I am exploring the possibility of using houdahgeo to correct thousands of photos of which I sometimes do not have geo information available.
When using the Media Browser I easily see all photos in albums etc. However when I select one or a few dozen or a hundred in almost all the cases it is not able to "load" the photo.
Could not find the original for "'
Use the Photos application to find and reconnect the original file
Could not read metadata for
File does not exist: 62753203-741C-478F-BDB1-AA05A315654E_1_201_a.jpeg
Could not read metadata for
File does not exist: EF57DD4E-CB84-4793-9195-A5B1DD3415C9_1_201_a.jpeg
Could not read metadata for
File does not exist: AAC1532E-4919-4DF5-8E2A-A3500B6398D9_1_201_a.jpeg
But the images are shot in RAW and not with RAW+JPEG. The previous works just fine but when I drag them from the media browser they all grey out.
I did notice that when I quick looked a photo in the media browser I was able to see the picture but this can only be done manually and one at a time so not really an option.
I also do not need to see the full high res image the thumbnail is more than fine to know where the picture was made but at the moment I am at a loss how to load an entire album in one go? Is this a limitation of the free version perhaps?
HoudahGeo uses the previews to show the files in the main window. Sometimes previews do not exists for images that were not edited. HoudahGeo then uses the originals. It just prefers previews in the main window since previews have all your edits applied.
HoudahGeo needs access to the original since it wants to write geotags to the original image files.
Apple Photos has a feature that allows you to add photos to your library without copying the photos to the library. The library then references the photos in their original location. It is your responsibility to keep the photos at that location.
When you move the photo files or move the library to a new drive, the connection between the library and the referenced files can be broken. When you attempt to edit such photos in the Photos application, Photos will ask you to "reconnect" the photos. I.e. you should point Photos to the new location for these files.
Try editing one of the problematic photo using the Apple Photos application. Does it ask you to reconnect the files? It should reconnect all files from the same folder in one pass.
There is something else that is strange about the error messages. They all lack the photo's name.
Does media browser show a name for the photos?
I think the issue is that all the photos are in the cloud and not on my disk so there is not much to load. Perhaps a request to the photos iCloud library need to be made to it is able to retrieve it? As when doing a quicklook it takes a while and then it shows the preview which is then visible in the application. So I guess the application cannot handle cloud stored images handled by apple photos? I cannot store them on disk as I do not have enough capacity.
Yes, that explains it.
iCloud Photos with the option to optimize disk space creates more serious problems.
The root of the problem is that once a photo is uploaded, iCloud Photos will not sync or re-upload modified image files after geotagging. The changes will only exist on your Mac. When iCloud Photos later decides to remove the original photo file from your Mac, the geotagged version of the photo is lost.
What is left, is the location information added to the Photos library.
Refer to the HoudahGeo user guide for recommended workflows.
This is the very same issue that I am having with HG and my Apple Photos library. Can I please ask if the issue with Optimise Disk Space being turned on is overcome if it's turned off and all photos in Apple Photos are stored locally? If I deselect Optimise Disk Space and make changes to the metadata in HG and then decide at a future date to Optimise Disk Space again, does the metadata get lost when the photos are moved to the cloud?
The general problem with iCloud Photos, is that it does not sync changes made to the original photo files. The files are uploaded to the cloud once. That version of the file can be synched to your other devices. HoudahGeo can add EXIF/XMP metadata tags to the files available on your Mac. These changes however will not propagate to iCloud or your other devices. If later, Optimize Disk Storage removed the tagged files, these new versions of the files will be lost.
The general recommendation when working with iCloud Photos is to geotag the photos before adding them the Photos library. In that workflow, the geotagged files are sent to iCloud and kept. You can use HoudahGeo or Apple's Image Capture application to import photos to your Mac.