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Unfortunately, Leonie is right, the ‘referenced’ system for Photos is unreliable (although IME it goes back further than macOS 11). I’ve tried it myself in the past, and usually found it to lose connection to referenced images at some point – even in normal use it does this with random images. Also, there is no way to bulk reconnect either, you have to click on each image individually to do it.
If you check the Apple Discussion forums for Photos, it’s been a common thing to not recommend using the referenced library system. I have a fully managed library, along with iCloud storage, and it’s been very reliable.
If you still have access to the old HDD, and as you have everything on the one drive, it might be possible to use the ‘consolidate’ option and get all the images into it as a managed library, then transfer it over to the new HDD.
Generally, it’s a very bad idea to try manipulating any of the files outside of Photos, that’s likely to screw things up even more than ever (I’ve also found that out the hard way). Which is another reason the referenced system is not recommended, you can clearly use images for other purposes if they’re outside the library, but change anything outside of Photos (move a file, rename it, or edit it), and that is a recipe for disaster.
My own setup includes a backup of all my images on a separate HDD, using a standard folder structure, completely separate to Photos, and never used as a live working source. That can be used to access image files for use in other apps if needed. However, if I’m only working with a few images, I tend to just export them as ‘originals’ from within Photos, which just make a fresh untouched copy to work with. Most of the time I try to use software that work with Photos as an extension/external app, and integrates with the library that way.
Just a final thought, you did remember to check it was set as the ‘System Library’ in the Photos preferences? (might only matter if you happen to have more than one library showing in Photos).
Interesting.
I wonder if this is similar to the issue I reported a while back, but on iPadOS (it’s not happened on my iMac, using any kind of MacOS). I’ve also been seeing corrupt previews while in editing mode. It’s occurring slightly differently for me, but essentially I’m resulting in a corrupt view where I cannot edit the image at all (even the histogram reflects what’s displayed on screen).
I originally started off with it being the first image I edited being corrupt (probably about 18 months ago). If I clicked on another image, then back to the original, it cleared the issue.
In the last year or more though it developed further, so that it appears only after I’ve edited a few images (6-10 perhaps). Once it starts though, it happens on probably every other image. Clicking on another, then back again can clear it, but it can take a few goes before it does. It’s not related to file type, or image size either, as it happens on a variety of Raw images from different eras (Nikon, Fuji and Olympus in use here).
Here I’m using a 2020 iPad Pro 12.9″, and this has certainly been happening on the last two iPaOS versions. I’m using it with the Photos iCloud based library, so it might suggest there’s something going on with that.
I haven’t tried the opening in another app trick though, but if I use any other app, I never see this issue elsewhere.
(BTW, this isn’t meant to be a moan, just trying to add some info, in case it’s useful).
Cheers, and season’s greetings.
Hi Nik,
I’m sorry, I thought I’d posted an update to this – at least I did type something, and it hasn’t appeared here for some reason.
However, for some reason, Raw Power seems to have started working without the issues now. I’ve been editing a few album’s worth of images now, and haven’t seen a single scrambled image during editing. Very weird.
Can’t be sure when it fixed itself, but I occasionally test a few images just to see if the problem persists. So far so good at the moment.
Only a few thoughts and guesses. Could it have simply been an unknown OS bug, that’s got fixed during recent updates (15.6.0 or 15.6.1 perhaps? It was after 15.6.0 I started testing). Could it have been something in Raw Power undetected, maybe accidentally cured in an update? Or how about a rogue app installed on my iPad? I do occasionally cull old apps, or apps I deem not useful at any time. I did have FastestVPN installed (although not active, no idea why I even put that on, as I never intended to use it on the iPad), and have recently deleted it, for example.
Cheers
Andy.
Thanks Nik,
It’s a real shame, as I really like using Raw Power otherwise, and I much prefer how it handles non-destructive editing files so much better than anything else (Pixelmator Photo, for example, can create huge sidecar files, into the 10x original kind of scale). Of course there are other features that are good too, along with its general capabilities for editing a photo.
As it is, I have just switched to using Photos itself for the bulk of my editing, and find it’s not really doing a bad job. The others I always had available there, but used them for different purposes. Most annoying is that not one of them has all the tools one might need when editing on an iPad – Photos is the only app with Red-Eye repair, Pixelmator is the only one with a Repair tool, and Raw Power is the only one with a proper non-destructive workflow that works with a Photos library.
I’m guessing there’s just something screwy going on with rendering a preview image somewhere, but I can’t see anything on an iPad that might improve it (like you could get a corrupt colour profile in MacOS, and just switch to a new one).
Cheers, and all the best
Andy
Hi Nik, and all,
Just to update this. the issue with the psychedelic previews is now a more consistent one. I get this on most photos now when I open them for editing (OK for viewing only). It doesn’t happen on every image, but is random enough to be impossible to work out if there’s any common cause. It happens on any type of file (Raw or JPEG doesn’t matter), and any camera model. They can be unedited originals, or previously edited, it may or may not happen, but does seem to be perhaps 50% of images I view in any album.
It’s actually so bad now that I’ve actually abandoned using Raw Power all together, as it’s impossible to know if I can edit any given image.
It does seem to take a handful of images before it first happens, but once it does, it may, or may not, clear itself, if I keep selecting/reselecting the images. I did originally only get this when first opening an image for editing in a session.
Of course I’ve tried, numerous times, your suggestions you sent me, turning Off/On Metal Support, I’ve rebuilt the catalogue, I’ve repeatedly deleted the app, rebooted and reinstalled it again. I’ve even switched off iCloud Photos and then re-synced it, and even reset the iPad completely. All to no avail.
To clarify, this is on an iPad Pro 12.9″ 512GB, 2020 model, running iPadOS 15 (always updated to latest version). Is this a rare configuration for Raw Power users perhaps? Is there something on this particular setup that’s the cause?
I also run Raw Power on an old iMac 27″ (Late 2013 model, macOS Catalina), and have not seen this issue there. Admittedly, I have recently upgraded it to Monterey using OpenCore Patcher, but it’s running fine, and has made no difference to anything here.
It isn’t apparent in any other apps either, and I use, or have tried, just about everything on the App Store.
Of course I’d love to get to the bottom of this, and be able to use Raw Power again, as I much prefer the way it integrates into the Photos library over anything else out there.
Best regards
Andy
How weird, I’ve been trying this out here, and can’t get it to go wrong at all. Even when I have JPEG set as the default in Photos, Raw Power has been picking up the Raw correctly. Very strange indeed. It does seem as though Photos is applying some kind of edit to those images.
Anyway, that might be helpful to know it’s not a general issue.
Just to add to that, this only applies to Raw Power on an iPad, the Desktop version seems to be behaving normally.
Also to confirm that this is when accessing the Photos Library directly from Raw Power.
Cheers.
Hi Nik,
My thought is that the scaling of the sliders is opposite to what is really needed with some of the sliders.
The ‘gear-down’ function is, I think, unique to Raw Power, so difficult to compare, but perhaps that look at Photos as an example.
In Photos, the normal scale gives a short range of adjustment (-1.0 to 0.0 to 1.0 with 0.01 increments), so a certain amount of movement gives a modest amount of change to the image. If you need a more aggressive change to the image, then you can hold down Option to increase the scale to -2.0 to 0.0 to 2.0 in 0.01 increments, so the same about of movement on the slider gives double the effect. But it means the default is the more controllable scale.
There is a similar function in Pixelmator Photo too, which works similarly to the one in Photos.
In Raw Power this seems to be a different philosophy, so you have to ‘gear down’ to get the greater control over the amount of adjustment.
It just seems very tricky, especially on an iPad, to get fine enough control without using ‘gear down’. This is most noticeable in the Saturation and Vibrancy slider, where I find it’s most common to be trying be using the 0.0x levels on the scale if I don’t use ‘gear down’ I’m fiddling about back and forth trying to find the right spot.
Hope that helps.
Andy
Hi Nik,
I too have mentioned this in the past, especially when using the Pencil to move the sliders. It can be tricky to make the movement for the ‘gear down’ action.
My issue is that with some of the sliders, the Colour (Color!) ones for Saturation and Vibrancy in particular, can be too aggressive. I find that they have a lot of unused movement, as for most images I’m ending up with a less than 0.1 increment is needed. It can be fiddly to get into the ideal levels.
I don’t think the size of the sliders needs adjusting though, they’re fine for size. How about a different approach to the two step gearing applied (Photos increases the level with the Option key, and there’s also an prefs panel option in Pixelmator to change the scaling on the sliders – but these are the opposite to Raw Power, and perhaps make more sense for normal use). Certainly on the iPad version, the scales could be the opposite way round.
Just some thoughts there.
Cheers
Hi Nik
Thanks for the reply.
Levels should not be crashing; it sounds like something specific to certain images. If you can upload a sample image that crashes, I can look into a fix. Please email support@gentlemencoders.com and I will send you the URL (I don’t want to publish the URL here on a public-facing website).
This is the same thing happening as last time I reported it in a previous article I posted. I’ll try and find an image that it happens with.
Editing slows down – I’m not sure what you are seeing, so it’s hard for me to determine what the issue is. I have not experience something similar; slider lag usually indicates the GPU is being overdriven, but I would think your machine would be plenty capable enough.
What I’m doing is opening an Album from Photos, and editing an image, then moving onto the next by clicking on the thumbnail strip. I’m working through the album like this for perhaps 12-15 images, without any issues at all, all sliders are operating smoothly and instantly. Then all of a sudden, the sliders move with a lot of lag, I drag one, and then it’ll move after a second or two. This happens with any of the normal sliders, such as Exposure, Saturation, Sharpening, and so on. But the Levels tools works without any lag at all when this happens. Quite strange.
RAW Brick. The sliders provides are determined by Apple based on the format of the file. Depending on the version of DNG you used, you will get different sliders. The preset could have a bug based on that series of steps.
Ok, I kind of expected that might be the case there (apart from the NR bug).
Yes, the crop and straighten tool needs refinement. I’m not happy with it either 🙁
You can get the right result eventually, if you keep trying.
Cheers
Andy
I know this won’t help as such, more of a comment rather than help, but I always had terrible trouble using Referenced files with photos. Indeed, it’s a well discussed thing on various forums.
Since moving mine to an entirely iCloud based system, and using a fully (optimised) managed library, it’s been very stable and rarely has bother with third party extensions like Raw Power.
It might depend on your setup, I had even worse trouble using an external HDD as storage too, but again, since putting it onto my internal SSD, and optimising to iCloud, it’s been fine.
FWIW, I think the Photos library can be a bit fragile, all sorts of anomalies can upset things, could just be a file type it doesn’t like, or just one file that may be slightly corrupt, a dodgy USB cable, or hub, or drive enclosure, anything like that.
I’d just like to add a vote for a graduated filter, one of those where you get a line across the image to adjust exposure for sky and land, for example. My preference is for landscapes, so that would be a welcome addition.
Cheers
Andy
Yes, I had considered that, but in either case, I find it hard to make a precision adjustment anyway. Even on a 12.9″ iPad Pro, the box is quite small, and the movements required on the graph are also small and tricky, even using a Pencil 2.
I appreciate this is all limited by the size of the screen, and some compromise between the size of the image and the size of the sidebar needing to fit into the space.
Cheers
