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Aranamac · Aug 21, 2007, 04:40 PM

Has anyone else had performance issues with the new iPhoto on G4 machines? I have a 20" iMac G4 1.25 GHz, 1 gig ram, and iPhoto 08 is incredibly sluggish. There's a several second delay when editing and dragging the sliders to adjust exposure/levels/etc. My photo library on that machine is very small (just a few dozen photos), and the resolution of those photos is the same as the G4's monitor: 1680 x 1050 px. This is especially evident when I'm in full screen editing mode. The iMac has 1 gig of ram.

I haven't bothered to install iPhoto 08 on my iBook G4 yet (1.33, 1 gig of ram) if it is going to be that slow.

Has anyone else noticed this? How hard is it to uninstall 08 and reinstall 06?

adamfishercox · Aug 21, 2007, 04:53 PM

Uninstalling iPhoto is as easy as uninstalling any app, I think. Just drag to the trash.

Aranamac · Aug 21, 2007, 05:02 PM

But doesn't iPhoto 08 use a completely different kind of library as opposed to iPhoto 06? More of a centralised package like Apeture does. Wouldn't that affect 06?

Aranamac · Aug 25, 2007, 08:54 PM

*bump*

Anyone got an answer to either question (G4 perfomance, and 06 vs. 08 libraries)?

adamfishercox · 09:21 PM

Oh, sorry, I forgot to respond. Yes, there is a package there, and I doubt you would be able to return your photos to iPhoto '06. Do you have them backed up?

The only other way I could think of getting your photos out is using an app that undoes packages.

Someone wanna give the link to it? I know there is one, I cant remember the name, though.

EDIT: here it is:

CharlesSoft - software you always wished someone would write

AKcrab · Aug 25, 2007, 10:12 PM

ctrl-click your new "packaged" library -> Show Package Contents.
There is your originals folder; drag it out, delete '08, reinstall '06, add originals back into the library. That at least will get you back to '06. Your keywords and rolls and such will certainly be wiped.

Aranamac · Aug 26, 2007, 01:03 AM

It's a darn good thing I was testing iPhoto 08 on a very small library. I'd be right ticked if this were happening to my main library.

Shame, too. I really like the UI refinements and the new editing options. Events even seem kinda useful. But the performance is abysmal. Guess iLife 08 is a bust for me: don't use iWeb, iPhoto I love but can't use this version, GarageBand is always useful and not too bad performance-wise, iMovie... well... yeah, and never used iDVD.

Makes me wonder if Leopard will be similar in its performance on G4s. Is the 20" G4 iMac that much of a slouch?

Aranamac · Aug 26, 2007, 01:03 AM

BTW, Adam, thanks for the software link and response! Cheers.

Jens Peter · Aug 26, 2007, 03:10 AM

Is this a general thing, for G4 machines? I was planning to get iLife08 in a few weeks (when the paycheck arrives

) and install it on my 1.5Ghz 12" powerbook.... but if it's that sluggish, then I guess it would be a waste of money...

Moonray · Aug 26, 2007, 03:53 AM

So who can explain:

How to run iPhoto ’06 and iPhoto ’08 parallel?
How to backup the iPhoto ’06 library to restore it after trying iPhoto’08 and returning to ’06?

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AKcrab · Aug 26, 2007, 02:12 PM

Originally Posted by Moonray

So who can explain:

How to run iPhoto ’06 and iPhoto ’08 parallel?
How to backup the iPhoto ’06 library to restore it after trying iPhoto’08 and returning to ’06?

-

Running '06 and '08 in parallel isn't very doable; you would need two copies of your entire library, which already duplicates any photo you touch. Talk about hard drive space. If you really want to try, I would suggest using two users; one for '06 and one for '08.

Just archive the whole iPhoto Library folder if you want a backup that will restore fully when downgrading from '08.

Moonray · Aug 26, 2007, 02:40 PM

Originally Posted by AKcrab

Running '06 and '08 in parallel isn't very doable; you would need two copies of your entire library, which already duplicates any photo you touch. Talk about hard drive space. If you really want to try, I would suggest using two users; one for '06 and one for '08.

Just archive the whole iPhoto Library folder if you want a backup that will restore fully when downgrading from '08.

File names like “Library6.iPhoto” in the iPhoto Library folder let me hope the different versions won’t interfere with others. But then it might be that I won’t be using iLife ’08 at all. I hear more bad than good things about it.

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Koralatov · Aug 27, 2007, 06:06 PM

Aranamac : I'm running iPhoto '08 on a G4 with slightly lower spec than yours, and it's a touch on the sluggish side. It's not unusably slow on my machine, but it's certainly not nippy. iPhoto '06 was most definitely much faster, but I can live with '08 for the better keyword implementation and the 'Events' feature.

In response to your question regarding the G4 being a slouch, I really don't think it is. I regularly have iTunes, iPhoto, Yep!, Preview and sometime VLC all open at the same time, and I can quite compfortbaly use Exposé very smoothly, which I think proves the G4 has years left in it. And I think it should run Leopard just fine; it's my understanding that each version of OSX is generally more streamlined in performance than the last.

I think it's safe to say that iLife '08 will be the last version my beloved G4 can handle though. I think that aspect of OSX is leaving us very much in the past--it didn't even bother trying to install iMovie '08 on mine. From what I've read, though, that may have been a blessing in disguise...

peeb · Sep 14, 2007, 07:47 PM

My experience on my G4 1.67 is the '08 is faster. I wonder whether you might want to look into whether there are some issues with your machine before you go back to 06?

Koralatov · Sep 15, 2007, 10:51 AM

Originally Posted by peeb

My experience on my G4 1.67 is the '08 is faster. I wonder whether you might want to look into whether there are some issues with your machine before you go back to 06?

At the risk of sounding belligerent, I'm pretty certain that there are no other issues with my iMac that would cause a performance hit for iPhoto '08.

I found something that was slowing down my iPhoto, however. I hadn't restarted my computer in over a month (I just put it to sleep), and when I finally did, iPhoto was definitely nippier. The performance boost has remained, even though it's been a good while since I last restarted the iMac. I think that may have been my problem in the first place: I'd installed it on a machine that had been on for a month, then didn't restart it afterward.

I'm still very impressed with '08. The vastly-improved keyword implementation is worth price of admission alone, as is the Events feature.

peeb · Sep 15, 2007, 11:14 AM

Fair enough - I was just saying that it being really slow is not normal.

Koralatov · Sep 15, 2007, 02:32 PM

Originally Posted by peeb

Fair enough - I was just saying that it being really slow is not normal.

Sorry--I didn't mean to come off sounding like an asshole. I appreciate the advice, but I don't think it applies in my case. I worded my response poorly.

It was never really slow in my case, just not as quite a quick as iPhoto '06 was. Restarting my machine had a definite positive net effect, and I'd say it's running ~90% the speed of '06 now. And, as I said, I'm willing to trade that ~10% speed loss for the new Keyword and Events features.