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User profile for user: lostfrogg
lostfrogg Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Mac Photos face circle consistently in wrong place

I have an odd but reproducible problem with the face circles in Mac Photos. First of all, this problem only occurs with the oldest photos in my collection - the newer ones are fine. These old photos were not taken with my iPhone - but then I have other pictures in my collection that were not taken with my iPhone, and these are fine.


With these old photos, when I go to view/show face names, the face circles appear on the photo - but they are all a bit too low and to the left. They are correctly positioned relative to each other, though it's as if they've all been moved down the photo a bit. If I go to edit and then just click done, they move to their correct positions. If I then cycle forward/back in the photos a few times, they return to the previous (wrong) positions.


I've tried restarting the app, and restarting my Mac, but this problem appears consistently. Any help much appreciated!

MacBook Pro 14″

Posted on Nov 15, 2024 1:41 AM

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7 replies
User profile for user: Richard.Taylor
Richard.Taylor
User level: Level 6
10,482 points

Nov 15, 2024 7:37 AM in response to lostfrogg

lostfrogg wrote: … the face circles appear on the photo - but they are all a bit too low and to the left.

I see this when I crop pictures, but they correct themselves after a while. I wonder what happens if you Edit>Crop, then reset.


I went back through a bunch of old pictures, 2002-2009, for instance, and the circles were all around faces. You didn't say what OS your are using-- that's usually an important bit of information to include. I'm at macOS 15.1.


You've tried restarting-- so try restarting in Safe Mode. This bypasses certain potentially disruptive processes. Safe Mode is different for different computers, so see this: 

           Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support 


Then try these:

  • Rebuild your Photos Library--close Photos and re-launch by option-command-clicking the app icon.
  • Make a new user and see if the same problem recurs with it


The idea is to find out if the problem is with the Library, with your account, or with caches and login items, and stuff like that. One of these steps may fix the problem, but their failure to work also helps figure out what's happening.


Let us know how this goes-- I'm pretty curious…

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User profile for user: lostfrogg
lostfrogg Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Nov 18, 2024 6:06 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Hi,


Many thanks for the useful reply.


When I go to edit/crop, the reset option is greyed out - I don't think the photos were cropped.


Mac OS is 14.4.1.


Another bit of info - on these old photos, if there are no faces identified and I create one, when I drag the face circle to the face, it keeps jumping back to the wrong spot on the photo. It isn't jumping back to anything that looks like a face - just the wrong spot. As before, if I edit the photo then click OK, it temporarily appears in the right place.

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User profile for user: lostfrogg
lostfrogg Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Nov 19, 2024 8:34 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

I'm still going through them. I actually found some later correctly dated photos (still scanned in ones) that had the same problem. So it's not just the ones with the 1800 date.


Also - the problem isn't just that the face circles move. It's that the name disappears from the circle also. I can type in the correct name, go forward a few pictures, then go back and the name has disappeared.

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Mac Photos face circle consistently in wrong place

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