Faces Scan

I imported all my photos back from Aperture 2 to iPhoto 09 and I don't think it ran the faces scan. Any idea if you can manually run the faces scan?
Thanks.

watch the faces tutorial - "find out how to use faces" - http://www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto/ - you start by identifying a face in several photos and then scan for more - you are presented with possible matches and you agree or disagree fine tuning the scan for that face and scan again - continue as often as you feel like
LN

Similar Messages

How do I pause o r stop faces scan?

About 2 minutes after launching Iphoto 09 the little icon next to faces in my library starts to spin. I assume it is scanning my 39K pictures for more faces. When this happens my imac grinds to a halt. Seems all the cpu is being used by the faces scan. How can I stop or pause the scan?

bomelkr wrote:
What a poor and unacceptable answer.
Bo,
Just because you don't like the answer, does not make it poor or unacceptable. In this case, there are no options to turn off the "feature" you don't want. End of story.
If you think there is a better answer, then please feel free to go find out what that answer is and report it back to us and prove as all wrong (entirely possible; perhaps a Terminal Application command that can be invoked to disable "faces"). But until then that is the only answer we have for you, we the NON-Apple employed users like you.
Regards,
Patrick

Faces scan does not return any tags

I have now for about 3rd time scanned my entire library for faces (meaning deleting the face_whatever files over again). Every time the scan is run, it takes about 5 hours (65 GB of pictures).
After the scan is done, there are exactly no face suggestions to be found anywhere on the cork board.
I am getting quite frustrated, Google Picasa never acted this way on my previous computer. I am thinking of going back to Picasa if this issue doesn't get solved soon...

After the scan is done, there are exactly no face suggestions to be found anywhere on the cork board.
1 - have you watched the faces tutorial? -- http://www.apple.com/findouthow/photos/#faces
2 - the process does not include initial addition of faces on the corkboard - the scan identifies potential people in a photo and you start the corkboard by selecting photos and identifying people in the photo - *those people that you identify are then added to the corkboard* and when you open their corkboard entry you will get suggestions for other photos that contain that person - *you accept or reject each suggestion* and the number of photos grows. Nothing is ever added to the corkboard without your action to approve it.
I am getting quite frustrated, Google Picasa never acted this way on my previous computer. I am thinking of going back to Picasa if this issue doesn't get solved soon...
No problem - do what ever makes you happy - I'm not sure why you think that threatening the users here that you are going to leave makes you feel any better about anything - but what ever
LN
Message was edited by: LarryHN

Initial Faces scan skips lots and lots of photos

I have over 5000 photos. My initial scan took about 30 minutes. I thought it was fast, now I realize it was TOO fast - lots and lots, I'd guess over 50%, of photos were skipped.
When I look at the photos, some have boxes around the faces but most do not. It skipped even extremely clear, front view, unobstructed faces.
I took the advice of others here and deleted the "faces" files within the iPhoto package and restarted. Again the scan was really fast but flawed - I saw the same result with lots of photos seemingly skipped.
I verified by taking some photos that had NO face recognized (high quality - closeup, unobstructed front view of a child). I exported them, then re-imported into iPhoto. On importing, it did find all the faces.
This proves to me that the initial scan is FLAWED and skipping photos. If it found a face on re-importing, it should have found a face initially.
I see other people here are seeing the same behavior. Comforting to know that I'm not alone, but VERY frustrating. I don't want to take days and days to draw my own boxes around faces if there's a chance that Apple will release a fix for this.

My initial scan failed (as in not one single face box inserted). I deleted the files and started it over, and it seemed to work okay. No, it didn't get every face, but it did quite a few.
But then I imported a large number of new photos, thinking I should finally consolidate my numerous photo libraries on separate computers... and iPhoto didn't find faces in those either.
It seems like if I import a small number of photos (<200 as an estimate) it does scan them, but any more than that and it screws up.

Can't select photo after scans for faces

I just bought a laptop with iphoto 09 on it; previously I used 08 (or earlier; can't remember). {Yes I know a new version '11 just came out. Given the number of problems reported maybe I'm not sad about the purchase-timing}.
My library is huge with 30K+ images; I keep it on an external HD. After opening the new iphoto it asked to tweak my library which I allowed. Upon first opening all images seem to be there and selectable, but after it scans for faces (takes hours), I can no longer select a photo, necessary in order to start identifying faces.
I tried closing iphoto and reopening - same thing; images selectable prior to running faces scan, then not.
I tried rebuilding the library. This lost all my keyword structure (I use keyword manager) and after the rebuild bombed failing to import all the images, I deleted the rebuilt library before testing whether it could select images.
My old library does seem as if it should be rebuilt, many images now appear blank as thumbnails though present when selected.
¿ Will rebuilding the library fix the selecting-face scanning problem?
¿ Is there a way to rebuild the library that will retain my keyword structure?
BTW, I deleted the partially rebuilt library via iphoto library manager...
Thanks for any help.

Darn! It seems to say MS-DOS (FAT). I thought I had fixed all my HDs to be properly formatted for the Macintosh.
Does this mean I'm SOL?
I could put a screen shot of my disk utility...
Or how about I just copy the entire iphoto library to my new giant-er HD and then reformat the EHD and copy it back ... is that necessary? And if so, how best to move the library. Do I need to use iphoto library manager or just slide the whole thing onto the internal HD?
Thanks a million....

Faces stops scanning halfway through, won't list any photos at all.

Just bought iLife '09, so I'm a little behind the curve. I started the faces scan, but accidentally closed the program halfway through it, so now, when I start the program, I just have the blank corkboard template.
I deleted the face.db and face_blob.db files to force it to rescan, but now it just gets halfway through and gives up, sending me back to the blank corkboard template. I don't know what to try next, I don't want to delete anything important. My library is crazy unorganized from being like 6 years old, so that might be affecting things. All my software is updated.
Anyone have solutions here?

Greetings,
Love the name.
Is your iPhoto Library stored in the usual location? (User > Pictures > iPhoto Library)
How much free space do you have on your computer?
Ensure all your software is up to date (Apple Menu > Software Update).
Remove the following to the trash and restart the computer and try again:
Home > Library > Caches (I remove the whole folder. It will be re-generated upon restart.)
Home > Library > Preferences > com.apple.iPhoto (There may be more than one. Remove them all.)
Go into iPhoto and name someone in your library and then see if their face appears when you click on "Faces".
If the issue persists try rebuilding your iPhoto Library following this article http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2638. Use the bottom 3 rebuild options.
If the issue persists after the rebuild, close iPhoto, remove the 2 faces database files again, open iPhoto and then leave iPhoto open until the status arrows next to Faces stop spinning. THEN name someone and go back to the cork board to check it out.
Hope that helps.

Faces - Reading, re-scanning?

I opened iPhoto initially and ran the Faces scan, it it came back with zero faces recognized. I have gone through and assigned the names to many faces and photos - with most people having at least ten photos. How do I tell it to re-scan my album? When does it automatically start recognizing faces? I saw another post by a gentleman with a similar problem - I don't want to have to add my wife's tag 200+ times (not that she isn't worth that effort - HA!).
Help?

Ryan Williams6 wrote:
When does it automatically start recognizing faces?
Seems that it does it all the time. But it will only suggest that it thinks a face is that of a particular person and wants you to confirm that suggestion. This is made easier through the 'face album' for anyone you have tagged. You click on their picture in the 'faces source', and after the 10 or so photos you've tagged will be suggestions. You can confirm or 'un-confirm' these suggestions. Each time you do this it gets better and suggests more faces.

Faces in iPhoto 11 video clips

I used to be able to add "Faces" to video clips in iPhoto. Now with the upgrade to iPhoto11, I can't do it any more. Any ideas?

Previously when videos were imported into iPhoto 09 a jpg was created from the first frame to use as a thumbnail. It's that thumbnail that was scanned by iPhoto for faces and not all faces in the video file.
Many videos end up with a blank frame at the start. So what good is the faces scan if it can only scan what's in the first frame of the video?
I'm guessing that's why it was dropped from iPhoto 11.
Happy Holidays

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...)

No clue about faces

Either Faces developers don't have a clue, or I don't. I just started using iPhoto '09 on my new iMac today. At first, I opened an old iPhoto library I have on a hard drive. As it was updating the library, I could see that it was scanning my photos and identifying faces. I had to cancel the scan, as I didn't have time to wait 768 minutes for it to go through my 38,000 photos.
So tonight I started a new iPhoto library, and imported about 600 portraits of girls at a dance recital, many of whom returned in several different costumes. I thought Faces would be a great way to group these photos by each girl, but absolutely no luck. The Faces scan started, but I could see each face appear as I had with the old library. So I manually identified a few faces, and the results were absurd. Nearly every girl appeared as 'this person may also appear in these photos'. Even the dad whom I identified was apparently in photos of girls in butterfly wings.
So to get to the point, is Faces really absolutely useless, or is there I something I can do to make it work for me?

Have you looked at this tutorial: Find out how to organize using Faces?

No Faces found in any photos when first install iPhoto'09

I just installed a new hard drive and loaded up Leopard for the first time. I then installed iLife, started up iPhoto. It updated my iPhoto library. I noticed the Faces scan proceeding for about 25 minutes. I thought it had finished as it seemed to have stopped. However, as I view my photos, I have only seen one where a face was actually recognized as such. I am able to manually go into a photo and "add missing face", but that defeats the whole point. Any suggestions for how to fix this problem?

rednew
Welcome to the Apple user to user assistance forums
You may have canceled the scan - you can rescan by selecting the photos you want to scan and right clicking (control click) on one and select the "detect missing faces" command
LN

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

Create a Keyboard Shortcut to remove a recognised face in a picture

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
Neil

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

Disable face detection

Face detection when you don't want it is a major obstacle in using iPhoto. How do I turn it off?

You can't. After the initial pass when creating a new library the faces scan seems to be less invasive. So we just have to ignore it AND send a feature request to Apple via http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphoto.html.
Or you might consider the solution posted in this topic: Iphoto 11 -How to turn off faces?: Apple Support Communities
OT

IPhoto 6 transfer to iPhoto 09

I am shifting my iPhoto 6 photos from my Power Mac G5 onto a new iMac with iPhoto 09. I did this by putting my iPhoto 6 library onto an external drive, and then importing the library into my new iMac with iPhoto 09. Seems to have gone OK, but the iPhoto screen on my iMac is frozen (photos are visible and look OK)because on the left side of the screen under LIBRARY are four categories titled Events, Photos, Faces and Places. Next to "Faces" is a circle composed of two arrows that has been spinning for 3+ hours. Any idea why this is happening and what I should do to "unfreeze" my machine? I suspect there may be some incompatibility issues between iPhoto 6 and iPhoto 09, but can't I work through this? Both OS are Mac OS X (10.5.7)so there is no problem with the two OS. Thanks, Buster

I did this by putting my iPhoto 6 library onto an external drive, and then importing the library into my new iMac with iPhoto 09.
No you do not import old iPhoto libraries into newer ones
You just drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity into the pictures folder of the new machine and launch iPhoto - iPhoto converts the library and everything in fine (the faces scan can take a while depending on how many photos you have - my 30,000 photos took about 18 hours for the initial scan
Let it finish and see where you are
LN

Faces Scan

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