Replace an image without losing comments and likes

bokehlover71 · March 7, 2015

Is there a way to replace an image without losing all comments and likes? It's very frustrating to start from scratch with an image every time I replace it. When I browse through old images, I often see things that I want to edit some more.

I am sure no comments and likes disappeared when I updated images with the built-in Aperture plugin, but I don't use it anymore because of other sync issues.

AperturePlus · March 7, 2015

I don't know your workflow, but of you use Lightroom, checkout SM's Lightroom plugin. If you re-process something, it intuitively knows that it has changed form the published version on SM and with a single click, you can update the image, or multiple images and all comments and likes remain.

You can manually do it, by clicking on the spanner icon and selecting replace.

bokehlover71 · March 7, 2015

I use Aperture, and as I said, I have tried the plugin there. But it doesn't seem to work as good as the Lightroom plugin. There is no possibility to choose which images to replace.

I will probably soon replace Aperture with the new Photos app, but if that proves to be too poor for my usage, I will probably migrate to Lightroom.

denisegoldberg · March 7, 2015

If your chosen tool doesn't support using replace then use the smug tool directly. You must use replace - click to the photo, Tools... Replace.

--- Denise

bokehlover71 · March 7, 2015

Yes, but this method will remove all comments and likes. It's so frustrating to lose them every time!

On Flickr this is not a problem at all, but visitors can see on the EXIF info the date and time an image was replaced. That should be sufficient on SmugMug too, I think!

denisegoldberg · March 8, 2015

bokehlover71 wrote: »

Yes, but this method will remove all comments and likes. It's so frustrating to lose them every time!

I just did an experiment on my site.

I added some comments to a photo.
I used Tools... Replace... to replace that photo in my smug site.

The comments are still in place. I can't speak to the likes since the number of likes on a photo is not visible.

To make sure I was looking at the same photo in smug I replaced it with a different image. The comments remained.

--- Denise

bokehlover71 · March 8, 2015

This is a bit strange. Maybe that's something new. I have lost many comments on photos I have replaced. But when I replaced an image now, the comments where still in place.

But is seems that likes still disappear. I can't see them, but I can detect them in a smart album of popular photos. Pictures with likes and comments appear in that album. But when I replace a picture without comments (but probably with one or more likes), it disappear from the Popular album.

WinsomeWorks · March 16, 2015

bokehlover71 wrote: »

This is a bit strange. Maybe that's something new. I have lost many comments on photos I have replaced. But when I replaced an image now, the comments where still in place.

But is seems that likes still disappear. I can't see them, but I can detect them in a smart album of popular photos. Pictures with likes and comments appear in that album. But when I replace a picture without comments (but probably with one or more likes), it disappear from the Popular album.

You're right-- that is a bit strange. I was following this because I don't think I've "Replaced" (through SmugMug) any photos that had comments, because I feared this may happen. I don't have a smart album of Popular photos, and it's interesting that you can tell from that that "likes" have disappeared. I'm wondering if the comments disappearing (or not) may depend what type of gallery the photo resides in? It would be nice to hear more on this. My interest is due to family genealogy comments on historical photos, etc. I'd like to upload better versions of some of them, but don't wish to risk losing comments that provide lots of info. to my family.

bokehlover71 · March 17, 2015

WinsomeWorks wrote: »

I'm wondering if the comments disappearing (or not) may depend what type of gallery the photo resides in?

I don't think the photo's location has anything to say. I have replaced photos both from their original placement and from virtual copies, with the same result. But if you are worried, you should test it out yourself. Write a comment on a photo without any other comments and replace it to see if it disappears.

Replace an image without losing comments and likes

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