Breaking down iPhoto library?

Hi, I'm using iPhoto '09 (as far as it goes on a Power Mac G5 with Leopard).
Hoping to make a second backup of my photos, I picked up a Lexar 16GB memory stick at Apple store last night. Alas, my iPhoto library far exceeds that size. Oops.
Question is… is there a fairly quick and simple way to back up selected events, let's say? Perhaps by making a duplicate library, then going in and making wholesale deletions and backing up that library?
Or is exporting the more valued images and then backing up those images my only option?
Thanks.

LarryHN wrote: The easiest and best way is an external hard drive - and a good automatic backup program - I use Time machine and Carbon Copy Cloner (to two different EHDs) giving me two daily backups with different characteristics
Already backing up to an external G-drive with Time Machine—that's why I said "second backup." I could also manually back up to another partition on the same external drive, but I wanted additional backup that wasn't wired to my Power Mac G5, which—though much-loved and 97% awesome—has unfortunately seen almost 6 years of daily use. I would be devastated if I lost my photos. (Overcaffeinated, way-too-enthusiastic youngster in Apple store, who proudly noted his "background in IT," told me I really should have FIVE backups… LOL.)

Similar Messages

  • Want to break up iPhoto Library... BUT...

    I have a 30GB iPhoto library. I want to speed up iPhoto opening and I want to break my iPhoto library into years. I also like publishing pictures to my .Mac iPhoto gallery. Will my iPhoto gallery work with multiple libraries? Does anyone else do this? It is nice to have all the galleries in one list, I have about 20 right now but I can trade off if this will speed up performance. I have a relatively new MBP with 3GB of RAM so my machine is up to the task.. just a pretty large library...
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    Rob:
    I have to ask the same question as Terence did, how slow is your current library? If you are opening the library to the Photos section and do not have the Event titles showing then it will be much slower in opening and running because all of the thumbnail files will have to be rendered. If you're doing that set the viewing preferences for the Photo mode to include the Event titles and keep the events closed except for those that you need.
    You can split your libraries by year with the paid version of iPhoto Library Manager. Just create a smart album base on a given year. Then copy that album into a new library like this. You will also be copying the events, keywords, titles and comments associated with those photos. When the copy is complete and you're satisfied with the new library you can delete those photos from the original library.
    However, your galleries will have to stay in the current library. They cannot be transferred to another library. The only get transferred as subscriptions, not editable and publishable galleries.
    You could have a library for each year but keep the current library just for galleries. Delete all of the photos (after the yearly libraries are created) that are not in a gallery. You can add photos for a new gallery by assembling them in an album in the current year's library and coping the album to the Gallery Library like this.
    I have a 54 GB library of 20,926 photos and 298 movies that opens in 5 seconds on my G5. Again, how slow is your library in opening and editing? Can you give us some idea of the times?
    TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
    I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 08 libraries and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

  • Backing up iPhoto Library with DropBox

    I moved my iPhoto library to DropBox in order to have a complete online backup of iPhoto (in addition to my local Time Machine backup and my SuperDuper bootable backup). The backup took a while since I have a large iPhoto library (20,000 photos, about 80 GB). What happened was that the size of the iPhoto library doubled on DropBox to 160 GB. There are a number of reasons for this (I found it too late), primarily because DropBox doesn't handle the symlinks well and creates duplicate copies of the photos in Folders called Originals, Modified, and Masters. Also my computer slowed down when I added a lot of photos to iPhoto, as it was syncing literally a couple of thousand files for every 100 pictures I added.
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    And the answer is that so far no one has found a good solution to cloud backup for the iPhoto library that I have seen here - If you want only the photos you could copy the masters folder to DropBox and then use image capture to get your photos off your camera adding each batch to DB and then importing to iPhoto
    I go at it differently - two daily backups (Time Machine hourly and Carbon Copy Cloner making a bootable clone of my system daily) plus an occasional TM backup to an off site drive (at our vacation home) and rotating through three 32 GB SD cards so I have a year or more of the original photos on SD cards at all times
    TD uses SmugMug to backup his photos along with a similar but more disciplined off site backup
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  • Mac Mini wont start after power outage, and problem copying iPhoto library. HELP!

        So, recently there was a power outage in my neighborhood, the power was intermitent for about 2 hours, during this time my mac rebooted itself several times, but on the second time it rebooted the power went out during boot, then the power finally went out for good, it was back in about 3 hours, but when i finnaly turned on my mac it got stuck at the Apple logo with a spinning wheel and a progress bar that wouldnt go past 40%, when i boot holding command -v it said that there were a lot of errors which were automatically fixed, except for one, "Incorrect Thread records" or something like that.
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    I googled my drive problem and people said that I need a Disk Utility called DiskWarrior, but I cant seem to find how to to use it, I got a copy from a friend, it was the digital version of the boot disk which need to be burned to a dvd.
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    OK, we need more info about your Mac. Do you know how much RAM it has in it?
    If you don't know the model, find the Serial# & use it on one of these sites, but don't post the Serial# here...
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  • My iPad 1 has suddenly started to sync Events from my iPhoto library incorrectly. It seems to break down Events to separate dates - so if an Event was photographed over 2 days, it is showing as 2 separate events with the same name.

    My iPad 1 has suddenly started to sync Events from my iPhoto library incorrectly. It seems to break down Events to separate dates - so if an Event was photographed over 2 days, it is showing as 2 separate events with the same name.

    Posted this before I realised there is an update for the iPhoto app 9.1.3 which sorts the problem.

  • How do I restore my iPhoto. When I open i get a window dialog "Your iphoto library is either in use by another application or has become unreadable shut down and restart your computer. If problem persists, try rebuilding your iphoto library. To do th

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    Your photo library is either in use by another application or has become unreadable
    Shut down and restart your computer, and then open iPhoto again. If the problem persists, try rebuilding your photo library. To do this, quit iPhoto, and then reopen it while keeping the Option and Command keys pressed. You can also try restoring your photo library from a backup.
    I have tried the reopen it while keeping the Option and Command keyes pressed.
    No change.
    I dee nothing but a blank page,
    Any help would be appreciated.
    Also hace back ups of all images on cd's. dvds and jump drives.
    Any advice is appreciated.

    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.
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    Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. (In early versions of Library Manager it's the File -> Rebuild command. In later versions it's under the Library menu.)
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    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 resolve this error message? The iPhoto library is on a locked volume.  Reopen iPhoto when you have read/write access, or reopen iPhoto with the Option key held down to choose another library.

    How do I resolve this error message? The iPhoto library is on a locked volume.  Reopen iPhoto when you have read/write access, or reopen iPhoto with the Option key held down to choose another library.

    Hi j,
    I don't know if this will work, but I'd try logging in to an admin account, going to your main library (not user library), opening it, opening Application Support, selecting iPhoto, hold down the command key and press i, click on the lock in the lower left, entering the password and making sure you have Read & Write privileges for System and Admin.

  • I just created a new iPhoto library with holding the option key down and then opening iPhoto with version 7.1.5.  I changed the name of the first library to iPhoto library 1 and now I all my photos are gone.  My operating system is Mavericks.

    I just created a new iPhoto library with holding the option key down and then opening iPhoto with version 7.1.5.  I changed the name of the first library to iPhoto library 1 and now I all my photos are gone.  My operating system is Mavericks.

    launch iPhoto wile holding down the option key and select the original library - when you create a new library of course it is empty
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    PS you also need to update your profile - it states that you have OS X 10.6.8

  • I need to shrink down my iPhoto Library

    I need to shrink down my iPhoto Library -
    I'm currently working with iPhoto 09' on my supervisor's iMac running Mac OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard). He's in desparate attempt to try and free space on his hard drive. Through Finder iPhoto reads over 340+ GB in size, but through iPhoto itself it reads half that at around 125+ GB since I had last checked. I've been researching online forums and I'm aware of 'show package contents' and how iPhoto will double up due to modified images, etc. Also, through every forum people have explained to not alter the structure of iPhoto as more than likely it will corrupt my library and make it non-useable.
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    AM -

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    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
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  • The iPhoto library is a Time Machine backup, and so cannot be used as the main library. Reopen iPhoto with the Option key held down to choose another library.

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