Applescript for sorting faces in iphoto

Hi,
I would really like for the Faces pane in iPhoto to sort the faces based on how many photos there are of that person, i.e., the person with the most photos would be first in the list, the person with the second most photos would be second, and so on. I feel sure that it is possible to write an applescript that would do this, but I have almost no experience with applescript. I have 688 faces, so sorting alphabetically mixes my loved ones in with people that have very few photos, while sorting manually is tedious and needs constant updating.
So my questions are: 1. Is it possible to do make iPhoto sort in the way I want, either with an applescript or by some other method? and 2. if it is possible, how do I find someone who can write the script for me?
Thanks so much!
Jennifer

A script won't help because you cannot arbitrarily set how the faces are displayed, you only get what the menus allow. You need to ask Apple to add this function:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphoto.html

Similar Messages

My iPhoto often have difficulty in opening without the "repair". Maybe it's because I have almost 2000 pictures! When I initiate repair using Mac for a long time to find and sort faces .... Is it possible to turn off or avoid this feature?

My iPhoto often have difficulty in opening without the "repair". Maybe it's because I have almost 2000 pictures! When I initiate repair using Mac for a long time to find and sort faces .... Is it possible to turn off or avoid this feature?

This user has found a "hack" to turn off faces. Several users have reported success with the method. I can't comfirm the method as I've not used it. Use at your own risk.
lopezio
Re: Iphoto 11 -How to turn off faces?
Dec 30, 2013 9:06 AM (in response to mkmichaelmk)
Start of solution:
I did some digging in the prefs of iPhoto and found out the following. This is how you can disable (turn off) Face detection, without deleting faces found so far (just in case you want to restart processing at another time):
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Open Terminal Application (Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app)
3. Type the following (exactly as is):
defaults write com.apple.iPhoto PKFaceDetectionEnabled 0
(then return)
4. - Start iPhoto - Faces stops getting on your nerves...
If you ever need to re-enable faces, just do the same again and replace the 0 with 1.
OT

IPhoto 11, Black Thumbnail for all Faces

In iPhoto, when I go to Faces there is a black thumbnail for all faces. If I double click to go to the actual fotos of one of the faces (names), the thumbnails are also black, if I double click the actual individual foto then you can see the actual foto. I have reinstalled iPhoto but it still shows onlt Black thumbnails for all faces (names).
Please help.

haarrrrummmm... don't know why I'm not able to edit my own posts, but there you go...
Rebuilding is only rebuilding if you get a dialog box showing 4 options. If you don't see this, then you may not have options and cmd keys depressed correctly (long enough etc) at startup of iPhoto.
You should see a dialog box presenting four choices:
repair permissions,
repair thumbnails
repair database
rebuild database
(Doing this from my head so the order may be a bit different)
Anyhow, start with repairing permissions, then thumbnails.
Repairing thumbnails will take time, especially on bigger libraries. Allow the machine to finish the task.
Repairing and rebuilding database are the big guns here. Make backups before letting these loose.
Hoot

How can I deactivate FACES in iPhoto 11 for ever ??

How can I deactivate FACES in iPhoto 11 for ever ??

you can not
suggest to Apple - iPhoto menu ==> provide iPhoto feedback
For now just let it finish and ignore it
LN

Sorting images in iPhoto?

What is this issue with sorting photos in IPhoto? My process so far: I import photos from my iPhone. They appear in the 'Last Import" folder. (Or Last 12 Months - this happens from both folders.)
After the import from the phone is complete, I open the "Last Import" folder, select individual photos and drag them to the correct named albums that I've created under "Albums". Once the pics are moved to the albums, (and I check by opening, closing, and reopening those folders to be sure they're there) I then delete them from the Last Import" or "Last 12 Months" folder, to keep track of what's been filed and what hasn't.
This process seems to works fine. When I check the created albums, all images are filed correctly. And then, at some point, I go back and check - and all of the moved images from the entire work session are gone from their named albums. ?! These files HAD been in those albums! now are gone. ?
I check the Trash file in iPhoto, and all photos seem to be there - I think. But now - the new **** is that I cannot sort the images directly from the Trash file back into the correct named albums, or any folder in iPhoto. All photos have to be dragged out from the Trash and into a file on my desktop. Then laboriously re-imported BACK into iPhoto, to start the whole lengthy, stupid, opaque process over again.
Obviously I'm missing a step, or something - but what?? I thought I was being very methodical. I have to say this is really annoying and counterintuitive for Apple. But please let me know what the correct process is. My greatest concern is that I have actually lost some images - but can't tell that without going through a much longer search of every album and folder…is it possible that some images have been permanently deleted?
Thanks in advance. Please excuse my frustration and exasperation.

You're confusing a list with a place.
The only place in iPhoto that contains your actual photos is the Library. The Library has several ways of viewing:
Events: broken into chunks based on date and time
Photos: The whole thing as a single entity
Faces: Those photos you've categorised by people you've identified
Places: As above but by locations on the planet.
Every Photo is in the Library. This is like iTunes, every song is in the Library. Playlists reference songs in the Library. So it's an user selected list of songs "that I would like played together".
An Album is a list of photos I would like to view together. Albums reference the Photos in the Library to make the list. They're not duplicated, just referenced. So it's the same photo in the Library as in the Album.
Because it's the same photo when you delete from the Library you also delete from the Albums.
Last Import, Last 12 Months, Flagged etc are all Lists not places. But they are a little different in that they reference the Library directly. When you delete from them you're deleting from the Library. So the photos are deleted from all the Albums as well.
Last Import, Flagged etc are also Smart Albums. A Smart Album is - basically - a Saved Search. Think of it this way: Last Import is the answer to a Question: 'What are the last Photos I imported?' Flagged: 'What are the Photos I have Flagged' etc.
The only way to get photos out of the 'Last Import' is to have a different answer to the question: Import more photos.
So there is redundancy - several ways of doing things - in iPhoto, but no duplication.
So, import your Photos. Find them in the Library (Events or Photos View, doesn't matter) and drag from there to the Album of your choice.
And remember there are several ways to achieve the same thing.
You can restore photos from the iPhoto trash by right clicking on them and selecting 'Restore to Library'
To actually lose photos from iPhoto via the trash you would need to empty the iPhoto trash and thereafter empty the System Trash. Each time you will get a warning. At each step they are recoverable.
Regards
TD

How can I search for duplicate photos in iPhoto libraries?

How can I search for duplicate photos in iPhoto 9.5.1 library. Installed on iMac 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5, Mavericks 10.9.5.

These applications will identify and help remove duplicate photos from an iPhoto Library:
iPhoto Library Manager - $29.95
Duplicate Annihilator - $7.95 - only app able to detect duplicate thumbnail files or faces files when an iPhoto 8 or earlier library has been imported into another.
PhotoSweeper - $9.95 - This app can search by comparing the image's bitmaps or histograms thus finding duplicates with different file names and dates.
DeCloner - $19.95 - can find duplicates in iPhoto Libraries or in folders on the HD.
DupliFinder - $7 - shows which events the photos are in.
iPhoto AppleScript to Remove Duplicates - Free
PhotoDedupo - $4.99 (App Store) - this app has a "similar" search feature which is like PhotoSweeper's bitmap comparison. It found all duplicates
Duplicate Cleaner for iPhoto - free - was able to recognize the duplicated HDR and normal files from an iPhone shooting in HDR
Some users have reported that PhotoSweeper did the best in finding all of the dups in their library: iphoto has duplicated many photos, how...: Apple Support Communities.
If you have an iPhone and have it set to keep the normal photo when shooting HDR photos the two image files that are created will be duplicates in a manner of speaking (same image) but there are only twp apps that detected the iPhone HDR and normal photos as being duplicates: PhotoSweeper and Duplicate Cleaner for iPhoto. None of the other apps detected those two files as being duplicates as they look for file name as well as other attributes and the two files from the iPhone have different file names.
iPLM, however, is the best all around iPhoto utility as it can do so much more than just find duplicates. IMO it's a must have tool if using iPhoto.

Create a Keyboard Shortcut to remove a recognised face in iPhoto

I did originally post this in the iPhoto forum but it was suggested that it may be a script is required to achieve this, so I have posted the contents of my original qustion here below.
The original post is here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2448152&tstart=0
This seems to be something that others would like to do also (remove multiple recognised faces in iPhoto) bat as yet, Apple do not have anything built in iPhoto to do this
I think the title says it all but just to be clear I shall explain.
Since there is no way to delete a quantity of recognised faces in (for example) a random group/crowd scene, and you cant block certain photos from having Faces scan them I was wondering about creating a keyboard shortcut equivalent of clicking the little cross in the top of each 'Face Box'
The tab key allows you to move from one Face Box to another, so if I could jsut create a KB shortcut to do the deleting as well, then it maybe a bit quicker than the mouse work that is required when deleting 5 + faces on a single photo.
I know how to create KB shortcuts for Application menu items, but the Delete Face box option does not seem to have a mneu item.
Anyone either:
1) Know how I could achieve this
or
2) Another quick multi 'Face Box' delete workflow

Might be something an Appls script could do. Ask in the Applescript forum. Otherwise, submit a feature request to Apple via http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphoto.html.
OT

I can see my thumbnails for my events in iphoto, but when I click to open the folder, no photos show up. However, when I hover over the thumbnail, it shows the flicker of images that should be inside the folder, as well as

I can see my thumbnails for my events in iphoto, but when I click to open the folder, no photos show up. However, when I hover over the thumbnail, it shows the flicker of images
that should be inside the folder, as well as # of images in each folder. It also occasionally says the following when I try to even open iphoto: "Your photo library will not be readable by previous versions of iPhoto after the upgrade. The upgrade process for very large libraries may take an hour or more to complete." So, I am scared to hit "upgrade" for fear I will never recover any of the images as the wording in this quote seems odd. The photos are not in the trash. Did I lose them all? Do you know if/how I can retrieve them?

iPhoto 08?
Try these in order - from best option on down...
1. Do you have an up-to-date back up? If so, try copy the library6.iphoto file from the back up to the iPhoto Library (Right Click -> Show Package Contents) allowing it to overwrite the damaged file.
2. Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. (In Library Manager it's the FIle -> Rebuild command)
This will create an entirely new library. It will then copy (or try to) your photos and all the associated metadata and versions to this new Library, and arrange it as close as it can to what you had in the damaged Library. It does this based on information it finds in the iPhoto sharing mechanism - but that means that things not shared won't be there, so no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your events, albums and keywords, faces and places back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.
3. If neither of these work then you'll need to create and populate a new library.
To create and populate a new *iPhoto 08* library:
Note this will give you a working library with the same Events and pictures as before, however, you will lose your albums, keywords, modified versions, books, calendars etc.
In the iPhoto Preferences -> Events Uncheck the box at 'Imported Items from the Finder'
Move the iPhoto Library to the desktop
Launch iPhoto. It will ask if you wish to create a new Library. Say Yes.
Go into the iPhoto Library (Right Click -> Show Package Contents) on your desktop and find the Originals folder. From the Originals folder drag the individual Event Folders to the iPhoto Window and it will recreate them in the new library.
When you're sure all is well you can delete the iPhoto Library on your desktop.
In the future, in addition to your usual back up routine, you might like to make a copy of the library6.iPhoto file whenever you have made changes to the library as protection against database corruption.

Can't seen Faces on iPhoto, but can on ATV and iPod Touch!

So, this is very odd. I recently upgraded my Apple TV to the v3.0 software, and synced Faces across. It looks very similar to iPhoto (same cork board, for example), though I don't think the ATV has the actual Faces tech (no focussing on the face during Ken Burns slide shows, for instance).
This inspired me to update my Faces in iPhoto. But, horror of horrors, the Faces feature seemed back at 'Factory Default' -- i.e. 'click here to start adding faces'. I didn't, just in case I wiped the Faces library that is clearly still there (otherwise no sync with my ATV and iPod).
Has anyone any ideas on how to get iPhoto to recognise my Faces library again?
Cheers,
Richy

Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
I want to be able to name the face, but not have the friend's face show up on my corkboard.
Not possible I'm afraid.
I can reject the faces that do not belong to my children, but the other children's faces keep popping up all the time,
Try zooming into the pic.
Regards
TD

How to delete faces in iphoto

how can i delete faces in iphoto 9.5.1??

When in your photo library, go to the bottom search magnifying glass. Search "face". This should bring up all the files that iphoto has renamed and categorized for you as just the faces in your photos. The file names for the face photos are (file name)_face(number).jpg. Unless you have renamed any photos with "face" in it (I never did), this will pull them all up. Hit "command" + "A" and it will select them all. Then delete.

Tips For Improving Face Detection Accuracy

These are some rules I have slowly discovered that have helped improve the accuracy of iPhotos' face detection.
a. Don't force iPhoto to recognize *+every single+* instance of an individuals face. (If you need to create a location containing every instance of an individual, then you need to setup a Smart Folder using the persons' name as a Description or Keyword. "Faces" is not the section to do this. See a suggestion below for using "Faces" to do this.)
b. Avoid confirming really poor quality examples of a persons face (low light, pixelated, off in the distance, etc)
c. Avoid confirming only partially visible faces (hair covering half the face, head turned away to a profile, extreme angles too high or too low, etc)
d. Avoid too many instances in which the person's eyes are closed. (Obviously, sunglasses are a real problem here as well)
e. Avoid instances where the persons head is tilted 45 degrees or more, unless the software recognizes the face on it's own.
f. Avoid instances where the face has areas of heavy shadow, and the light source is at right angles to the face. (Outdoors with Sun directly overhead or near horizon.) If face is in an "even" shadow that seems to be OK.
g. Clearly, the more full frontal, clearly lit views of an individuals' face you can include, the better the face detection will be.
h. If you do use the "Add Missing Face" button, then restrict the selection box to just around the eyebrows, nose and mouth. Avoid selecting the whole head since the face detection software concentrates on the features in the center of the face. No need to include the hair as it does not appear to be a factor.
*Gathering Every Instance of a Persons' Face*
Here is how you could use "Faces" to gather every photo of an individual, yet maintain its' face detection accuracy. Mind you, this may only be practical with relatively small libraries, not libraries with 10's of thousands of photos.
1. First, go ahead and name *+every instance+* of an individuals' face (Even poor quality examples).
2. Then, within the "Faces" corkboard section, open that persons' album and "Select All" of their photos (Do this before the Faces scan is complete or you will also select all of the suggested faces under "So-and_So may also be in the photos below")
3. Next, create "New Album from selection..." and give it the name of the person. (Alternatively, you could "Batch Change..." all the selected photos with a "Description" using the persons' name and then use a "Smart Album" to gather all of the persons' photos. This could be handy for adding future photos of the person automatically to the Smart Album.)
4. Once that is complete, now "Reject" all poor quality, or partially visible examples of the persons' face within Faces. This will improve the software's future accuracy at detecting the persons' face in new photos added to the library.
If, at a future date, you add another large group of photos containing that persons' face, you can repeat steps 1 & 2 and simply drag all the photos to the persons' Album. Or "Batch Change..." the Description again to automatically include the newly added photos to the Smart Album you created earlier.
In the end I have discovered that the Faces section of iPhoto is really more a "tool" for creating Albums, rather than a destination for viewing photos.
Hope this helps. Feel free to add any suggestions you have discovered for improving the face detection accuracy.
Cheers

Glenn Carter wrote:
h. If you do use the "Add Missing Face" button, then restrict the selection box to just around the eyebrows, nose and mouth. Avoid selecting the whole head since the face detection software concentrates on the features in the center of the face. No need to include the hair as it does not appear to be a factor.
Apparently you shouldn't worry too much about what you select for the face area when using "Add Missing Face"... From Apple's knowledgebase at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3427:
Note: Only faces that have been automatically detected in your photo library will help iPhoto match faces. Manually identified faces will not aid iPhoto's face-matching ability.
So, unless they later come out with an update that actually uses that data, any effort you make in selecting especially accurate face regions is going to waste. (Though I'll admit I'm still putting in the effort in the hope that the data will someday be used for something in a future version of iPhoto...)

Is there a keyboard stroke for tagging photos in iPhoto?

I would like to learn of a keyboard stroke for tagging photos in iPhoto. I called apple a while back and was told there is no such shortcut. You have to manually click on "add a face." Then, if you want to tag multiple people in one photo, you have to manually click in each tag box to name them. When iPhoto doesn't automatically detect faces, and the tag boxes are added manually, it is not possible to tab from on tag box to another. It's infuriating!

I'd suggest posting your question in the iPhoto forum here, as that's where the true experts hang out. Here's a link for you:
https://discussions.apple.com/community/ilife/iphoto

Import Face from iPhoto doesn't work

Hi to everyone. I just starting to beliebe if it' s good idea to reinstall Lion. I just want to know if all this is bugs or my system.
This days i have to many problems and all have to do with address book. Now the problem is that the button import face from iphoto is gray in every contact and i have faces enabled for those contacts. Some help please.

i have alot of movies on my iphoto and tried to upload to imovie.
the program does not respond!
iPhoto only requires a movie be playback compatible for it to be imported. iMovie requires a file be "edit" compatible before it will import the file at the "Finder" level.
i tried uploading from the hard drive and got the same result.
the only time the imovie actually respond is when i upload directly from my camera
Same result for the same reason. Files imported by the Finder must already be "edit" compatibile with iMovie '08. Files which are imported directly from a camcorder (with the exception of DV) have to be "converted" to become "edit" compatible with iMovie '08. The "Import from Camera" option automatically converts files imported from recognized devices while the import of files via the Finder does not.
Basically, if a file is not DV, AIC, Motion-JPEG, Photo-JPEG, MPEG-4, or H.264 along with supported audio compression formats it will not be accepted/imported by iMovie '08. Either you import the files directly from the recording device (or make the application think it is doing so) or you convert them manually. To know what is best/easiest for you to do, we would first have to know what kind of files (i.e., compression formats) we are dealing with here.

Won't sort faces

Hello,
So I've downloaded Photos. I do not have the ability to sort Faces by name. There is an option to "Sort by Date" but this is ghosted out, and automatically ON so I can't change it. Anyone know a way around this?

léonie wrote:
Apparently to the same developers who invented the play count in iTunes to sort the songs by most frequently played.
There's a slight oversight in your analogy. In iTunes, you can turn shuffle off. And you are free to sort your songs any way you wish.
Additionally, in iPhoto, you could also sort Faces using different criteria. Why change now.

Lost Faces on iPhoto

In this case i lost 18300+ faces ? Need to know why befor i pull any more hair out. iPad 1st, Mac Mini and iPhone 4s
I put my iPad 2nd in airport mode so the faces are still there!

This also happened to me, coincidentally around mid-May as well, but I only just realised today. It's likely the database for Faces got corrupted so iPhoto just deletes it and starts again.
Do you have Time Machine or other methods of backup? If you do, you can restore the Faces database from a backup before it got corrupted. I'll explain how to restore from Time Machine:
Make sure you have quit iPhoto.
Get Time Machine to do a back up in case things go wrong in the following steps.
Go into Time Machine while in Finder
Navigate to the your ~/Pictures/ folder (or where ever your iPhoto library is store). You should see your iPhoto Library file there.
Right click the iPhoto Library file and select "Show Package Contents." This will reveal the files inside.
Inside the iPhoto Library, go into the ./Database/Faces/FaceNames/ folder. It should be empty if there are no Faces in iPhoto, otherwise, there should be a *.apfacename file for each person you have named in Faces.
Go back through your backups from the most recent until you see the *.apfacename files in this folder, this should be the backup you should restore from.
Go back up to the ./Database/ folder, select the Faces folder and restore it from the backup, choosing to overwriting the folder if prompted to do so.
Go back into the iPhoto Library in Time Machine, in the same backup as before. This time, open the ./Database/apdb/ folder. You should see a file called Faces.db. Select that file, and restore it from the backup, again choosing to overwrite the existing file if prompted.
Launch iPhoto again and all your Faces should be restored without losing any new photos you've added since you lost the Faces.
If you don't have backups, sorry you'll have to start identifying all the Faces again from scratch. But keep in mind, always have backups of your important data, you never know when something could go wrong!

Applescript for sorting faces in iphoto

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for