Backing up folder structure

hello. i have created my file/folder structure from within Lightroom. When I perform a backup on my computer, are only the bulk set of files being backed up, or is the file structure I set up in LR backing up too? I don't want to lose this file structure as it took me dozens of hours to create. Thanks, Lori

If you are using the software that came with the Lacie drive, you should be able to look at the backups on your Lacie drive, using your operating system, and see how the backup folders are or are not arranged. I'm afraid I'm not familiar with that software.

Similar Messages

My images are still in the catalog, but the Folder name has disappeared. I need to get the folder back into my structure with the images in place

Help: I have a very well defined folder structure. Folder are located in a Master location and organized by State. Inside of these are my master RAW file folders organized by location. For example: West Virginia > BIRI_RAW_2012, BLFA_RAW_2013, NERI_RAW_2013, etc. After I set up the masterful following a shoot, I go to LR and import the images. At one time I inadvertently imported the NERI_RAW_2013 masterful set as a subset of something else and it was not appearing in my LR Module in the organization I prefer. So I went to my master folders on my drive and moved the NERI file into the West Virginia state folder. When I went back to LR, as expected the NERI folder was grey with a question mark. So I right clicked to find the files and relink, and it did not work. The folder name disappeared. The RAW files are still in the catalog and show up in a missing photos search. I can't reimport because they are already there. I just need to restore my folder structure and get the images back to the right spot.

So I right clicked to find the files and relink, and it did not work. The folder name disappeared.
It didn't disappear, it moved (because you told Lightroom to move it). It moved from the incorrect folder location, to the new folder location. Please look in the new folder, in whatever location it is in, not in the old folder and the old location, and you will find the photos.

Back ups disappeared. I can see the folder structure but they are all targetless alias.

Hi,
A couple of months ago I restored a Lion MacBook Time Machine Back up to a new MacBook Air using Mountain Lion. Obviously, the whole content wouldn't fit in the considerably smaller hard drive of the MBA, so I only downloaded what was most important, and left the back up in my external disk to access if I needed other files.
The thing is, I did access the files a couple of times, but sometime in the past two months the back ups have dissapeared. Instead, I can find my fold structure, but they are only aliases. There are no files there.
I used finder to browse through all the different dates inside the Time Machine folder, but there were still only aliases.
The Time Machine Back up folder reduced in size from about 500GB to 45GB, but I have not deleted anything. And I haven't set up a new time machine.
Any one has any idea of what might have happened?
Thanks in advance.

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

How do I move photos in a Smart Collection and keep folder structure?

HI there I am on a trial of Lightroom and loving it so far. One seemingly simple task I would like to try out is moving all my RAW files (which are all mixed up with JPGs and PSDs to a new location and keep the current folder structure.
Currently I have files strcutured like this: <main disk>\<year>\<month>\<filename>.cr2 and I would like to move these to <different disk>\<year>\<month>\<filename>.cr2
The Export functions look as if they will put them all in to one big folder? Any ideas?
Many thanks in advance.

There are several approaches to this problem. You could do this via the Folders panel in LR. You can do just about everything in the Folders panel that you can do in Explorer or Finder. Just create folder and drag and drop.
Another way is to do this outside LR use Explorer (Windows) or FInder (Mac). after you're done then go back into LR and tell LR where to find the moved files. Depending on how many you have this could be a bit tedious.
Another method is to choose the files you want then Export them as a Catalog. When you do this be sure to include the option to export the negatives. Point the new catalog at you other drive. It will recreate the folder structure during the export. Then remove the images from your present catalog. Don't delete from disk just remove. Now import from catalog and choose the newly exported catalog. This time choose the option to add the files without moving them. Once you are sure everything is back and is fine you can use Explorer or Finder to go into your original file structure and delete the files that were moved to the new drive. Be careful to only choose the moved files. If you are separating the RAWs out this should be relatively easy.
I hope that helps!

Hi. I am having trouble with the folder structure.

I import my pictures like probably most Lightroom users.
They go to:
Pictures / (Year) / (Subfolder name crated checking "Into Subfolder" during import)
Recently, after upgrading to Yosemite, when I import to this structure, Lightroom creates a folder visually outside it. Above, the "01_Sao_Paulo" folder should appear inside 2015 while "12_Atacama" and "12_Hasselblad" under 2014. The right folders were actually created when I check them in Finder.
And when I try to move the folders under the right folder structure, Lightroom recognizes that the folder already exists.
My question two questions are:
1. How do I make the folders appear correctly under the right folder structure?
2. How do I make Lightroom stop creating the folders outside the structure on my next imports?
Thanks for any help.

Back up your iPhoto library, Depress and hold the option (alt) and command keys and launch iPhoto - rebuild your iPhoto library database
LN

How can I batch Save For Web and maintain a multilevel folder structure?

First... I am using an old version of Photoshop.... 6.0 to be exact. If your answer is to buy the newer versions, I respectfully say I know that's AN answer, but I'm looking for something that will work with my setup. The version we have works just fine for the very few things we need it for, and we use new versions of InDesign and Acrobat for all else.
So here's the challenge:
We have a weekly magazine featuring 1,200 plus photos of cars for sale, each saved in a folder named for the sales rep, week and day. I must maintain these folder structure throughout the process, as the files names are duplicated by cameras and across reps. So I cannot dump all batch converted pics into one single folder, yet I need to reduce the Quality setting which I find when completing a Save As in Photoshop.
So I want to batch convert all the photos in multiple folders, some 3 folders deep, all at once.... reduce to 8 inches across, change to 72dpi, and reduce the quality slider to 5, which creates a nice 60-90K file. BUT.... it wants to save all of them in a particular folder. I need to just overwrite the original file with the new smaller one.... or save the new small version into the same folder the big one is in, but have it work with the "include all sub-folders" option in batch.
A sample File system .... 4513 Photos - Color <day of week> (3 folders) - <disk number><rep>Color (20 folders) - actual photos.
After converting, we push up the final level of folder to our website and that organization allows us to use them there the way we need. The uploading to the site and batch functions are done 3 to 4 times per week.... on different days.
Is there a way to reduce the quality (compression) of the jpgs that does not require the creation of a new file in a particular folder, or is there a way to have the resulting file just drop back into the folders and subfolders during a batch function? I just can't figure this out!
As an alternative, what other programs might do this?

You should be able to just use the html output of the Export for Web function and, if the video's converted correctly, just swap the file names at the appropriate places. Have you tried renaming VisualHub's output to what the Export for Web html wants, then placing it in the proper location?
I'm not aware of a way to batch create the html files, but if I had to, I'd probably look at automator to see if I could figure out it's text manipulation options.

Automatic creation of KM folder structure from xml pattern

Hi all,
is it possible to create a KM folder structure automaticly, following the tree structure of an xml document?
For example:
an xml-document with following content:
<item id=1 level=0>abc</item>
<item id=2 level=1>aaa</item>
<item id=3 level=1>bbb</item>
<item id=4 level=2>ccc</item>
<item id=5 level=0>def</item>
I'd like to create a KM folder structure like this:
- abc
---aaa
---bbb
ccc
- def
Does anyone have any idea to implement this scenario in KM?
Much obliged!
Steffi

Not currently - well at least not easily - there is always the programatic approach.
I would suggest you can create an FSDB repository - this means you can then create your structure in the file system using standard desktop tools.
After that you could do a mass copy back into the db based KM repository if you so wished.
For your downstream systems you could always ICE the data across meaning you dont have to create everything again.
Haydn

How do i get my folder structure in Lightroom to replicate my hard drive folder structure?

My issues is that post-import from Aperture, my folder structure in Lightroom does not match my folder structure on my hard-drive. In particular, rather than be structured as in my hard-drive:
2015 (folder)
-> 2015-01-30 (sub folder)
-> 2015-02-15 (sub folder)
-> 2015-03-03 (sub folder)
All of the photo folders are listed individually as:
2015-01-30
2015-02-15
2015-03-03
In addition, a number of folders have been created in the form 01a2a201aff9c8c684928629ea41221c0fa5930ab7 where no folder exists on my hard drive in this form and the image contains the right date meta data.
As I've got photos dating back to 2005 and a lot of different days taking photos, this is making the folders view unmanageable.
I completed the Aperture migration in two stages (as i did not have sufficient space to replicate images in move across to Lightroom)
1. Moved Aperture original images from being References to Managed (with the file structure above)
2. Then used the Lightroom plug in to import the library from Aperture (which has successfully copied across meta data and my folder structure + edits from Aperture)
Does anyone know how to fix this issue? In particular:
1) Adding in 2015 folder level to structure?
2) Removing all off the 01a2a201aff9c8c684928629ea41221c0fa5930ab7 folders?
Many thanks in advance,
Joe

In the "folders" pane, right-click on the folder you see and select "show parent folder". Repeat as needed.

IPhoto 09 folder structure bug

Let me start by saying that I am a big Apple fan. I have a Macbook Pro (end 2006) running 10.6 with a 30 inch Cinema Display, a 23 inch iMac (mid 2007), and an iPhone 3G and a Nano 5th G. I am an Apple Certified Systems Administrator and was also the first person in Japan to be certified on OS X 10.5 as an Apple Certified Support Professional, however I am primarily an Windows Active Directory/Exchange Server engineer.
I have been using iPhoto since version 06 (end of 2006). I upgraded to 08 as soon as it was released then last year I upgraded to 09. Until recently I had about 18,000 photos in my iPhoto library, but due to the issue listed below I have now switched to Windows Live Photo Gallery on Windows 7 for managing my photos (these are synced using Windows Live Sync to my Mac's Photo folder where I then use Picasa for Mac. Sounds complicated but actually not and it means I can import my photos on my Mac or PC and they are synced both ways. Anyway...
I posted the following Bug Report to: http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphoto.html
If you use iPhoto and don't want to spend days/weeks fixing your folder names and reorganizing photos into correct folders if your library becomes corrupt or you ever want to move your photos out of iPhoto then please provide feedback to Apple so that they know that we are not happy about this.
Bug Report.
The problem with iPhoto 09 is that the the folder structure inside the iPhoto Library package no longer matches the event names in iPhoto.
Previously in iPhoto 08, when renaming an event in iPhoto the folder structure would also be updated. Additionally splitting or merging events would move the files in the iPhoto Library package's folder structure. This is a major problem for me and many other users on the Apple.com iPhoto 09 discussion forums, and this issue has existed since the beginning of 2009!
I need my photo's folders named correctly for the following reasons:
1). Incase I should ever need to move photos out of iPhoto and to another application or platform, I would' have to spend days or even weeks renaming all the folders.
2). If my iPhoto library ever become corrupt and I needed to recreate it then I would loose ALL my event names (hence the details) if iPhoto doesn't keep the folder names the same as the events.
I have recently spent many hours migrating my photos out of iPhoto and renaming the folders manually. iPhoto really was all I ever needed in a photo management application but with this underling bug/issue I can't trust all my photos to it's library format of storage, but I do hope this gets fixed so that I can migrate back to iPhoto in the near future. Might I suggest that the best way forward for the future would be change iPhoto so that it can monitor folders (the same way Picasa does so, this is open and then gives customers the choice of using multiple apps for accessing their photos).
Regards,
Andrew

A bug can be an error or fault in the software but it can also be a design flaw which IMO this is.
No it can't. A design flaw is just that. A bug is when the software fails to works as designed. iPhoto is working as designed. You may prefer it work another way, but that's your preference. Remember you can always use a different product for managing your photos. You're not required to use iPhoto, you know.
Exporting dumps all the photos into a single folder which again doesn't solve either points 1 or 2 that I made.
Yes - if you export the entire Library at once.
If, however, you export each Event in turn (an process that can be automated with either Automator or AppleScript) then it will export to appropriately named folders.
And, as to any issue of corruption, the simple fact is that backing up is the ultimate protection.
What you want will possibly preserve your Event names. But that's all. It won't preserve albums, slideshows, metadata, the relationship between original and modified versions, the non-destructive editing and so on and so forth. All you'll get will be some folder names.
Now that's both your points answered. For the second time.
I'm not sure why there are so many Apple apologists on these forums.
I see, so someone who explains to you that you have misunderstood something, explains to you a better way of doing what you want to do is an "apologist"? Just like your definition of "bug" it's a mite idiosyncratic. And rude.
I am pretty sure that at some point there will be many users who will want to migrate out of iPhoto and when they do they won't be very happy when they realize that they are locked in.
Nobody, I repeat nobody, is locked into iPhoto. That statement is a falsehood. File -> Export and off you go.
we can either sit back and just accept these limitations, anti-competative vender lockins and design flaws or we can voice our concerns to Apple and get things changed for the better of everyone.
Every software has limitations. What you have failed to show is that any of the matters that concern you are actually "limitations". There are no
anti-competative (sic) vender (sic) lockins (sic)
iPhoto works with entirely standard formats. All your files and metadata are easily accessible throughout the OS and can be easily exported.
Regards
TD

Transparent integration of a new drive into the folder structure of a file server?

Hallo,
I'm looking for solution to a problem, that seams to be simple, but obviously is not that easy to solve:
I have to integrate a second external RAID system in to our MacOS X 10.6.8 Server based file sharing server that is accessed from Mac and Windows clients via AFP and SMB. I want to move one or two main folders from the old RAID to the new one, but this physical change has to be invisible to the users, as I don't want to confuse anyone.
So my idea was to mover the Folders to the new drive, and create symbolic links at the old locations pointing to the new locations. This works very well for the Windows clients accessing the server via SMB, but does not work for the Macs on AFP.
So I tried to move one folder to the new drive and mount it at the old location. Again this works fine for the SMB but does not work for AFP, the mount point does not show up in a directory listing via AFP.
Do you have any other idea how I might integrate the new drive in transparent way into the old folder structure?
Thanks for your input
Florian
PS: I could use SMB on the Macs but for some reason I, whenever I try to log into the server from a Mac via SMB, user name and password are accepted, but then the Mac client displays a message saying that I don't have the right to access the share. The same share works using AFP.

Define 'invisible' please.
Do you mean you need to be able to do this live, while users are on the system? or just that you can shut the machine down, reconfigure it, and bring it back up with the new configuration, even though the shares look the same to the users?
I'm guessing the latter, but it's worth asking.
Ultimately the problem lies in the way the file sharing systems deal with multi-volume sharepoints, and it's not easy. If you think about it, say you have a 1TB array handling the main sharepoint and you want to substitute one of the directories in that sharepoint with a new, empty 4TB array.
When the user mounts the sharepoint they get a little status bar at the bottom of the window showing the available space... how much is that? Well, initially it would be however much of the 1TB volume is unused... except if they switch to the linked directory they now have 4TB available (or thereabouts)... so the amount of space available has changed even though, from the user's standpoint, they're still on the same share.
It isn't valid for the OS to report 4 TB as free because that isn't the case unless you're in this specific directory.
It also isn't valid for the OS to report 5TB free, even though there is that amount of space altogether.
It also isn't valid for the OS to report 1TB free because you could upload 4TB of data if you put it in the right place.
There are few solutions to this. Microsoft sort of addressed this with their DFS solution in Windows Server, but it's not trivial.
Unfortunately you can't just blow it off and ignore the issue.
Off hand there's only one thing I can think of that *might* work. if it doesn't then you're down to using multiple sharepoints on the server, with users mounting both disks simultaneously (which can be automated, for what it's worth).
The one thing to try is to statically mount the second RAID at the appropriate location so that, as far as the OS is concerned, it looks like just another directory even though it's on a different disk. You'd do this by editing /etc/fstab and adding a line like
UUID=AABBCCDD-79F7-33FF-BE85-41DFABE2E2BA /path/to/mount hfs rw
to /etc/fstab (this file may not currently exist, so just create it as root).
The first field is the UUID of the drive (which you can get via diskutil info)
The second field is the path where you want this drive to appear in the filesystem - i.e. somewhere in the path of your sharepoint. There must be an existing (empty) directory at this path when the disk mounts.
The third field identifies the disk as HFS
The fourth field marks the disk as read-write
Now when the system boots it should locate this disk and mount it on top of the existing RAID volume. If you cd to your sharepoint you should see the existing drive and if you cd from there into your mounted directory you should be looking at your new RAID.
Now, this all works fine (or, at least, should do) from a standard OS standpoint. The big question is whether the AFP and SMB daemons honor and support this kind of setup... there's one way to try, of course...
Now for testing purposes you could mount it at a dummy directory, just to see whether it's available to network clients. If it is then your next step would be to clone the data from the directory onto the new drive, then edit the fstab to mount the disk at the appropriate location.
Note also that the entire volume will replace the directory you mount over - that means you can't replace two (or more) directories with one volume, but you can, of course, partition or setup your RAID into multiple volumes and mount each individual volume over a specific directory.

Wierd iPhoto 6 Folder Structure "issue"

A number of people here are having MAJOR problems with iPhoto not opening certain files in Edit view. The long-winded details are here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=316657&tstart=0
In trying to figure out what was going on, I noticed something strange about the new folder structure, at least as it is on my two machines.
One of the things that iPhoto 6 does when it "upgrades" the library the first time you run it is reorganize the photos from iPhoto 5 in a much simpler and more sensible way then they used to be. Before, everything was organized in this way:
/Year /Month / Day / Originals and / Modified
iphoto 6 changes this into two sets of folders:
Modified/Year/Roll #
and
Originals/Year/Roll #
The nice thing about this is that the structure is obvious when you look at it, all of your originals are in one place, in a nested series of folders by Year > Roll. And the Modified ones are elsewhere, in the same format. Simple and intuitive.
But here is the odd thing I have found in my folders (and this is true across three different libraries, one with 2500, one with 2000, and another with 13000 photos in them): In addition to the new sets of folders, there are a bunch of folders in the Library folder that are STILL in the old format. (/Year /Month / Day / Originals and / Modified)
That means that some of my photos are in the new folders and others are in the old folders. They all appear to be "in" the iPhoto library, in that they are visible and accessible from inside the program. But they are obviously not organized in the way that iPhoto 6 is supposed to organize them, which makes me worry that maybe somewhere down the line they will get lost.
Unfortunately there is no way to repeat the upgrade process to force the program to organize everything in the new format (once a library is labeled as 6.0, that's it.)
Doesn't this seem odd? Does anyone else have the same thing going on in their libraries? Doesn't this seem like something that will create problems down the line, maybe when I upgrade to iPhoto 7? Doesn't it just seem like bad software design, even if it "works"?
- Andrew

Hi Armedia,
i don't know if you read Nick LDN's post in one of the threads, but here is what he deduced ....
"When upgrading to iPhoto 6, the 'recovered photos' it finds are stored as follows:
a if you opt to import the photos when iPhoto asks, they are left where iPhoto found them (or lost them, depending on how you view it...) in the 'year' folder system, within the iPhoto Library folder in the Finder; e.g. 2005>12>15>photo.jpg, 2003>10>05>photo2.jpg etc. Within iPhoto itself the photos are grouped in one new roll, and an album is created in the Source list called "Recovered Photos".
b if you opt not to import the photos, they are moved from the 'year' folder system in the Finder into one folder within the iPhoto Library folder, entitled "Recovered Photos". The 'year' folders can be deleted, if they are still there - you should find that they are empty and they are not used by iPhoto 6.
In Case b you can move the "Recovered Photos" folder to anywhere you like, e.g the Desktop, as the photos are no longer associated with iPhoto. In fact, if you decide you need to import some or all of the photos back into iPhoto, you will have to move the RP folder to another location as iPhoto will disallow any import from within the iPhoto Library folder.
Take care either way; in my case I had 1014 recovered photos, which included all of the following:
a originals of some of my photos, the edited versions were still in iPhoto
b random duplicates of original photos
c photos, both original and edited versions, which I had deleted long ago - sometimes as long as 2-3 years, many versions of iPhoto ago!"
For me personally, iPhoto told me it had recovered some photos. i don't remember now if I told it to import or not (I think I am losing it) Anyway, when it was done, the first thing I did was take a look at the folder in the Finder. I checked through the loose Year/Month/day folders and all of mine were empty so I deleted them all in the finder. I opened iPhoto and all was fine (I already had made a backup so I felt safe deleting the empty folders)

New iPhoto 6 Library/Folder Structure - Driving us nuts!

All of our photos were previously stored in iPhoto 5 in folders listed by year, month then day. This was perfect for us as we take multiple photos on one card on differant dates and made for easy tracking/finding. On upgrading to iPhoto 6 we now have the following:
Originals - Okay the folder name makes sense but they are stored by year and the a roll number, no month no day.
Modified - Again folder name makes sense (photos that were modified from original) but the same lame date/roll number filing
iPhoto Cache - Not sure what this is for (temp storage?). When and should it be cleaned out, like internet cache?
Data - Not sure what this folder is for, but has many of the same images as other folders. Same issue with they structure (year/roll)
Also 10 other files which I am sure are for library database etc.
We then have 3 addtional folders with year (2004, 05 and 06) with the structure of (year/month/day). Why are these outside of Originals? How did they maintain the preferred file structure.
Can we get back to the year/month/date file structure? In addtion, some of the dates of photos are whacked out. Trip to Oregon in 2004 is listed as 1999. I didn't even have a digitial camera then. Others of the same trip are in 2004.
Help...

restuart:
Isn't the cache folder titled "iPod Photo Cache"? It has to do with adding photos to an iPod. Even if you don't sync photos to an ipod there'll be that folder if you've ever connected an iPod.
The Data folder contains the thumbnail files for each photo.
Regarding the year folder with the old structure, I believe it's like our appendix, no longer needed. I had a 2005 folder with just photo in it. I moved it to the desktop and opened iPhoto, went to the roll that had that picture in and it was there and useable. I've since trashed that 2005 folder. Give it a try. and see if there's any problems with removing it. Make a backup of the library folder beforehand just in case.
There is some sort of bug with the roll dates. When you import an old folder of files it uses one of the modified dates instead of the captured date on many of the rolls. I haven't figured out how it determines which date on which photo to use. It's easy to change the date of the roll so it is located in the proper chronological position among the other rolls.
The current folder structure is a result of many requests to get iPhoto in line with other more professional image management applications. iPhoto's new capability of being able to use alias files instead of copying the entire file into it's new folder system allows it to be able to use soruce image files that are on another HD/CD /DVD and if the source files are not mounted iPhoto can still see the thumbnails, make and manipulate albums but cannot edit or work with books, slideshow or calendars. Once the photos come back on line iPhoto can use them again. This way users can develop their own folder/cataloging system and iPhoto will construct it's library in accordance with it.

How is iPhoto 6 Folder Structure Working Now? (Straggling year folders)

I can see in iPhoto 6 that the new iPhoto Library folder structure is now based on YEAR>ROLL#, in place of YEAR>MONTH>DAY. After upgrading from iPhoto 5 to 6, I see the new ORIGINALS and MODIFIED folders with YEAR>ROLLS within, but what of the remaining YEAR folders right above at the same heirarchy? They still have the YEAR>MONTH>DAY format, and they only have a few pix within each.
Assuming one was not a previous iPhoto version user, would this be a correct statement: The fresh v.6 install would only create two folders within IPHOTO LIBRARY--namely, ORIGINALS and MODIFIED? Then v6 would add newly imported photos to ORIGINALS>2006>ROLL 1?
Then, as one modifies his photos, these new mods are saved as copies in MODIFIED>SAME YEAR>SAME ROLL#, correct?
But most of us are upgrading from iPhoto 5 to 6, and we end up with mostly empty YEAR folders at the same folder level with ORIGINALS & MODIFIED. Why are these year folders here? How to get rid of them, if possible?

Steve,
If you don't care about losing albums, keywords, books, slideshows...and just want to import the images it can be easily done manually now with iPhoto 6.
The only thing you will have to do is replace the original image with the modified image. I did just notice that on two images that I rotated in iPhoto, they are not in the roll in the Originals folder, but are in the same named roll in the modified folder.
For images that have been edited as far as cropping, red-eye, etc. You will find the same named image in both folders.
It might be just a matter of dropping the rotated images back into the correct folder of the Originals. then dropping the edited image in the modified folder back in the same roll in the originals folder and have it replace the same named one there.
Once all that is done, then import the Originals folder into iPhoto.
This should all be done when iPhoto is closed AND on a duplicate iPhoto Library folder.
If you don't understand anything I said, then leave it all alone.
If you do understand and want to go through with it then do it on a duplicate iPhoto Library folder.
-close iPhoto
-drag the iPhoto Library folder to the desktop
-open iPhoto and have it create a new library
-duplicate the library and the desktop
-follow the instructions above to get rid of the files you don't want
-When all is done drag the Originals folder into the open viewing window of iPhoto to import the folders/rolls.
since I have not done this, you will have to tell me how it worked out.
You still have your Original library to fall back on if it doesn't work out the way you like.
Lori

Folder Structures

Hello All,
I was using iView Media Pro, until I picked up Aperture. Quick question ... since Aperture stores all photos in one library file, is there a way to get access to images from Photoshop without having to export from Aperture? Also, I am aware of showing package contents of the Aperture Library file, but this does not really do any good if I am attempting to locate a file in Photoshop.
For the record, I like Aperture. I just hope there will eventually be an easier way to gain access to pictures from the Finder.

This is a way to keep your existing file structure in aperture and then keep a separate set of smart folders which can relate to your existing file & folder system. Its not ideal & it doesn't show up in photoshop file browser but it works reasonably well.
I run a picture library & need to keep track of approx. 70,000 images. These are in lots of file formats including .jpg .tif and raw files both camera specific eg. .NEF .CRW & also files from non-supported cameras converted into .dng files.
I will use aperture as a management system to quickly look for & sort files. I would use it for some basic editing to make images for my website for example - but until it improves will need to use photoshop for raw conversion & serious editing.
Since aperture uses its own library structure which is difficult to locate i need - as i'm sure many other people need - a simple way of quickly looking through my library to find files independent of aperture. This is a method i came up with. It does however require a fair amount of planning ahead as you have to import folders into aperture one by one and then create your smart folder. When you have done that you can move onto the next one.
1) Decide on how you want to split up your existing library & make sure its organised.
I run a library which specialises in travel images of France so its organised in this way.
Main Regions of France>Sub-areas>images etc. So in real terms this works out as:
ALPS(FOLDER)>grenoble(sub-folder)>cable-car1.jpg(image) I'll use this an example & you should be able to see how it works.
2) Firstly in aperture I set up a new project called FRANCE LIBRARY.
3) I then click on it & go to Import>Folders Into a project. In this case its a folder called ALPS.
4) All the files & folders within the main folder ALPS then copy to aperture in the same structure as i've already got them organised.
5) The next step is to find those images & set up a smart folder for all the different kinds of file types within it.
6) Go to Finder>File>New Smart Folder
7) Find your Aperture Library from the menu on the left - wherever you've stored it.
8) Right click it (or cntrl + click) and click Show Package Contents
9) There should be a project file file. In my case its called FRANCE LIBRARY.approject
10) Right click it and click Show Package Contents
11) You should then see a folder with an .apimportgroup extension.
12) Open it & there are separate folders for each of the images. Each folder
includes the actual image + the adjustment etc. files.
13) In the spotlight search box ( top right hand corner) type a search criteria.
use the extension for one of the files you've got in there. eg. jpg
14) click on the + symbol (its below the search box to the right of Save)
15) 2 boxes then appear on the left called Kind & Any
16) click on Any & select Images
17) delete whatever you entered in the search box. this is an important step
as its stops the folder only displaying jpgs.
18) The folder should then display thumbnails of all the images in that .apimportgroup folder. in my case this includes .jpg .tif .dng files.
19) then click Save to name & save folder.
20) It only lets you save in one of 3 places but you can always move it
to where you want.
21) You now have a folder of thumbnails - stored wherever you choose.
22) If you right click the image you can then go to Open With & open it in whatever programme you choose. ie. photoshop.
You can then go back to aperture and import the next batch - following all the steps again.
You can obviously set up the folders how you want. You can choose to have lots of them or a few.
I do this one at a time as its easy to spot the new .apimportgroup folder. If i imported my whole library at once i'd just have one huge folder - this way i can keep them organised as i want them & in a way i'm familiar with.
This means that i can set up the same file and folder structure in aperture & within smart folders as i have in my existing library.
Its complicated & its far from ideal but it works. Even though aperture stores files in its own library they are still visible (admittedly through a complicated procedure) even if aperture ceased to exist as a programme it would still be possible to see all the images in its library by using this method. You can then copy them - burn them to dvd - back them up on another disk - ie. do the same as files in a "normal" folder. As far as i know smart folders will update if you delete from or add to them
As a way of integrating it into photoshop for converting raw files - its possible to have a smart folder containing raw files in place of photoshop bridge & then right click on the image you want to convert - click open with photoshop & the image will appear in the photoshop camera raw converter.
Aperture has some really useful features & also some features that need to be improved asap. I've emailed apple 3 times so far so i'm not a fan of it yet.
For my particular business its very useful in lots of ways - but it needs some work to be what many of us hoped it would be.
ps. if there are any errors in this please let me know. i followed the procedure through as i was typing so i am hoping its all ok.
G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)
G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)
G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)
G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)
G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)
G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)
G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Exporting Aperture photos to an external HD while keeping existing folder structure

Hi,
I have over 300gb of photos on my MBP. I need to export the photos onto an external Hard Drive and keep the existing folder structure. How can this be done?
My source for the Aperture library is iPhoto. I know that I can 'show package contents' from right clicking the iPhoto library, but this only displays the masters. I need the versions as I have done many edits on the majority of photos. I am fine with having the photos separated out by date - renaming the folder isn't a problem. I just don't want to have to sort through ALL of my photos and place them into different folders.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks!

Thanks for the information everyone! I apologize if I'm not being clear.
Here are a few call outs:
1. I have my aperture library and iPhoto synced (the source of all my photos is iPhoto. I exclusively use Aperture for photo editing however).
2. I am actually using a work computer and I am leaving the company. Therefore I need to give the computer back. I will be 'uninstalling' Aperture and eventually erasing all the photos.
3. I don't know what my next photo editing computer will be at this point as I have not purchased one.
4. Since I don't know my next computer, I would like to have all of my existing "Folders" and "Projects" (as Aperture defines them) on an external drive so I can pick and pull the ones I would like to view / edit.
5. On my next computer, I would not like to import my exact settings / folder structure from Aperture. I will be starting fresh. With that said, I would prefer to have all my existing "Folders" and "Projects" in one giant folder called "Pictures" on my external HD.
Example folder structure on my External HD:
Folder 1: Pictures
Folder 1a: Aperture "Folder" 1
Folder 1ai: Aperture "Project" 1
Folder 1aii: Aperture "Project" 2
Folder 1b: Aperture "Folder" 2
Folder 1bi: Aperture "Project" 1
Folder 1bii: Aperture "Project" 2
I have roughly 90 "Projects" inside about 5 "Folders". Of course I can create a folder on my external HD, select all the pictures, and click export for every single one of my "Projects", but I would prefer not do to that as it is incredibly time consuming. I am looking for an automated way of copying all my photos to an external drive while maintaining my existing folder / projects hierarchy into what 'finder' defines as 'folders'.
Although I would like to keep my 'masters' and 'versions', my original thought was to just export the versions. So actually, I guess just 'moving' the entire library would work. But since I don't know what computer I will work on and I may be on a temporary computer (install Aperture and manually select photos to import and work on), I wanted to have them be in a folder structure for easy importing and viewing if I wanted to on any mac.
My existing structure in Aperture are Folders --> Projects.
In order to copy my entire library, I have gone into (from finder) "Hard Drive" > Users > Wingmandan > Pictures > iPhoto Library. I have taken that icon and dragged into my external HD. It was 300 gb, and took about 8 horus to complete.
Desired end result
-Be able to quickly reference/view the versions of my pictures on any mac through my external HD (Versions)
-Be able to choose what photos to import based upon my existing 'folders' and 'projects' into my next computer (Versions and Masters)
-Have a full backup of my Aperture Library
I hope this makes more sense and I'm a bit more clear. Again, thanks again for your help. I need to return the laptop by the end of the week.

Backing up folder structure

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