Preview Won't Batch-Save Image Changes

[Trevor]

I have a 2011 Macbook Pro 13" which came with Snow Leopard but now runs High Sierra. I upgraded the RAM & SSD but it won't run Airdrop due to its old architecture. With Snow Leopard and its successor it would batch re-size and save images using Preview but with more recent operating systems it's so full of bugs I can hardly use it ... can just about re-size one-by-one, if I'm lucky.

Although I select all, then re-size down to a given standard size like 640 x 480, Preview immediately de-selects my very small number of images and might just resize the first one, or one at random. Then I re-select all, SAVE (there's no SAVE ALL like there used to be) and try to close the window ... but it then prompts me to save each and every freakin' image -- which totally defeats the purpose of batch-saving. Has this bug never been heard of? Could it be my old MacBook? I don't want to use Automator as that just adds unwanted complexity to a VERY simple task that early operating systems handled with ease. Any comments or suggestions? Thanks.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

I just tested this on a MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports) running macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 as follows:

1. Selected three images on the Desktop
2. Double-clicked them to open all in one Preview window
3. Selected all in the sidebar
4. Clicked Tools > Adjust Size...
5. Entered 200 in the Width box
6. Clicked OK
7. Clicked File > Save
8. Quit Preview
9. Used QuickLook to view each file, and they were all resized correctly

Is this the process you are using?

C

 

[Trevor]

Yes, thanks, your instructions worked but, unusually, I received a prompt to approve 'unlocking' of my images before resizing could proceed. Also, I was prompted to re-save each image individually again before I could close the Preview window ... this can be short-circuited by cmd + Q (Quit), then okay it in Preview again. The 3 images were then correctly resized on checking by cmd + i (Info).

The current version of Preview is quite a rigmarole compared to the simple and intuitive version supplied with early OS's like Snow Leopard when I bought my machine in 2011. I think Apple is still ironing out the bugs in Preview.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hmmm...prompt to unlock the images?

-Can you upload a screenshot of that dialog box?
-Have you tried moving the files to another folder to see if it may be a permissions issue?

C

 

[Trevor]

I don't know why certain images became 'locked' but it's simple enough to unlock to resize. Images were dragged to desktop from a folder on an external hard drive. Taken with my Casio pocket digital camera in 2007 but I wasn't aware of any locking function.

 

[Cory Cooper]

OK, thanks.

Some cameras have a setting to lock images, so they can't be accidentally deleted from the camera's storage media. Perhaps that was enabled when you took the images, and it transferred when you copied them to the hard drive.

C