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

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Similar Messages

  • 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

  • How do I export all my Iphoto photos to my external hard drive, maintaining their current state?

    So I did the classic click and drag method, putting all my photos into my external hard drive, fast and easy. But what I noticed was that no information about the pictures was kept, no dates, locations etc. If you drag one picture the information comes with it, but not if you take a bunch at the same time. Then the original date is replaced by today's. I've got over 20.000 photos and I really want them on my hard drive, can someone please help me out here?

    Export them using the appropriate options to include the desired metadata - see the user tip on exporting for details on eachoption
    As to date - you probably are confusing the file date with the photo date - two totally different things - the photos date is internal to the photo in the EXIF data and is view using photo viewing software like preview or iPhoto - the file date it only concerned with th efile information and is views with file viewer software like nder
    LN

  • 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

  • Backing up iPhoto library located on external hard drive

    I recently moved my iPhoto 09 library to a 500gb WD portable hard drive in order to free up space on my MacBook Pro hard drive.  What I would like to know is can I back up this external library to another external hard drive so that I have two copies of all my photos.  Would it work if I had an external hard drive connected to my airport extreme?
    Thanks

    Most Simple Back Up
    Drag the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to another Disk. This will make a copy on that disk.
    Slightly more complex:
    Use an app that will do incremental back ups. This is a very good way to work. The first time you run the back up the app will make a complete copy of the Library. Thereafter it will update the back up with the changes you have made. That makes subsequent back ups much faster. Many of these apps also have scheduling capabilities: So set it up and it will do the back up automatically. Examples of such apps: Chronosync or DejaVu . But are many others. Search on MacUpdate

  • Backing up iPhoto files to an external hard drive.

    I cannot drag and drop, nor copy and paste photos from iPhoto to an external hard drive, whether as a copy of the complete iPhoto library or as individual photos, nor can I copy/drag a copy of the iPhoto library from the desktop to an external hard drive. It seems every thread I've read and tried on the internet hasn't helped, and yet this seems, from looking at forums, a very common complaint.... Any advice? Thank you..

    Select or highlight the photos you would like to copy to your external hard drive. On iPhoto, File > Export > File Export > Kind: JPEG ( set JPEG quality, size & file name to your preference) > EXPORT > Double click the location you would like to send the copies to (In this case - your External Hard Drive) > open and place JPEGs in your new location.  This action does Not remove your original JPEGs, but rather, copies to your new location. Hope this helps make your life easier….

  • How do I backup my iPhoto Library to an external hard drive and keep my photos grouped by their events?

    How can I backup my iPhoto Library to an external hard drive and keep my photos grouped by their events?

    I have attempted to make sure my iPhoto library has been backed up on the external hard drive and that it is safe to delete some events from my internal hard drive
    You need to think this through.
    Time Machine is a back up application. It keeps a rolling back up of the data. It's called rolling because it means you can revert to the data you had on a specific date and time. But that's not eternal, and as time goes by, and your drive fills up, older backups are deleted. So if you delete Events on your Mac they will - eventually - also be deleted from the Time Machine back up.
    If you wan tot archive data hendon't use Time Machine for that job. Here's how you might archive an 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.
    Now you have two full versions of the Library.
    3. On the Internal library, trash the Events you don't want there
    Now you have a full copy of the Library on the External and a smaller subset on the Internal
    Some Notes:
    As a general rule: when deleting photos do them in batches of about 100 at a time. iPhoto can baulk at trashing large numbers at one go.
    You can choose which Library to open: Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'
    You can keep the Library on the external updated with new imports using iPhoto Library Manager

  • Transferring Photos to an external hard drive. I Copied all the pictures from a folder in iPhoto and Pasted on the Hard Drive. However, only about 50% were Pasted. It will not let me Copy

    I am trying to Transfer my Photos to an External Hard drive as a Back Up. Since I want to be able to Transfer them to a Windows based computer if necassary, I did not use the Automatic Mac Backup program.
    To Transfer them. I Copy all the Pictures in a folder in IPhoto, then Paste them in a Folder of the same name, which I have created on the External Hard Drive. It will Paste about 50% of the Photos. Then, when I try to go back and Copy and Paste the rest, it acts like it has already done that. HELP!!!

    By default, iPhoto keeps pictures in a special library which isn't user friendly - but is effective for the program. The best way to move pictures from iPhoto is to export them from the iPhoto program.
    Start up iPhoto and select all the photos you want to move to your external drive. Go to the File Menu and select Export... For size choose original and then select the external drive as the destination. (It would be good to create a folder for the photos first.)
    Since export doesn't create folders and you may want the photos organized, you can select one event or one album at a time and export each separately, putting them into separate folders on the external.

  • Iphoto: How to safely delete or move photos.  I have over 7000 photos.  When I deleted some, I found that the event still shows up with a blank frame.  Can I move some photos to an external hard drive but leave the pointer in iphoto?

    iphoto: How to safely delete or move photos.  I have over 7000 photos.  I would really like to move tsome of the older photos to an external hard drive. (They are backed up in Time Machine, but I like the immediacy of having them available.)  So question 1 -  is it possible to split the iphoto library so that the directory tree points to an external drive in some cases?  And if that doesn't work--I am willing to export and delete some of these photos.  However, an earlier delete left me with events that have a name in the event folder, but no photos.  Question 2 -- How do I properly delete photos so that all references disappear?
    example:

    Warning: Time Machine is not an Archiving application. It keeps rolling back ups. That means if you delete something from the source Mac it will eventually be also deleted from Time Machine. How long that takes depends on the amount of disk space TM has. So, remember, backing up in Time Machine is not the same as Archiving.
    For the blank thumbnails: This can happen if you try delete too many photos at one go. Experienced users suggest you should delete in batches of 100 or so.
    Yes you can split the Library, where some of the Masters are stored locally and some on an external disk, but really, you don't want to do that. iPhoto's file management tools are limited at best, and if the path to the files changes then you could find yourself repairing the links to the files - all of them, one by one.
    Better: Have your entire Library on an External Drive.
    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.
    If you want to have a smaller library on your internal disk:
    Here's one way to do what you want:
    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.
    Now you have two full versions of the Library.
    3. On the Internal library, trash the Events you don't want there
    Now you have a full copy of the Library on the External and a smaller subset on the Internal
    Some Notes:
    As a general rule: when deleting photos do them in batches of about 100 at a time. iPhoto can baulk at trashing large numbers at one go.
    You can choose which Library to open: Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'
    You can keep the Library on the external updated with new imports using iPhoto Library Manager
    Regards
    TD

  • I accidentally updated iPhoto on my (now) external hard drive and now it won't let me access any of my photos. What can I do?

    I accidentally updated iPhoto on my (now) external hard drive and now it won't let me access any of my photos. What can I do?

    So, you have two versions of iphoto? One from the old machine and one from the new?
    If so, forget about opening with the older version of iPhoto.
    For the newer version:
    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.  

  • I use Time Machine to back up my iMac.  How can I copy some iPhoto events from my external hard drive to my MacBook?

    I back up my iMac on my external hard drive.  When trying to copy the iPhoto Library onto my MacBook, I get the message "Cannot use TM backup as main library".  I don't even see an option to choose certain Events to copy.  Is there any way I can choose particular Events in iPhoto to copy to my MacBook?  How can I get the photos on my MacBook?

    If you're on Leopard or Snow Leopard, or Lion with iPhoto '08 or earlier, see the gray box at the end of Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #15.
    If not, you cannot restore individual photos; just the entire iPhoto library.  A workaround is to restore it to an alternate location, such as your desktop, then export the selected photos from there.  See the pink box in the same article.

  • How do I transfer all my iPhoto contents from my external hard drive back to my MacBookPro iPhoto?

    My MacBook Pro recently had to have it's software cleared completely by a genius at the apple store. I purchased an external hard drive to save all of my documents and photos safely on so I would not lose them. I now am having difficulty reloading all of my iPhoto contents back onto my laptop from my external hard drive. Has anyone else experienced this? Will my iPhoto library go back to it's original appearance with all of the special albums I had made and the way in which I organized my photos and videos? How do I find what folders my photos were saved on my external hard drive to drag back onto my laptops iPhoto library?

    iPhoto stores it's pictures in the Pictures/iPhoto Library, so if you have this backed up on a external drive, then it's a simple matter of replacing the new iPhoto Library (free of anything) with the copy of the older one on the external drive and running iPhoto.
    If you have some items in the new iPhoto Library you can export them to the Desktop until the old one is replaced and then reimport them. Also another mehtod is to right click on the iPhoto Library and "Show Package Contents" inside is a folder called "Originals" which contain your files.
    If you replaced the files and iPhoto doesn't open up, then reset it.
    iPhoto rebuild database:   https://support.apple.com/kb/HT2638
    You might want to consider not having your movies in iPhoto, it's not designed to handle too much, in fact 10,000 pictures of mine seem to overload it.
    You can keep seperate iPhoto Libraries, use the option key held at launching of iPhoto to select another iPhoto Library.

  • How do I find my photos on my external hard drive backed up using Time Machine?

    How do I find my photos on my external hard drive backed up using Time Machine?
    My hard drive died so this is my only storage. The hard drive was from an early 2008 Macbook Pro.
    I had recently installed Snow Leopard.

    If they’re in an iPhoto library, look in the Pictures folder of your home folder first. Otherwise, they’ll be in the location corresponding to the one you saved them to.
    (111765)

  • How can I store photos on an external hard drive and still manage w IPhoto?

    The hard drive on my MacBook is almost full and I want to move my photos to an external hard drive.  Can I do this and still manage and organize the photos using I Photo?   I can export the photos, but when I do I lose the organization (Events, Albums, etc.) that are in I Photo.   With my new DSLR camera the photos (JPEGS) are really big and I am quickly running out of storage on the MacBook.  Thanks in advance for you help.
    Jim in Seattle

    Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)
    And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto
    And backup soon and often - having your iPhoto library on an external drive is not a backup and if you are using Time Machine you need to check and be sure that TM is backing up your external drive
    LN

  • HT5260 Hi, my name is Gerard and my iphoto library is getting very large I would like to know if I can store all or most of my photos in a external hard drive and access them from Aperture?

    Hi, my name is Gerard and my iphoto library is getting very large I would like to know if I can store all or most of my photos in a external hard drive and access them from Aperture?

    Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)
    And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto
    And backup soon and often - having your iPhoto library on an external drive is not a backup and if you are using Time Machine you need to check and be sure that TM is backing up your external drive
    LN

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