Posted Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Apple Deleted My Post, So I'm Publishing It Here:
Never Use iPhoto's "Erase after transfer" Option

Yesterday, I posted a reply on Apple's discussion boards. A user had suffered a trauma: he imported some photos into iPhoto, and had checked the "Erase camera contents after transfer" box. Alas, for some reason, iPhoto didn't import the photos -- but it did erase the camera's contents. Ouch.

I have a friend who fell victim to this same problem, so I posted a reply with my standard advice, the same advice that appears in my book: never use the "erase after transfer" option. Pretend it isn't even there. Verify that your photos came in correctly, then use your camera's menus to erase the card.

This morning's email brought notification that my post had been deleted because it was inappropriate. Whatever. It's Apple's sandbox, and Apple can and clearly does set and enforce its own rules.

Just for the record: I'm not claiming iPhoto has an importing bug. As far as I know, the problem the original poster described -- and that my friend once encountered -- is extremely rare. Caused by cosmic rays, even.

All's I'm sayin' is, to lose photos even once is one time too many. Don't use "erase after import." Why take the chance?

Oh, and the user's story has a happy ending. He used the $29 PhotoRescue to recover the photos that iPhoto deleted after not transferring.

No censorship here The Macintosh iLife '04 is full of no-holds-barred advice on all five iLife programs -- almost 300 pages (Amazon's page count is wrong), plus a two-hour instructional DVD. Complete with four-letter words like disc and card. It's at the printer now; pre-order before the Department of Homeland Security starts questioning its $20.99 price.