One particularly annoying thing about plugging in my iPhone is that it always launches Aperture and prompts for permission to import photos. While you should be able to turn this off (in the preferences of the Image Capture application), what if you still want iPhoto (or Aperture, Lightroom, etc.) to launch when you plug in your camera or memory card? Capitalizing on the fact that Image Capture lets you choose any application to run automatically, Sam Stephenson over at 37signals has cooked up a fancy AppleScript to do just this. Once set up it looks to see what you've plugged it; if it's your camera it will launch iPhoto, etc.; if it's your iPhone it won't. The script is slightly complicated and must be customized for your particular camera model, but if you want the convenience of auto-launching your image management application for your camera, without the annoyance of the iPhone, it's worth a look.[via Daring Fireball]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-21-2008 @ 3:26PM
Erik said...
Any chance we can get something like this for windows?
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2-21-2008 @ 4:44PM
DJ said...
To prevent Windows XP from prompting you to open an application when you plug in the iPhone, when it is connected go to My Computer and right click the Apple iPhone and select Properties. Choose the Events tab and select "Camera connected" from the events drop down, and you can choose "Take no action" from the radio button choices, or whatever program you want to launch.
2-21-2008 @ 3:33PM
Elliot said...
I've never figured out why Apple likes giving specific apps powers that seem like they should be in the Sys. Prefs. Like Image Capture, but also giving Safari the preference pane to determine your default browser. How many times have I had this silly conversation:
Someone Else: Hey, how do I make [Firefox/Camino/Etc.] my default browser?
Me: Change the default browser preference in Safari.
Someone Else: What? Why do I have to go into Saf-
Me: Just do it.
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2-21-2008 @ 3:37PM
Mario Panighetti said...
Couldn't you just import your recently taken photos from the iPhone? It only launches iPhoto if there are pictures in the Camera Roll.
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2-21-2008 @ 3:58PM
DrWho said...
Thats what I thought too - never saw this as a problem unless you just want to keep the photos on the phone.
2-21-2008 @ 3:53PM
YodaMac said...
YAY! I've been hoping for something like this. I hated that iPhone launched iPhoto EVERY time, but I also hated that if I changed that then plugging in my camera did nothing.
This is perfect, and I hope when I get home I can modify it to work with my camera.
As to Mario - I plug in the iPhone daily (or more) to sync and recharge, but I really don't bother downloading images on a daily basis (or even monthly) and only want to deal with that when I am already having an iPhoto session.
The iPhone does so much more than photos that it is really like a little "secondary feature" I only want to pay attention to when I have time.
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2-21-2008 @ 5:11PM
Mario Panighetti said...
Ah, see, I didn't know people routinely kept pictures in their Camera Roll. I try to import those to the computer as soon as I can, so they're all in their proper distinct events. But I can see how this would be useful for people not as obsessive about their photo-dumping and cataloging as I.
2-21-2008 @ 3:54PM
brian said...
I actually had the opposite problem. I long ago told iPhoto to ignore my camera--sometimes I want to use iPhoto in the regular fashion, sometimes I want to use Image Capture to just get a recent shot or two, sometimes I just want to get some files straight off the CF card. Once I got my iPhone, I couldn't for the life of me find out how to get the pictures I had taken with the phone *onto* my Mac. iTunes shows how to do everything else, including putting pictures onto the phone, but getting the pics off remained a mystery. After much googling, I called Apple's support number, and after talking to someone who is wholly unqualified to work for Apple support, I did some more googling and eventually found the answer--go to Image Capture and use THAT to tell the OS to use iPhoto when I plug in the phone. Talk about convoluted!
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2-21-2008 @ 4:01PM
Tanya said...
@Elliot,
I DO have FF set to the default browser in Safari, but apps still launch web pages in safari (AARRGGHH), rather than the already/always open FF. Any ideas... Running 10.5.2. thanks
As for iPhone not opening iPhoto, i'd love that. But i'm a n00b, AND lazy, so this sounds complicated to me. But i'll give it a shot. Any other geniuses with other ideas, i'd love to hear 'em... thanks
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2-21-2008 @ 6:12PM
mark said...
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/22977
2-21-2008 @ 4:52PM
Peter Zich said...
Hmm, I sync photos to my iPhone with iPhoto and it never automatically opens for me.
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2-21-2008 @ 5:16PM
Neil said...
Am I the only one who has never had this problem? When I dock my iPhone, iTunes launches but nothing else.
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2-21-2008 @ 5:24PM
solarpos said...
This is ridiculous. Just set Image Capture to not open iPhoto when a camera/phone s connected. Then when you WANT to import pics off your device, open iPhoto. Lazy, just plain lazy.
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2-21-2008 @ 6:03PM
Kyle Pike said...
Sam Stephenson was the one that posted the fix. I don't event know whot Matt Radel is...they don't work over at 37signals.
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2-21-2008 @ 6:27PM
chris said...
one thing that might seem obvious but for some reason i failed to understand or think through... i wanted some pictures on my phone all the time. i just didn't grasp that i could sync them off the phone, create a new folder/group in iphoto, then sync that new folder/group back to the phone. that way, they are on the phone under 'photos' for when i want to show someone a photo but iphoto doesn't open up because the camera roll is empty.
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2-21-2008 @ 6:41PM
erikeric said...
Why don't you just choose to not have the photos sync with iPhoto in the iPhone preferences in iTunes? Thatway you can open up iPhoto and import when you want, but plugging in you iPhone doesn't trigger the app to open? No script is needed unless I'm missing something here...?
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2-22-2008 @ 8:46AM
Jon Wise said...
I'll admit that I didn't look at the code (and probably should before making a snide comment) but...
why couldn't he have just used an "else" statement?
- IF its an iPhone do nothing
- ELSE launch iPhoto
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5-03-2008 @ 11:08PM
l lucero said...
I have a G4, now have an iphone. It used to open iphoto and I could download all the photos right away.
I just upgraded the G4 to Jaguar, and now iphoto keeps crashing. any ideas on why. obviously, I'm not tech savvy, or photo savvy.
& I really need to get these photos off my phone.
thanks for any assistance.
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