iPhoto option suddenly missing from iTunes 'Sync Photos'

This is a dramatization.

Due to evil wizards, I recently was forced to essentially wipe and reformat my OS X internal drive.

Before then, I was used to using iTunes (12.3.3) to sync my external hard drive's iPhoto (9.6.1) library events, albums, etc, to my iPhone (iOS 9.3.1).

After I restored my OS (10.10.5) from a week-old backup/clone (when I know this sync was still working), the 'iPhoto' option suddenly disappeared from the 'Copy photos from:' dropdown (which just said 'Pictures' or 'Choose folder...').

It was very odd, because my iPhoto library was still there on my external drive, I could open it, and nothing really changed there.

After a few hours of googling and finding nothing helpful for OLD iPhoto (the results were mostly about missing certain photos, or the newer Photos app misbehaving), I did some experimenting.

I held down the 'option' key while opening iPhoto and decided to create a New Library, located on my local/internal hard drive instead of an external hard drive. I then added a couple photos and quit.

When I reopened iTunes, lo' and behold 'iPhoto' appeared again as an option on the 'Sync Photos' tab for my iPhone.

I quit everything, deleted that new local test iPhoto library, and I tried this again but this time with a new library on my external drive and it also worked.

Putting two and two together, I came up with the fix:

1. Quit everything.
2. On your external iPhoto.library file (could be named anything really), rename it to something else.
3. Hold the option key and click iPhoto.
4. Create a new library and name it the same as the original name of your external library before step 2 above.
5. Optional - import a couple photos.
6. Quit iPhoto.
7. Open iTunes and verify that you can again see 'iPhoto' as a sync source for your iPhone (if you imported some photos, you should see a count of them if you select it).
8. Quit iTunes.
9. Now delete the temporary .library file that was created in step 4. Trash it.
10. Return your 'real' library back to it's original name before step 2 (should be the same name you gave your temporary library).

and you should have the option back in iTunes with the correct library/photos being sourced.

Really hope this helps someone out there!

SynergyKM for Macs Tutorial

There have been a lot of issues and problems that have cropped up with the recent versions of OSX (10.6 +), and my old simple installation procedure for setting up Synergy to share my keyboard and mouse stopped working. Mouse events wouldn't work, keys were messed up, and configurations could not be read.

One issue was outdated Synergy software, but the other issues are inherent with the newer OSX versions. Problems included the command, alt, and control keys being mapped incorrectly and not working on the client, and also double click events failed on the server - they just wouldn't get picked up correctly.

In my situation, I have a 10.5 Mac as my server, and a 10.6.7 Mac as my client. After many installations of different versions of SynergyKM, Synergy+, and the core synergys and synergyc files, I finally found a combination that works perfectly.


Client Mac: Use the following method to install via terminal:

cd /Downloads/synergy

sudo cp synergy* /usr/bin

When prompted enter password (main account must be pass protected first)

cd /usr/bin

sudo chown root synergy*

sudo chmod 777 synergy*

Server Mac:

1) Install SynergyKM pref pane
2) Install Synergy+ 1.3.5rc using the method above for the client
3) Find the SynergyKM pref pane file (/Library/PreferencePanes/) and show package contents.
4) Inside that, find the Synergyd application file and show contents
5) Navigate another Finder window to /usr/bin
6) Copy both synergys and synergyc from /usr/bin to Synergyd/Resources/
7) Replace both files in there.
8) Setup your screen settings in the System Preferences SynergyKM panel.

Redesigning a Redesign

I wish I had the original website screenshot, but it looked more like a PowerPoint presentation than a website, so I will save you the horror. Here is the before, my first website (designed and programmed) in HTML and Javascript, and the new version, rebuilt from the ground up in Drupal, and themed by yours truly.





More pics and links to come, once v3.0 is launched.

Some project background:

Cleveland Design took this project on pro-bono, and we've been working with East End House to keep the site updated and now, completely autonomous for the staff there thanks to Drupal.

Get Rid of Unchecked Songs the Easy Way!

Have you collected hefty load of unchecked, unwanted music in your iTunes library? Ever wanted to delete those files from your computer without going and finding each song on your hard drive?

Unfortunately, iTunes' behavior prevents us from A) Searching for unchecked songs, and B) If you manage to create a false negative Smart Playlist of unchecked songs (a clever trick described in this post), iTunes does not allow you to delete them from your library while viewing them in the Smart Playlist.

To add on to the workaround referenced above, in order to delete these unchecked songs, select them all, hit "Get Info," and enter a unique term for the Album field (such as "xDELETEx). This may cause them to disappear from your pseudo "unchecked" playlist, depending on the other parameters in your smart playlist, but this is OK (read on).

Now that your unchecked songs now all share the same unique Album name, exit to your main iTunes playlist, "♫ Music" and do a search for the same term ("xDELETEx", in this case).

Select all your unchecked songs here, and go to Edit > Delete. Depending on your iTunes settings (I have my iTunes library automatically organized— "Copy songs to iTunes" and "Keep iTunes organized" are checked in my Advanced tab in Preferences), you will be asked first to confirm your action, and then a second dialogue box should appear asking if you'd like to keep the files in your iTunes folder, or move them to the Trash. Trash 'em—your overcrowded hard drive will thank you.

From there, you can empty your Trash, or copy the rejected audio files to a USB drive and mail them back to your friend with a note questioning their musical tastes (optional).

Pre-Halloween Preparations

Deciding on what odd mix of clothing to wear for your next Weezer costume? Here are a couple ideas...



More Rivers Cuomo Costume Ideas

The Pill

First Entry

Welcome. It'll be pretty quiet here for a while. Check out my website (above) in the meantime.