Sharing iPhoto library with Windows PC?

Is there any way (even using a 3rd party solution) to share an iPhoto library to Windows users, so they can browse pictures by albums? I used a Macbook Pro as my primary system, but my gf uses a Windows based PC. She likes to put together photo books, but it's a pain that the only way for her to get pictures is for me to copy them for her.
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

No, iPhoto has no cross platform ability whatever. Attemting to access the Library from another OS can lead to a corrupted Library.
Regards
TD

Similar Messages

Sharing iphoto library with windows computer

Hi. My husband has a windows laptop with an itty bitty hard drive, and not enough room to store photos.
I have all of our photos in iphoto on my Macbook Pro.
Can I simply export my iphoto library to an external hard drive so that he can also access the photos? Or is there a better way?

I understand that that I can't just share my library.
I'm more looking for a way that my husband can access the photos. And, I guess, as a back up in case something were to happen to my laptop and for some unfathomable reason I chose not to get another Mac. (I already back up with Time Machine).
I have Mountain Lion. Do you know what my husband would need on his PC to use PhotoStream? Where are the photos stored on PhotoStream?

Using iPhoto Library with Windows XP

Hello folks,
I have searched many forums far and wide, but have yet to encounter anyone suffering from my particular problem. I have found many out there who want to use iPhoto on their PC, but they are all offered solutions that don't really work for me. I would really appreciate any and all suggestions.
Here's the history: roughly 6 months ago, my MacBook Pro died (after a truly noble effort) and I rescued the hard disk by transferring it to an external enclosure. Since then I have connected it to my fiancee's windows laptop using freeware to read and interpret the HFS+ format.
And now the problem: I spent months cataloging my photos using iPhoto and I would really like to access these photos again in all their glory, complete with tags, location data, etc. Is there any way I can open the iPhoto library in Windows XP and play around with the photos in a similar way to iPhoto?
Thanks for taking the time to read, and I hope, reply to my post.
Al

You can't. The iPhoto library is designed to be used with iPhoto only and, as you know, iPhoto only works on a Mac.
You'll need to get a new Mac if you want to access the library in full again.
OT

Sharing iPhoto Library with PCs on Same Network?

Hi,
I work in a rug showroom, and I love how easy it is to organize photos of our inventory in iPhoto. Most of our photos are high-res, so the built-in e-mail function is extremely useful. However, I'm the sole Mac in a showroom full of PCs, and I'm getting sick of having to do all of the e-mailing for everyone in the showroom. So, my questions are:
1. Is there a simple way to share my iPhoto library with the PCs on our network?
2. Is there an application for PC that is like (or just is) iPhoto that will allow me to share with a PC?
3. Is there a better solution? (Unfortunately, we're not getting any new computers...)
Thanks in advance for your help!

lahmadin
Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
1. Is there a simple way to share my iPhoto library with the PCs on our network?
No, iPhoto has no such capability. You could try share the images from the iPhoto Library Folder but that could easily lead to your library being corrupted. I would not recommend it.
2. Is there an application for PC that is like (or just is) iPhoto that will allow me to share with a PC?
Google's Picasa is frequently mentioned a similar to iPhoto, but it doesn't have a Mac version.
3. Is there a better solution? (Unfortunately, we're not getting any new computers...)
What's your budget? Check out apps like iView or Extensis Portfolio
Regards
TD

How to share iPhoto library with Windows 7 Media Center?

Is there a way to share an iPhoto library over a local network with a Windows 7 Media Center PC? I have a Mac Pro that has my iPhoto library [about 9,500 pictures and about a hundred videos] which is about 70GB. I also have a Windows 7 PC connected to my plasma TV for media, most of which is drawn from a 5TB NAS. Ideally, I'd like a way for my Mac Pro to keep a copy of the photos and videos on the NAS [the original should stay on the Mac Pro] without requiring me to manually copy over the new photos.
My understanding is that iPhoto isn't designed to do any type of cross-platform sharing whatsoever, but hopefully I'm wrong. I would definitely appreciate any help; thank you!

Thanks for your input, Terence Devlin. At this point, I'm not even looking for a cross-platform media server application. I'm looking for (and wondering why iPhoto doesn't have) a way for us to use iPhoto in a way that it already functions.
What I mean by locking you in is that Apple is saying, if you do it our way, (iPhoto/iTunes/iPhone/iPod) you can get the functionality you want, but even within that ecosystem, it's inconsistent. Like I mentioned previously, syncing photos to your iPhone/iPod Touch through iTunes gets you all the photos organized by events. And clearly, iTunes/iPhoto is capable of reading the iPhoto database, and pulling out the photos and organizing them by events. Yet we can't do it from iPhoto itself. And that's not even getting into Apple saying Spotlight on the iPhone searches through everything...except photos...even though with iPhoto '09 they're encouraging us to tag faces and places...I just think it's odd/a shame that Apple is hiding existing functionality from its users.
At any rate, I will be giving that other application a try.
(p.s. you can't "aggregate out" something and get something smaller; aggregate as a verb means to gather together or sum up, and as a noun means the total or summation.)

Sharing iPhoto Library with Different Users on Same Mac

Surely what I'm trying to do is not that unusual!!?? I'm a new Apple User coming from the 'dark' PC side and was hoping Apple would be better.
Our family has a single Mac running Mavericks. My wife, children and I have our own logins but we'd like to use iPhoto to store our photos and share the same library. Has to be common......right?
I'm told if we try to share a photo library on the Mac it will cause problems and therefore two choices are:
1. Move the iPhoto library to an external drive or
2. Move the iPhoto library to a disk image.
I'm not sure about this disk image option but luckily(I thought) have both a 2TB Time Capsule and 3 TB WD MyBook Live Drive. I don't really use the MyBook Live and simply use 'Time Machine' to backup the Mac to the Time Capsule.
I thought the easiest way to resolve the iPhoto library problem was simply to put the library on the MyBook Live drive and then I thought I could simply get 'Time Machine' to backup the MyBook Live drive as well as the Mac. From what I can see, 'Time Machine' won't backup external drives.
Given my configuration and hardware can someone PLEASE suggest a good option. I'd like to keep it as simple as possible. :-)
Surely if Apple would simply allow the iPhoto library to be shared but only accessed by one User at a time it would make it dead simple.
Your earliest possible reply would be appreciated.
Thank you!!

Is that MyBook Live a NAS?
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, exporting, saving edits and sharing the photos.
See this article
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168
for more. Note also the comment:
“Additionally, storing the iPhoto library on a network rather than locally on your computer can also lead to poor performance or data loss.”

Sharing iphoto library with all accounts

hi, i've only had my intel imac for a month or two and i love it. the iphoto application is especially fun and useful for a family like us with lots of pictures, but there is one problem i'm having: there are 2 admin accounts on this mac, one for me and one for my dad. i'm the only person who has time to use iphoto and all of our pictures and slideshows are on my account. so if my dad wants to see the pictures or slideshows, he can't from his own account. is there a way to make this a sort of joint-application or perhaps another solution?

asli:
There are several ways to share a library with all users on the Mac. However there is one way which I use that lets each user have their own unique library of the same source files but are able to make their own edits, slideshow, etc. that are unique to their account and library.
This method involves you placing each new batch of photos in a new folder, aptly titled (I use the date of the shoot and a brief description like "01/18/05-Europe Trip") and place in a folder in the Shared folder on your Mac. Then each user creates a new library using iPhoto 6's alias mode (See the Advanced preference section of iPhoto's preferences). That way each library only imports alias files for each photo and not a full sized version. Then when a user edits a photos the edited version is saved in that library and the source files are not touched.
A couple of caveats are you must always place new photos in their own folder in the Shared folder. Each user can then move their version to new rolls or whatever. That's needed so each user can tell which ones are new. The other caveat is that if a user deletes a photo from their library it is only deleted from that library. Again the source files are untouched. The only way to delete a source file is thru the Finder.
I've created some Tutorials to assist users in converting over to an alias based system. Good luck.

Mixed environment - sharing iphoto library with pc to sync to iPhone?

I have a MacBookPro and my wife has an XP desktop computer. We both have iPhone 3Gs, and I keep all of our photos in iPhoto. She's a bit jealous that I can easily sync our pictures to my phone and wants to do the same from her PC.
Is there anything that will do this. Even just to get the photos to the PC easily to then sync to the phone? If I tried to put the iPhoto library on our network would she be able to see it/access it from her XP machine?
Help!!
Jim

Well the righteous thing to do is get your wife a nice Mac desktop computer. Christmas is just around the corner. Otherwise the next best solution would be to let your wife peruse your iPhoto library on your computer to select and export those photos she wants to add to her iPhone. Then transfer them to her machine where she can use iTunes to sync to the phone.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) 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 created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), 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. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. Just put the application in the Dock and click on it whenever you want to backup the dB file. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.
Note: There's now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

Sharing iphoto library with different users

I have a new imac, set up different users for myself and my wife. We have been uploading our photos to iphoto on my account and evertime she would like to access them she has to log out and into my account.
Any way to share the library between users?

There is a bug in iPhoto 11 that prevents two users having the app opened at the same time, so Sharing using the preferences method is pretty much pointless until that's fixed.
That said:
For iPhoto 09 (version 8.0.2) and later:
What you mean by 'share'.
If you want the other user to be able to see the pics, but not add to, change or alter your library, then enable Sharing in your iPhoto (Preferences -> Sharing), leave iPhoto running and use Fast User Switching to open the other account. In that account, enable 'Look For Shared Libraries'. Your Library will appear in the other source pane.
Any user can drag a pic from the Shared Library to their own in the iPhoto Window.
Remember iPhoto must be running in both accounts for this to work.
If you want the other user to have the same access to the library as you: to be able to add, edit, organise, keyword etc.
Quit iPhoto in both accounts. Move the Library to the Users / Shared Folder
(You can also use an external HD set to ignore permissions, a Disk Image or even partition your Hard Disk.)
In each account in turn: Double click on the Library to open it. (You may be asked to repair the Library Permissions.) From that point on, this will be the default library location. Both accounts will have full access to the library, in fact, both accounts will 'own' it.
However, there is a catch with this system and it is a significant one. iPhoto is not a multi-user app., it does not have the code to negotiate two users simultaneously writing to the database, and trying will cause db corruption. So only one user at a time, and back up, back up back up.
Regards
TD

Sharing iphoto library with another person?

Hi
I have a photo library on my iPad first generation.
Can I transfer this entire library to another person's MacBook for them to have?
Would I do this via iTunes or iPhoto 11?
I don't want to wipe out their library.
AS

No, I'm sorry I don't. It works properly on my machine. Perhaps you have problems with the operating system. You could try the following:
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now shutdown the computer for a couple of minutes and then restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.0 for Tiger) and/or TechTool Pro (4.5.2 for Tiger) to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

How to share administrator iPhoto library with other users on same iMac?

How to share administrator iPhoto library with other users on same iMac?

This is the part I'm referring to:
If you want the other user to be able to see the pics, but not add to, change or alter your library, then enable Sharing in your iPhoto (Preferences -> Sharing), leave iPhoto running and use Fast User Switching to open the other account. In that account, enable 'Look For Shared Libraries'. Your Library will appear in the other source pane.
Any user can drag a pic from the Shared Library to their own in the iPhoto Window.
Remember iPhoto must be running in both accounts for this to work.
The library stays in the Pictures folder for this.

Sharing iPhoto Library Not Recomended?

According to this.
Is this really a problem? I would like to do this if its not a problem. Acually I do have several iPhoto Libraries in the /Users/Shared folder and so far in iPhoto 5 there didn't seem to be any major problems except for the one listed at the bottom. When upgrading to iPhoto 6 yesterday I did get the permission error while opening a /Users/Shared/iPhoto Library for the first time and I did this.
Setting Permissions for iPhoto Library Folder
1 - Select the iPhoto Library folder and type Command-I.
2 - When the Info window comes up go to the Ownership and Permissions section and make sure You have Read & Write permission and that the Owner and Group have Read & Write also. Others - Read Only.
3 - Then click on the "Apply to enclosed items..." button.
And it seems to be fine. I would really like to keep the iPhoto Libraries in the /Users/Shared folder if I can so that both me (Admin) and my wife (Standard) can access/edit/add/delete pics to this library. Thats why I'm troubled why it's not recommeded.
I also use iPhoto Library Manager v3.2.1 and have the options set as Owner and Group have Read & Write and Others - Read Only. I also have the settings Permissions to Apply as enabled to automatically apply before launching iPhoto and when iPhoto Quits. But I only use it if I want to change libraries if not I just open iPhoto.
I noticed in iPhoto 5 that sometimes after importing photos to this library from one user that when accessing that library from another user iPhoto wouldn't open until the permissions were changed again. I think this happened when I did not launch iphoto from iPhoto Library Manager. Does this mean if I leave the library in the Shared folder I should after importing photos always open iPhoto with iPhoto Library Manager to change the permissions. Will this fix the problem?
Alan

Hello, I have an issue where my iPhoto library is not visible in iTunes Photo Sharing Preferences. I wish to have my iPhoto library (Aperture Library) available on my Apple TV.
Does your joint Aperture/iPhoto library show in the Finder as "Kind Aperture Library"?
Then set your Photo Sharing to share from Aperture and not from iPhoto.
When I try to sync or share iPhoto libraries from iTunes, it will look for libraries "Kind iPhoto" and not sync with an Aperture library, even if it is the current iPhoto library.

How can I access the iphoto library using windows pc? Upgrading to aperture solves my problem?

How can I access the iphoto library using windows pc? Upgrading to aperture solves my problem?
My home network is used both by my macbook and my wife's windows pc. Considering that, I would like to know if we can share our pictures with each other (specially because I intend to store all of them into a NAS storage - WD My Cloud, probably).

No you can not - neither iPhoto nor Aperture has any cross platform capability
You can share photos with the PC using MyPhotoStream or Shared PhotoStreames
You can not share the iPhoto library
And you can not put the iPHoto library on a NAS - it MUST always be on a volume formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) and mube on a fast wired local connection - it can not be on a Network
There are Digital Asset Managers that can do what you want - iPhoto and Aperture can not
LN

Sharing iphoto library in Shared folder - so frustrated!

I am so frustrated trying to put the iPhoto Library in the Shared folder, in order to give all users Read & Write access. It worked for about a month, and now my wife suddenly is getting lots of permission problems. I tried making her the "owner" of the library, but that caused iPhoto to not read it at all and say the Library was 0 k in size. Once I changed ownership back to me, it was 20GB.
Certain folders inside the library give her Custom permission, so I went in and changed permission to Read/Write. Doesn't help - photos in iPhoto disappear or black out. Sometimes a folder (like a certain date) won't even show on her side at all.
This seems like such a simple thing, and something most people would want to do. Why won't this work correctly???
Any other ideas?! Thanks!!

have you read this article?
Sharing via the Shared Folder -- Another major annoyance with versions of iPhoto prior to iPhoto '09 was that you couldn't just put your iPhoto Library in the /Users/Shared folder to share it among multiple accounts on the same Mac, since iPhoto always set the permissions on thumbnails to the account that imported the photos, preventing other accounts from editing those photos and having the edits reflected in the thumbnails.
That limitation has now been fixed in iPhoto '09, so you can share an iPhoto library merely by moving it to /Users/Shared and then double-clicking it to open in iPhoto from each account. You may be prompted to repair permissions on the first access - click the Repair button to do that. Note that this also works for storing an iPhoto library on an external hard disk that's shared among users or on a network volume for access across a fast network.
Only one person may access a shared iPhoto library at a time.
LN
Message was edited by: LarryHN

Can I use my Mac OS iTunes Library with Windows XP under Boot Camp?

Hello. I have a Mac Pro with two drives, a 1TB Mac OS 10.5 drive and a 500GB Windows XP drive. I have a large iTunes library on my Mac OS drive, and I'd like to be able to access it when I'm using XP. I downloaded MacDrive hoping that I'd be able to use the same iTunes library, but I'm stuck as to what to do now. Anyone know if this is possible, and how I can get it to work?

I have my entire iTunes library shared between Mac OS X 10.5.2 and XP (aka. Media Center 2005).
I use an HFS+ volume accessed via MacDrive. In my case I started off with the Windows iTunes as the master (and use it to rip all my CDs). I then set the Mac side running iTunes to use the same iTunes folder as specified in Windows (this is done in Advanced Preferences). I also replaced the Mac "iTunes Music Library.xml" and "iTunes Library" file (both stored in /Users/username/Music/iTunes) with aliases pointing to "C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music Library.xml" and "C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\Music\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl" respectively.
Note: I suspect the Mac side will need write access to these two files, and as I used FAT32 for the Windows volume the Mac does have write access. However there are now at least two ways for the Mac to get write access to NTFS volumes (MacFuse being one). It may also be possible to tell iTunes to store these files themselves in a common location (not tried that).
While it is not relevant to your query, I have also managed to share my entire iTunes library with Windows Media Player (and therefore also to Media Center 2005). All my music is in Apple Lossless format and I have a directshow filter for WMP to let it play Apple Lossless (or unprotected AAC). I also have a plugin installed to let WMP read the meta tags in MPEG4 (i.e. AAC and Apple Lossless) files.
When I switch from Windows to Mac and run iTunes it does a brief rebuild, when I switch from Mac to Windows it again does a brief rebuild and the result is that the list of music in iTunes on both operating systems is always the same and successfully accesses the same music files on the shared volume. I rebooted back in to Mac OS X at the weekend and was happily accessing the music in Front Row.

Sharing iPhoto library with Windows PC?

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