Saturday 21 May 2016

This action cannot be undone

I began yesterday's post with a casual bleat about Apple having locked me out of my old photo albums when I upgraded to El Capitan O.S. and I thought I would just spent a couple of minutes trying to get them from the old photo editing and storage system into the new one. There had - I thought - got to be a way to do it...

I found the old iPhoto lurking in the new operating system, then found the file containing all the old archived photos. All I had to do was import them into the new system...

In order to save time, I decided to drag them onto the desktop (the screen) from where I could just drag them straight into the new photo system. I did not spend too much time thinking it through, because I had to be somewhere else a short while later.

With a click, drag and a drop, I suddenly watched - with absolute horror and despair - over 6000 photos line themselves up on the desktop in neat, diagonal, regimented rows, until all you could see was a mass of numbered files obliterating absolutely everything else on the computer. The whole transfer took about one minute, which is startlingly quick for 6000 photos.

In a panic, I tried to reverse my foolish action, but the massive overload of information had brought the computer to a virtual standstill. Any action with the cursor resulted in the spinning beach-ball of doom, and it would not stop spinning at all. I could not even shut it down.

I resorted to the emergency shut-down procedure of holding the power button down until the screen went black, then sat there with my head in my hands before plucking up the courage to turn it all on again. When I did, all 6000 photos were still there.

The next step - how to get rid of 6000 images from a screen which has slowed down to a snail's pace without doing it one by one. 'Select All' is what I first tried when the cursor finally agreed to move, but then the 'Delete All' option was grey and dead. More head in hands, more moaning.

Don't panic. There was only one thing for it. Manually select them in blocks of about 150, then drop them into the trash bin. This is what I began to do, and after a while, it sort of worked. The more I got rid of, the more the actions began to speed up.

In about 20 minutes, I had cleared the screen, but I had cleared it of everything, so I had to go through the trash - like a tramp rummaging through a dustbin - pulling out the things which I did not want to lose forever, and put them back on the screen. That took another 20 minutes.

Next step - hit 'Empty Trash', followed by the dire warning, 'Are you SURE you want to do this? This action cannot be undone.' I thought about it for another 10 minutes, then pressed the 'OK' button. There was the sound of a small ball of paper being screwed up, and all 6000 photos were gone forever from the screen.

I was 10 minutes late for my appointment.


23 comments:

  1. This post is not illustrated. Why not? I am lost as to where the photos have got to now.

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    1. It wasn't clear to me. It beats me how Maria ever understood.

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    2. Rachel, it is maybe, because not knowing English too well, that I read it a few times (and slowly); that way I do not miss a step. I did understand all that Tom wrote, and without any illustrations needed :)

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    3. Well i bet I wasn't the only one who didn't understand.

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    4. You should be satisfied that you understand the offside rule, and not bother your pretty head with any other nonsense.

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  2. I am glad you eventually managed to recuperate all 6000 photos.
    Your writing is always excellent and very descriptive. The explanation here, had me visualising the entire scene.
    Greetings Maria x

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  3. This all sounds a bit complicated to me - I could do with you here, now, looking at my Broadband, which keeps disappearing and leaving me frustrated. BT are coming on Monday (they say) at which point - hopefully - normal service will be resumed.

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    1. Whatever it is, it will not be your fault Weave, despite how they might try to pin it on you.

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  4. I understood it all. I know the nightmare of the drag and drop and I have cursed the beach ball more than once.

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  5. 35 ml film and Boots the Chemist; never fails.

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  6. Amazing how much chaos can be created at the push of a button.

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  7. I can feel this totally. Haven't we all been there, just a bit at least.

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    1. It seems to be an almost daily occurrence with me.

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  8. I felt myself clenching my teeth with anxiety just reading this....I cannot bear I.T. and all the difficulties surrounding it...and the thought of losing photos makes me gasp in horror.....but well done you for sorting it out.

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    1. I still haven't sorted it out. I am plucking up courage to try again.

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