Reverting back to Mavericks, iPhoto question

[Kevsurf]

Hello guys,

it would be so nice if you could help me out. The Thing is, that I am sick of El Capitan on my mid 2012 MacBook Air, 4gb. I have the Feeling that my OS got slow ever since I upgraded to Yosemite and El Capitan. In my opinion, Mavs was the fastest OS.
After upgrading to Yosemite, I transfered all my pictures into the new Photos app and deleted the old iPhoto library (note: I still have a TimeMachine Backup of an old Version of the iPhoto library).

So, when I reinstall Mavs, how can I transfer all my Pictures from the Photos library (including all Events and created Albums) into the iPhoto library?

So, thanks in advance for your help guys,
Kevin

 

[maflynn]

I think you can only export any new images loaded in Photos into iPhoto. There is no way to move events from the new photos app to the old iPhoto app AFAIK. Its a one way (iPhoto to Photos) migration.

 

[Kevsurf]

I think you can only export any new images loaded in Photos into iPhoto. There is no way to move events from the new photos app to the old iPhoto app AFAIK. Its a one way (iPhoto to Photos) migration.

Thank you! So if I export every taken picture since the TimeMachine Backup and reimport it into iPhoto I should be good,right?

 

[maflynn]

Yup, that will work

 

[ApfelKuchen]

Personally, I would put a bit more effort into making El Capitan work. Compared to reconstructing everything you've done in Photos, it could be a lot easier. I currently have my old, Early 2008 iMac running way better now under El Cap than it was in early 2014 when I got my new iMac (it would have been running Mavericks back then). Running EtreCheck (and following the recommendations) was a big help. An erase/reinstall/restore from Time Machine was another (neither, by itself, was the full solution).

Part of the problem with trying to go back to the good old days is that our aging computers keep accumulating little problems that have little to do with the version of the OS you're running. Sure, it was working better under Mavericks then, would it still be running as well today if you hadn't upgraded? No way to know for sure - An erase/reinstall may fix the problem, perhaps regardless of which version of OS X you reinstall.

If I was going back to iPhoto, I would want to export both the unedited masters and the edited versions of each image (when edits were made) - in my case, RAWs plus either high quality JPGs or TIFFs. I want to preserve the edits I've made, but I don't want to be locked in.

 

[Ebenezum]

OP:

Unfortunately you are in a pickle. I don't see a easy way out.

You have two options:

1. Export all new pictures from Photos, clean install Mavericks and copy your old iPhoto library, then import all new pictures. It might be a lot of work but it will certainly work.

2. Figure out what is wrong with El Capitan and try to fix it. It might be impossible if the problems are because of bugs in the OS. I am not certain if clean install of El Capitan is going to help because you haven't mentioned examples of the problems.

I currently have my old, Early 2008 iMac running way better now under El Cap than it was in early 2014 when I got my new iMac (it would have been running Mavericks back then).

I don't doubt thats the case but I'm not certain its because of El Capitan, in my experience it is slower than Mavericks on oldest supported Macs even when clean installed. I suspect the cleaning you did with the help of EtreCheck was more beneficial.

Part of the problem with trying to go back to the good old days is that our aging computers keep accumulating little problems that have little to do with the version of the OS you're running. Sure, it was working better under Mavericks then, would it still be running as well today if you hadn't upgraded? No way to know for sure - An erase/reinstall may fix the problem, perhaps regardless of which version of OS X you reinstall.

Assuming one doesn't install harmful software (for instance so called "cleaners"), uses Disk Utility to fix possible problems and keeps sufficient free space available in the drive OS X should maintain itself just fine for years. I have used Mavericks on my old 2007 iMac almost three years without any slowdown or problems. I also have El Capitan installed on it because its my test Mac for upgrades and I haven't seen any speed benefits compared to Mavericks.