New to iPhoto-organizing photos?

Transferring years worth of photos from my PC. I had everything filed by year with subfolders. Can I do that with iPhotos?

VAnovice:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. When you import a folder of photos a "roll" will be created with that folder's name. The date on the folder will probably be the latest modified date of any file in the folder or, if all from a digital camera, maybe the latest Created Date. You can always edit the roll date in iPhoto to whatever you want. The iPhoto library will create the following folders:
Originals, Data (thumbnail files) and Modified (any files you've edited in iPhoto or any portrait oriented files taken with a camera with the auto-rotate feature). The overall iPhoto Library folder will look like this
Each will contain subfolders with the same name as the roll that the files are in. So if your subfolders for each year has a date in the title it will show up in the roll name. I use this naming scheme for folder identification.
If the subfolders do not have a date on them you might want to add a date to the folder name before importing. A little effort up front might save a lot later on.
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.
I've written an Automator workflow application, iPhoto dB file backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. You can download it at Toad's Cellar
G5 Dual Core 2GHz, 2G RAM, 250G HD; G4 Dual 1Ghz, 1.5G RAM, 80G HD, Mac OS X (10.4.8) QT 7.1.3, 22 LCD, 200 & 160G FW HDs, Canon S400, i850 & LIDE 50, Epson R200

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Help! Lost all iPhoto organized photos

HELP!!! I have iPhoto version 9.6 on a MacBook Pro (Late 2012) running on OS Yosemite version 10.10.2.
I have been organizing my photo events in iPhoto. After completing the task, I left my computer for a few minutes and now all the photo events and names are not organized. There are fewer photos showing now and all the organized events now appear as one big event. Ugh!!!! Is there a way to recover all that work? I'm at a loss.

Where did you cut from? The Finder for from within iPhoto? If it was from the Finder you've damaged the library. If from within iPhoto apply the two fixes below in order as needed:
Fix #1
1 - launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
2 - run Option #4 to rebuild the database.
Fix #2
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
1 - download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
2 - click on the Add Library button and select the library you want to add in the selection window..
3 - Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the Library ➙ Rebuild Library menu option.
4 - In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
5 - Click on the Create button.
Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments but not books, calendars or slideshows. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.
To copy your Photos easily to the Desktop in the same order as they are in Events use the File ➙ Export ➙ File Export menu option with the settings shown in this screenshot:
Then drag the folders to the EHB drive.

New ipad iphoto duplicate photos itself

Every single time I take pictures or snotshoot to my iPad 3, "iPhoto" automatically renew it's own photos and make one more copy of every image from camera steam. This happpens many times and I have more than 5 time of same pictures in iphotos.
Any info?

Where are you seeing these "duplicates"?
LN

Organizing photos in Iphoto is a big pain and

Does anyone have issues with getting IPHOTO organized? I upgraded to the version 11 from the 08 because I thought that there would be some additional features related to the way that photos and events could be handled. I was very dissappointed to find out that there is absolutely no improvements or changes to the way that photos and events could be organized. First of all, who in the heck has time to name, rate, assign keywords etc.. to their photos upon import from camera. It is very difficut to find photos with Iphoto. I have a huge amount of photos. If I view photos instead of view events, how in the heck am I to drag photos from one event to another? I have so many photos that if I leave all of the photos expanded then you have to scroll to much up or down while trying to hang on to the photo long enough to get it where you want it. If you collapse the photos, then you cannot see them.
If you create albums and try to drag photos from existing events to the new albums, it makes no sense to have to go back and delete the photo from the place that you dragged it from. At least I think this is how it is. I may have thought it was like this and the found out that when i did go back to delete the orginal destination location, that it also deleted it in the new album.
I see where a couple of features were added to the photo editing features between the two versions, but not worth upgrading and paying the extra cost.
If it is easier than what I seem to be making it, it is because the Iphoto help has not improved either. It is still very basic and very vague as before.
Any suggestions?
Thank you.

If you create albums and try to drag photos from existing events to the new albums, it makes no sense to have to go back and delete the photo from the place that you dragged it from. At least I think this is how it is.
You'd be wrong. There's only one real imge file in iPhoto and that's located in the Event. All other occurances of that photo, albums, books, calendars, etc. are only virtual links to the actual file in the Event.
Albums let you group photos togeher regardless of when they were taken and what event they are in. Keywords can be applied all photos in an event by bringing fierst opening the event, bringing up the Keyword pane
Click to view full size
selecting the first photo, clicking on the keyword you want to assign, move to the next photo with the right arrow key on the keyboard, clicking on the next keyword, etc. Takes only a minute or so. You first have to create the keywords you want to use, people's names, places, etc.
Then you can just search by keyword, create a Smart album to look for one or more keywords, etc.
iPhoto is a database driven DAM (digital asset management) application so you should learn to use it properly. A little upfront effort can save a lot of time later on. And this is how it's been for most of the version of iPhoto.
OT

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

Organizing photos on iphoto

Hi,
I am new to iPhoto. I have few questions on organizing my photos using iPhoto.
1. I would like to sort my photos using the date added (& if possible date modified) instead of date taken. How to do this?
2. When I import images, iPhoto copies them to the iPhoto library folder. Within it, every new set of images are stored in a new folder (named roll 9, roll 10 etc). I dont like the way it organizes them. Can I organize all the snaps in the iPhoto Library myself and then add import them to iPhoto?
Thanks.
Murali

I dont like the way it organizes them. Can I organize all the snaps in the iPhoto Library myself and then add import them to iPhoto?
No. Don't change anything in the iPhoto Library Folder. IF you do then the application will not work. It sorts the photos the way it needs them to be. In truth there is no need to go near the folder anyway because anything you need to do with the pics can be (and should be) done through the iPhoto window.
Important: Do not modify the contents of the iPhoto Library folder from outside the iPhoto application.
Use iPhoto to delete, duplicate, or modify any photos in the iPhoto library. Modifying the contents of the iPhoto library from anywhere but the iPhoto application could result in a library that is unusable and may cause photos and albums to no longer appear in iPhoto.
That's from: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61262
Regards
TD

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 do I import my video files from old iPhoto - in time machine - to new iPhoto? Photoes came across, video said incompatible.

how do I import my video files from old iPhoto - in time machine - to new iPhoto? Photoes came across, video said incompatible.
i have moved from a mac pro to a mac mini,
Mini now has mavericks and latest iLife stuff, I clicked import, was all good, then at end, no videos came across.
Is Mavericks,/iPhoto having a compatibiltiy issue with some video formats....???
Your help is appreciated gang.: )

Please describe exactly what you did. In moving to a new machine no importing is involved. The best way is to simply connect the two computers together and drag the iPhoto library from the old one to the pictures folder go the new one and launch iPhoto
LN

IPhoto '11 refusing to detect ANY new faces in imported photos

I've been using iPhoto forever. It's always "just worked." I just got back from vacation and imported all of my photos. After deleting half of them and doing only some very minor "tweaks" (adjusting levels, etc.) to a few of them, I wanted to name the faces.
I noticed that iPhoto didn't identify a single face in the 150 or so just-imported pics.
Also, the button to manually add a face is grayed out!
Tried "Detect Missing Faces" but it does nothing.
Any ideas? Anybody seen this before? This is a new one to me and I did browse the Discussions and haven't seen this one.
Thanks in advance for your help.

iPhoto 11 seems extremely buggy. I think I'm going to downgrade back to the prior version. Anyone have suggestions before I take this action?
Not really - have you upgraded to version 9.1.1?
Problems:
1) When ever I import new photos they no longer show up in new events or the "photos" grouping of all photos. They did get imported though and I can access them by selecting "last 12 months".
This can be a sort issue - they are there but not where you expect - look at the view menu ==> sore events
2) If I manually try and split an existing event and all photos in the new event disappear from all listings.
How do you "manually" split an event?
LN

Videos on iPhoto no longer play. All was fine as I was organizing photos, but suddenly no more videos would play. What has happened?

Videos on iPhoto no longer play. All was fine as I was organizing photos, but suddenly no more videos would play. What has happened?

Something went wrong. Now for a useful answer...
Before anyone can help, they need information to work with. Basic stuff:
- What version of iPhoto.
- What version of the Operating System.
- Details. What were you doing when the problem arose?
- Did it ever work properly?
- Are there error messages?
- What steps have you tried already to solve the issue.
Anything else you can think of that might allow someone else to understand your issue.
With this kind of information somebody can develop a starting point for troubleshooting the issue.
Posts that consist of "iPhoto doesn't work. Help" or "iPhoto won't print" or "Suddenly I have no photos!!!!!!!!!!" mean that any helper is simply guessing. With information, s/he may be able to get your issue resolved sooner.

RENAME: When I rename a photo why can I not find it doing a search? The photo obviously keeps its old name even though it has a new one IPhoto 09

When I rename a photo why can I not find it doing a search? The photo obviously keeps its old name even though it has a new one> IPhoto 09

Thanks, that makes sense. If I do a search in IPhoto I find it. I have 6 grand children and also have had my camera for quite awhile and it starts file names over again after 10,000 pictures. (I don't have all these on the computer) but now I have some files with the same name ie img_4 and img_4
Thanks again for your help!!
HC

I recently migrated to a new mac. in iphoto, some photos have a small flag on the upper left of the photo. any idea what that is?

i recently migrated to a new mac. in iphoto, some photos have a small flag on the upper left of the photo. any idea what that is?

That's called Flagging. It's a way to make a quick selection of photos. For instance if you're looking for the best shot to print you might go through the photos and flag candidates for further inspection. Then clicking on the Flagged Section on the left, you can see these selected photos together. You can remove flags by clicking on them, if you mouse over a shot you'll see the option to add a flag by clicking. This can also be done in the Photos menu.

Iphoto create new event then copy photos to the new event.

I took some pictures this afternoon and imported them into iPhoto.
I looked for a new evernt but there wasn't one, so I checked 'last import' and there they were, but for some reason they they were there along with pictures I took almost a year ago. I checked the clock on my camera and the dates were correct and I can't find any reason that the new pictures were grouped with ones from a year ago.
So, I marked the new pictures, clicked 'copy', went back to 'events' and selected "new eventy" and created a new event, called "New event 8-4-13'.
Clicked on the new event... and there was no way to copy the pictures I'd selected with 'copy' in the preceeding sentence.
My question: it seems to be possible to create a New Event under the Library/Events, is there any way to actually associate pictures with this new event?

the easiest way to do a new event is to flag the photos and use the create new event form flagged photos command
As to your issue in finding the event - I do not understand what you have - but the most common reason for this si an incorrect sort - check the event sort - view menu ==> sort events
LN

I am new to Iphoto. how do I email photos from Iphoto. needs step by step instructions. i am not a very computer savy person. thanks

I am new to Iphoto. I down loaded photos in to Iphoto and I want to email selected photos to friends. I don't know how to select and email. I need step by step instructions as i am not computer savy. thanks a buch.

Open iPhoto.
From the menu bar top of your screen click iPhoto / Preferences then select the General tab.
Click the pop up menu next to: Email photos using
Select: iPhoto
Select the photo you want to send.
Now from the iPhoto menu bar click Share / Email
An email form will appear.
Type in the email address you want to send to.
Fill in the Subject line.
Type in the content of the email then click the Send button.

IPhoto Organizing and sending attachements

I am confused as to how iphoto is organizing my pics. Everything looks perfect on my main screen, but when i try to attach photos in my email i have to go through several screens that i dont understand and then get to iphoto library>data>2006> then all my film rolls (not folders) so what then is the point of folders?
Also when i go this way i see pictures that i have deleted from iphoto showing up in this window when they should be deleted....
So does anyone know how to fix this way this all looks and acts when i am trying to attach photos to email?
Thanks for your help!

From your original question, it looks like you're looking in your data folder for images. Your Data folder only contains thumbnails of your images, so if you upload those to Shutterfly you're going to get pixelated prints.
If you're uploading to a service, the fail-safe way to do it is to Export. Select the album or the photos, then choose Export from the File menu, and export to a new empty folder on the desktop (or anywhere).
Or, create a folder on your desktop or somewhere, and select the photos (within iPhoto) and simply drag to that folder. Then continue:
Lead the dialog box (for uploading to Shutterfly) to this created folder to upload.
The folders in the left margin are not as pointless, from iPhoto's standpoint. They allow you to have collections that overlap or are sub/supersets of one another, as well as smart albums that pick out their content based on your specified criteria. If they represented physical folders, there would be a lot of duplication and other problems with organizing photos.
Here's a good example: Have a smart album look for five star ratings, go through your library and rate your pictures. The smart album will have the ones with five stars automatically. That way you can select all those photos and place it in a folder to upload to Shutterfly or whatever service.
iPhoto's organization works great for their own services, since you can do everything within iPhoto. I've seen better deals for photos, and cards, but their books and calendars are unmatched in quality, and very competitive in price.

New to iPhoto-organizing photos?

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