Backing Up Original Photos in PSE9

I have been using PSE9 for awhile. Imported around 3000 photos from camera card.
I didn't realize that I should have made a copy of the original photos. Now they are stored in the Organizer along with all the changes.
How can I copy/backup the original camera photos at this late date?
Gordon

If you just want to back up the photos themselves, they are not "in" PSE. The organizer is just a database. So find the photos and copy them to whatever media you're using for a backup. However, this will not copy your catalog and tagging info. You would use the organizer backup command to copy all the photos and all the organizer info, including versions.

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Can't get back to "original" photo

I have been downloading my photos to my laptop, storing in iPhoto, and correcting in Photoshop Elements 4. I then store my images on an external hard drive. I've noticed that I've gotten some of those images out of my external hard drive to work on them on my iMAC. I can't get those images to revert back to the original image. What do I have clicked on my laptop that isn't allowing the original image to be saved?

Deborah,
Are you running your iPhoto library from the external drive? This should work. Or running iPhoto from your laptop, then saving to the external drive? You would have to have an iPhoto Library on the external drive as well. The only way to sync the 2 libraries to preserve the links between the original and modified files is to use iPhoto Library Manager to transfer the photos from the laptop library to the one on the external drive.
Is PE4 set up as your external editor in iPhoto, and are you accessing the photos for editing from within iPhoto?
If this is done, then Saving in PE4 will save the edited version back to the iPhoto library, and you will be able to Revert in iPhoto.
Doing a Save As and changing the location of the file or its filename will not save the edited version correctly. It will not be seen by iPhoto and will have no link to the original. Are you "saving as" your edits directly to the external hard drive? If so, they are not being saved to iPhoto at all.
Also, if your editing creates a layered .psd file, there are 2 ways to deal with this. Doing a Save with the new file extension will break the link between it and the original. You can flatten the image and have PE Save the jpeg. This will preserve the link between the 2 versions. Or keep the layers, and Save As to a location outside of the iPhoto Library folder. Then import into iPhoto as a new original. It will not be linked to the unedited version.

Go back to original Photos

I'd like to start over in Photos with a completely new clean app. How can I accomplish this? If I delete all the photos, would that start it over with a clean slate and the ability to import from iPhoto?

Launch it with the Option key held down and create a new library, or press Other Library and choose an iPhoto one.
(126152)

Horrors: How do I get all my original photo files back out of iPhoto 9.1.2?

In my heart I KNEW I should never have upgraded iPhoto when the update came in for 9.1.2. But I had no idea what it was going to do. Now, to my horror, I have found out.
It has EATEN all the original photo files in my Home/Pictures folder and hidden them inside a single iPhoto database! Yikes.
I discovered this nightmare when I tried to find the original hi-res of a certain photo, and searched my Mac for it by filename – the one assigned to it by my camera.
All the original and modified versions of the file should have appeared in the search box – but no original appeared, sending me into a total panic. I also searched my laptop and back-up drive to no avail. Then I looked in the Home/Pictures folder and there were no photo files there, when there used to be hundreds. Just one single iPhoto Library file.
I felt sick, I thought I had lost all my original photos.
So now I have two problems, and questions:
1) iPhoto only displays photos from the last 18 months, so how do you access all the photos from years back now?
2) How can I export ALL my photos back out of the iPhoto database so I can have them where I can see them on my Mac again – as individual files in my Pictures folder like they were before?
Oh, and one other question:
What can I use instead of iPhoto? Can I revert to an earlier version? Or is there an application that I can import photos to that will leave the original files where they are? Then I can make a back-up of the originals before importing them into iPhoto.
Thanks,
Sarah
PS: How do I change my Apple Discussions username?

There's no reason to use the Finder to access your photos. That's what iPhoto is for. THe following is from a post by Terence Devlin on accessing photos for use outside of iPhoto. It's the definitive treatise on the subject.
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:
1. Drag and Drop: Drag a photo from the iPhoto Window to the desktop, there iPhoto will make a full-sized copy of the pic.
2. 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.
3.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.
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.
OT

Been using g iPhone 6 for few months, just backed up my iPhone 5, restored my pics etc onto 6 but all original photos have been deleted?

Been using g iPhone 6 for few months, just backed up my iPhone 5, restored my pics etc onto 6 but all original photos have been deleted, Is there a way I can get them back?

If you are backing up to your computer, check in iTunes/Edit/Preferences/Devices, if there is more than your recent iPhone 6 backup listed. If yes, transfer the photos from your phone to the computer first, then restore from the backup. After that, transfer the recovered photos again to your computer and sync all of the transferred pictures to your phone, using iTunes and the settings in the photo pane.
Import photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your Mac or Windows PC - Apple Support

I need help with iPhoto slideshow. I can't "save" changes. Particularly the rotate feature. I rotate a photo 90 degrees... and the next time I play it...it's back to original. Sideways! Very frustrating.

How do I save changes on iPhoto slideshow. I rotate a photo... then it reverts back to original (sideways) next time it plays.

With the amount of information you've provided it's impossible to offer a solution. We can't see your computer so we need to know the details of your problem and setup, i.e.:
what version of iPhoto are you using?
what system version are you running?
is your slideshow from an album or from the slideshow mode?
what theme are you using?
what fixes have you tried?
where is your library located?
did you apply any updates or upgrades just prior to the problem occurring?
are you running a "managed" or "referenced" library?
what type of Mac?
how much free space on your boot drive?

How long can you revert back to the original photo after cropping?

Is there any time limit for how long can you revert back to the original photo after cropping? Are you always able to revert back?
Thanks.

DAM = "Digital Asset Manager", a fancy name for a filing system.
iPhoto keeps the original and makes one (usually much smaller) copy based on your edits. It is non-destructive in that if you crop, and later change the color, iPhoto will go back to the original and apply the corrections to get the new image, it will not simply modify the preview.
If you want a high quality copy of the image, use the export function which allows you to specify the size and compression.

I go to "clip adjustments" and change the length of a photo. It reverts back to original length. I also shorten it by moving the yellow "box" around a specific clip. It still reverts back to original length. Why?

I go to "clip adjustments" and change the length of a clip. It reverts back to original length. I've also tried to shorten it by moving the yellow "box" around a specific clip to shorten. It still reverts back to original length. Why?

Welcome to iMovie Discussions.
See my 2nd reply to 'getzcreative', here.

In Develop, the "reset" button does not take me back to the original photo?

When I click "reset" my photos do NOT return to the original photo. New MacBookPro computer.
what is wrong. On my Dell computer I can reset the photo not losing any data.

ok, so what have you done to troubleshoot thus far? have you taken the steps recommended in the User Guide?

How do I find the original photo that is used in one of my contact photo in "Contacts"?

Hi everyone,
I am in a bit of a dilemma. I desperately need to find and/or access the original photo used as a contacts photo in the OSX built in app "Contacts". I can resize the photo and I can see it in full but I can't find the original anywhere and in any way.
I'd really appreciate some help here, as the photo is dear to my heart but seems to have gone missing. It was originally scanned in but isn't showing up where all my scanned photos are saved. Eek!
If anyone has any pointers on where I could find this photo in its original size, please do share them!
Ta,
posies

Hi DonTimo,
I've tried doing that, but in the said folder there are only default pictures. I can't find the images of any contacts in the app "Contacts" anywhere. The thread you refered me to and many others that are smilar to it, date back to about 2009-2010.
Really need this photo. Any other pointers?

Syncing a moved folder is not bringing back all the photos to Lightroom

I have moved and renamed a folder in the external harddrive. Syncing that moved folder in lightroom is not working in bringing back all the photos to Lightroom - Although all the photos exist in that folder as I have confirmed through windows explorer.
Another Option: If I choose "import photos to this folder option" in LR and browse to the source to that folder - the missing photos are shown as shaded back and the import button (bottom right corner) is not highlighted. Therefore I cannot select these missing photos and hence cannot import them to the folder.
PLEASE ADVISE!

In the Folders Panel, the original folder should be listed with a "?" mark, because Lightroom can no longer find it. Right-click on it, select "Find Missing Folder", then browse to and select the renamed folder in its new location.
Note....these type of problems will continue to happen if you continue to rename and/or move folders or files outside of Lightroom. Do it using Lightroom and no such problems will arise.

Now I'm just ****** off - original photos missing from iPhoto

Ok.
So I had this problem the other day after upgrading to iPhoto 6 (see here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=406534&tstart=0)
That seemed to get solved from the information provided.
OK, great. So today, I'm flipping through some albums, and I discover, much to my chagrin, that some photos (all of which appear to be from 2000/2001) have thumbnails, but no longer have the photos attached.
And before you say, "hey, do you have the apple support framework 1.4?" why yes, I've already checked.
And before you say, "hey, did you try rotating/exporting/dragging the photos to your desktop?" Why yes, I've already tried.
As a matter of fact, when I try to go into the iphoto library file structure itself, and open some of these older photos (after searching around for them because ever since the upgrade, I appear to have about 800 different files in my iphoto folder), I get a message that the image either doesn't exist or is corrupt.
Speaking of the file structure, This is a list of what I get now when I open the pictures folder in finder:
2000 (folder)
2001 (folder)
2002 (folder)
2003 (folder)
2004 (folder)
2005 (folder)
AlbumData.xml
bdayfun.jpg
Data (folder)
Dir.data
iPhoto.ipspot
iPhotoLock.data
iPod Photo Cache (folder)
Library.cache
Library.data
Library.iPhoto
Library6.iPhoto
Modified (folder - NOTE: THIS DOES HAVE AN INTERNAL FOLDER FOR 2006, BUT NONE FOR 2000 0R 2001)
Original (folder - same as "Modified")
Thumb32Segment.data
Thumb64Segment.data
ThumbJPGSegment.data
All of the photos (so far) that appear to not open are from 2001 and earlier. They are also photos that were taken with an old digital camera, and have file names such as "3 - 141" rather than the more current file naming conventions (but I didn't name these photos - iPhoto did, based on the original roll imports.
I'm finding it extremely frustrating that iPhoto wasn't upgraded in a way that took into account how previous versions of iPhoto itself worked!.
Nevermind that I've submitted multiple bug reports about the fact that iPhoto continues to crash every time I try to empty the trash folder, and have heard not a peep out of Apple.
iMac G5; PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Hi Samantha,
I know it must be frustrating. there is some info in the iPhoto Help files for missing photos:
"What to do about a missing photo
When you import or edit photos in iPhoto, they are saved in the iPhoto Library folder, located in the Pictures folder on your computer.
If you move, delete, or otherwise change a photo in the iPhoto Library folder, and then open the iPhoto application and try to edit or use that photo, iPhoto may not be able to find it. You will see the missing photo indicator instead (shown below).
To find or replace a missing photo:
If you have the original photo file, either on a CD or on your computer, just import it again into iPhoto. For more information, see Related Topics below.
If you don't have the original photo, or you are trying to find an edited version, try one of the following options.
Click your computer's Trash icon (not iPhoto Trash) and see if the photo is still in there.
Do a search.
To search within the iPhoto Library folder, open your Pictures folder and then open your iPhoto Library folder. From there, click Command-F, choose Images from the Any pop-up menu, and enter a search term.
To search all your files and folders, in the Finder, choose File > Find and enter a search term.
IMPORTANT: When you find the photo file, don't drag it directly into the iPhoto Libary folder. Save it to your desktop, then import it back into iPhoto from there.
If you don't know the file name, try going back to the original iPhoto Library folder and look at the other images. If one is missing in a numerical order, it may be the photo you're looking for and you can search for it. If that doesn't work, try searching on the date you think you moved the file, or the date you last edited it."
As far as your file structure, those loose year folders (if empty) can be deleted or dragged to the trash.
If the Year folders have photos in them that are missing from your library, drag them to the desktop and import the photos into iPhoto.
Here is how the library should look and what the folders contain.
iPhoto 6 Library folder in the Finder
As you can see the structure is now related to rolls. Rolls are created for each folder you import and each import session from a camera.
It is very easy to change the names of film rolls within iPhoto to make them easier to find images within. Open the info panel in iPhoto by clicking on the "i" icon. Once it is opened, click on the roll title in the viewing window.
Click on the word "title" in the info pane and type in your new title. I like to use a date and text format such as 12/25/05 Christmas at Mom's, 1/05/06 my birthday, etc. Once the roll names are changed within iPhoto, they are also changed within the Finder, making it easy to locate an image.
When importing from a camera, make sure you name the roll with a date and text before the import.
As far as the trash is concerned, move most of the photos back into the library and delete a few at a time, then empty iPhoto's trash.
Some people have found success on making sure the trash folder is highlighted then go to iPhoto>empty trash.

The memory on my MAC is full. It holds 4GB of RAM of which 79GB are photos. I would like to back up my photos to an external drive but just don not know how. I do not wish to use time machine. How do I back up my photo library, then delete the them t

The memory on my MAC is full. It holds 4GB of RAM of which 79GB are photos. I would like to back up my photos to an external drive but just do not know how. I do not wish to use time machine. How do I back up my photo library, then delete them from my MAC to free up that 79GB? Thank you.

Hi
Just to clarify a couple of points in your post.
RAM (memory) is different from hard drive space. You have 4GB of RAM, but that has no bearing on the amount of drive space you have, of which we know that 79GB are photos.
If those photos are in iPhoto, you should be able to move the entire iPhoto Library, from the Pictures folder, to your external hard drive. You can just drag and drop. Do not have iPhoto open while you're doing this. Once it's done, you can double-click on the moved iPhoto Library file to associate it with iPhoto, so that the app remembers where the library is for next time.
One more thing. When you move a file to a different location, and then delete the original, you don't have a backup. You still only have one copy. So if that external drive dies, you will lose all your photos. Time Machine is a very good way to prevent this from happening. You should dedicate a different drive for Time Machine backups.
Matt

I backed up 6000 photos from Snow Leopard iMac v.10.6 to new Western Digital External Engine "My Book." In attempting to COPY the pictures to My Book in order to free space on HD, I made a mistake. When I first dragged the iPhoto 11 Library folder to My

I backed up 6000+ photos from Snow Leopard iMac v.10.6.7 to new Western Digital "My book" successfully, I think! But when I attempted to COPY my photos to it in order to free up space on my HD, I made a mistake. When I dragged the iPhoto (11) Library to My Book and re-named it to "iPhoto Library.old" nothing happened. So I dragged it again, re-named it again (same name--that was the mistake, I guess!) and then it took about an hour+ to do its thing. When finished and I launched iPhoto by holding down the Option key, the dialog window listed two libraries: "iPhoto Library.old" and iPhoto Library.old (default)". So now what? It seems that I still have the originals when I open iPhoto, and do I have two copies, also? Should I delete one of them and if so, which one and how? Or should I eliminate both of them and start over again? And if so, how do I do that? Right now, neither my HD nor the My Book have changed the number of GB available or free since before I began this process. Will the numbers only change after I actually delete my original Library AND empty the Trash? I appreciate any light you can throw on this subject for me. I could lug it all to the local Genius Bar, but now I'm afraid to unplug anything for fear I'll lose everything! Thank you, you wonderful, bright people. (An 83-year-old Grandma, trying to keep up a little, at least)

Oh my! Obviously, I don't know what I'm doing. But I do know that my goal was to do both---backup AND free some space. My iMAc is old (2006) and I upgraded it a year or so ago to Snow Leopard. I didn't think I had the capability of backing up without an external drive, but maybe I do since I upgraded. Do I?
But I bought this My Book mostly for freeing space because I like to make cards in Photoshop and I'm forever running out of space when I get too many layers (don't really know what I'm doing there, either).
Is there some way that I can rectify my mistakes and start all over?
Thank you so much for beng so prompt with your reply and patient with mine. I tried for so long to see the dialog box with the library listings. When I launched iPhoto, even with holding down the Option key, it kept immediately launching into the full screen. Finally, after an hour of doing it over and over again, it worked when I held the key down for 5 minutes. Then when I was typing my reply, I kept getting a message to "Request Time Out." Didn't know how to do that, so kept hitting the OK button and kept typing for another half minute. Finally, when ready to send, Safari couldn't do it. "Try again" exasperated me until I realized I would have to begin again and use Firefox. When I got there and ready to type, I got the message that my message had been retrienved and did I want to use it?!!
So your kindness is very much appreciated.

Lost almost all my original photos in iPhoto. Have rebuilt the library to no avail.

I tried to share my events and photos from iPhoto in Flickr by copying the events and then clicking share button in iPhoto and choosing Flickr. After some events appeared in Flickr in new albums, I realized I had lost some of the events and photos in iPhoto. If I open iPhoto I see my events some with cover photos and some just a black box with original title but empty. When I click the ones with cover photo, many have only a few photos (originally they had many more) and worse when I click the thumbnails a black box appears with a gray triangle and an exclamation mark in the middle. I have followed the rebuilding option from iPhoto First Aid but got no where. The library shows that I have the original number of photos I had (over 38,000) and also the same number of events and album titles BUT the original photos are mostly missing, only a few thousand are showing in the original size! Most of thumbnails seem to be there though many are also missing. I just cannot locate the originals. In the Masters file in iPhoto Library I don't see many original photos either. It just seems all my photos are deleted! The subfolders in Masters are 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 (I suppose for the 4 years I have used this Mac). The sub-subfolders under each year are named with numbers, like under 2011 there is only one called 11, under 2012 there is 05 and 07 sub-sub folders, under 2013, 04 and 08, and there are more under 2014 from 02 to 08. When I click any of these sub-sub folders I get additional folders with numbers but no order. If I click these folders I get a long number folder which is generally empty except for some where I can see original photos. I even tried to see if I could find a backup of iPhoto Library through Time Machine (I use CCC to backup my Mac) but the Library files I found were all from the time AFTER I had tried to share my photos in Flickr. So I did not find additional originals. It seems Flickr has just literally deleted most of my originals by taking them away from my hard disk!! Unfortunately they don't show up in Flickr either!
What has happened to my original photos? Are they lost or deleted for ever? I tried to use recovery software to see on my hard disk whether there were any of my original photos but didn't see them. Can someone help/advise what to do? I use an I Mac with OSX 10.9.4?and iPhoto 9.5.1. Thank you.

Thank you Terence. Let me explain better. I wanted to have a copy of my photos in Flickr. So I tested with selecting one event in iPhoto and using the Share button to copy the photos it contained in an Album in Flickr. That worked ok. Then I selected all my events and clicked Share in iPhoto to copy them to Flickr. That is where things got probably messed up. As there were many original photos, this took a long time over few days and I tried to stop it. Whatever went wrong there isn't clear to me. When I went back to iPhoto next I saw the situation described above. Most original disappeared. Unfortunately, the back up I found in my external disk is from the same time I seem to have lost the files. I have copied into iPhoto Lib but it has the same problem with most originals missing. The funny thing is that when I noticed my photos were missing, I checked the size iPhoto Lib and it was about 25GB. Then I went and checked the 7 backups of Pictures in Time Machine and noticed two were around 100GB from Two weeks earlier just about the time I did the Flickr transfer. So I selected one of those and opened iPhoto using that bigger file. But it was still too short of the original 38,000 photos only a few thousands.

Backing Up Original Photos in PSE9

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