How to back up iPhoto Library to an external source?

I am using OS X Mavericks with iPhoto v9.5.1. This morning iPhoto tells me my photo library is either in use by another application or has become unreadable. Stupidly I have not backed it up. I am reluctant to try making a repair for fear of losing my photos. So, how can I back it up to an external source (iCloud/external drive), before attempting a repair, when I can't seem to find a folder marked iPhoto Library on hard drive because I can't get past the message which seems only to permit 'Quit'. Thank you.

Most Simple Back Up:
Drag the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to another Disk. This will make a copy on that disk.
Slightly more complex: Use an app that will do incremental back ups. This is a very good way to work. The first time you run the back up the app will make a complete copy of the Library. Thereafter it will update the back up with the changes you have made. That makes subsequent back ups much faster. Many of these apps also have scheduling capabilities: So set it up and it will do the back up automatically.
Example of such apps: Chronosync - but there are many others. Search on MacUpdate or the App Store

Similar Messages

Can I move the default location of the iPhoto library to an external source, leaving a preview image on my main HDD? Do I need to move to something like Apature to do this?

Can I move the default location of the iPhoto library to an external source, leaving a preview image on my main HDD?
Do I need to move to something like Apature to do this?
I currenlty have a NAS which holds all my images.

Yes you can, but you really, really don't want to.
You can store your photos on the External and have iPhoto link to them in that location. It's called having a Referenced Library.
In this scenario iPhoto creates an alias to the files in the Library and that's why you don't want to do this. Aliases work fin when everything is on the same volume or disk. However, if the alias points to something on another disk or volume and something in the path to the file changes, then the alias is broken. That means you could find yourself fixing each alias for every single photo in your Library, one at a time if something goes wrong.
And heaven forbid you would ever want to move the files to another disk.
See why I say you really, really don't want to?
Also note, that your edited photos would still be on the internal HD as they are always stored in the Library.
Aperture, on the other hand, can deal with this scenario quite easily, and has tools to reconnect to the original should the link be broken
Regards
TD

How do I reimport iPhoto Library from an external hd?

Hi all - apologies if this has been posted before (but, couldn't find exactly what I need in the forums). I think I need to rebuild/erase, whathaveyou, my current iPhoto Library on my Mac because I'm getting a perpetual error/alert:
*"The Volume for "CDY_.0005.JPG" cannot be found. Insert the disk or*
*connect to the server volume and wait for it to appear on the desktop,*
*then try again."*
*Here's what happened:* I originally downloaded some pictures and video clips off of Compact Flash memory cards into a new folder ('Photos') onto the desktop of an IBM Thinkpad. I then transferred that folder - 'Photos' - to a new external hard drive (250 GB, Western Digital MyBook Essential Edition). They are visible on the external. I then tried to tranfer this 'Photos' folder from the MyBook into my iPhoto Library by going to 'Import to Library' and then choosing the appropriate drive (i.e, my external MyBook). This folder and it's contents (i.e, the images and their respective folder in which they were placed) seemingly went into my iPhoto Library, and also seemed to organize themselves appropriately....what I mean by this is:
All of these images/videos I'm talking about are for my grad project, and must be organized by date. I had one scouting camera at each of 26 different sites. Each of these sites has it's own folder....and each of folder (site) contains an album for each date the site was checked. So in other words, I've got LOADS of albums organized by date checked and site. *+I must preserve this structure or data analysis and, subsequently, my thesis, will be quite painful, cruel and unusual punishment!+*
*By the way, I have tons of images and videos named "CDY_.0005.JPG" because of the way the scouting cameras save files to the memory card. Each time the card is cleared (each date I checked a site and downloaded images on a card), images are again saved numerically:
CDY.0001.JPG.....CDY.0002.JPG etc etc. Also, these cameras were set up to take motion-activated video (they're infrared), and for every video it captures, it takes a still photo. So, every still photo is essentially associated with a video, and vice versa.
This error/alert occurs when I try to view images that were transferred from the IBM/MyBook to iPhoto. Additionally, since I did the transfer, another qwerky thing occurs: Regardless of what I'm trying to do in iPhoto, when I open iPhoto and click *anywhere else* outside of the iPhoto window (such as back to the desktop or click to open any other program) I get this exact same alert, but it's always an .avi file, not a .jpg, and in this alert (.avi), I am forced to force-quit iPhoto because if I hit cancel, the pinwheel appears indefinitely and never goes away, at which time I forequit and see 'iPhoto (not responding). Essentially rendering iPhoto useless for my purposes (I've got to be able to go back and forth between Excel and iPhoto, for example, and cannot do so because of this alert).
So, I feel like to I need to start from scratch to fix this problem (through a series of discussions with Apple reps and the Mac gurus, I was told this is probably due to corrupted files, I may need to rewrite the program etc etc). And...so...the real QUESTIONS:
*Is this really the solution (backing up my iPhoto Library to the external, which I've done, then clearing my current iPhoto Library on my Mac entirely, then reimporting)?? I don't really have much time to fiddle with too many different solutions...if re-creating a new library seems extreme, I guess I really don't care, as long as it works.*
*If I do this, and delete/clear all the photos in my iPhoto Library on the Mac, then reimport them from my MyBook external harddrive, will they be imported in the same structure as they were before I deleted them from iPhoto? Will I still have all photos in the same albums under the same folders? It is essential for me to retain this structure, as I am analyzing images/videos for my grad project and all these images are organized very specifically by certain dates. *Is it possible to do this??** I was told that if I burned my Library, or folders, onto a DVD, and then brought them back into iPhoto, this would retain the folder structure. True??
Thankyouthankyouthankyou in advance if anyone has some thoughts! I'm still relatively new to Macs, so rudimentary, kindergarten step-by-step thoughts are encouraged....Cheers!

TD-
Great, thanks for helping. I think I've got some useful info for you. I went throught the process you suggested, here's what I found out:
I viewed the rolls through the Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals route. I see the rolls, but I do NOT think these images from the pc are there. Here's what's weird: Towards the end of my 'rolls' list (they're not named, just numbered), the rolls jump from 495 to 503. Though I didn't check all those rolls up to 495 (it would take forever!), I'm pretty sure those are my 'ok' files/rolls. I don't think they house any of the pix I was having issues with (the ones that came over from the pc). BUT...roll 503 DOES in fact have one image, and here's what happens when I click on it:
Only that jpg icon shows up where the picture normally would be viewed, it has a shortcut arrow in the bottom left corner (like that which would appear on any shortcut icon on your desktop), and the info for this image is different than the other ones:
Kind: Alias
Size: 4 kb on disk (usually these scouting camera images are upwards of 800 or 900 some kb)
Created: 9-23-07
Last opened: fetching...
And finally, the infamous alert comes up for this specific image: "The volume for bla bla bla cannot be found...." etc etc.
I'm pretty confident that the missing rolls that should be after 495 are from when I tried to transfer the folders of images from the IBM because those are the very last things I 'imported' into iPhoto. Thoughts??? One other weird thing I noticed, too, was some of my rolls do NOT show all of the images that are in the iPhoto folders...in other words, say roll 300 shows 4 images in the 'Originals' folder you asked me to go to. Well, each roll was created when I would download each card, so essentially I know that each roll represents each time a card was downloaded. But, when I go straight into iPhoto and look in that folder that represents when I downloaded each card, there are many more images there than are in the 'roll' folder for the same download...yikes, does that make sense?!
Thanks again...I feel we're getting somewhere at least!

How do I transfer iPhoto library to an external hard drive?

How do I transfer my iphoto library to an external hard drive. Dragging it does not seem to work.

Erasing the drive won't affect the content of the iPhoto library. If you don't want to reformat that drive, buy another.
Even if you do install software which enables the Mac to write to NTFS drives, the volume containing an iPhoto library needs to be formatted as Mac OS Extended.
(107500)

How to back up iPhoto library to external drive

I have purchased a seagate external drive to back up my iphoto library. I currently use Time Machine but want to have my pictures in another place just incase of drive failures.
Wen doing the following User>Pictures I try to drag iphoto library onto my desktop Seagate drive icon. Nothing happens. The files do not copy onto the external drive.
Can anyone help with what

It should not be a problem. How is the drive formatted?
Select the Drive in Finder, then Get Info (cmd-i).
You'll see the format in the General section:

Would like to know how to back up iphoto library to external harddrive

I know this question has been asked and very well answered, but I could not find it in the pop up discussions. I have copied my library to an external hard drive by dragging and dropping the events into folders. This works, however is time consuming and all the photos, I think are out of order. I would like to use the "export library" link in iphoto, but when i do it say something about can't create volumes?? Sorry if this is not as clear as it could be, but I don't think I am the first with this problem. Links to previous solutions would be great! I do use time machine as a back up to an external hard drive, but would like to back up the library to a USB also, which I can then put somewhere else.
I have a Mac Mini 10.6.8. and a sweet new bluetooth keyboard!

Copy the iPhoto library intact to the EHD -- or use a incremental program so you can update it without recopying everything - I use Carbon Copy cloner - Superduper is another good one - there are others
LN

How I do recover iPhoto Library from an external drive?

I stored user files on my Mac Mini on an external harddrive. The Mac Mini is now not functioning so I am trying to recover files from the external harddrive. Specifically I'm trying to recover pictures from iPhoto.
I can plug the external drive into another Mac and see its contents in Finder. I can see the "iPhoto Library" on this disk. It shows up in the Finder as a single 41 GB file instead of a file system. I want to be able to extract the photos from this library and back them up online.
I tried running Import from iPhoto on my functioning machine, but iPhoto won't let me click on the "iPhoto Library" file. I don't know if I need to reset my iPhoto library location, or if this is a application version issue. (I'm running iPhoto 6.0.6 on the working machine, but the library I'm trying to get into was created by a later version, I think from iLife '09.)
How do I read the photos in this iPhoto Library?
Thanks.

If you want to preserve that Library you'll need to upgrade from iPhoto 6 to iPhoto 09 on this other machine. The v6 version cannot read the 09 library.
Doing anything else will destroy the library - you'll lose Albums, Slideshows, keywords, Faces, Places, books, calendars etc etc erc and basically have to start over from scratch.
How to do it? Go to the external diks and find the iPhoto Library there. Right (or Control-) Click on the icon and select 'Show Package Contents'. A finder window will open with the Library exposed.
Your Photos are in the Originals Folder.
The Edited versions are in the Modified Folders.
If you import both you'll have duplicates.
Regards
TD

How do I move iPhoto library to an external hard drive?

I'm Running iPhoto 08 under leopard, and because my old laptop hard drive is just too small, I've cloned it onto an external hard drive. I have relocated my iTunes library to the external drive and would now like to do the same to my iPhoto library so that I can free up much needed space on the iBooks drive.
How should I do this? I also have pictures from an earlier iphoto library on another computer. I would like to bring these into my main iphoto library and consolidate the two. Is this possible?

1. Drag it over, launch iPhoto with the Option key held down, and point it there.
2. Use the iPhoto Library Manager.
(58842)

Backing up iPhoto library located on external hard drive

I recently moved my iPhoto 09 library to a 500gb WD portable hard drive in order to free up space on my MacBook Pro hard drive. What I would like to know is can I back up this external library to another external hard drive so that I have two copies of all my photos. Would it work if I had an external hard drive connected to my airport extreme?
Thanks

Most Simple Back Up
Drag the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to another Disk. This will make a copy on that disk.
Slightly more complex:
Use an app that will do incremental back ups. This is a very good way to work. The first time you run the back up the app will make a complete copy of the Library. Thereafter it will update the back up with the changes you have made. That makes subsequent back ups much faster. Many of these apps also have scheduling capabilities: So set it up and it will do the back up automatically. Examples of such apps: Chronosync or DejaVu . But are many others. Search on MacUpdate

Moving back my iPhoto library from an external drive to my computers drive

Hi!
I moved my iPhoto library file to my external NAS but when I then opened the file I couldn't see previews of the photos, they were just empty with "frames" around them.
I had to click each picture to see what they looked like, I guess there isn't enough bandwidth to preview all pics? It's gigabit (1000MBit) LAN but it does not seem to suffice.
Anyway, I tried to move my iPhoto library back to my computer but I keep getting this error message (this is freely translated from swedish so it might not by word-by-word but I guess you get the message anyway)
"Could not complete the transfer since there already is an object with the name "iPhoto Library""
I tried to rename the iPhoto Library file on my NAS but regardless what I rename it to (test, library, 123 etc.) I keeps saying ".......object with the name "insert name here""
I tried to create a new library on my computers HDD and drag an drop the iPhoto library file in iPhoto but I don't get all the metadata then and I don't get all my pictures.
Please help!

Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
iPhoto needs to have the Library sitting on disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Users with the Library sitting on disks otherwise formatted regularly report issues including, but not limited to, importing, saving edits and sharing the photos.
My guess is that the format of the NAS has damaged the Library and that's giving rise to these messages.
Try restart the NAS and the Mac, see if that makes a difference.
To move Photos/ Albums /Events between plus associated metadata between Libraries use iPhoto Library Manager.
Regards
TD

How do I transfer iPhoto library to an external drive?

How do I transfer my iPhoto library from my 2006 iMac to an external drive? My iMac is having issues and I don't want to loose all my photos.
Thanks!

Drag and drop the IPhoto Library file from your Pictures folder onto the new drive. It will copy by default. Before you delete the original, double-click the library in its new location and iPhoto will launch. Doing it this way tells iPhoto to use this library in future. Make sure it works correctly (and that you have a backup elsewhere, of course) before deleting the original.
Matt

Backing up iPhoto library from an external drive using time machine

I have a rMBP that is rapidly running out of storage. I purchased an external USB drive to store my iphoto library on. I have a time capsule that backs up my rMBP. If i include the external drive in the time machine set up, what happens when it backs up and the USB drive is not connected?
Any one have a similar setup that can give some advise i would appreciate it.

If i include the external drive in the time machine set up, what happens when it backs up and the USB drive is not connected?
Well, since the drive is not connected, any changes since the last backup will not be backed up.
When you reconnect the USB hard drive, Time Machine will backup your Mac and the USB drive.

I just backed up my photos by copying my iPhoto Library onto an external drive. Now the Library on my MacBook won't open. I can only open the photos if the external is plugged in. How can I resolve this issue?

I just backed up my photos by copying my iPhoto Library onto an external drive. Now the Library on my MacBook won't open. I can only open the photos if the external is plugged in. How can I resolve this issue?

Exactly what did you do?
The correct steps are
Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)
And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto
And backup soon and often - having your iPhoto library on an external drive is not a backup and if you are using Time Machine you need to check and be sure that TM is backing up your external drive
My guess is that that you have not switched iphoto to use the external drive yet - opttion launch and select libary
LN

I want to create a back up of my iPhoto library on an external hard drive (not Time Machine). How do I do that?, I want to create a back up of my iPhoto library on an external hard drive (not Time Machine). How do I do that?

I want to create a back up of my iPhoto library on an external hard (not the time machine backup). I've searched the iPhoto help, but unfortunately it does not tell me 'how' to create this additional backup of my library. Thanks

Most Simple Back Up:
Drag the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to another Disk. This will make a copy on that disk.
Slightly more complex: Use an app that will do incremental back ups. This is a very good way to work. The first time you run the back up the app will make a complete copy of the Library. Thereafter it will update the back up with the changes you have made. That makes subsequent back ups much faster. Many of these apps also have scheduling capabilities: So set it up and it will do the back up automatically.
Example of such apps: Chronosync - but there are many others. Search on MacUpdate or the App Store

Sorry folks, I did something bad, I was looking how to save my current iphoto library to my external drive and I hit a wrong button, lost my current iphoto and now have only the backed up version from 2007, Woops I never was the quick witted one... PLEASE

I switched my current iphoto library out for the saved one on my external drive by mistake. It said, Switch Libraries.... Do you want to switch the current iphoto library from AAA iphoto library (what I called the old one I guess - in my OWC) toOWC Mercury on-the-go and relaunch iphoto? cancel or relaunch
Sorry, I was looking for a way to save my current iphoto images to my hard drive. Yeah, I guess just drag something over right? Anyway, now I cannot retrieve my last 2 or 3 years of photos, Can You HELP me?
Mac os X version 10.6.8
2.66 GHz Intel core 2 Duo
etc

Depress the option key and launch iPhoto = use teh select library option and select the correct one
yes to move your library to an external drive
Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)
And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto
And backup soon and often - having your iPhoto library on an external drive is not a backup and if you are using Time Machine you need to check and be sure that TM is backing up your external drive
LN

How to back up iPhoto Library to an external source?

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