The iMac I have at work has an iSight, which is a decent camera. The picture I had taken for my OS X account was better than previous pictures I had. So, I wanted to get that picture and use it for my Plaxo personal card. Well, after searching in a few places, I couldn’t find it. After a bit of digging, I finally found it. If you need this, then this post is for you.
So, when you setup your account on OS X, you have the option of taking a photo. This photo is then stored with your account. You can see the picture in the System Preferences when you look at your account. Of course, you can also change it again… right there. If an app can use your picture, (like iChat, Address Book, or Mail), it can just use that one. The mystery, though, is where that picture gets stored.
Well, since it is associated with your account, it gets stored in a central location on the machine. (i.e. Not your home directory). I guess this simplifies the retrieval of these photos when the various systems need those photos (login window or the user switcher). So, I took a look in the netinfo store for my user account (ah, just like ye ole NextSTEP)… and lo, there is the path to the photo. Apparently, it stores the stuff in /Library/Caches/.
The exact name depends on your user id or uid. To get this number, just run id in a terminal. For example, my uid is 502. So, for my user id, it would use the name /Library/Caches/com.apple.user502pictureCache.tiff for my photo.
Awesome, done. All I had to do was open the file and then save it as a JPEG via Preview.
Thanks for the post! Just thought I would let you know that you did help out at least one other lost soul on the internet with the EXACT same issue!
-PJ
Thanks, found the pic. Very helpful.
Regards,
Sal.
Thanks, that helps! As a newbie developer to Mac, tips like this helps a ton.
THANK YOU! this was a godsend!
Yup, helped me out too! mucho gracias!
Thanks!
Thank you! Too bad it was an itty-bitty picture.
Hi! Perhaps it could be interesting for someone, I found my login photo under the folder com.apple.iChat/Pictures under my personal Library…
I have the same issue and almost gave up until I stumble upon your post. Thanks
Thanks! Still works to find login photo in OSX 10.5.5
Pingback: Josh Mather » links for 2009-02-07
Thank you!
Thank U ! Worked fine for me.
thanks mate!
hooray!
thanks, but let me know the size of that pic is not the original..? I found one in a Chat/Pictures under my personal account number, but is a small one..! do u know how i can get the original size version of that pic..? I follow and i was looking for : Library/Caches/com.apple.user502pictureCache.tiff
but i not found any com.apple.user or any tiff file I’m in OS X 10.5.8 maybe is in another route or i can’t found this original size because that not been stored… could someone can confirm me that or show me how i can get the original size.
Thanks…
Sorry, this answer did not work for me. There is no com.apple.user*pictureCache.tiff on my machine.
Thank you! It’s still there on 10.6.2. =)
You helped me too! Thank you!
Thanks.
[MacHD on which resides my system] /Libary/Caches .. and bingo.
tc
thank you so much.it was very helpful.
Here is another way to get at your picture (found it under Snow Leopard, so not sure if works in earlier versions).
The photo is now on the clipboard. To verify you can go to finder than Edit > Show Clipboard. You can use it anywhere to paste it into documents.
To save it as a file: 1. Start Preview 2. Goto File>New From Clipboard (or just hit Command-N) 3. Save