Lion: Time Machine now forces you to restore your entire iPhoto Library

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I received a text message the other day from a friend of mine asking me what I thought about Lion. In summary I told him that while there are a few things I still need to get used to, it is definitely worth the upgrade. He responded that his only reservation was that Lion reportedly had some backup issues with Time Machine. I knew nothing of the sort at the time, and so that is where our little chat ended. I am still not entirely sure what he was referring to, but it could very well have been this:

When using iPhoto 9.1.5 or later and Time Machine with OS X Lion, iPhoto no longer has the Browse Backups option. This means that instead of restoring specific photos within your iPhoto Library, you must restore your entire iPhoto Library when restoring from Time Machine.

According to this Apple Support Document, the way iPhoto backups work in Lion and the new version of iPhoto is quite different than before. You will no longer be able to restore individual pictures, but rather you will have to restore your entire iPhoto library. The steps to do this can be found in the aforementioned support article.

Why is this? I really couldn’t tell you. It does sure seem like a step backwards to me. It kind of reminds me of the time that my family got a new car that did not have headlights that automatically turn on at night. Our five year old car did, but not the new one. Leopard was able to restore individual pictures, but not Lion.

Source: Apple

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