Conversion of iPhoto Library : 2.x to 6.x

I upgraded iPhoto on my dtr's PowerBook G4 (10.4.10, all updates, clean Permissions, Disk Verify, DiskWarrior, ...) and every time she starts up iPhoto 6, it dutifully indicates that the Library must be converted, then that it will take 35-40 minutes, cranks away until estimated 7 minutes remaining and then the application quits. Repeated this behaviour 3 or 4 times with Restarts in between but no joy so far.
Approx 2,200 photo images in her library.
Any suggestions as to how to get past this?

Bruce:
Do you still have an untouched copy of your V2 library folder? If so, copy it to your Pictures library replacing the one you've tried to updated. Then download and run BatChmod on the iPhoto Library folder with the settings shown here, putting your administrator login name, long or short, in the owner and group sections. You can either type in the path to the folder or just drag the folder into that field.
Now launch iPhoto and see if the upgrade will go thru successfully.
Also you might try rebuilding the V2 library with iPhoto 2 before copying to the Pictures folder.
If you don't have copy of the library folder then run BatChmod as mentioned before and launch iPhoto.
Do you Twango?
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 written 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. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

Similar Messages

QT movie batch conversion in iPhoto library

hello everyone,
i would like to ask for some suggestions on the following scenario: our iPhoto lib has grown rather big after 2 years of using a 720p HD camera. upon evaluating size to quality it appears that one can live with a smaller size movie format, such as the AppleTV 960x540 m4v, which plays better on laptops and lesser machines and also fits well with iMovie presets - in all, quite an acceptable compromise, but most consumer HD cameras have either 1080p or 720p shooting modes. as said, for home use, one can implement the 960x540 standard without much loss of quality for better use flexibility, especially if you employ a Mac Mini to a HD TV as we do, but the clips have to be re-saved.
so here is the question - how to convert multiple movie entries in the iPhoto library to Atv format, without loosing metadata, such as date and time? QT obviously puts the current data/time on the new m4v file. i did try several things with limited success - Automator can do this batch conversion (but no custom one, this is how i got to the Atv format in the first place); once you select the movies in an iPhoto event, go 'show in finder' - they appear highlighted in the Finder window. chances are they will be in in the same folder, A converts them to desktop or any given location, then you re-import the files to iPhoto, compare the date and time to the original, hit the 'batch change', adjust date/time and delete old files.... but a bit time consuming altogether.
would there be any Automator workflow or AppleScript to ease the task in larger batches, since one can filter all movies in a smart album? or anything else for that matter? tnx in advance!

Bruce:
Do you still have an untouched copy of your V2 library folder? If so, copy it to your Pictures library replacing the one you've tried to updated. Then download and run BatChmod on the iPhoto Library folder with the settings shown here, putting your administrator login name, long or short, in the owner and group sections. You can either type in the path to the folder or just drag the folder into that field.
Now launch iPhoto and see if the upgrade will go thru successfully.
Also you might try rebuilding the V2 library with iPhoto 2 before copying to the Pictures folder.
If you don't have copy of the library folder then run BatChmod as mentioned before and launch iPhoto.
Do you Twango?
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 written 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. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

How do I successfully upgrade my iPhoto Library from 7.1.5 to 9.5.1

I've been running iPhoto on my MacBook for the past 6 years. I've accumulated a library of 280GB of photos. I had iPhoto '08 v 7.1.5 (387). Recently, I got a new Mac running Mavericks and iPhoto 9.5.1. Using the Migration Assistant, I copied my library over to the new Macbook Pro, along with all my other files. I opened iPhoto on the new mac, and it showed a completely empty library. A 'du' from the command line (as well as Info in Finder) of the iPhoto library showed it had 280GB of space taken up, so the files were copied over correctly. Running 'find . -print | xargs md5 | sort' on both libraries before before trying to run the new iPhoto produced identical checksum on all the files (I wiped the new mac, reinstalled Mavericks and migrated again before running this on the new library).
I've also tried copying the old library to an external hard disk, same results (on file systems formatted to ignore case as well as those formatted to respect case, in all cases it was a MacOS Extended partition).
I've also tried creating a new library on the old mac, putting 2 photos in it, editing those photos (to flip and crop them). I copied it over to the new Mac (volume formatted as Mac OS Extended, ignore case, journalled), verified that I was using the proper path to this new library and that the files were identical. Same result.
Over the past two months I've tried everything I could find. One thread said I needed a migration program from such an old version of iPhoto for the Mac, so I tried downloading that from this forum, but it told me I didn't need it when I ran it.
I've tried dragging individual folders of the Originals and Modified directories over. That got my photos transferred, but the events were all messed up and the assiciation between the Original and Modified photos was lost. Since I have 43,995 photos, 23747 of which have been modified, I don't find this to be an acceptable migration path.
I tried posting this to another thread on failure of iPhoto to upgrade properly to Mavericks, but was requested to post a new thread due to protocol in these forums, so here is the new thread after making an admittedly snarky comment that Apple totally dropped the ball on this upgrade path and that it totally doesn't work. It should be this hard for a clueful computer professional with 30 years of experience to get it right.
Yours In Frustration.

There's actually an option to iPhoto Library Manager that makes this all almost work flawlessly (and work well enough for me). With the exception of Photo Albums that the pictures are part of, if you select "Library > Rebuild Library..." and then select "Scavange Orphaned Photos" check box, then it will put all the Photos and Movies into the "Scavanged Photos" album. It matches the modified pictures to their originals. It preserves all the event names and photo groupings. All the meta-data I could spot check it got right (although with 44k pictures, I only checked a few). If you fail to select this option, however, it will find no pictures at all when it goes to rebuild the library (this was true of the small test libraries I tried as well as the big, monster 280GB library I just finished converting). The conversion process took 5 hours to run, but in the end produced a library my new iPhoto can read and that I can interact with. I'll be suggesting to the iPhoto Library Manager folks a notation that would estimate the number of Orphaned Photos and display that number as a hint to the user that the option would be useful.
Edited: Thanks to Old Toad and LarryHN for their help in finding which of the many options to transition this library to 9.5.1 I needed to use. Sorry if I took my frustration of the past several months out on you guys for generously trying to help me.

Upgrading to iPhoto '08 - what's going wrong with my iphoto Library

Hi,
I would appreciate your advice/knowledge on this problem.
==> Short Description of my problem:
I can't recover the keywords associated with my pictures. I am asked to import my pictures although I choose to open my previous iPhoto Library after converting to iPhoto 08.
==> What I did:
1. I recently upgraded my mac to Leopard, and then to iPhoto'08. When opening for the 1st time iPhoto '08, I selected my iPhoto Library (as I held the option key while opening iPhoto).
2. I then get the message: “The photo library needs to be upgraded to work with this version of iPhoto. Your photo library will not be readable by previous versions of iPhoto after the upgrade. The upgrade process may take several minutes depending on the number of photos in the library.” I clicked on the "Upgrade" button
3. My Mac then loaded/created ALL my previous albums and smart albums (including the most recent ones). It loaded pictures up to April 2005. BUT then, it prompted me with the following message : "5584 photos have been found in the iPhoto Library that are not a part of this photo library. Would you like to import them?". I was surprised to get this message, as I read that the upgrade should run smoothly.
4. I made two tests, following this prompt. First, I answered "YES". I ended with a 24.5 GB iPhoto Library (instead of my previous 12.64 GB library). Then, while repeating steps 2&3, I answered No. I then decided to import manually my missing pictures, and ended up with a 14,4 GB (surprisingly, I got events called originals that contained same pictures than other created events). I have repeated the steps 2 to 4 from a new user account, but got the same results.
5. None of these solutions are satisfactory as I had assigned keywords to my 5000+ photo. What is going wrong? Here is the content of my iPhoto Library (before conversion), if this is of any help:
In my iPhoto Library Oct 23, 2007:
folder 2000 Oct 18, 2007
folder 2004 Feb 13, 2005
folder 2005 Jan 29, 2006
folder 2006 Jan 7, 2007
folder 2007 Oct 23, 2007
AlbumData.xml Apr 17, 2005
folder Album Nov 11, 2007
Dir.data Apr 9, 2005
iPod Photo cache Nov 11, 2006
iPhoto.db Apr 17, 2005
Library.iPhoto Apr 9, 2005
Thumb32.data Apr 9, 2005
Thumb64.data Apr 9, 2005
ThumbJPG Apr 9, 2005
This library is an external-drive backup copy of my HD photo library (that no longer exists).
==> What to do next?
1. How to check if my keywords information is still present in my original iPhoto library? Is there any solution to get back my photo with their keywords?
2. Manage my iPhoto library with a smaller quantity of pictures, to ease backup and conversion. I have understood that iPhoto Libray Manager is a convenient free software to merge/de-merge libraries. Is that correct?
Thanks for your help,
Nicolas

NicoSou
This sounds to me like your v5 library is corrupted.
Try using the rebuild command from iPhoto Library Manager to recreate the library - it won't get everything, but should get albums and keywords. Read the iPhoto Library Manager Help for more details.
Regards
TD

Gets hung up on importing iphoto library

when i try to import my iphoto library aperture gets hung up and the photos do not appear in the aperture library

The conversion from Mail 1.x to Mail 2.x is broken. Even if Mail didn’t freeze while importing, there is no guarantee that it would import the old mailboxes successfully. Take a look at the following thread for an example:
Just upgraded, Most of my old Inbox is gone!
You could apply the procedure described there to the mailboxes that Mail appears to be choking on. Alternatively, you could move the entire account folder out of ~/Library/Mail/ (to the Desktop) and manually import its mailboxes afterwards as Other.

Is it possible to copy the iphoto library and albums from a G5 to a macpro

I would like to copy my iphoto library and albums from a G5 10.5.8 iphoto 8 to a macpro 10.6.2 with iphoto 9. I would like all the photos and albums to appear in the macpro just as they were in the G5. I have vantecs ezshare adapter that allows you to drag files between two computers mac or windows. Copying photos should not be a problem but its the albums I want to go with the photos and appear in iphoto 9 on the macpro.

iPhoto '09 will open and convert any previous version of the iphoto library - if it is working correctly on the old system it should convert
Firewire target mode is a good way to transfer the iPhoto library - make the connection and drag the entire iPhoto library at one intact as a single entity to the new computer (put it on the desktop or somewhere so as not to mess up what you have done - depress the option key and launch iPhoto on the new system and select the library you just copies (be sure not to select the one on the old computer - you do not want to convert it - conversion is a one way operation) - it should open and convert and be ready to use - then you can quit iPhoto and place it where you want and do the option launch again to tell iPhoto where it is - and do the option launch any time you want to switch between multiple libraries
LN

How to delete ALL photos in iPhoto Library that are NOT contained in albums

I would like to delete all those photos in the iPhoto Library which I have NOT assigned to an album. How do I do this efficiently?
And conversely: how do I delete from the Library ALL the photos that ARE contained in a specific album?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions or pointers (to one or to both questions).
Cheers,
Veit

Viet
I would like to delete all those photos in the iPhoto Library which I have NOT assigned to an album. How do I do this efficiently?
The easiest way is to put them into an album:
New Smart album ->
Album -> Is Not -> Any
This gathers them together into an album. Then it's the same answer as the second question...
And conversely: how do I delete from the Library ALL the photos that ARE contained in a specific album?
Select the Album. Then to delete them select the pics and hold down the *command (apple) and option (or alt)* keys and hit the delete button. This will put them in the trash. Then iPhoto menu -> Empty trash.
Regards
TD

I am having a problem when I try to select a photo or itunes song in Imovie or other programs. I get a window with grey lettering that says: "Open Itunes to populate this list" or "Open iphoto to see photos from your iPhoto library in this list. I have t

I am having a problem when I try to select a photo or itunes song in Imovie or other programs. I get a window with grey lettering that says: "Open Itunes to populate this list" or "Open iphoto to see photos from your iPhoto library in this list. I have tried relaunching programs and nothing appears. Seemed to start happening a while back after one of my system upgrades.

After a a lengthy conversation with Apple Tech. ($20), my problem seems to be solves. The Iphoto problem solved by trashing the plist file. The Itunes was more involved. We had to create a new Itunes folder and import the files into the new folder; and then import the playlists.

Aperture 3 VS. iPhoto Library management policies

Let me start this off with the fact that I am new to the whole Mac scene. I am used to the PC world of managing everything neatly in folders and subfolders inside My Pictures folder. In PC land I was using importing everything automaticaly with my Nikon software. I seriously miss its ability to lable my folders exactly as I wanted them. I could then use whatever software I needed to edit from simple stuff with my Nikon software suite, to Correl Draw, to Photoshop. Sonce everything was left in the same folders, "library managment" was much simpler. Manually going in and moving pictures around was easy. Before the switch to Apple, I spent many many hours researching and studying.
So I have been usign my new MacBook Pro exclusivly for about 6 months now and still can not get my libraries organized as effectivly as I would like. The whole lack of one central folder location, has me thrown off. Okay lets start with my questions. I have a pile of them, so my apologies in advance...
1) Can I use one library for both applications? I started off with iPhoto, then purchased Aperture 3 as soon as it was avalible. I see that deleting fluff in one does not currently correspond to the other program. When setting up Aperture, I imported my iPhoto library. It seems to me that it doubled the amount of space used for my photos...
2) From what I have read, I am lead to understand that iPhoto is less of a space hog. It saved layers of edits over the pictures, while Aperture 3 saves each as a new photo. All done seamlessly behind the scenes. Is this correct?
3) When I imported the iPhoto library to Aperture, it forgot all my faces I had named. Yes I have Aperture setup to see the faces thing... I think.   Can I fix this simply without going through the whole naming process again?
4) Can I "manually" import/export the librarys simply by dropping them to the desktop, and renaming them then dropping them back in the picutres folder?
I would like to really consolidate and trim down the space being used. I have over 100 gigs of photos per library and that is being VERY choosy about what I save. All my professional work I shoot in RAW. As for the two programs, I see no real reason to keep iPhoto, as it seems all the other software programs like mail and iWork integrate just as well with Aperture.
5) How do I set a high quality desktop image from my own librarys? This is super frustrating!!! The only way I can seem to get high resolution pictures reliably, is if I can figure out how to open it in Safari, then set as a desktop.    Sometimes using system preferances it will work, but mostly I get really low resolution shots that look like maybe they are blown up preview or thumbnail images. Even delibertly using the same shot and trying to find it in the multiple locations I find, I can't seem to duplicate a process that gets me a clean shot via System Preferances. It seems that the iPhoto versions are higher quality.
I have gigs woth of personal shots I would love to browse through and use, but everytime it is a huge headache to do so.... I think most of my issues here are in understandign how to navigate the pictures in the Mac OS X. I think ideally I would like to dump iPhoto and stick to just Aperture. Mostly, I am loving the way all the programs in OS X seem to integrate and work together. Just having some serious stumbling blocks with the photography apects, and that was the primary reason I switched to a Mac.
6) So will the rest of the software like iMovie, iWeb, Mail, and Garage Band work as well with Aperture as iPhoto?
I need to sort out all the above issues and decide what direction to go and how to go about rebuilding my libraries. I have gigs worth of older family shots, downloaded images, freinds photography, and other random images I would like to keep seperated from my professional work. Aperture is without a dought a much better program for my professional, and daily use. I am just having issues accessign my work directly like I used to do on the PC no matter what program on the Mac I am working with.

I'll try to help you out a bit more:
First I'd recommend a post here by Kirby Krieger
This will get you on par with Aperture workflow and nomenclature. I can only reccomend you a good book if you're able to understand Dutch ;-) And BTW a book or manual is easier to pause then a video ;-)
The Well-trod Path. Walk it unless you have a map for a different route.
The Library is your image database. It contains all the information Aperture has about your images: where they are stored on your computer/drives/network, how you have them organized within Aperture, what adjustments you have made to them, all the pre-Aperture metadata (EXIF, IPTC, keywords, etc.) they had before you imported them into Aperture, and all the Aperture metadata (Version names, ratings, color labels, Stacks, additional keywords, etc.) you assign to them from within Aperture. The Library also contains small copies of each image (in effect, thumbnails, but in Aperture larger than actual thumbnails and called "Previews").
The image is the core record in your Aperture database. The database is a giant list of images with a whole bunch of information assigned to each image.
Within Aperture you can view individual images and any grouping of images. You can create a group based on any of the information you have about your images.
The Project is your primary image holder. It has a unique, privileged relationship with your images: Every image must be in a Project; No image can be in more than one Project. You should make a Project from every actual, out-in-the-world photo shoot that you do. Shoot=Project. Stick to this (the mis-naming of "Project" is one of the worst interface decisions made in Aperture).
You will regularly want to view your images in groups other than the Project in which they reside. Aperture provides several specific containers for this (as well as superb tools for creating ad hoc groupings). As a family, those containers are Albums. Aperture includes (regular) Albums, Smart Albums, and the following albums dedicated to special tasks: Book, Light Table, Slide Show, Web Journal, Web Page. Any image can be in any album, and can be in as many albums as you want.
As your Aperture database grows, you will want to organize your Projects and Albums. Aperture provides Folders to aid you. Folders hold groups of Projects, Albums, and other Folders. Folders cannot contain images which are not in a Project or Album: You do not put images in Folders; you put containers in Folders.
The organization of your image database is entirely for you to customize for your needs.
There are two additional pieces of the Aperture puzzle every new user needs to understand in order to make good use of it.
In additional to what I listed above, your Library may or may not contain your original image files. Each image in Aperture has an original. Aperture is non-destructive -- your original image files are never altered. If the original image file is contained within your Library, it is called a Managed Master (Aperture's pointer to this file, and the file itself, are both inside the Library). If the original image file is not contained within your Library, it is called a Referenced Master (the pointer in your Aperture Library points to a file outside your Aperture Library). Referenced Masters bring some important advantages -- but the new user of Aperture can rely on Managed Masters until the need for Referenced Masters arises. Aperture makes is easy to convert your original image files back and forth from Managed to Referenced.
A Version is the name given to the variants and copies you make of you original image within Aperture. You use Aperture's tools to make Adjustments to images. Each group of adjustments you make to one image is saved as a Version. You can (and should) create as many Versions as you need. Versions appear as images, but are simply text instructions which tell Aperture what Adjustments to make to the original image file. Aperture presents these to you on-the-fly. This is brilliant. It means that Versions are minuscule compared to Masters. The gain in storage and computational efficiency is enormous.
This also means that your images in Aperture do not exist as image format files. In order to create an image format file, you must export the image from within Aperture. There is no reason to do this until you need an image format file outside of Aperture.
Aperture, then, is best understood as a workspace for
   storing
    organizing
    adjusting
    preparing for publication, and
    publishing
digital photographs.
Your workflow is
    shoot
    import as Project(s)
    add image-specific metadata
    organize into Albums, organize Albums and Projects with Folders
    make adjustments to images (crop, rotate, change exposure, etc. etc. etc)
    prepare for publication
    publish.
If you still need to synchronize between computers (which or NOT running Aperture) you could still be using your old folder structure. Import then from the _raw folder, organize and manage them in Aperture and use relocate masters to move them to the correct position. In Aperture you could setup a Project per shoot, and then (Smart)albums in that project for what used to be subfolders when you where working on Windows. For synchronizing between Aperture using computers it best to copy libraries. (You can export a project as a new library as well)
Then for other RAW converters, take a look at why people recommend CaptureNX. It's mostly because of initial conversion. That is because CapertureNX is able to read in camera settings whereas other converters cannot. For some Nikon's color rendering in Aperture might be a bit of, but you can correct that while developing. Personally I had only one occasion where I wanted to edit in ACR instead of Aperture. (Because I needed a gradient adjustment and Aperture at that time did not have brushes yet) As you mentioned yourself already, one converter is usually the best choice. Pick one that suits you and stick with it.
For HDR, there are some plugins for that, otherwise export to 16-bit TIFF (which is essentially RAW), do the HDR in PS and import back again. Not that big-a-deal.
For there rest, when you encounter some problems anywhere on the Mac, think of the easiest solution you can imagine, that usually how it works on the Mac. That why you hardly ever have to leave your Aperture interface while organizing your photo's.

Moving iPhoto library to Adobe Bridge?

I have a 15GB photo library in iPhoto. Although I like the simplicity of iPhoto for viewing photos, I find the editing facilities too limiting - and the RAW conversion done by iPhoto on import makes a lot of the photos look awful compared to Photoshop.
I have tried using the Adobe Bridge software that comes with Photoshop CS2, and it seems it could be used as a replacement for iPhoto. However, with my libarary currently scattered amonst hundreds of sub-folders in iPhoto. I have not found this organisation suitable to view in Bridge, and if I export my photos from my iPhoto library I'm not sure what the best way to organise them is.
I've also spent a lot of time going through some older photos (from 35mm scanned onto CD at the time of processing) and changing the dates etc so they display in the correct order (holiday photos) and I'm suspecting that this would be lost if I moved the photos out of iPhoto.
Has anybody else been in a similar position, and worked out a good way of managing their photo library? I would quite like to keep the iPhoto library, but unfortunately my main problems are 1) poor quality RAW conversions 2) if I tell iPhoto that I want to edit in Photoshop, it opens the jpg created by iPhoto rather than letting Photoshop do a conversion itself from the RAW file.

I can't help you regarding Adobe Bridge but I've worked out a workflow for moving from iPhoto to iView Media pro. You might use that, using iView in demo mode, to get the files into separate folder with annotations and then use AB to take over at that point. Here's the workflow in case you're interested: iPhoto to iView MediaPro Workflow.

IPhoto Library in a mess....how to organize?

Hi,
I have been putting this off for a couple of years, time to deal with the mess. I have the latest iPhoto 6.0.2, what I need to do is clean out all the doubles, triples and misfiled photos. I have "Modified" "Originals" and I believe they are misfiled. In my Source list I have 17.02GB on the disk, on the "Originals" file I have 8.06 and the "Modified" comes in at 7.71GB.
Pictures>iPhoto Library
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
AlbumData.xml
Data
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Dir.data
Import
iPhoto.ipspot
iPhotoLock.data
iPod Photo Cache
Library.data
Library.iPhoto
Library6.iPhoto
Modified
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Originals
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Thumb32Segment.data
Thumb64Segment.data
ThumbJPGSegment.data
Does all this seem right? Is there a better, cleaner way to organize it all?
I wonder if simply deleating everything other than the originals might clean things up? Everyone has a pack-rat iPhoto problem, only limited my HD space. Deal with it later, later has come.
Thanks for the help, S.

ShakuZen:
It appears you're conversion to V6 possibly did not include all of the originals.
You're iPhoto library folder should look like this. Those year folders outside of the Originals, Modified and Data folders were left over from iPhoto 5. You can move them to the desktop and check to see if they contain any full sized image files. If so then you can assemble them in a new folder and import to get your library back to include all of your photos.
Duplicate Annihilator can cull out duplicates in an iPhoto 6 library (but not those in the carryover folders if there are duplicates in them).
G5 Dual Core 2GHz, 2G RAM, 22 Display, 250G HD, 200G FW HD, QT 7.0.4P Mac OS X (10.4.6) Canon S400, i850 & LIDE 50, Epson R200, 2G Nano

Conversion from iPhoto (oh, not again)

Before asking my question let me start by thanking all the regular contributors to the Aperture forum, and in particular Terence Devlin, Kirby Krieger and Frank Caggiano. Your posts have been more valuable to me than any book I bought or any course I followed on Aperture.
Just as a background: both me and my wife are avid photographers, but no professionals. We've been using iPhoto until now, but decided to change to Aperture. Over the last months we've worked over the APTS training book, played with Aperture, read up a lot on forums and now we believe we're ready to switch.
I have a few questions on iPhoto import, RAW conversion and workflow. I intend to post them post them one by one over the coming weeks. I'm not so much looking for solutions to problems, but more about your opinions on the best way to follow based on you experiences.
My first question is on iPhoto import. I understand all the technicalities but I'm looking for your recommendations on what approach to take for the following situation:
- We both have separate iPhoto libraries, each around 5.000 images, although around 80% of the images are the same.
- 50% of the images are high-quality JPEGs, 30% Nikon RAW, 20% scanned TIFFs.
- Around 20% of these images, in general the JPEGs, have been edited in iPhoto, mainly red eye correction, cropping, faces and places. Almost all the editing has been done in a single library.
- Images are organized using iPhoto events (which are named identically across the two libraries).
- Within iPhoto the images have been renamed using the Event names.
What I would like to to achieve:
- Consolidate our 2 iPhoto libraries into a single Aperture library and get rid completely of the iPhoto libraries.
- Keep the highest quality version of every image. If this means iPhoto edits and metadata are lost, so be it. If these can be maintained, nice.
- Avoid having to go through an endless process of de-duplication.
My gut feeling says to consolidate the two libraries in iPhoto and after that move the whole library to Aperture. What do you think?
Many thanks,
Eric

The only way to consolidate the two libraries in iPhoto is with the Paid version of iPhoto Library Manager ($20)
This process can be set to void duplicates, so you end up with a single iPhoto Library and no dupes.
The dialogue for importing an Aperture Library has a setting to avoid duplicates, but I'm not sure if it will recognise MyiPhotoLibrary_Pic1 as a dupe of YouriPhotoLibrary_Pic1 - but it's worth a try. If it goes pear shaped just trash the Library and start over.
Finding edited versions from iPhoto is really easy: they're tagged 'iPhoto Edited' so you can find and trash them with a simple smart album.
Regards
TD

Iphoto 9.5 won't import photos from iPhoto 7.5. Library will not update using the iPhoto library upgraded application.

iphoto 9.5 won't import photos from iPhoto 7.5. Library will not update using the iPhoto library upgrader application. Repeatedly says it can't locate photos even when told to cancel. I think the photos in question are in Nikon RAW format.

iPhoto 9.5 immediately tries to "upgrade" my library using the upgrader.
iPhoto 9.5 asks you to run the upgrader to prepare the library for 9.5. It then will update the library to its format.
You need to do the following:
1 - go to your Applications/Utilities folder and double click on the iPhoto Library Upgrader 1.1 application.
2 - select Choose Library, navigate to your iPhoto library, select it and let the upgrader do its thing.
3 - launch iPhoto 9.5 to open and finish the conversion of the library.
OT

Photos did not import iPhotos library

When I first launched Photos it did not import my old iPhotos library. How do I get Photos to import the old iPhotos library, there does not appear to be an option to do so. I can hold down the option button and launch Photos and choose the old iPhotos library but it just opens it and does not import it into the main new Photos library.

Ok, here is what I had to do.
open Photos while holding the Option key
select the old iPhotos library, Photos will now do it's conversion
after converting close Photos (this step may not be needed, but it's what I did)
open Photos, making sure it's using the just converted library (you can rename the library if you want to in Finder)
select Preferences->General->Use as System Photo Library
Everything seems to be ok now.

Updating an iphoto library

I just purchased a new iMac and I'm trying to move my iPhoto 2 Library into the iPhoto '08. I copy over the library and it tells me I need to update it. The blue progression bar pops up and it looks like its working for a couple seconds and then stops moving. I thought maybe it just takes a long time and let it work overnight, but nothing.
I've searched the threads and have tried everything, including the BatChmod thing, but end up with the same result.
Any suggestions? Thanks.

kretzcr:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. First see this Apple KB doucment about the new iMacs: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306305. It might have a bearing on the conversion.
Do you still have the iPhoto 2 application and its library on the other Mac? If so, open it with V2 and make sure you have no unusual characters in keywords or albums, i.e. &, !, etc. Also do a rebuild of the library with V2. Then copy the rebuild library folder into the Pictures folder of the new iMac and run BatChmod on it as you did before. This is to assure all of the files are properly accessible to the new owner. Then launch iPhoto 7.0.2 and give it another go.
Do you Twango?
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 written 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. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

Conversion of iPhoto Library : 2.x to 6.x

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