Photos for Mac and iOS: The Missing Manual

Appendix A. Troubleshooting

Photos for Mac is a brand-new program, and while it’s based on an app that’s been around awhile—Photos for iOS—it has to deal with the far more complicated interaction of OS X apps, automation, upgrading two kinds of libraries (iPhoto and Aperture), and more. Photos for Mac also has to support all the devices you connect to it, such as old iPhones, iPads, digital cameras, hard drives, and the like.

So it’s no wonder that Apple focused on getting all the pieces and parts to work, rather than including every feature of iPhoto and Aperture. Thankfully, that makes this troubleshooting appendix less about soothing you because nothing is working, and more about how to work around a missing feature that you formerly relied on.

That said, apps and the brainy engineers who make them aren’t perfect. Alas, from time to time, bugs sneak into the mix and weird stuff just happens (especially when you’re in a hurry). Whether it’s Photos for Mac or Photos for iOS that’s gone rogue, this appendix teaches you how to handle the most common problems you’re likely to encounter.

The Big Takeaway

If you’ve used a new Apple app before, you know that a bug (or three) are fairly common. When this happens, the Apple community at large rises up and makes the bugs known by assaulting the support section on Apple.com with fiery posts or, if it’s really bad, they take to the phone lines. Apple’s engineers then spring into action and fix the problem(s), and a ...