Sunday, February 17, 2008

iPhoto Library Manager merge testing

I did some testing of iPhoto Library Manager's Library merge abilities using two test Libraries. My test Libraries included:
1. video in both
2. edit of a few images (see if import both original and current)
3. comments, keywords (overlapping and distinct), titles
4. event comments
5. album comments
6. album name collision: smart and dumb
7. keywords
8. ratings
9. events
iPhoto was inexplicably crashy, pre-merge -- when I was creating the test Libraries. Otherwise the merge went as expected. All of the above metadata, including both "Current" and "Original" images and video were all imported. As expected the following data was lost:
Smart albums (become dumb albums)
Books
Calendars
Slideshows
Web galleries (these will be turned into photocasts in the merged library)
In terms of metadata preservation this is significantly better than Aperture merger, but I've only tested on small Libraries. I expect to have some real world tests in a week or two.

I am disappointed that Apple's never provide a Library merge tool

2 comments:

  1. I am disappointed that Apple's never provide a Library merge tool as well. Vote to change this. Glaring and egregious oversight, easily remedied, too.

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  2. What about Faces and Places (or location)? Where these metadata merged successfully? I'm interested in any updated comparison for iPhoto '11. Thanks.

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