Duplicate issue

Discuss Photomator and photo editing.
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2023-01-21 12:05:22

hi, i have a very frustrating problem with pixelmator photo. I'm working with the iCloud library, when I create a duplicate of a photo to have 2 versions a mess happens, the software always takes the post-production of the last photo, ignoring the others. How do I solve this problem? Thank you
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2023-01-22 16:06:00

by Valerio hi, i have a very frustrating problem with pixelmator photo. I'm working with the iCloud library, when I create a duplicate of a photo to have 2 versions a mess happens, the software always takes the post-production of the last photo, ignoring the others. How do I solve this problem? Thank you
Not quite sure what you’ve got there, but this is my process (assuming you already have a set of edited images).

• In Photos, I have an image I want to duplicate to apply some other processing to (most of my images are processed in Photos, but it could be from other apps just the same). I simply Use the ‘Duplicate’ item in the drop down menu. Or if I’m using a keyboard, I hit Command-D. That creates an identical copy of that image, including all the editing applied.
• I then select one of them, doesn’t really matter which, and open for editing, usually it’s the one that appears later in my album layout, and then apply the ‘Revert to Original’ option.
• Then I apply my new editing process on that image, and save it.
• You’ll end up with two version of the same image with different processing.

That process will open the original image file (if you have Raw images, it will open the Raw) in whatever extension app you are using, in this case of course it’s Pixelmator Photo. Once you’ve completed the edits in Pixelmator, it will save the edits back into Photos again (same as Photos does), so you then see two different edited images in Photos.

You can also use Pixelmator Photo to create a duplicate and revert to original, but I prefer to let Photos do that kind of work (past experience of things getting screwed up).

If you don’t apply the ‘Revert to Original’, you’ll get a JPEG copy of the image to work with, whatever format you started with, which will have any edits you last applied included.

BTW, that is just a normal non-destructive workflow, regardless of the apps being used. You will start off with a Master image, which the app you use, or any extensions can use. Once you apply any edits, you will then see a JPEG ‘Preview’ image. It’s that what is used when opening in other apps for further editing, unless you delete it by using the Revert operation.

Most of the time, once you apply any edits with a third party app/plugins/extension, you break the non-destructive workflow.

Hope that makes sense.
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2023-01-23 08:39:32

Hi, thank you very much for the reply.
The problem is that the flow you describe, if done directly with pixelmator photo, creates considerable mess. So, if I duplicate a photo with pixelmator photo and not with Apple photos, the software only takes the post-production on the second image and will completely lose that of the first!
It's a huge inconvenience and a significant problem, it's already made me lose hours of work on some shots.
I hope at least the staff are aware of the problem and are working on it.
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2023-01-26 16:09:30

by Valerio Hi, thank you very much for the reply.
The problem is that the flow you describe, if done directly with pixelmator photo, creates considerable mess. So, if I duplicate a photo with pixelmator photo and not with Apple photos, the software only takes the post-production on the second image and will completely lose that of the first!
It's a huge inconvenience and a significant problem, it's already made me lose hours of work on some shots.
I hope at least the staff are aware of the problem and are working on it.
I've just tried it here, and it works the same as with Photos.

I duplicated an existing image from within Pixelmator, one which I had edited in Photos. I get two images the same, with the edits applied. This shows as two JPEG images in Info. This is correct, as you are seeing the processed Preview version of that image.

I can select one of the duplicate images (doesn't matter which), and if I use the 'Revert' option, it deletes the Preview, and shows the original underlying Raw master image instead, without any edits, and can then be edited from scratch.

The other duplicate retains any edits applied by whatever software was used previously. This is correct. Although you can also revert this to original and edit the Raw master as well if you wish.

If you're doing your editing in Pixelmator, and wish to create a duplicate, then you should see the duplicate with the same edits as the first version. Unless you delete the sidecar files (which some of us do), then you'll only work on the processed JPEG Preview copy. You need to create the duplicate before you delete the sidecar files - at least I believe it should create a duplicate set of sidecar files for the non-destructive element.

If you're getting a processed JPEG copy, that can't be edited, and you are keeping the sidecar files, then that could be an issue that Pixelmator needs to sort (but do check that you have the right options turned on if that's what you're expecting to happen, you can disable the saving of the non-destructive files).

Most of this is expected behaviour for a non-destructive workflow. It can take some working out to get it right. Things really have to be done in the right order for it to work.

Cheers.
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2023-02-01 10:52:07

by Andy Hewitt
I've just tried it here, and it works the same as with Photos.

I duplicated an existing image from within Pixelmator, one which I had edited in Photos. I get two images the same, with the edits applied. This shows as two JPEG images in Info. This is correct, as you are seeing the processed Preview version of that image.

I can select one of the duplicate images (doesn't matter which), and if I use the 'Revert' option, it deletes the Preview, and shows the original underlying Raw master image instead, without any edits, and can then be edited from scratch.

The other duplicate retains any edits applied by whatever software was used previously. This is correct. Although you can also revert this to original and edit the Raw master as well if you wish.

If you're doing your editing in Pixelmator, and wish to create a duplicate, then you should see the duplicate with the same edits as the first version. Unless you delete the sidecar files (which some of us do), then you'll only work on the processed JPEG Preview copy. You need to create the duplicate before you delete the sidecar files - at least I believe it should create a duplicate set of sidecar files for the non-destructive element.

If you're getting a processed JPEG copy, that can't be edited, and you are keeping the sidecar files, then that could be an issue that Pixelmator needs to sort (but do check that you have the right options turned on if that's what you're expecting to happen, you can disable the saving of the non-destructive files).

Most of this is expected behaviour for a non-destructive workflow. It can take some working out to get it right. Things really have to be done in the right order for it to work.

Cheers.
Thanks for the replies, but we probably don't understand each other.
I have a serious problem with image indexing since I duplicated the first one, I'll show you a video to help you understand better.
I should see a photo but after loading it in the software I see a different one! And basically the post-production on the photo I should see has been eliminated, forever. The only way I have to fix this mess is to restore the photo and do it all again, but the problem will almost certainly come back again on another photo.
I understand that it is a new software and I contributed by purchasing the lifetime plan (because I like it a lot, of course), but these bugs do not allow me to work on it seriously and this thing is very harmful for me.

My video capture: https://youtu.be/lkmXF0-sb5A
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2023-02-04 05:54:24

Ok, I see now, that looks like a bug with how it picks up the Preview images. I’ve seen that happen in other apps too (such as Raw Power).

Does this also happen if you try creating the duplicate in Photos before you edit in Pixelmator? That’s the way I usually create duplicates myself, as I’ve said, the Photos library can be fragile when manipulated by external apps, so any file management I do within Photos.

Also, have you presented this to Pixelmator support as a bug report?

Cheers
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2023-02-04 11:20:06

by Andy Hewitt Ok, I see now, that looks like a bug with how it picks up the Preview images. I’ve seen that happen in other apps too (such as Raw Power).

Does this also happen if you try creating the duplicate in Photos before you edit in Pixelmator? That’s the way I usually create duplicates myself, as I’ve said, the Photos library can be fragile when manipulated by external apps, so any file management I do within Photos.

Also, have you presented this to Pixelmator support as a bug report?

Cheers
Hi Andy, yes it happens when I create a duplicate from photo too.

It’s really frustrsting because it’s not rare at all. It usually happens and I lost every settings on that photo.

I’ll report the bug, I thought that I was not the only one so I wrote here in community.

Thank you
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2023-02-08 16:03:17

Of course, that's a good idea, it's always good to see if it is a more widespread issue.

I must admit that I have worked on a couple thousand scanned images, using Pixelmator, and not really had any issues at all with linking to the Photos library.

It can happen though, as I said, I have an issue with Raw Power, which I seem to be the only one suffering with, so doesn't look like it's easily fixable.

However, it does seem more likely that most bugs are often within the Photos/MacOS part, but don't show up unless a third party app is used.
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2023-10-23 23:14:34

I’ve been running into this too. If I create duplicates- whether in Photomator or the iOS Photos app- and then edit the duplicate in Photomator, the preview will be of the most recent edit. If I view in iOS Photos app, I see the duplicate photo as I edited it. I thought creating the duplicate photo in Photomator might make a difference, but it did not. In a way it was worse. When I saw the original photo appearing like the duplicated photo, I deleted the duplicate, hoping the original photo would keep its settings and revert. It did not. It took the settings of the duplicate. I lost several hours of work.
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2024-01-28 09:24:33

Not only am I having this same problem, there are two weird things about it. 1. I am using a very old Mac and so Photos is 5.0 instead of the current 7.0. 2. I have made PLENTY of duplicates and SUCCESSFULLY edited them different than the original. This problem is BRAND NEW, JUST STARTED! Is there even a way to make a duplicate in Pixelmator Pro? If so, I don't know of it. I make the duplicate in Photos and then work on it in Pixelmator Pro. I can't "Revert to Original" because I did a LOT of work editing the picture before making the duplicate. THIS IS THE WHOLE POINT of making duplicates, to have DIFFERENT VERSIONS of the picture! Well, in Photos it does show my original version and the edited duplicate as being different, but then I duplicated again to create a cropped version. Now when I try to edit the UNCROPPED version, Pixelmator Pro will show me ONLY the cropped version ON THE VERSION I DIDN'T CROP! WHAT IS THE POINT of making duplicates if you can't edit them to create different versions? Only fix I have found is to keep exporting the new edit and importing it back into Photos to keep the changes I want and not have those I don't! (Also, I made duplicates and cropped from the original and Pixelmator Pro is not giving me a problem with viewing the original, but it is with the other duplicates. THIS MAKES NO SENSE!) There HAS to be a better way!