Photos edited in Topaz Photo AI 2 via Apple Photos on Mac, do not show back in Apple Photos. And there's something WORSE

[A photo edited in Topaz Photo AI 2.0.0 from Apple Photos, when saved is NOWHERE to be found in Apple Photos Library. But before you close the edited image in Topaz, you can ask to show the file in Finder. And it appears under a crazy path:

/Volumes/“your Hard Drive’s Name where the library is stored”/library.name.photoslibrary/private/com.apple.Photos/ExternalEditSessions/C981A12F-EA63-4570-9935-90CD6ED40E94/image_name.jpeg (and a second one .TIFF)

Obs. C981A12F-EA63-4570-9935-90CD6ED40E94 is just a random name for a folder, in your case, it will be different

Now…the two new image files have (on disk) the same name, but 2 different extensions .TIFF and .JPG In my case the file name is IMG_9455 (in Apple Photos it has the .HEIC extension thus IMG_9455.HEIC). Now in that folder with the crazy name, I find 2 files: IMG_9455.tiff (massive 102MB in size…I guess that was the file exported before editing) and IMG_9455-topaz-denoise-enhance-5000w-sharpen.jpeg at 19MB).

My guess is, that when you choose to edit an image in Apple Photos with Topaz, the app first exports a a MASSIVE .TIFF file, then Topaz imports it for editing, you edit it, save the edited image as JPG with the appended -topaz name. That is saved in the same folder as the .TIFF image. But both images DO NOT APPEAR back in Apple Photos. But worse: the UNNECESARY, UNEDITED .TIFF file with 102MB does not get deleted!

This is a nightmare and if you are not aware, disk space will soon become an issue. This needs to be fixed ASAP. It’s almost a crime in terms of free hard disk space wasting.

I also added a very unique and specific keyword in the image before editing. This keyword is wiped from the metadata in the 2 new files buried in the finder. Using this unique keyword in Apple Photos finds and shows only the original file.]

Steps to reproduce issue:

I described the steps in the description above!

  1. Step 1
  2. Step 2
  3. Step 3

Topaz Photo AI [v2.0.0] on [Mac]

1 Like

Please follow the instructions here for the recommended Apple Photos plugin.

It sounds like you are using the Edit with > Topaz Photo AI workflow which is NOT recommended as this will not round trip the file back to Apple Photos and is forced to place the output file in the convoluted file management that Apple Photos has.

Yes I had this problem too and the lost image went to the private folder on my Mac where is has no business being

The private folders Mac has are given restricted access to users because they hold libraries, backend directories, and files that facilitate the smooth running of the operating system. If you tamper with these files, something could go wrong with your Mac.Feb 14, 2023

I spoke with my team about adding a popup when the Edit with > Topaz Photo AI workflow is used to encourage using the correct plugin instead.