Can iphoto's library be located on an external HD?

I am a photographer and have many different programs I use for editing and managing my files. I have no plans to move to iPhoto as a primary/only menas of managing my photos. However, I have recenlty gotten an AppleTV and would like to share/show my Photos in a managable way on my TV to others. From what I have learned having an iphoto database is a good way to deal with this, that is, to keep everything native. So it seems I need to have a duplicate libray for iphoto for TV viewing pupposes.
1) Does this make sense? Or are there better ways to enjoy the photos on the TV with guests and family?
2) If the above makes sense I need to make this duplicate on an external HD because of the memory limitations and amount of data. Is there a preffered method to oing this. As far as I have surmized, one way to do so is to make a library with not much in it. Move it in the Finder to the external HD. And then import the bulk of my photos there folder at a time, and building my events as I import the photos as chuncks. Please let me know of better suggestions.
3) I manage my Tags with Adobe products (Lightroom and Bridge). They are all embeded in the files as meta data. Will iPhoto recognize these keywords/tags from reading the metadata, or are these specific to Adobe products?
Thanx

Yes, as long as it's formatted as OS X Extended (journaled) and not accessed wirelessly.
#3 - As long as Lightroom and Adobe write those tags to the same ITPC fields that iPhoto uses they will be readable by iPhoto. Try adding test tags to a test photo with both of those apps and import them into your current iPhoto library. Then select the photos and bring up the Extended Photo Info pane for them.
Also check the keyword and Comments fields. It all is well than yes, they are compatible.
OT

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Finding iphoto (located in an external hard drive) in Bridge

How do I open (or find) iphoto, that I have located in my external hard drive, through Bridge? I can see all the other things that I have in my EH, but not iphoto.

You can't, iPhoto uses a package file for it's library and neither Finder nor Bridge can show this content directly.
The two applications can't be mixed together, iPhoto as said uses a library structure and Bridge is a file browser reflecting the content in the folders of your user account or attached drives etc.
Also most edit settings (ACR etc) on raw files can't be exchanged between the two because they use different engines.
If you want the files from iPhoto to show in Bridge you have to export them first to a folder outside of iPhoto.
There is a way to make it a bit more easy.
Create a folder on your system and give it a proper name. Then open a new finder window and in column mode select pictures / iPhoto library. Here you see an icon of a stack of images.
click once on this icon to select it, then use right mouse click and from the menu choose 'show package content'
This opens a new window. Inhere is depending on version a folder called 'Masters' or 'originals'
Be sure to COPY the content (not move because then you loose the originals in iPhoto, you don't want that to happen) and after copy close the package content window (don't mess around with packages, just copy and close) open bridge and point Bridge to the newly created folder using the folder panel.
In menu view choose 'show items from subfolders' and let Bridge take its time to build the cache of all images in that main folder. Wait for the activity bar bottom left to finish completely.
Now you have all originals in a folder structure. Either keep this structure or create on of your own. You can also batch rename all files using shot date (yyymmdd and sequence number or other addition) to create a natural sort order for your files. It is all up to you and your custom wishes

Can I move the default location of the iPhoto library to an external source, leaving a preview image on my main HDD? Do I need to move to something like Apature to do this?

Can I move the default location of the iPhoto library to an external source, leaving a preview image on my main HDD?
Do I need to move to something like Apature to do this?
I currenlty have a NAS which holds all my images.

Yes you can, but you really, really don't want to.
You can store your photos on the External and have iPhoto link to them in that location. It's called having a Referenced Library.
In this scenario iPhoto creates an alias to the files in the Library and that's why you don't want to do this. Aliases work fin when everything is on the same volume or disk. However, if the alias points to something on another disk or volume and something in the path to the file changes, then the alias is broken. That means you could find yourself fixing each alias for every single photo in your Library, one at a time if something goes wrong.
And heaven forbid you would ever want to move the files to another disk.
See why I say you really, really don't want to?
Also note, that your edited photos would still be on the internal HD as they are always stored in the Library.
Aperture, on the other hand, can deal with this scenario quite easily, and has tools to reconnect to the original should the link be broken
Regards
TD

Library can't upgrade to iPhoto '11, can't rebuild Library either.

After recently installing iLife '11, my iPhoto Library became unusable. When I OK'd iPhoto to "upgrade" my library, it started the process and then presented an error message "iPhoto is unable to open this Library".
I couldn't rebuild the Library either. So I was able to "downgrade" back to iPhoto '09 and restored my Library from an older backup (a couple days old). I simply moved iPhoto '11 to the desktop, deleted iPhoto prefs, and reinstalled iPhoto '09 from disc. My intention was to use iPhoto '09 to rebuild the library and then upgrade again. After reinstalling iPhoto '09, I can open my iPhoto library just fine. Appears to be normal. However, when I try to "rebuild" the library, iPhoto instantly quits. No error messages or anything. Just quits.
I downloaded iPhoto Library Manager hoping that it may allow me to rebuild the library. When I try to do that, it prompts me to use iPhoto 9.0 ('11) to upgrade the library before I rebuild. It appears that my Mac (at least iPhoto Library Manager) still thinks iPhoto 9.0 ('11) is installed. I'm positive that iPhoto 8.1 is installed, and that's what's in my Applications folder. That's what is successfully opening my iPhoto library. Any ideas on how I can rebuild this Library in '09 so that I can try to "upgrade" again?
Running on new iMac with 10.6.4 installed.

Just wanted to chime in to this as I ran into the same issue, and these boards have been a great resource in the past.
Here's what I attempted to do that didn't fix the issue;
- Tried to rebuild the library from iPhoto '11 (CMD+Option) when opening the program, which failed with the exact same error as OSO - Mac was mentioning above.
- Reverted back to iPhoto '09 (deleted iPhoto '11 from /Applications/, as well as deleted any reference to iPhoto in /Library/Receipts; I saw no references but took that suggestions from a previous thread here), then reinstalled iPhoto '09 via original discs. I was able to open the library as I wanted (pulled a library from a few days ago in a Time Machine backup to be safe), then attempted to rebuild in hopes that would help issue. Reinstalled iPhoto '11, but the same issue occurred.
Here's what I attempted to do that somewhat fixed the issue;
- Option-clicked to open iPhoto '11, then chose to create a new library. Created a new library (I named mine iPhoto2) in the ~/Pictures/ folder. Closed iPhoto. Then I navigated to the ~/Pictures/ folder, right-clicked on the original iPhoto library that won't open, as well as the newly created iPhoto library that does open (but lacks any content), and choose to Show Contents. I manually copied all the contents of the original iPhoto library to the new iPhoto library (some folders and files overwrote, some did not; note that the structure of the iPhoto '11 library is radically different than that of the iPhoto '09 library) and then re-opened iPhoto. iPhoto prompted me to upgrade the library again (peculiar since the library technically was created in iPhoto '11, but I guess it saw elements of the iPhoto '09 structure) and successfully upgraded the library. The only downside was that, for whatever reason, certain photos did not come back and were blatantly missing thumbnails and originals. But my album structure, faces, etc. remained intact.
What I did that finally fixed the issue;
- Brought back my good library from a Time Machine backup, then right-clicked on it within ~/Pictures/ and chose Get Info. I manually set permissions for everyone on my machine (admin, staff, everyone, and myself) to Read & Write. Option-clicked when opening iPhoto, forced it to look for my newly-permissioned library, and viola, upgraded without issue and no lost photos.
Not sure if my solution will work for all, and my apologies for providing such information that isn't so concrete, but since these are user-to-user forums, I thought I'd offer my experience as I was not able to locate any other solutions without entirely losing my album structure, faces data, etc.

How can i share my iphoto 11 library with another user on the same mac?

hi
i recently added a new user account for my wife on my macbook pro. now we want to share the existing iphoto 11 library, which is on my account, with the new user account. i'm using os x lion.
many thanks!
davide from sitzerland

For iPhoto 09 (version 8.0.2) and later:
What you mean by 'share'.
If you want the other user to be able to see the pics, but not add to, change or alter your library, then enable Sharing in your iPhoto (Preferences -> Sharing), leave iPhoto running and use Fast User Switching to open the other account. In that account, enable 'Look For Shared Libraries'. Your Library will appear in the other source pane.
Any user can drag a pic from the Shared Library to their own in the iPhoto Window.
Remember iPhoto must be running in both accounts for this to work.
If you want the other user to have the same access to the library as you: to be able to add, edit, organise, keyword etc.
Quit iPhoto in both accounts. Move the Library to the Users / Shared Folder
(You can also use an external HD set to ignore permissions, a Disk Image or even partition your Hard Disk.)
In each account in turn: Double click on the Library to open it. (You may be asked to repair the Library Permissions.) From that point on, this will be the default library location. Both accounts will have full access to the library, in fact, both accounts will 'own' it.
However, there is a catch with this system and it is a significant one. iPhoto is not a multi-user app., it does not have the code to negotiate two users simultaneously writing to the database, and trying will cause db corruption. So only one user at a time, and back up, back up back up.

IPhoto keeps "dropping" my library that's located on an external drive

iPhoto can't seem to hold on to my external Western Digital drive.
My iPhoto library is located on the drive (connected via USB). When I launch iPhoto, it loads up all my photos from the library, and they look fine. But if I try to print a photo and/or start moving around within the library in iPhoto to view other images, every thumbnail goes black and I get messages that iPhoto must quit, and that a device (the external drive) was removed improperly. This happened like five times in a row.
I've checked the power and USB cables, and I'm pretty sure they're not the problem.
When I unplug and replug the USB cable, the external drive remounts. When I launch iPhoto again, it prompts me to select my library. Then all the photos are back, at least until the next time I start printing photos or moving around in the library.
This problem only came up when I moved to the new Mac Mini and new iPhoto (I had other iPhoto problems on my old MacBook, which I also ran from a library on the external drive, but I didn't have this problem).
I need iPhoto to quit dropping the external drive -- any ideas? Thanks.

Most likely cause: A damaged USB port on either the Mac or the Disk, or a faulty cable. To check for this try a variety of each.
When the drive dismounts, is it gone from the Finder too? If so, it supports the Hardware theory.
Less Likely but also possible: what format is the External Drive? iPhoto requires a drive formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Regards
TD

Can't find iPhoto 4 Library

I'm trying to reduce the amount of storage space of my 2400 photos on my main drive. It's getting full.
I copied my Photo Library Folder (5 gb) to an external drive.
Then I deleted the original iPhoto Library Folder to free up some space. And saved a copy on DVD.
When I reopened iPhoto to find the new Library location, I did not see a window showing something was in progress.
Now in the iPhoto window, it says there are 2400 photos, but I can't see them. All I see are grey boxes. I've restarted and nothing has happened. The last roll says it has 2400 photos. It shows the Photo Library by year with the correct numbers. But I can't see any photos.
I restarted iPhoto twice to find new Library, but nothing has changed.
Where are they hiding?

V Beckmann: Open iPhoto while holding down the Shift and Option keys. When asked if you want to rebuild the library, click Yes, then click Save. This rebuilding process will use information in your existing iphoto Library folder to create a new iPhoto Library_1 folder. I'm not sure whether the new library folder will be in the Pictures folder on your internal drive, or on the external drive. Either way, when the rebuild is complete, iPhoto will open the new library, and will continue to use it as the default library unless/until you specify another one for it to use.
If the new library is in good working order, you can trash the older iPhoto Library folder that you put on the external drive, and that didn't work.
If the new one works and is already on the external drive, fine; just leave it there and keep using it.
If the new one is in your Pictures folder on your internal drive, copy it to the external drive the same way you did before, by dragging the iPhoto Library folder's icon there and waiting for the copying to finish. You will then need to use the Option-key startup to direct iPhoto to open that copy of the library, thereby making it the default for iPhoto to use from now on.
Note that once your default iPhoto Library is stored on an external drive and not on your internal drive, it is *not backed up* unless you have another copy of it stored somewhere else. You should never be without a backup of any data that is important to you, including your pictures.
EDIT: Why was your copied library defective in the first place? Probably because before copying it, you poked around inside the iPhoto Library folder on your internal drive and corrupted it by moving or deleting something. Then you copied the corrupt library to the external drive, and naturally the copy was also corrupt.
Message was edited by: eww

How can I share a large iPhoto '11 library on multiple computers (I am the user on all) through iCloud?

I have three residences, and in each I have an iMac and a MacBook Pro (sixe devices in total, I do not like carrying computers through airports :-)) and I have an iPhoto '11 Library with 3,000 photos+. I know I can use Photo Stream to access recent photos via iCloud from these multiple devices. My question is: can I create a single iPhoto library stores in iCloud so that all my devices can in fact sync their libraries through iCloud?

No
That is not a feature of iPhoto or iCloud
LN

Can not find file must locate each song one at a time need to restore my whole library

can not find file, must locate each song one at a time need to restore my whole library

Hello BadSteve,
It sounds like iTunes seems to have lost track of all your music and you must locate each file individually. I would recommend at this point that you check for 3rd party plugins to see if there are any causing an issue:
iTunes: Troubleshooting issues with third-party iTunes plug-ins
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts3430
If the issue persists after removing the plugins, I would next try recreating your iTunes library:
iTunes: How to re-create your iTunes library and playlists
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1451
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Regards,
Sterling

Using Time Machine to back up an iphoto library located on an external hard drive.

I'd like to back up my primary iphoto library that currently exists on an external Simpletech hard-drive. I have a separate WD Passport external hard drive also attached to my iMAC. When I turn on Time Machine, it only seems to allow me to choose one of the two hard-drives to receive the back-up, and automatically excludes the Simpletech where my iphoto library is located from the back-up. Am I missing something?

This is normal. If you wish to back up your Hard Drive with the iPhoto library follow these steps:
Open the time maching preferences in system prferences,
Click options,
Choose the hard drive with your iPhoto library,
Click the - button to remove it frok the list. T
Time machine will now back up all the information on this disk as well as that on your hard drive in the computer to your Time Maching Hard Drive.
Hope this helps!!!

I have Elements 13 (I have the hard copy) installed on my iMac using Yosemite. I do all my iPhoto work on an external drive where I have copied my iPhoto Library, can I also install Elements 13 on my external harddrive or drag Elements 13 over from my iMa

I have Elements 13 (I have the hard copy) installed on my iMac using Yosemite. I do all my iPhoto work on an external drive where I have copied my iPhoto Library, can I also install Elements 13 on my external harddrive or drag Elements 13 over from my iMac so that I can do work with Elements 13 via the exteranl hard drive? Thanks tb

Yes you can store images on an external hard dive and have them referenced in Organizer. It’s best to export copies to separate folders/subfolders and that will ensure iPhoto does not get corrupted.
Alternatively you could continue to use iPhoto with the Elements Editor set up in the iPhoto prefs as your external editing app. Then there is no need to use Organizer and no need to duplicate your images.
You can then call up photos directly from iPhoto as normal with the additional option e.g.
Double-click on a thumbnail to edit in iPhoto editor.
Control (right) - click on a thumbnail to edit in the elements app.
http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/kb/photoshop-elements-iphoto-mac-os.html

Can IPhoto Library Version 9.2.3 work on snow leopard

Can Iphoto Library Version 9.2.3 work on snow leopard?

iPhoto 9.2.3 works on 10.6.8
That's what I hane on my SL machine.

IPhoto 8.1.2: After Crash, Can't Open Library

I had just transferred several photos from the iPhone to my MacBook Pro (on OS 10.7.5). The transfer was successful, and when I look at my iPhoto libary folders, the pictures are where they ought to be, so I'm not worried about losing them. But with the phone still plugged in, I took a few extra minutes to run through Faces, some simple editing, etc. And in the middle of that process, I got a hard crash of the MacBook Pro, the fortunately-rare "Your Mac must be restarted" message.
After the restart, iPhoto won't open anymore. I get a completely blank window, then a message telling me to restart the Mac yet again or to open iPhoto using Command-Option and then rebuild permissions. I've restarted; no difference. I rebuilt iPhoto permissions; no difference. I rebuilt the Mac's permissions; no difference. I've tried every other kind of rebuild that iPhoto offers; no difference.
Any other suggestions? What if I were to just upgrade to the newest version of iPhoto? Any chance that might bypass whatever the program is hung up on right now?
Thanks very much.

The problem is a corrupted Library and upgrading will not fix that.
Try these in order - from best option on down...
1. Do you have an up-to-date back up? If so, try copy the library6.iphoto file from the back up to the iPhoto Library (Right Click -> Show Package Contents) allowing it to overwrite the damaged file.
2. 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.)
This will create an entirely new library. It will then copy (or try to) your photos and all the associated metadata and versions to this new Library, and arrange it as close as it can to what you had in the damaged Library. It does this based on information it finds in the iPhoto sharing mechanism - but that means that things not shared won't be there, so no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your events, albums and keywords, faces and places 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.
3. If neither of these work then you'll need to create and populate a new library.
To create and populate a new iPhoto 08 library:
Note this will give you a working library with the same Events and pictures as before, however, you will lose your albums, keywords, modified versions, books, calendars etc.
In the iPhoto Preferences -> Events Uncheck the box at 'Imported Items from the Finder'
Move the iPhoto Library to the desktop
Launch iPhoto. It will ask if you wish to create a new Library. Say Yes.
Go into the iPhoto Library (Right Click -> Show Package Contents) on your desktop and find the Originals folder. From the Originals folder drag the individual Event Folders to the iPhoto Window and it will recreate them in the new library.
When you're sure all is well you can delete the iPhoto Library on your desktop.
In the future, in addition to your usual back up routine, you might like to make a copy of the library6.iPhoto file whenever you have made changes to the library as protection against database corruption.

I am so tired of iphoto crashing, losing work I've done. I want to switch to photoshop elements 10 but need to know if it uses the iphoto library or if I can import that library into elements

I am so tired of iphoto crashing, losing work I've done. I want to switch to photoshop elements 10 but need to know if it uses the iphoto library or if I can import that library into elements

Using Photoshop or Photoshop Elements as Your Editor of Choice in iPhoto.
1 - select Photoshop or Photoshop Elememts as your editor of choice in iPhoto's General Preference Section's under the "Edit photo:" menu.
2 - double click on the thumbnail in iPhoto to open it in Photoshop. When you're finished editing click on the Save button. If you immediately get the JPEG Options window make your selection (Baseline standard seems to be the most compatible jpeg format) and click on the OK button. Your done.
3 - however, if you get the navigation window
that indicates that PS wants to save it as a PS formatted file. You'll need to either select JPEG from the menu and save (top image) or click on the desktop in the Navigation window (bottom image) and save it to the desktop for importing as a new photo.
This method will let iPhoto know that the photo has been editied and will update the thumbnail file to reflect the edit..
NOTE: With Photoshop Elements the Saving File preferences should be configured as shown:
I also suggest the Maximize PSD File Compatabilty be set to Always. In PSE’s General preference pane set the Color Picker to Apple as shown:
Note: to switch between iPhoto and PS or PSE as the editor of choice Control (right)-click on the thumbnail and select either Edit in iPhoto or Edit in External Editor from the contextual menu. If you use iPhoto to edit more than PSE re-select iPhoto in the iPhoto General preference pane. Then iPhoto will be the default editor and you can use the contextual menu to select PSE for your editor when desired.

Can't access iPhoto 09 library from outside iPhoto

Since upgrading to iLife 09 I can't access my iPhoto library from anywhere BUT iPhoto. I use Photoshop CS2 and open my photos directly from that application. But now when the directory actually appears, it is greyed-out and inaccessible.

Yes you can do this
In Finder you can right click the iPhoto library and choose 'show package contents'.
but you shouldn't.
With iPhoto 7 (iLife 08) the old iPhoto Library Folder is now a Package File. This is simply a folder that looks like a file in the Finder. The change was made to the format of the iPhoto library because many users were inadvertently corrupting their library by browsing through it with other software or making changes in it themselves.
There are many, many ways to access your files in iPhoto:
*For Users of 10.5 and later*
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.
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!
(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:
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!
*For users of 10.4 and later* ...
Many internet sites such as Flickr and SmugMug have plug-ins for accessing the iPhoto Library. If the site you want to use doesn’t then some, one or any of these will also work:
To upload to a site that does not have an iPhoto Export Plug-in the recommended way is to Select the Pic in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export and export the pic to the desktop, then upload from there. After the upload you can trash the pic on the desktop. It's only a copy and your original is safe in iPhoto.
This is also true for emailing with Web-based services. However, if you're using Gmail you can use iPhoto2GMail
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 later:
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*: 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.
You can set Photoshop (or any image editor) as an external editor in iPhoto. (Preferences -> General -> Edit Photo: Choose from the Drop Down Menu.) This way, when you double click a pic to edit in iPhoto it will open automatically in Photoshop or your Image Editor, and when you save it it's sent back to iPhoto automatically. This is the only way that edits made in another application will be displayed in iPhoto.
All of these are a: faster and b: safer than rooting around in the folders of the Library package
Regards
TD

Can iphoto's library be located on an external HD?

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