Can i move original photos to an external hard-drive

Hi
I want to free up some space and would like to move all the original copies of my photos to an external hard-drive, whilst keeping the iphoto library on the macbook. Is this possible, or do the originals need to be kept within the iphoto folder?
Thanks
Jamie

Yes and No
The Yes part:
It is possible to run an iPhoto Library with the Originals stored outside the Library folder, but I strongly caution against it - especially if the Library and the files are on different volumes, as you propose. Why? the short answer: if the files become detached from the database then you will end up reconnecting every single one, one by one. For more see this:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3062728?tstart=0
Further, if the external is not plugged in when you launch iphoto it will ask you where each file is. All of them. One by one.
So that's really a 'Yes... but...' I suppose.
The No part:
You have currently got a Managed Library. There's no way to convert to a Referenced one.
Then there's the... 'how much money do you want to throw at this' bit?
If you purchase Aperture this is a cinch. It can relocate masters, reconnect them if they get seperated and so on. Pay more, get more options. And Aperture can use the same Library as iPhoto, but there is a bigger learngn curve.

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I have so many photos I only have 1G of memory left. How can I move the photos to my external hard drive that is connected to my iMac?

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1GB? It's a miracle your Mac is running at all!
This is our resident iPhoto guru, Terence Devlin's, advice:
You can move your iPhoto Library to an external disk:
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library Folder as an entity 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.

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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.
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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
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The Yes part:
It is possible to run an iPhoto Library with the Originals stored outside the Library folder, but I strongly caution against it - especially if the Library and the files are on different volumes, as you propose. Why? the short answer: if the files become detached from the database then you will end up reconnecting every single one, one by one. For more see this:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3062728?tstart=0
Further, if the external is not plugged in when you launch iphoto it will ask you where each file is. All of them. One by one.
So that's really a 'Yes... but...' I suppose.
The No part:
You have currently got a Managed Library. There's no way to convert to a Referenced one.
Then there's the... 'how much money do you want to throw at this' bit?
If you purchase Aperture this is a cinch. It can relocate masters, reconnect them if they get seperated and so on. Pay more, get more options. And Aperture can use the same Library as iPhoto, but there is a bigger learngn curve.

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Can i move original photos to an external hard-drive

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