're looking for images not found by another search, and that's not a criterion for a Smart Album.
Regards
TD

IPhoto '11 - Create album of photos NOT in any Smart Album

I've searched these forums and couldn't find anything to help me out. I'm using iPhoto '11, and have converted all my albums to smart albums, primarily using keywords. In my old scenario, using albums, I could create a "to file" album of photos that are not in any albums.
However, now that I'm using smart albums, there doesn't seem to be a way to identify a way of finding photos that are not in any pre-defined smart album?
Most of my smart albums rely on two or more keywords (ie. date and event), so I can't use the logic "if it has a keyword", that doesn't get photos missing from any smart album.
Any suggestions on manual or automated ways to do this? It would be nice to have a 'photo not in a smart album' criteria.
Thanks in advance,
Jon

No. A Smart Album is really a list of images found in response to a search. So you're looking for images not found by another search, and that's not a criterion for a Smart Album.
Regards
TD

Smart Album Not Updating Dynamically

I recently upgraded to iPhoto 11. My Smart Albums now no longer update dynamically. For example, I have a smart album that contains the last 3 months of photos. It does not update after I import photos from my camera. I have to manaully edit the settings for the smart album and click ok. I don't change the settings, just edit and click ok.
Why aren't the smart albums dynamically updating?

Dynamic update of smart playlists when playing music untethered on an iPod touch 2G set to manually manage music is broken with the latest iPhone 3.0 Software Update for iPod touch. Here we go again on this issue. It seems to be broken or purposefully disabled on every other update for the iPod.
On a side note, I noticed that my iPod now occasionally displays a wait screen when opening Music. I found this happens when I alter my playlists in iTunes.app, then disconnect the iPod for a session of untethered listening. Perhaps the iPod is actually building the smart playlists then, perhaps not, perhaps a smart developer will take advantage of this to trigger the smart playlist updating.

Question about smart albums - where does selection criteria operate

i maintain several versions of any given image. one for local printing, one for book printing and one for web; each with a different onscreen proofing profile. the versions for a given image are all in the same stack. put an appropriate key word (e.g. for book, for web, etc.) on each version in the hopes that i could create smart albums searching for the key words i wanted. it appears, however, that the search works only on the "pick" image in the stack. am i correct in this assumption?
wouldn't it be better if search brought up the version you were seeking?

wouldn't it be better if search brought up the
version you were seeking?
Try this: click on the "Ignore Stack Groupings" checkbox in the Query HUD for the Smart Album you're working in.

Can you manually add photos to a Smart Album?

I have created Smart Albums using faces. IE one for my daughter. I have some other pictures I want to put in the album that I want in her album but don't have a face that is hers. It wont let me drag onto it. Help!

That is correct - smart albums are automatic and photos are added or removed based on meeting the set criteria - one way to do it is to add a keyword for thos photos and include that keyword as ann optional criteria for the smart album
LN

Aperture tip for duplicating smart albums structure?

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