[cmtjt]

Many of my iphoto pictures are no longer able to be edited or moved to my desktop in order to upload them to a photo processing company. I also can't burn them. They may be pictures from my previous imac that were transferred to my new MacBook, I have no problems with recent photos. Please help...I would love to print them for my son's babybook.

[Rcovell]

What is the format of the picture?
Bob.

[cmtjt]

Does the format mean JPEG? If so, they are all JPEG.

[Rcovell]

The pics being listed as JPEG's is a good start. What actually happens when you try to drag a pic to the desktop? Where are the pics located when you're trying to move them? Can you access the Copy command in the Edit part of the top header? Do you see any Export option under any of the top header columns?
Bob.

[cmtjt]

Thanks Bob for trying to help. The photos in question are in my iphoto library. When I try to drag a picture to my desktop, a minus sign appears, whereas a plus sign usually appears when I successfully drag other photos. I can access the copy function in the edit menu at the top of the page. I wouldn't know where to copy the photos though. I tried copying one to a word document, but nothing happened. When I export to my desktop, the message "unable to create...." appears. In comparing photo info between the photos I can edit/export and the ones I can't...the only difference I notice is the photos I can't manipulate were all transferred from my G4 to my MacBook via firewire and the transfer program that came with the MacBook.

[griffman]

In iPhoto, ctrl-click on a troublesome photo and pick "Reveal in Finder" (or something like that. In the Finder, do a Get Info (command-I) on that photo and look at the Permissions section.
Now do the same thing with a "good" photo. Are the permissions different between the two? Can you list what you see for both?
-rob.

[cmtjt]

Below is the info listed when I ctrl-clicked on a troublesome photo:
width, height, original date, digitized date, name, size, modified, imported, maker, model, software
Like I mentioned in the previous post, the only significant difference I could see in the info between a "good" picture and a "bad" picture was the import date. Unless there is another photo info I should be looking for? I couldn't find anything about permissions.
Permissions seems to be a key here, so I did a finder search and located info on correcting a permissions error, but the directions don't make sense to me (I'm not exactly a proficient user).
It said to select the specific photo file (which I interpreted as the actual picture), "choose file > get info, then be sure the checkbox for "locked" is not selected." When I tried to follow these directions, I selected a "bad" photo, went to FILE to get info and it wasn't there. Only headings like new album, import, export, page setup, print, etc. So I searched the top menu bar, selected PHOTO and found GET INFO, but this was the same information I got when I ctrl-clicked the photo, and still found nothing about permissions. So it seems both you and iPhoto HELP knows something my machine doesn't, although I know it's probably the user...maybe I'm interpreting something wrong?

[griffman]

Please read my instructions again -- control-click on the photo and choose Reveal in Finder. Then do a Get Info (Command-I) in the Finder, not iPhoto. There you will see a Permissions section.
Do this for both good & bad photos, and compare.
-rob.

[cmtjt]

There is no "reveal in finder" on my machine, but when I selected "show file" I was able to see permissions info.
Good Photo: My name is in the owner and group slot, access: read and write
Bad Photo: no screen would pop up when I selected "show file". I can only get info on bad photos when I select "show info" and that is what gives me dimensions, etc.
A co-worker was able to get one to transfer to my desktop today, through quite a process, but the dimensions were only 360 x 270 and I don't think that will work for printing. This made him think that maybe the bad photos were only thumbnails.

[iBookmaster]

If you drag those pictures to the desktop while holding option do you get a plus sign? That plus sign means it's copying the pictures to the location you're dragging to. If you can get the pics copied to the desktop, you should be able to burn them.

[cmtjt]

The photos in question still won't copy to the desktop while holding the option key. I also tried burning my whole photo library to a CD, but when I took it to a Walgreen's photo machine, only 42 of the 172 photos showed up. The 172 photos were the ones transferred from iPhoto 5 on my former G4.

[sandbag1]

You normally don't need to Option drag a photo to the desktop, just drag it there. When you Control click on a picture, the option you want is Show Original File. Does the original file then show in it's folder where iPhoto stored it?
edited to add:

Quote:

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I can access the copy function in the edit menu at the top of the page. I wouldn't know where to copy the photos though.

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When you do this, does the photo show up in the clipboard? Can you open the Preview application then choose New From Clipboard?

[cmtjt]

When I ctrl click on a bad photo, the "Show Original File" is grayed out and I can't access it.

[iBookmaster]

Sounds like it iPhoto can't find the original file. When you look at one of the pictures you can't find the original to in edit mode does it show up filling most of your screen or is it small? If it's small, it is a thumbnail of the original and you'd have to find your original and reimport it. Yes, a pain indeed.