Moving and Organizing Pics in iPhoto 6

I have an older MacBook Pro (2006), running 10.4.11 and iPhoto 6. My hard drive is getting low on space and I'd like to transfer some of my 30 gigs of pics to a 300 gig portable external hd. I'd love to keep the last year or two on my laptop so I don't have to take the external wherever I go. I've had problems in the past with moving pics to an alternate folder in order to find certain pics faster. iPhoto would not be able to find the pic and I would get a grey box with a question mark in place of the image. I'm hoping to not have this problem with 10 gigs worth of pics if I move them to an external. Also, if anyone can tell me the method to rebuild my iPhoto library and get those missing pics, I would appreciate it. The genius bar told me once, something about right clicking the app icon on my dashboard. I can't remember exactly. I'm obviously not a huge tech guy, so please go easy on me. Thanks for any help I can get.

The iPhoto library is a relational database and has no user serviceable parts - if you have mucked around in it your choices are to put it back - return things to exactly the way they were - load a backup or start over
You can move the entire library as a single entity and you can use iPhoto library manager - http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/ - to mover photos between different libraries - you can not use the finder to move photos around
LN

Similar Messages

  • Newbie Question: Importing (from PC) and Organizing Photos in iPhoto

    Hi everyone,
    I am currently a PC user and am contemplating buying an iMac, and I'm trying to determine if iPhoto will meet my needs for photo importing and organization.
    I currently have around 20-30 gigs of digital photos and am using Windows Photo Gallery (for Windows Vista) to view/organize/import them.
    The directories are organized by the photo date taken in the format "yyyy-mm-dd" .
    Some of these directories are appended with an event name if applicable, i.e. "2011-12-25_Christmas Party" while others will only have the date, i.e. "2011-12-20"
    My photos are named according to date/time taken so that a file listing will display the photos in chronologic order. Again, some of these will be appended with an event name or other descriptive label. So, many photos will look like this: "yyyy-mm-dd_hh-mm-ss" while others will look like this: "yyyy-mm-dd_hh-mm-ss_event name"
    A possible complicating factor in all of this is that some of the photos were taken with a camera where the time/date was not set properly, or with cameras whose date/times were set for a different time zone. I adjusted this within Windows Photo Gallery, but I am not sure if it permanently changed the date/time in the photo file's properties... I've seen some evidence that it may not have. I did make sure that the file name was named according to the correct date/time in every case, however.
    Now, here are my questions about using iPhoto:
    1) When I initially import my photos into iPhoto, will iPhoto recognize (or is there a way to make it recognize) each separate directory as a separate event based on the directory in which it is found?
    2) If I copy photos into iPhoto library, will it respect and preserve my directory structure wherein photos are separated by date taken? If not, then is it practical to still use iPhoto without copying the files into its library (by keeping them organized as subdirectories in a directory elsewhere and having iPhoto setup to automatically display photos in that directory)?
    3) If I use iPhoto to import pictures from a digital camera, can I control how it sorts those pictures into directories by making it name the directories in yyyy-mm-dd format? This is what Windows does and I find that format very convenient for organizing and viewing photo files, especially those that I have not yet tagged.
    4) Again, if I use iPhoto to import pictures from a digital camera, can I control the naming convention so that photos are named according to date&time taken (i.e. yyyy-mm-dd_hh-mm-ss ), or at least according to just date taken (i.e. yyyy-mm-dd) as well as appended with event names?
    5) Will I be able to edit photo properties, such as date taken, within iPhoto if I discover that a photo is incorrectly organized?
    Thanks in advance,
    JB

    Here's the thing: You've put a lot of time developing a system of managing files. iPhoto is all about Photos. So, frankly. forget your current system and use iPhoto. it has more powerful and more varied tools for managing your snaps.
    There's a conceptual leap to be made with apps like iPhoto. The illustration I use is as follows: In my iTunes Library I have a file called 'Let_it_Be_The_Beatles.mp3'. So what is that, exactly? It's not the song. The Beatles never wrote an mp3. They wrote a tune and lyrics. They recorded it and a copy of that recording is stored in the mp3 file. So the file is just a container for the recording. That container is designed in a specific way attuned to the characteristics and requirements of the data. Hence, mp3.
    Similarly, that Jpeg is not your photo, it's a container designed to hold that kind of data. iPhoto is all about the data and not about the container. So, regardless of where you choose to store the file, iPhoto will manage the photo, edit the photo, add metadata to the Photo but never touch the file. If you choose to export - unless you specifically choose to export the original - iPhoto will export the Photo into a new container - a new file containing the photo.
    All of your queries are about files and filenames and file storage. They're all pretty much moot if you use iPhoto. If you use iPhoto it becomes the "go-to" app for all your photos. Everything you need to do with the photos can be done via iPhoto or with iPhoto.
    When I initially import my photos into iPhoto, will iPhoto recognize (or is there a way to make it recognize) each separate directory as a separate event based on the directory in which it is found?
    Yes, but...  Events are organisation for those who can't really be bothered. They are automatic - based entirely on Date and Time the camera records the photos as taken. You can move photos between Events, you can Merge Events, you can Rename them and sort them in various ways except one: You cannot manually sort in an Event as Events are all automated.
    Albums are a much more varied and powerful organising tool.
    2) If I copy photos into iPhoto library, will it respect and preserve my directory structure wherein photos are separated by date taken?
    Well forget about "directories", you're talking Events, Album and Folders now. But yes, you can define Events (or Albums) based on date. However, given that iPhoto can sort on date, can search on date and date ranges and can generate Smart Albums based on date (say, All the Photos from 2010, only the photos from June 2010 or just the photos fron June 10, 2010, or even the photos from May 12 2009 to July 11 2010) how the fies are organised on the disk is of little concern. You never access them via the HD anyway.
    If not, then is it practical to still use iPhoto without copying the files into its library (by keeping them organized as subdirectories in a directory elsewhere and having iPhoto setup to automatically display photos in that directory)?
    Yes you can do this. It's called a Referenced Library. I don't recommend it - especially for a new Mac user - and it adds nothing except complexity to the process. It has no extra capability. It's just dumb file storage. For more on this:
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3062728?tstart=0
    3) If I use iPhoto to import pictures from a digital camera, can I control how it sorts those pictures into directories by making it name the directories in yyyy-mm-dd format?
    No.
    This is what Windows does and I find that format very convenient for organizing and viewing photo files, especially those that I have not yet tagged.
    There are various tools in iPhoto that will allow you to find photos that you have not yet tagged or organised.
    Again, if I use iPhoto to import pictures from a digital camera, can I control the naming convention so that photos are named according to date&time taken (i.e. yyyy-mm-dd_hh-mm-ss ), or at least according to just date taken (i.e. yyyy-mm-dd) as well as appended with event names?
    You can add titles to photos, yes. But as the date and time of the photo are already in the Exif, using those in the name of the photo is a bit redundant.
    Will I be able to edit photo properties, such as date taken, within iPhoto if I discover that a photo is incorrectly organized?
    Yes.
    It's a bit to take in I know, and I always suggest to people that the best thing is to create a library on their Mac, import a couple of hndred pics and explore what it does (and doesn't), and see if it works for you.
    iPhoto uses a lot of virtualisation. Photos are stored in the Library. (Events are just one of two possible views of the Library). Albums reference photos in the Library. So a shot can be in any number of albums and use no extra disk space. Keywording is also very powerful. Here’s a stock answer I use for folks when wondering what iPhoto can do:
    I use Events simply as big buckets of Photos: Spring 08, July - Nov 06 are typical Events in my Library. I use keywords and Smart Albums extensively. I title the pics broadly.
    I keyword on a
    Who
    What
    Where basis (The When is in the photos's Exif metadata). I also rate the pics on a 1 - 5 star basis.
    Using this system I can find pretty much find any pic in my 40k library in a couple of seconds.
    So, for example, I have a batch of pics titled 'Seattle 08' and a  typical keywording might include: John, Anne, Landscape, mountain, trees, snow. With a rating included it's so very easy to find the best pics we took at Mount Rainier.
    File -> New Smart Album
    set it to 'All"
    title contains Seattle
    keyword is mountain
    keyword is snow
    rating is 5 stars
    Or, want a chronological album of John from birth to today?
    New Smart Album
    Keyword is John
    Set the View options to Sort By Date Ascending
    Want only the best pics?
    add Rating is greater than 4 stars
    The best thing about this system is that it's dynamic. If I add 50 more pics of John  to the Library tomorrow, as I keyword and rate them they are added to the Smart Album.
    In the end, organisation is about finding the pics. The point is to make locating that pic or batch of pics findable fast. This system works for me.
    Finally, all of this can be exported from iPhoto should you decide to migrate to a different app or different OS in a year or two.
    Regards
    TD

  • Moving and Organizing files based on number of lines

    Hello,
    I have a directory containing nearly 1500 files, some of which are composed of 12 lines, some of which are composed of 4 lines, all of which are .phy (PHYLIP) files, which can be viewed within notepad/wordpad like text files.
    I need to run a script which will identify the number of lines in each file, and move them to the corresponding folder. File size will not work for sorting, I have already tried.
    i.e.- all files with 4 lines in one folder, all files with 12 lines in another folder, no files left (so i can be sure everything was inspected) in the main directory.
    Can anyone help?
    thanks
    originally posted in the microsoft answers forum and redirected here by a mod.

    I would suggest you to post your question in scripting forums : http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/scriptcenter/en-US/home?forum=ITCG
    Arnav Sharma | http://arnavsharma.net/ Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading
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  • Havining problems moving and scaling pics on iPad 2 when setting them as wall paper.  Seems like a glitch you might want to look in to

    Scaling pics on the new ios7 on my iPad 2 is not working when I try to set a pic as my new wall paper. It's a glitch please fix it

    You are not addressing Apple here in these forums. No pine here is an employee or representative of Apple. We are all users like yourself trying to help one another with technical problems. You can send feed back to Apple by selecting the appropriate topic at this link:
    http://www.apple.com/feedback/

  • Moving pics location and removing images from iphoto

    Here is the basic breakdown.
    1. Imported pics from camera into iphoto.
    2. I want to remove some of the pics from iphoto.
    3. I do not want to use delete due to I want to burn/move a copy to CD or a different folder on my HD.
    4. I moved a couple for test purposes from my iphoto lib to my home folder.
    5. Reboot.
    6. In iphoto I can still see the photos in the smaller views. but when I try to full screen the photo I get an grey screen ?x type of thing.
    I do not want the small pic either.
    Advice or direction?
    Thanks.
    T

    T Slap:
    To add to Terence's suggestions I'd like to expand on:
    3. I do not want to use delete due to I want to burn/move a copy to CD or a different folder on my HD.
    To copy those photos to another folder use the File->Export->File Export menu option. This will copy the files to the location of your choice.
    To burn the photos to disk so that iPhoto can access them at a later date then use the method described by Terence. To burn just the jpg files to a disk without the iPhoto format use the Export route again to a folder on the desktop and then burn that folder via the Finder.
    And do not take the warning about messing with files via the Finder lightly. As you found out it can really mess up the library.
    Do you Twango?
    TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.

  • Condensing and organizing iPhoto library

    I'm trying to figure out the best way to condense and organize my pictures that are stored both an internal and external hard drive. I've been reading some different posts and articles to figure out what to do but am still not sure.
    I recently just started to keep closer track of the photos on my internal hd by changing their titles, assigning keywords, etc. and want to do that with my photos that are on my external as well. I don't have the hard drive space to import all of these pics back in to iPhoto but thought I could do this is in batches. Once I've imported and organized these as I'd like what's the best way to move these batches back to the hard drive?
    I get confused with whether I should just drag the images straight out of iPhoto, drag from the data/original/modified folders (in the iPhoto library) or do I just copy the entire iPhoto library on to the hard drive each time? Would I simply copy over the older version each time I do this? Also if I've read correctly I should be able to choose which library I want to operate from upon start up of iPhoto.....so I could switch back an forth between my older and newer images? Hope this makes sense and thanks for any responses.

    Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
    As you are using iPhoto 6 it’s very easy to simply have 2 Libraries, one on your internal, one on your external drive:
    Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Create Library' to make a second Library on your external.
    Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' will allow you to choose which Library to open too.
    As you are still using iPhoto 6 keywords added to Photos are not maintained outside of an iPhoto Library. (If you upgrade to a later version you can do this)
    drag from the data/original/modified folders (in the iPhoto library)
    Never, ever. Don't change anything in the iPhoto Library Folder via the Finder or any other application. iPhoto depends on the structure as well as the contents of this folder. Moving things, renaming things or otherwise making changes will prevent iPhoto from working and could even cause you to damage or lose your photos.
    Managing Multiple Libraries - including moving pics/albums/rolls and metadata between them - is greatly facilitated by using iPhoto Library Manager
    Regards
    TD

  • IPhoto folders are all messed up and my pics arent showing up correctly..

    I tampered with the iPhoto folders...I renamed files and moved things around thinking I was organizing things.. but now my photos in iPhoto arent working correctly. Some photos show a thumbnail but dont open.. and all I get is a gray screen with an exclamation mark. Other photos open but at very poor quality.. around 32KB instead of the 1.6 MB that they should be!
    What can I do to fix this problem?
    Also, my computer seems to have 5 copies of all my photos. One copy that is the original... another that is smaller and then more random copies. How can I get rid of those copies.. I've got like 2,000 of them! Ahhh..
    Somebody please help! Any suggestions??

    Hi Diana,
    #1 Two Apple kbs for you to read
    Don't tamper with files in the iPhoto library folder
    About the iPhoto Library folder
    #2 It seems you moved photos around and some thumbnail photos from the Data folder were put in the originals folder (photos open at 32k) and the ones missing (renamed by you). This is how it is supposed to be in the Finder;
    iPhoto 6 Library folder in the Finder
    As you can see the structure is now related to rolls. Rolls are created for each folder you import and each import session from a camera.
    It is very easy to change the names of film rolls within iPhoto to make them easier to find images within. Open the info panel in iPhoto by clicking on the "i" icon. Once it is opened, click on the roll title in the viewing window.
    Click on the word "title" in the info pane and type in your new title. I like to use a date and text format such as 12/25/05 Christmas at Mom's, 1/05/06 my birthday, etc. Once the roll names are changed within iPhoto, they are also changed within the Finder, making it easy to locate an image.
    When importing from a camera, make sure you name the roll with a date and text before the import.
    There is no way to recover from this except to start over with just the original files. This would entail creating a new library, going through the old library and finding all the full sized images and deleting the thumbnail images
    #3 Here are the instructions for creating a new library. BUT remember that in your case it is not as simple as importing the Originals folder again as you moved photos around and in and out of the wrong folders. You are going to have to find all the originals and delete the smaller thumbnails of the same name (unless the originals were overwritten by the thumbnails when you moved photos around because an image has the same name in all the folders (Data, Original and Modified).
    close iPhoto
    -drag the iPhoto Library folder to the desktop
    -launch iPhoto and create a new library
    -double click the iPhoto Library folder on the desktop to open it
    -the two main folders you will need to import are the Original folder and the Modified folder (only if you want to import the edited images).
    -the Originals folder has all your originals photos unedited. the Modified folder has all images that you have edited, rotated, cropped, etc.
    -Drag these two folders to the desktop
    -If you want to save the edited image, find it in the roll in the Modified folder and drag it into the roll of the same name in the Originals folder. It will replace the originals and now will be the original.
    -If you don't care to save any edited images, then don't import the Modified folder into iPhoto or don't bother replacing the edited image with the original image like I just described.
    -If you import the Originals folder into iPhoto you will have all your originals in their named rolls.
    -If you import the Originals and Modified folders into iPhoto, you will have all of the being in the originals folder in the finder. The roll with the same name as the other will have a _1 appended to it's name (in the finder)
    -the roll from the originals will be next to the same roll from the Modified folder within iPhoto. You can then delete any of the images from there if you want.
    I know this might sound confusing but it really isn't.
    Get back if any of this sounds like something you might want to do.

  • I am making a calendar in iPhoto, picking photos from a folder, let's call it "2011 Pics," in iPhoto. After arranging all the photos and captions I decided I wanted to insert a new photo -- one that was not in "2011 Pics." So I inserted it into the folder

    Add new photo to existing calendar folder in iPhoto
    I am making a calendar in iPhoto, picking photos from a folder, let's call it "2011 Pics," in iPhoto. After arranging all the photos and captions I decided I wanted to insert a new photo -- one that was not in "2011 Pics." So I inserted it into the folder, but the picture does not show up on the scrolling menu of pictures at the left of the calendar-making page. This happened last year and in frustration I started all over again. But surely there is a way to add a new picture to a calendar that is already laid out.

    Yes, the Old Master file has a folder for each year where I find all photos from that specific year. I am attaching a screen shot of the file.
    In the meantime i have managed to download all photos (it did not download any video files though in mpg, avi, 3gp, m4v,mp4 and mov format) to a new iphoto library. Unfortunately the photos are quite mixed and often doubled up. I ma considering to purchase iphoto library which checks all duplicates in iphoto. this will save me a lot of time. What do you think?

  • How can you take a photo from one event and put it in another, without dragging to desktop and dragging back into iPhoto and moving it to the event folder I want it in.

    As the title says I need help on how to take a photo from one event and put it in another, without dragging to desktop and dragging back into iPhoto and moving it to the event folder I want it in. Right now when I want to move a picture from one event to another I drag it to my desktop then delete it from iPhoto then I drag it back into iPhoto and put where I want it.An example would be taking a photo from the Christmas event and add it to a specific person event.  Can I do that within the events section without all the dragging. Also is there anyway I can remove duplicates from iPhoto without going through each and every file. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Apple doesn't make it easy to do what you want.  However, here's how I do it. 
    Select the photo you want to move and create a new Event for it via the Event ➙ Create Event menu option.
    In the Event mode select the new Event with the one picture and drag it onto the Event you want to move the photo to.

  • Editing and organizing photos outside of iphoto

    Apple Tech Support tells me that iphoto only works for photos imported via digital camera hookup. I have many photos on my hard drive that were input via CD or email .jpg files. I understand I cannot edit these photos using any software that comes with the Mac, and I have to organize and store them outside of iphoto. Is there any Apple-compatible software other than Adobe Photoshop that I might buy to have more flexibility in editing and organizing all my photos? I am currently using a Mac Mini with the Panther 10.3 OS.

    I understand I cannot edit these photos using any software
    that comes with the Mac, and I have to organize and store them
    outside of iphoto.
    The first part of this statement might be accurate if your mini did not come with GraphicConverter among the bundled applications, but whoever left you with the impression that iPhoto won't accept anything but camera-generated images is misinformed. Launch iPhoto and select iPhoto Help from the Help menu. Enter the phrase "importing photos" in the search window, and have a look.

  • HT3412 I recently moved all my photos from iphoto to Aperture. I had several iphoto books and cards in my project file. When everything was moved to Aperture I can't find any of the books or card projects. Are they gone or can they be restored?

    I recently moved all my photos from iphoto to Aperture. I had several iphoto books and cards in my project file. When everything was moved to Aperture I can't find any of the books or card projects. Are they gone or can they be restored?

    1 - without specifics I have no idea how to help
    2 - the question was "are you trying to use them in iPhoto? " - it sounds like you are - to do so you will have to export them from Aperature and import into iPhoto
    3 - for information on how to use them in Aperature then you need to ask about how to use Aperature in the Aperature forum as it does not involve iPhoto
    LN

  • I created an album from photos taken off three different cameras. I am sorting the photos manually and when I close iPhoto, the photos move back either by date or by camera import time. How can I keep the photos from moving around?

    I created an album from photos taken off three different cameras. I am sorting the photos manually and when I close iPhoto, the photos move back either by date or by camera import time. How can I keep the photos from moving around?

    Don't tell us, tell them
    http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html is the place for feature requests and feedback

  • Before I downloaded Lion every time I would upload a pic from iphoto there would be two files.  One that was 1.8MB and another that was 50KB.  Now I can only find the 1.8MB one.  Did this option disappear with Lion?

    Before I downloaded Lion every time I would upload a pic from iphoto there would be two files.  One that was 1.8MB and another that was 50KB.  Now I can only find the 1.8MB one.  Did this option disappear with Lion?  I really need this option!

    Sorry but this is not clear.
    When you would "import" what?
    two files would show up in "images".
    Do you mean in the All Images search in the Finder?
    IF so:
    1.Never interact with photos that are in iPhoto via the All Images Search. This does not understand the iPhoto Library and it's very, very easy to damage the library this way.
    2. What you were seeing was the original file you imported and the thumbnail created by iPhoto for viewing on the iPhoto Window. That thumbnail is not designed for user access.
    What are you trying to do ultimately?
    Regards
    TD

  • IPhoto, moving photo's to my document folder, and remove thumbnails from iphoto.

    iPhoto, moving photo's to my document folder, and remove thumbnails from iphoto.
    How to? Please...I cut and paste items, it is removed from iphoto for a few seconds then they appear again.

    The photos that are appearing on the mini - are they photos taken with an iPhone or iPad? If so, open System Preferences on both computers and select the iCloud tab. On the mini, click the Photos checkmark off and on the MBP click the Photos checkmark on (if it isn't already), then start iPhoto and select Preferences. Select the Photo Stream tab and make sure Photo Stream is on.

  • IPhoto unexpectedly quit and lost pics

    I had just uploaded about 50 pics over the course of 3 hours, was importing movie to iMovie, iPhoto quit, reopened it and the pics I had uploaded were gone. There's an event where they were but has 0 pictures. What happened and how do I get them back ?!?

    What version of iPhoto? Assuming 09 or later...
    Option 1
    Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Repair Database. If that doesn't help, then try again, this time using Rebuild Database.
    If that fails:
    Option 2
    Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. (In Library Manager it's the FIle -> Rebuild command)
    This will create an entirely new library. It will then copy (or try to) your photos and all the associated metadata and versions to this new Library, and arrange it as close as it can to what you had in the damaged Library. It does this based on information it finds in the iPhoto sharing mechanism - but that means that things not shared won't be there, so no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your events, albums and keywords, faces and places back.
    Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one. 
    Regards
    TD 

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