Converting from iPhoto to Photos in iOS 8
Sometime before updating to iOS 8, I did see that iPhoto for iOS would not run on the new iOS. I didn't think much of it, since Photos replaces iPhoto. And now that I've upgraded, I tried to launch iPhoto for the first time over the weekend, and was greeted with a message about migrating to Photos.
When you launch iPhoto on iOS 8, this is the migration dialog you’ll see
I tapped Migrate, and off it went. It didn't take terribly long; maybe five minutes or so.
iPhoto to Photos transition in progress
Once the migration was complete, all my iPhoto albums showed up in Photos. I didn't have many in there, but in addition to the “everything” album and selects and favorites you see below, there were another couple of albums named as they were in iPhoto.
The iPhoto albums showed up as expected in Photos
The migration dialog says that your image adjustments will be preserved, but if you click on the Learn More button, you'll read what that actually means. From the Apple support article “Migrating from iPhoto for iOS to Photos on iOS 8”…
Photos you edited in iPhoto migrate to Photos with all adjustments intact. However, you can't further modify these adjustments. You can apply additional adjustments to the edited image or you can use the Revert to Original command to remove the iPhoto adjustments completely.
I looked for an image I'd edited, and sure enough, the edited version was there, and the revert button was available once I tapped on Edit. Tapping on it did, in fact, revert the image to its original state.
This image was edited in iPhoto—the edits are intact in Photos, and you can revert if needed
Additional reading of the release notes will tell you something unfortunate about your projects…
Photo Books, Web Journals, and Slideshows are converted into regular albums in Photos. Text and layouts are not preserved.
Needless to say, if you've put a lot of effort into these in iPhoto, this is an unfortunate discovery. And there's no going back on this—once you've updated to iOS 8, you are forever locked out of iPhoto. In fact, I grabbed an older iPad that hadn't yet been upgraded to iOS 8, and tried to download iPhoto from the App Store—and it appears to be gone!
This may come too late for many users, but if you're a big iPhoto for iOS user, you may want to hold off on the upgrade, so you can ensure you have everything done in iPhoto you want done, before making the move.
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Comments
on September 27, 2014 - 11:30pm
Joseph: thanks for this post on the iOS iPhoto transition. I have not upgraded yet to ios8. In your experience what/how is the organizational structure of photos in ios8? I understand that you can import your albums and keep your edits–and lose any work such as iOS JOURNALS. ( shame/ and I don’t have any sense this will be restored. Expect it will be like cards–just gone)
Question: CAN you create folders/ projects etc?
2nd question: regarding the suggestion of not updating to Yosemite until we are sure about the timing of an aperture update after Yosemite and nature of how aperture would work with the new OS–wouldn’t that be a very long wait? Or do you expect this to happen quickly after Yosemite update?
Thanks.
on September 28, 2014 - 9:41pm
You can create albums in Photos in iOS 8 exactly as you did before in iOS 7. No changes there. Not folders and projects (as you're used to thinking of those from Aperture), but albums (just as you're used to thinking of those in Photos).
I expect Aperture to update at the same time as Yosemite. I don't have any specific data on that, just that the announcement was made well in advance so there's no excuse to not have it ready on time.
@PhotoJoseph
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on September 28, 2014 - 1:08pm
Losing books, slideshows, etc in Photos for iOS probably foretells that we will lose all those things when converting Aperture libraries to Photos when it arrives on OS X early next year. So sad to lose that as Aperture has far better books than other tools I’ve used. Perhaps Apple is getting out of the business of making calendars, books, cards and all manner of their printed products.
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on September 28, 2014 - 9:43pm
I'm reasonably confident that books will not be going away. I can't get into the why of this, and I can't say it for certain, but I have my reasons to believe books are here to stay. Perhaps in a different format (frankly I'd prefer to see them as an external app, a-la iBooks Author), but that's just hope and speculation on my part.
@PhotoJoseph
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on September 28, 2014 - 4:56pm
DI had previously deleted the iPhoto app from my iPhone, but kept it on my iPad ….I can not reinstall the app to my phone and can only migrate pics from iPhoto on my iPad to PHOTOS……is this the only option…”to migrate iPhoto photos to PHOTOS“….with iPhoto software completely disappearing…..My question is the upgrading to Yosemite seal the fate of both iPhoto software and worst the APerture Software on my iMAC? Unfortunately my One To One employee at the Apple store reassured me Apple was not going to yank Aperture from my computer…but I am now of the opinion what he was telling me I was never going to be able to upgrade to Yosemite……Any thoughts? What happens to the RAW files in APerture? Should I be looking into moving my libraries to Lightroom?
on September 28, 2014 - 9:44pm
Apple made it very clear that Aperture would receive at least one maintenance release to make it fully compatible with Mac OS X Yosemite. It won't disappear. And remember, Photos for OS X is not coming when Yosemite does — it'll be here sometime in 2015.
@PhotoJoseph
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on September 29, 2014 - 1:52am
Joseph: any sense of whether Photos under YOSEMITE will permit the structure we are used to in Aperture–Projects/Folders and attendant search criteria? Or do you suspect that Photos/Yosemite will be like Photos/ios–that is ALBUMS ONLY?
Thanks.
on September 29, 2014 - 2:40am
I have reason to believe that eventually we will see what we want, but not at first.
@PhotoJoseph
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on October 1, 2014 - 2:35am
Current tentative thinking about upgrade path for Yosemite and aperture.
After thinking about Joseph’s insights about the new photos app and what it will or will not have– here is my current thinking on upgrading.
1: do not upgrade to Yosemite until it is clear that Yosemite does not seriously break aperture as we know it.
2: do not upgrade aperture until we are sure that the promised aperture upgrade does not break aperture.
Wish I did not feel that I was in this kind of bind. But this wait and be sure approach is what makes sense to me.
I wish we were not in this no man’s land—-wondering what will the new OS and the new photos ap do and not do. I wish it were not asking too much to tell users here is what the new OS will do. Here is what the new photos ap will do. Here is what you will not be able to do that you used to do with aperture. Upgrade or don’t. Use the new products or don’t. But these are the characteristics you need to know about your decision on the future of your photographic output–mages, metadata, organization and editing. Then you decide as you see fit.
I am beginning to think that short of telling users the answers to the questions organizing and editing–and WHAT YOU LOSE (such as iOS journals) in the ios8 photos/ vs iPhoto world– short of explicit answers– again including features you lose– borders on irresponsible.