Backing up iphoto library from hard drive to external

When backing up my iphoto library from my mac to an external hard drive I always seem to have to copy the enitre library. The way I go about it is I open a Finder window from my mac and then open a finder window for the external hard drive. Then I click and drag the iphoto library from my mac to the hard drive window.
Is there a way to just copy the most recent events?
Thanks for your time with advice.
fishphoto

Greetings,
The iPhoto Library is a package file so the computer treats it as one single file. It has no way to tell that "X" images are different between the library on your computer and the one on your external as they are all part of one large file.
What you are looking for is called an "incremental backup". You have a system for doing just this built into your computer, called Time Machine. Read more about Time Machine here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
-- Note: Time Machine will (unless you tell it otherwise), backup everything on your computer, not just your iPhoto Library (which is generally a good idea anyways).
Cheers.

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I am trying to retrieve photo uploads from my Android phone. When I last updated my OS, most of these vaporized, leaving only thumbnails. I have had two lengthy sessions with Apple phone support, but still haven't solved the problem.
Apparently I can't go back to July '14 iPhoto in time machine and browse files; i have to copy the entire library.
Which I just did, taking 2 hours.
In order to open the iPhoto library from July '14, I had to first update iPhoto.
When I went into the files, the same problem existed -- photo files gone, only thumbnails there. So now I'm thinking that it's the update that was the problem. This scares me to death, because when we're asked to update, we don't get a menu of preferences to make sure something has been unchecked, like the copy option i had enabled when opening photo files from my phone, which i store in a dropbox folder.
No one at Apple could tell me why this happened, so I have no idea how to prevent it from happening in the future.
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I realize this is about six issues, not one. But I'm really appreciative of any help i can get!

Hello all, how do I back up a folder as new library to free space from hard drive to external drive BUT leave my favorites pictures still on hard drive?

Hello all, I organise all my photos in a base folder by year and then sub folders for each destination I have visited, i.e. 2013 then USA as sub folder. I would like to backup each year as new library to external hard drive which I can do. BUT I keep a copy of my favourite pics in various albums which can have photos from multilpe years. After backing up to external hard drive I would like to delete the year folder but keep the pics in the album. Is this possible? If so, how?

To be more accurate, I have no issue doing the backup folder as new library but when i delete from hard drive it deletes all pics that were in my albums. I would ideally like to keep my favourite selection of photos on my hard drive.

How to move iPhoto Library from internal drive to ext. drive?

Hello,
If someome can assist me with the procedure on how to move my iphoto library from my internal drive to external drive, so that I can keep and access all my iphoto library files primarily from the external drive. In addition I would also like to know once the process has been completed if it would be safe to delete the internal iphoto library? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
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First and foremost, before you begin, make sure you're doing some sort of backup of those photos and your systems. Preferably with Time Machine to some sort of external drive (besides the one that will store the photos) or Time Capsule.
Then you can follow these steps:
1) Make sure the external drive is formatted for the Mac. You can use Disk Utility (applications-->utilities) and select the drive to find out if it's HFS Extended format.
2) Quit iPhoto, then drag the iPhoto library onto the eternal drive and let it copy.
3) Once it's done copying, hold down the Option key and click to launch iPhoto, it will ask you to select an iphoto library and you would choose the one on the external drive.
4) You're safe to delete the original iPhoto Library from there.. however I still recommend you've made extra sure to back your stuff up.

IPhoto read from hard drive

All my photos are on an external hard drive. Can't iPhoto just read the files on that drive rather than copying them to another location and calling it a library. Seems dumb to have copies of all Mt work at a secondary location.

Can't iPhoto just read the files on that drive rather than copying them to another location and calling it a library.
It can, but you might not want it to.
A Referenced Library is when iPhoto is NOT copying the files into the iPhoto Library when importing. The files are then stored where ever you put them and not in the Library package. In this scenario you are responsible for the File Management.
This is an attractive option for some users at face value, but it contains a significant number of issues that you might want to consider before making the decision to run a Referenced Library
How to do it:
iPhoto -> Preferences -> Advanced and uncheck the box at 'Copy items to the iPhoto Library'
Now when you import iPhoto makes an alias in the Library Package that points to the stored file. Note: iPhoto still creates a thumbnail of the image and it makes a Preview of edited photos inside the Library Package.
Issues?
1. You are responsible for file management. That's more work:
You must first move the files from your camera to the storage location before importing.
If you want to delete files then you must first trash them from iPhoto and then afterwards find them in your storage and trash them.
Thereafter, you cannot move the files on early versions of iPhoto at all, on iPhoto 08 and later you may move them on the same Volume or Disk. If you move them to a new volume or disk the aliases my break. If they are on an different volume and you move them the aliases will break.
You cannot rename the files.
Migrating: moving to a new machine, moving the files to another disk are all a lot more complex.
2. You gain no extra functionality from running a Referenced Library. Nothing. This is just storage. You still manage the files via iPhoto. You edit them with iPhoto or via iPhoto's External Editor setting, otherwise you're changes will not be available in iPhoto. You don't save byte of storage space.
3. If you have the Library on one volume and the photos on another you if anything changes in the path to a file (Like if you upgrade your machine, move the files on the NAS or on to another one?) then the alias will break, and you'll have to repair it manually. For every photo in the Library. One at a time.
Why do you want to run a Referenced Library?
Because my photos won't fit on my HD?
You can run a Managed library from an external disk. 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.
You're worried about accessing the files?
There are many, many ways to access your files in iPhoto: You can use any Open / Attach / Browse dialogue. On the left there's a Media heading, your pics can be accessed there. Command-Click for selecting multiple pics.
(Note the above illustration is not a Finder Window. It's the dialogue you get when you go File -> Open)
You can access the Library from the New Message Window in Mail:
There's a similar option in Outlook and many, many other apps. If you use Apple's Mail, Entourage, AOL or Eudora you can email from within iPhoto.
If you use a Cocoa-based Browser such as Safari, you can drag the pics from the iPhoto Window to the Attach window in the browser.
If you want to access the files with iPhoto not running:
For users of 10.6 and later: You can download a free Services component from MacOSXAutomation which will give you access to the iPhoto Library from your Services Menu.
Using the Services Preference Pane you can even create a keyboard shortcut for it.
For Users of 10.4 and 10.5 Create a Media Browser using Automator (takes about 10 seconds) or use this free utility Karelia iMedia Browser
Other options include:
Drag and Drop: Drag a photo from the iPhoto Window to the desktop, there iPhoto will make a full-sized copy of the pic.
File -> Export: Select the files in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export. The dialogue will give you various options, including altering the format, naming the files and changing the size. Again, producing a copy.
Show File: a. On iPhoto 09 and earlier: Right- (or Control-) Click on a pic and in the resulting dialogue choose 'Show File'. A Finder window will pop open with the file already selected. 3.b.
b: On iPhoto 11 and later: Select one of the affected photos in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Reveal in Finder -> Original. A Finder window will pop open with the file already selected.

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Greetings,
Make sure your external hard drive is Mac formated and has a reasonable amount of space available.
--- Side note: If you haven't already, you should tell TimeMachine to backup that external hard drive as Time Machine only backs up your internal hard drive by default.
Try:
1. Install all software updates for both your computer and your iPhone and turn both on and off and re-plug the cable between them.
2. Try importing your pictures and movies using Image Capture found in Macintosh HD > Applications.
-- If Image Capture sees your iPhone when iPhoto does not, try creating a new iPhoto library on your internal drive to see if that library can see your iPhone. This is done by launching iPhoto while holding down the option key.
If those steps do not help, follow this article: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3195
Cheers.

Backing up iPhoto library from an external drive using time machine

I have a rMBP that is rapidly running out of storage. I purchased an external USB drive to store my iphoto library on. I have a time capsule that backs up my rMBP. If i include the external drive in the time machine set up, what happens when it backs up and the USB drive is not connected?
Any one have a similar setup that can give some advise i would appreciate it.

If i include the external drive in the time machine set up, what happens when it backs up and the USB drive is not connected?
Well, since the drive is not connected, any changes since the last backup will not be backed up.
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Moving back my iPhoto library from an external drive to my computers drive

Hi!
I moved my iPhoto library file to my external NAS but when I then opened the file I couldn't see previews of the photos, they were just empty with "frames" around them.
I had to click each picture to see what they looked like, I guess there isn't enough bandwidth to preview all pics? It's gigabit (1000MBit) LAN but it does not seem to suffice.
Anyway, I tried to move my iPhoto library back to my computer but I keep getting this error message (this is freely translated from swedish so it might not by word-by-word but I guess you get the message anyway)
"Could not complete the transfer since there already is an object with the name "iPhoto Library""
I tried to rename the iPhoto Library file on my NAS but regardless what I rename it to (test, library, 123 etc.) I keeps saying ".......object with the name "insert name here""
I tried to create a new library on my computers HDD and drag an drop the iPhoto library file in iPhoto but I don't get all the metadata then and I don't get all my pictures.
Please help!

Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
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, saving edits and sharing the photos.
My guess is that the format of the NAS has damaged the Library and that's giving rise to these messages.
Try restart the NAS and the Mac, see if that makes a difference.
To move Photos/ Albums /Events between plus associated metadata between Libraries use iPhoto Library Manager.
Regards
TD

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Colin Sieff

That's because importing from another iPhoto Library folder isn't the way to restore an iPhoto Library. I'm surprised you were able to do it without a bunch of warning dialogs.
If you still have the original iPhoto Library folder intact, the thing to do is restore it as I've described earlier. If you have sufficient disk space, quit iPhoto and drag the existing iPhoto Library folder from Pictures to the desktop. Then drag your backup iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, and the only thing left to do is to start iPhoto. If all's well, move the desktop copy of the iPhoto Library folder to the trash, then empty the trash.

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I lost my entire hard drive on my iMac and had to physically replace it. I recovered all my files from Carbonite, but didn't notice until it was too late that there were errors restoring my iPhoto library. When I open iPhoto '11, the iPhoto library doesn't show any of the 43,000 photos (that includes thumbnails, "faces" files, etc. that were on my old library).
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You can try Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords 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.
But if this fails you'll need to accept that your back up is faulty and you'll need to make a new Library and start over from scratch.
Regards
TD

Recovering backed up iPhoto contents after hard drive crash

Our hard drive crashed two weeks ago, but we had used apple's Backup program, to back up everything on our external hard drive. Now we have the new hard drive installed, and I tried to recover our iPhoto library. When I opened up iPhoto for the first time, it said that I needed to upgrade, so I did. Now, I can see all of my original albums listed, but when all that appears in the right window is a square with a dotted line along it. When I double click that frame, I get a black box with an exclamation point in in.
In trying to restore things, I dragged the folders from my house icon on the external hard drive, into the new house icon. For example, I dragged our Pictures file into the new house icon, and apparently replaced the one that was there.
Please help. It will be tragic if we can't recover our photos.

Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.
Regards
TD

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For some reason my iPhoto library is now organizing all of my photos by roll. I am not talking about how they are viewed from within iPhoto (I know that can be controlled under view/sort photos), but how they are saved on my hard drive. It may be associated with an upgrade to iPhoto 6, but I'm not sure of the timing.
I used to be able to find a photo on the hard drive (for example to upload) by going to the library, choosing the folder with the year, then with the month, the day, and finally the actual photo. Now, (since April) they are in folders labeled with the roll number only - it is almost impossible to figure out where anything is! Everthing before then is still organized by date. Can't seem to find anything in preferences. Any suggestions?
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Even for uploading to photo printing sites (other than Apple) don't you need to upload the files from outside iP? They prompt me to find the files to upload -- don't I have to go to the files on the hard drive? >
In this case, it would be recommended to select all the pics you want in iPhoto and then use File>Export>File Export to put the photos on your desktop. Then in the other app just navigate to the desktop files, and delete them when you have finished.
But as I said before, if you want your library structure to make sense to you, organizing the Film Rolls in iPhoto will do that. iPhoto 6 keeps those files in folders named after your Film Rolls, so the neater your film rolls, the neater the structure will be. If you liked having your pictures stored by date, then you can rename your film rolls based on dates. Or name them by client, project, etc. In Finder, they will list in alpha-numeric order, rather than the chronological order they list in inside of iPhoto. So maybe name each film roll "YYYY-MM-DD-projectname" so they will be listed in a predictable order.
If you have a large library, this may be a bit of a project. The calendar button at the bottom left of the iPhoto window can help you find all of your photos by a certain year and month. Once you find the files, you can select all, then create new film roll from selection, rename the film roll (in Film Roll view), and repeat for the next month. The good news is that once you have well organized film rolls, you will not have to change them again. And that you have control over how your pictures are stored, as long as you go about this organization via the iPhoto application.
Don't hesitate to post back if I can further clarify anything for you.

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See my answer to your duplicate question
LN

Can't open iPhoto library after hard drive crash

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The 'Originals' are all around 3 - 3.6 megs each.
Well that sounds like at least there is data there. Try download a trial of Graphic Coverter . I've seen that open some hopeless cases.
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Backing up iphoto library from hard drive to external

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