Tag Archives: photos

fixed : save Instagram pictures to Photos.app on macOS

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Question :

I came across some group photos on Instagram that I am on but that I did not take and/or post myself. I would really like to save them to my Photos.app but I can’t figure out a way to do that…

How do I do that ?

Answer :

Yes, this is possible, but… DO NOT use any app on your iPhone, iPad or Mac that needs your Instagram login credentials to do that !! as by doing that, you are granting third party access to your Instagram and you are thereby making your Instagram account extreme vulnerable to hacking, fraud and identity swapping !!

Instagram has made it impossible to save pictures from within the Instagram.app (either on iPhone, iPad or Mac) so the only ‘good’ way to do this is via the website. To do so, do this :

  • on your Mac, open the Photos.app
  • then, open Safari and in the top menu bar goto Safari > Settings > Advanced
  • in the “Advanced” window, make sure that there is a checkmark at “Show Develop menu in menu bar”
  • now, close the Settings and goto http://www.instagram.com
  • login using your account name and password
  • scroll through the pictures and select one that you want to download / save to Photos.app
  • now, in the top menu bar goto Develop > Show Page Source
  • the underwater screen will now appear in the bottom half of the browser window
  • inside the underwater screen, in the menu on the left, click on the folder named “Images”
  • now, in the main past of the underwater screen you will see just the pictures of your Instagram page
  • scroll through these pictures and when you find a picture that you want to download drag&drop it to Photos.app’s main screen and it will be imported to your Photos.app (note that you could also drag&drop the image to your Desktop or any folder in the Finder to save the picture to your Mac)
  • repeat this drag&drop action for every picture you want to download
  • when done, close Safari
  • now, goto the Photos.app and in the menu list on the left, click on “Imports”
  • then, on the main part of the Photos window, all recently imported pictures will appear
  • scroll down to the very bottom and you will see the pictures you have imported from Instagram
  • from here on, you can use the downloaded Instagram pictures however you like…

…that’s it !

enjoy 😉

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fixed : quick slideshow of a folder of pictures

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Question :
Someone sent me a bunch of photos that I need to review. I have them in a folder, but I don’t want to import them into Photos.app, Keynote or PowerPoint or even Preview.app to have a look at them and select the most important ones.

Is there any option or simple app to do this ?

 

Answer :

Yes there is, there is an option for this in macOS (and OSX) called Quick Look. In previous versions of OSX and Mac OSX the Quick Look option was visible in any Finder window as a ‘button with an eye icon on it’, in macOS it is slightly hidden in the pulldown menu that opens when you click the ‘button with a sprocket (gear) icon on it’.

There’s even a shortcut for this :

  • open a Finder window
  • open the folder with the photos in it
  • select the photos you want to review (hold the CMD-key while picking photos one-by-one, hold the SHIFT-key to select multiple photos in a row, or press the CMD + A key combo to select all photos)
  • then press the SPACEBAR to view all selected photos as a slideshow
  • or press the ALT + SPACE key combo to view all selected photos as a full screen slideshow
  • note : the file names are shown with each photo, so if you need to review and select photos you will know which photos you have chosen

That’s it.

enjoy 😉

 

 

fixed : put Photos database on external drive to save space

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Question :

My internal HD is too full, so I want to make room for macOS to run smoothly again. As my Photos.app database is huge, would it be possible to move that database onto an external HD that is continuously connected to my Mac.

Is there any option to do so ?

 

Answer :

Yes, it is possible to move your entire Photos.app database to an external HD. Apple does explicitly recommend to use an external HD that is connected to your Mac directly with USB, ThunderBolt or FireWire. (and Apple explicitly recommends against putting your active Photos.app database on a wireless drive or network drive)

To do this, do this :

  • get yourself an external HD, preferably one that is using a fast cable connection to connect to your Mac ; Samsung currently has some small and very good external HDs using USB-C for this : Samsung T5 Portable SSD
  • plug the external HD into your Mac
  • goto Applications –> Utilities –> Disk Utility
  • open Disk Utility
  • reformat the external HD as “Mac OS Extended”
  • now, in the Finder, create a new folder on the external HD named Pictures
  • then, in the Finder, goto Users –> [your name]  –> Pictures
  • then drag&drop the Photos Library file to the external HD you have just created
  • …this may take a while
  • when done, open the Photos.app while pressing the [ALT]-key
  • in the Choose Library window that opens, click on the “Other Library”-button
  • from the pulldown Finder window, choose your new external drive –> Pictures –> Photos Library
  • then click the Open-button
  • now Photos.app will start up using the Photos Library on the external HD (and it will keep using the Photos Library on the external HD as its default library from now on)
  • check inside Photos.app to see if all your photos are now available (there’s no reason why they wouldn’t but just to make sure…)
  • now start using this setup as your new Photos.app setup, and if you don’t run into any problems in a few weeks (or even months if you need to) you can delete the Photos Library that was in the Pictures folder in your Home folder on your Mac’s internal drive to clear up some space

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

fixed : new iPhone photos not showing up in macOS Photos.app

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Question :

I am trying to get my photos from my iPhone onto my Mac. But after connecting my iPhone using USB the Photos.app does start up in macOS, but the newest photos I’ve made with my iPhone never show up my Mac.

Disconnecting and reconnecting my iPhone doesn’t help. Restarting the iPhone doesn’t resolve this problem, neither does restarting my Mac.

What can I do to solve this ?

 

Answer :

Even though you are encountering a very annoying problem, it’s rather easy to solve :

  • disconnect your iPhone (or iPad) from your Mac
  • open the Photos.app in iOS (on your iPhone/iPad)
  • click on the Photos-button (bottom-left ; the icon consisting of a double rectangle with the text ‘Photos’ below it)
  • select one photo one of the newest photos
  • then click on the Share-button (bottom-left ; the icon consisting of a square with an arrow pointing upward)
  • select all photos that are not showing up on you Mac, by swiping the photos to the left and right and tapping the bottom-right circle of each individual missing photo (the circle will turn into a blue checkmark)
  • then swipe in the row of app-icons to the Shared Albums icon and click it
  • wait while the clock says ‘Preparing’
  • then click Cancel (top-left)
  • now connect your iPhone (or iPad) to your Mac
  • open the Photos.app in macOS (on your Mac)
  • unlock your iPhone (or iPad) using your fingerprint/face-scan/screen-unlock-code
  • then, on your Mac, in Photos.app goto the left side bar and at Devices, click on your iPhone/iPad
  • then wait for the photos to appear as New Items
  • and click on the Import All New Items button top-right (or select only the photos you want to import and click on the Import Selected button)

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

fixed : AirDrop from Mac to iPhone/iPad

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Question :

I’ve just installed iOS 7 on my iPhone 5, and since I was reading about AirDrop being one of the new features, I immediately thought of using AirDrop to get this picture I just made onto my iPhone…

But when I turn on AirDrop on both my Mac and my iPhone, they can’t seem to see each other…

Is there any way to get this to work ?

Answer :

No – at least : officially not.

So far, AirDrop is only available on Macs with supported AirPort-cards running MacOSX 10.7 “Lion” or newer and on the iPhone 5 and newer running iOS 7…

Furthermore, AirDrop is only supported Mac-to-Mac or iPhone/iPad-to-iPhone/iPad…

Maybe this situation will change with the introduction of OSX 10.9 “Mavericks”, but for now there is no (official) option to use AirDrop from Mac-to-iPhone/iPad and vice-versa…

But…

There is an alternative that works the same basically : AirDisk Pro

(note : seems like Phone Drive and Phone Drive FREE are exactly the same app as AirDisk Pro, but at a lower price, even free…)

With this AirDrop-alternative, file transfer is very quick …and it’s even more compatible than the official AirDrop : the app can be installed on any iPhone or iPad running iOS 4.3 and the WiFi-connection can be made from any Mac or PC using a web browser…

In short, the app works like this :

– install the app on your iPhone/iPad

get AirDisk Pro
get Phone Drive FREE [stores max. 10 files]
get Phone Drive

– make sure your iPhone/iPad and your Mac/PC are on the same WiFi-network

– run the app

– enter the IP-address (or network name) that the app gives you as a URL in your Mac/PC’s web browser

– drag the file you want to transfer onto the webpage

done !

enjoy 😉

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