Backing up imported photos to an external hard drive

I've searched for an answer to my question, but came up blank. So, here goes. First I guess I should say that I'm using mac OS 10.5 Leopard and have Lightroom 1.4.1
When I import photos, at the same time I also back them up to an external hard drive. So far so good. At import I select Organize: Into one folder, then check the box for Put into subfolder and give the folder a unique name. I then check the box to select a location to back up to, which is my external hard drive.
The photos are now imported into a folder with it's unique name in my pictures folder on my hard drive, they also are now in a folder of the same name in the folder list in Lightroom, but the folder they are backed up to on my external hard drive is named, Imported on (date).
I can't seem to find a way for the folder with the backups to have the same unique name as the folder I imported to. It seems to me that would be normal. The folder I imported to has it's own name pertaining to the contents and the file name dates are by choice, the date they were shot, but if I didn't import those photos for a week after shooting, the folder they are backed up into won't have anything in it's name to relate to if I need to search for a lost photo.
Anyone have a solution that I'm missing? I've tried everything, but can't seem to get past this point.
Thanks,
Jack

Thanks Jim, I kind of thought that was the answer, but was hoping against hope that I was just missing something. Like I said, it's not a big problem. One work around I've found is to name a folder on the external hard drive the same as the name I give the folder to import to and then choose this folder to back up to. I still get a subfolder inside that folder named Imported on...... but at least it's in the folder with my chosen name.
Thanks again,
Jack

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I have been backing up my photos to an external hard drive. I usually choose the photos, copy and paste them to the EHD. It has started saying "an item named "unnamed.jpg" already exists in this location. I don't know what to do.

I have the MacBook OS X 10.5.8, 2.4 GHz, 2 GB. I have been backing up my photos to an external hard drive since I purchased it. I usually choose the photos, copy and paste them to the EHD. It has started saying "an item named "unnamed.jpg" already exists in this location. Do you want to replace it with the one you're moving? Don't replace/Stop/Replace". I don't know what to do.

Thanks Jim, I kind of thought that was the answer, but was hoping against hope that I was just missing something. Like I said, it's not a big problem. One work around I've found is to name a folder on the external hard drive the same as the name I give the folder to import to and then choose this folder to back up to. I still get a subfolder inside that folder named Imported on...... but at least it's in the folder with my chosen name.
Thanks again,
Jack

Can't get LR3 to import photos from one external hard drive to another?

I'm wanting to move thousands of raw photos from a folder in one external hard drive to another folder in a different external hard drive so all my photos are in one photo folder instead of two. I've gone through the importing routine inside of lightroom to move the folder over to the new hard drive. However, the photos don't move because they still show up on the old hard drive and not the new one. What's weird is when I try to import it again, the grid view shows all the photos I'm wanting to import and when I move my cursor over any of the photos they are faded out and it says the photos are already imported. However, if this is true why aren't they showing up in the new folder on my new external hard drive? I know the new external hard drive works fine because I've successfully been putting all my newer photos there since I started using LR about one year ago. The one's I'm trying to move over are older photos I shot try to using LR.
I'm stumped and need some help. Thanks in advance.

You wrote
"Are you saying while I'm in LR just grab the folder I want to move and drop it into the new hard drive"
Yes, that's the way to move photos & folders from within LR.
LR will then update its catalog with the new location and everything should be fine.
Importing is not a good way for moving photos / folders. Since the photos are already in the catalog you had to uncheck <Don't import suspected duplicates> or all the photos will be greyed-out in the import dialog. If you did that LR would import the photos from drive A and put it on drive B. But they would still be on drive A, so you'd have the photos on both drives and would have to delete them on drive A.
But more important: By default LR saves all edits in the catalog, they are not saved with the images themselves. That means by doing an import instead of a drag-and-drop move you'd lose your edits.
You can save your edits to xmp, a side-car file that is stored together with the image file, and the xmps would be imported. But LR does not store everything as xmp. For instance Virtual Copies, Collections, Stacking are saved only in the catalog, so by doing an import you'd lose these things.
Unless you know LR very well, it's best to use the Import Feature only for images that are NOT yet in LR.
And another thing: Before doing major operations like moving big amounts of photos, it's best to backup your catalog first.
WW

Backing up iPhoto photos to an external hard drive

I don't have enough space on my macbook to back my pictures up onto it. I am wanting to back up my pictures from my iphoto onto an external hard drive. Is this possible?
thank you for your help

You've made an error and posted this in the iPhone forum.

How do I import photos to a external hard drive vs. mac hd?

I want to import photos into a external drive. The only information I can find talks about importing into iphoto library( on Mac hd). My drive will fill up too quickly. I need to import to a external drive, then import to iphoto without a copy. I basically only want a pointer to the external drive.

Hello, 4check,
You can use Image Capture (found in your Applications folder) to download your photos from your camera. You can choose to have the photos put wherever you wish. You can have them on your external drive and then you can select the ones you want to import into iPhoto. This will give you two copies of the photos that you put into iPhoto. If you don't want backups on the external drive, you will need to manually delete the ones you import to iPhoto. You might want to think about some type of backup for your photos such as burning them to CD or DVD, or keeping the copies on your external drive.
You might also want to consider putting your whole iPhotoLibrary onto the external drive. This would allow you to have more free space on your computer. You would keep the iPhoto application on your computer's drive.
When you open it, hold down the option key and you will be prompted to locate or create a new library. Choose to create a new one, and specify the external drive for it. Now, when you launch iPhoto, it will open the new library on the external drive.
If you already have your iPhoto Library on your computer's drive, you can just drag it onto the the external drive, open iPhoto and when it asks you to locate the library, again just select the one on the external drive.
By the way, be sure the drive is Mac-formatted before you put anything onto it.
If you put iPhotoLibrary on an external drive, you will still need a backup method.

I can't import photos from an external hard drive to aperture

. Nothing shows up after I select the hard drive in aperture. I can however import photos to iPhoto with this same hard drive. Why is this happening. I have been importing from this hard drive to aperture for a long time now and only had this issue today. I have restarted computer, unplugged harddrive. Any thoughts?

Don't touch that one !
I was hoping that in addition to that there should be another device listed, namely the USB External HD you've got plugged into the USB port. It should show up something like this:

How do I import photos from an external hard drive to my iMac please?

I have hundred of photos on a hard drive and want to transfer them onto my new imac. How do I do this please? I am totally new to apple operating system, used windows for 15 years.....
Thank you for any help received...

Don't touch that one !
I was hoping that in addition to that there should be another device listed, namely the USB External HD you've got plugged into the USB port. It should show up something like this:

Importing photos from an external hard drive to Photos app as albums

it is driving me nut. I have spent hours searching for an answer, but they are all about iphoto or aperture, which I dont have on my newly bought (April 2015) macbook pro.
I have 5GB photos on an external drive; they are in different folders named after events (2005.4.13bday, 2006.3.3hiking..etc).
How do I import them to Photos as albums that have the same names as folders?
I tried dragging them directly into the app, but they are not imported as albums; I won't have any clue what these photos are, only dates.
I tried File/import, but it doesn't allow me to as it can never finishing loading the photos (stops at 5000 photos).
Please help. much appreciated.

Re-start the Import. When it comes to the first duplicate it will ask you if you want to import or ignore the duplicate. In the same dialogue you'll have the opportunity to apply that decision to all duplicates.
Regards
TD

Importing photos from an external hard drive

Here's the situtation: Copied all photo files from C drive
to an external drive...deleted photo files from C drive...needed to free up space on C drive.
want elements to read the files now on the external drive...we uninstalled elements and reinstalled
elements shows the C drive files with pics as if they are still there but they were deleted...(these files show as gray not as active yellow files)???
only some of the photos from the external drive are there???
and the "generating thumnails" hourglass continues to circle round and round but no new thumbnails appear???

adding to the above comment to try the PSE Organizer Reconnect command--
I suggest that you read the following hints about using the Reconnect function
http://www.johnrellis.com/psedbtool/photoshop-elements-faq.htm#_Quickly_reconnecting_large

How do I stop iphoto from creating events automatically when I import photos from an external hard drive?

IPhoto is creating events automatically when I import photos and when I merge events and then go to finder>all images, I see iphoto has created several copies of each picture....I try to delete the extra copies but then the albums or events also get affected, even if there is one copy of each photo left in all images...have someone had this problem?

You don't have a problem at all.
IPhoto is creating events automatically when I import photos
This is how iPhoto works. Every photo is in an Event. Events are the basic organisation of the Library. Every import means at least one new Event. Yes you can merge Events after import and so on, but there is at least one Event created at each import.
I see iphoto has created several copies of each picture....
No it hasn't. It hs created versions of the photos, not copies. There will be a couple of thumbnails for viewing in the iPhoto Window plus the Master and then a edited version for pics that are modified. The icons for each of these may be similar but they are not copies - for a start they are different sizes - and all are required for iPhoto to work.
go to finder>all images
Don't. This is simply a list of all the images on your computer. It makes no account or allowance for the purpose of these images. Really, if you're using iPhoto ignore this because if you
I try to delete the extra copies
Then you are trashing your Library.
So, this is how iPhoto works, there is no problem and stay away from All Images.
Regards
TD

I imported my photos from an external hard drive into Lightroom, edited my photos but what next...?!

Adobe,
I imported my photos from an external hard drive into Lightroom, edited my photos and when i decided to export them the originals had not been updated and the deleted photos had not been deleted. How do i set it up so that once i import the photos, edit them and export they are then placed back in their original folder edited and updated?
I have managed to export the photos to another file but these were exported with an Adobe.xmp file. What is this and is this necessary?
Thanks for your help!

It's important to realise that LR is a DAM (Digital Asset Management) application - no images are actually imported into LR only links to where they are. Secondly, the details of any edits that you make to your images are kept only in the database and/or xmp files depending how you set this up in Preferences. In the general workflow e.g. edit in Lightroom, further edit in Photoshop and returning to LR then creating xmp files aren't really necessary. So just to emphasise - edits are stored in the LR's database, the original RAW images themselves don't change (non destructive editing). You can prove this yourself by desaturating an image (turning it into a B+W) and then look at the original images in Explorer - you'll see it's still being shown in colour.
Exporting an image is something different. By implication, you've finished with the image and perhaps want to save an image for posting on the web somewhere. Now assuming your not using any additonal and freely available LR export plug-ins, one way would be to Export a jpeg image to a folder on the desktop and this is allowed for in the Export dialogue. At this time LR reads any edits from it's database and applies those to the exported jpeg (or tiff) file it's going to send to the folder on the desktop.
As mentioned earlier, any edits and keywords etc are stored in LR's database - original RAW files remain untouched. XMP files also store the edits if LR is set up to create xmp files (in Preferences) but these are not really necessary unless you are going to be editing an already edited RAW file in another application. As an example - you import into LR's library a scanned negative. Now because strictly speaking LR isn't designed to work with negative images, you now open this file via Bridge into ACR and from here reverse the negative into a positive image. All fine and good except when you go back into LR what's shown is still a negative so what is needed is to update the metadata (LR > Metadata > Read Metadata from file) which will force LR to read the newly created metadata from the xmp file that Bridge generated. As already suggested, if you're happy editing your RAW files in LR and only LR then xmp files aren't really necessary - all the data being saved in LR's database.
Hope this has been of some help but if I might also suggest, purchasing a good book on LR from the outset thus getting to really know LR will pay dividends further on down the line.

When I try to import, I receive the following message: "An internal error has occurred: not enough memory". I always download my photos onto an external hard drive.

Yesterday,I downloaded an update for Lightroom 5. Now when I try to import, I receive the following message: "An internal error has occurred: not enough memory". The message comes up right after I click import, before I choose a file to upload.Here is the information I can think of that might be needed to answer this question:
- I always download my photos onto an external hard drive.It is about 10 % full.
- It says I have Lightroom 5.6 64 bit
- I am working from a newer laptop (Windows). The internal drive on the laptop has 289 gb and I am using 61 gb total memory.
- I have edited 2794 photos in Lightroom and it is all in one catalog.
- I did not have this problem until I made the update. I did have my first "bug" earlier this week when one of my photos had a line show up through the middle of it when I exported it. I was able to export it a second time without the line.
If there is more info. needed, let me know. I do photography as a hobby and know enough about Lightroom to edit out blemishes and adjust color balance, but not too much more, so forgive my ignorance if this is an obvious fix.
Sincerely,
Adrianne

Not Enough Memory typically refers to RAM. How much RAM do you have on your 64-bit OS computer? Do you have other programs running that may be using most of the memory?

My hard drive that is sync to my ipad crashed! Good thing is all my photos were transferred to my ipad for viewing - now my quesiton is how do I back up my ipad on another computer without losing my pictures? can I back up my ipad on a external hard drive

My hard drive on my computer crashed! This is the computer my ipad was sync with! All my photos of my three girls are on the ipad, but how do I get them transferred to either an external hard drive or to another computer - or just have them all printed - nearly 1000 photos!
Also, can I back up my ipad with an external hard drive? If I try to sync to a new computer it will erase everything I currently have on the ipad , correct?
Thanks for your help - I am worried if I don't do something quick, my ipad will crash too!

Right. You didn't read the post, you only read the title.
The title came from an earlier step in the process when I was posing a question to the systen.
The pertinent part of the question is "How to I back up documents that are stored in iCloud"
That the destination for the backup is NOT my internal HDD should be clear from the rest of the post.
And frankly, even if that is where I want to back up to, that would at least give me two copies, at least giving me one duplicate of the stuff on iCloud.
So please stop wasting my time if you can't answer the actual question: How do I backup content that is stored in iCloud. The destination of the backup is irrelevant.
--P

How do I download all my photos onto an external hard drive intact without loosing iPhoto's features, important info and details? I need to delete pictures and files to make room in My mac's memory which is currently full.

Hi
How do I download all my photos onto an external hard drive intact without loosing iPhoto's features, important info and details? I need to delete pictures and files to make room in My mac's memory which is currently full.
Maro

So you want to move the iPhoto Library?
Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
Regards
TD

After clean install of Snow Leopard, Time Machine did not restore all files. When I try to restore these files I get "Not enough disk space" error. What do I need to do to get these important files back onto my Mac from my external hard drive??

After clean install of Snow Leopard, Time Machine did not restore all files. When I try to restore these files I get "Not enough disk space" error. What do I need to do to get these important files back onto my Mac from my external hard drive??

Janet.b wrote:
About 3 years old...pretty dated now I guess. Am thinking I may just need to have it upgraded by a Mac tech.
For what the Apple Store's charge you can buy almost buy a new computer.
Just for giggles I brought my old laptop in for a drive upgrade and asked, they wanted $600 for a drive that only cost $120 at the time and it was a slow 5,400 RPM drive. The new Mac's of a similar make were going for $1000.
I did the drive replacement myself, got a faster drive of better quality for $300 instead.
Then another time I asked for a RAM upgrade from 4GB to 8GB, they wanted to charge $400 + $35 for the labor.
The same RAM is on Crucial.com for $90 and all I need is a 00 micro phillips screwdriver.
So you see what's going on here.
I think what you should do, if your out of warranty/AppleCare, is to call up the local PC tech guy who also does Mac's and have them fix you right up.
They can offer more personalized care which you need. Clone your old drive to the new and everything.
With Apple they are overworked at the Genius Bar and just place roadblocks so you buy a new machine instead.
For instance, all new iMac's now have proprietary drive software installed on the hard drives for heat monitoring. So now the only choice a user has is to bring their iMac into a Apple Store for a very expensive drive upgrade, which a person then decides the money is better spent buying a new machine.

Backing up imported photos to an external hard drive

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