Hidden photos in iPhoto not backed up by Time Machine

[Harlekino]

I'm DSLR hobbyist doing a lot of traveling. There are times when I make around 1,000 photos during a short break abroad and obviously I don't want to bore everyone with such huge amount of photos and therefore I use the "hide" function in iPhoto and keep only around 30 best shots visible.

However, as I recently found out, my hidden pictures are not being backed up on my external hard drive!!! I'm using Time Machine for back ups. Why is that?! I've got plenty of space on extrenal drive and want all my photos backed up, not only the visible ones.

I lost only one hidden photo that I propably accidentally deleted while tidying up that Event few months ago, but I can't imagine the disaster that could happen if my hard drive broke down, mainly when I was still under impression that all my photos are safely backed up on Time Machine drive.

Is anyone else having this problem? Any handy solution how to keep only the best pictures on the screen while all the others are backed up by Time Machine?

Thank you

 

[wordmunger]

I realize this isn't exactly what you want, but why not put your best photos in an album and keep all the photos visible? When you want to show off your photos, just select that album.

It seems odd to hide nearly all of your photos most of the time - that doesn't strike me as the purpose of the feature.

Nonetheless, it also seems wrong for Time Machine not to back them up.

 

[disdat]

Are you sure it's not backing it up?

How are you checking your backup? Specifically go to the external hard drive (for Time Machine) in Finder. Then find your latest backup.

Right click on the iphoto 08 package and "show package" to reveal all the files.

Take a look at the folder with a hidden file. It should be there. Even photos in your trash bin should be there.

I just tested it by hiding a photo, and it was backed up.

 

[AxisOfBeagles]

Don' know about Time Machine not backing up hidden photos ... but I don;t trust TM completely. So about once a month I do a 'manual' backup of everything critical (such as iPhoto Library).

Just in case.

 

[Westside guy]

However, as I recently found out, my hidden pictures are not being backed up on my external hard drive!!! I'm using Time Machine for back ups. Why is that?!

Please explain how you "recently found out" about this - it doesn't make sense that Time Machine would even be aware of whether a picture is "hidden" or not.

 

[Baja2k]

OP is right and wrong

Please explain how you "recently found out" about this - it doesn't make sense that Time Machine would even be aware of whether a picture is "hidden" or not.

I wrote a long message that was lost (I assume because my session timed out) I performed this test because I was skeptical of OP.


New Stick of photos (None already anywhere on the computer) - Copied three to Iphoto - Hid one Photo and forced a TM backup. The Photo is backed up. Going to the backup drive and into the Iphoto package proves this.

However, OP is correct that Iphoto will not display the photo in TM no matter what you do. I deleted the Photo out of Iphoto and tried to retrieve it in TM. Searching by name will take me back to time of the forced backup but will display a blank screen.

Very Interesting, I would to consider this a bug but don't know what Apple's plan for on this is or was.

Regards,
Alan

 

[Westside guy]

New Stick of photos (None already anywhere on the computer) - Copied three to Iphoto - Hid one Photo and forced a TM backup. The Photo is backed up. Going to the backup drive and into the Iphoto package proves this.

However, OP is correct that Iphoto will not display the photo in TM no matter what you do. I deleted the Photo out of Iphoto and tried to retrieve it in TM. Searching by name will take me back to time of the forced backup but will display a blank screen.

Very Interesting, I would to consider this a bug but don't know what Apple's plan for on this is or was.

So it's good news, bad news.

The good news is the hidden photos are indeed backed up. If they weren't that'd be a HUGE problem.

But it sounds like iPhoto doesn't play nice with Time Machine. It seems like a big bug to me too (fortunately not as serious as not being backed up at all would be, though). I would bet iPhoto's not the only app that needs some TLC to get it to work as it should. Was iPhoto's most recent incarnation released before (or about the same time as) Time Machine became available?

I'm not an iPhoto user; but someone who is should report this to Apple.