iPhoto 6.0 (#6): More on lost calendars; Continued print quality complaints

More on lost calendars We continue to cover an issue where iPhoto 6.0 spontaneously loses stored calendar data, generally after an unexpected quit or system-wide freeze.

In some cases, it appears that exiting iPhoto at regular intervals can help reduce incidence of the issue.

MacFixIt reader Tom Zimmer writes:

"I had a similar problem losing a calendar, so the next time I tried, I created the calendar with only a few photos, and then quit iPhoto to force a save. I was then able to succeed in opening iPhoto again and finish creating the calendar. I then ordered it, and received it this week. I am very pleased with the result They make great gifts, and my friends are amazed at the quality of the calendars.

"Limiting the layout changes, and or quitting iPhoto regularly and restarting might help get through the process.

"Finally, one additional hint: Be sure to finish all of your photo editing and color adjustments before adding your pictures to the calendar layout. This will give you a better result, since most pages display multiple pictures, and color matching is more important when pictures are viewed side by side on the same page."

MacFixIt reader Lee Faulkner adds:

"The first time I tried to play with the calendar feature iPhoto crashed and my whole library disappeared (the calendar didn't though!!). Rebuilding the library made no difference.

"I had to copy all the original images out of the iPhoto folder then reimport into a new library. Since then the calendar building function still crashes every 30 mins or so... but everything is there afterwards."

Another reader adds:

"I have experienced the same calendar crashing issue which you posted today. In my case, after working on the calendar during 3 sessions i experienced two crashes. After the second one, not only did I lose the calendar completely, but I lost reference to half my photos. I restored my library from a backup (the rebuild failed to bring it back). After two minutes messing with the calendar again, I crashed for a third time. I will not use the calendar function again until it is fixed.

More print quality complaints Meanwhile we continue to receive reports from readers who are disappointed with the quality of prints ordered through Apple's print-to-order service, which was revamped alongside the release of iPhoto 6.0.

One reader writes:

"I too ordered a medium size soft cover book last month. I was disappointed with the results. First off the paper they use to print on is very thin and lightweight. I had about 25 pages and the book hardly has any "thickness" to it. The photos look grainy and kinda dull. I printed out the exact same photos i sent in on my Cannon i960 printer and the i960 prints look a lot better. This is my first ever book order from Apple so i can't compare the quality to past iphoto versions. I won't be ordering another book until apple improves the quality of it's printing process and paper it uses."

Another reader, Robert Stacey, adds:

"We used the iPhoto book option for the first time in January this year. The initial preparation of the book was done with an older iPhoto but was finished and ordered using iPhoto 06. We ordered two copies of the same book, a soft cover 8.5 x 11 inch size. We were disappointed with the final product for the following reasons:

• The resolution of the printing is lower than expected.
• The black areas of the photos are more glossy than colored areas.

"The 'introduction' page had had the wrong text characters in place of ligatures of 'fi' and other letter combinations (for example words such as 'Pacific' 'off' and those ending in 'n's' had very strange character combinations when printed. I should note here that we changed the font size on the Introduction page from the default 16 to 14 (we have presumably exposed a bug in the software used by Apple to print the book).

"There is vertical banding visible in a number of photos, particularly in the full page photos.

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

Previous coverage:

• iPhoto 6.0 (#5): Lost calendar; Print quality complaints
• iPhoto 6.0 (#4): Problems editing photos; workarounds
• iPhoto 6.0 (#3): Sent-to-mail images do not retain orientation; Crashes on emptying trash; more
• iPhoto 6.0 (#2): Problems sharing between libraries, fix; Resizing issues; more
• iPhoto 6.0: Speed improvement claims genuine

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