Dragging out of iPhoto library

I've heard that opening the iPhoto library from the finder is a bad thing. Especially moving stuff around. If I want quick access to a file in that folder, will it hurt (or possibly hurt) to option - drag the file to the desktop, so that I'm not actually moving it but just making a copy?

No, but why don't you just click and drag the thumbnail in iPHoto to the Desktop. That makes a copy of it on the desktop and is much quicker.
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

External editor getting error window when trying to load photo in iphoto yet I can drag out of iphoto to the desktop then load right into photoshop with no errors

I use Photoshop elements 9 to edit , since the last up-date when I'm in iPhoto and click edit in external editor when photoshop opens it sits there a minute and and then a error window comes up saying something about an unvalead jpeg marker can't open but I came drag the image out of iPhoto to the desktop and then open it with photoshop with no trouble ? help I'm running 10.6.7 on a 2007 mac pro iPhoto 11 Ver. 9.1.3

There's a bug in iPhoto 9.1.3 when using Photoshop as the external editor when trying to edit a tif, png or psd file. That's because iPhoto is just duplicating that file and changing the extension to jpg without acutally changing the photo's format. That's why PS says it's an unknown format.
No know solution at this time except edit only jpgs and raw files in iPhoto with Photoshop. Also send a bug report to Apple via http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphoto.html.
OT

Thinning out my iPhoto Library

I am looking to thin out my iLife 9 iPhoto Library, by a combination of archiving to DVD for old projects, and trashing photos that I no longer need at all. The easiest way for me to do this is album by album. However, if I delete something from an album, it is still in my Library.
Is there a way to super-delete something from an album, so that it also gets deleted from the Library?
I have thought about renaming photos I no longer need as Trash, and then doing a search in the Library for all photos containing the name "trash". I am hoping there is a simpler way to do this.

When in an album you can do a Command-Option delete to delete the photo from the library - not just the album
You also can "flag" photos and find them that way easily
LN

I wiped out my iphoto library....is there hope?

when cleaning up some photos in pictures i used control a to get rid of the whole bunch. i wondered what took so long as the photos were put in the trash. well, then i distractedly hit the empty trash for good. is there any hope? luckily i have back up discs of some of the old stuff, thanks, in advance.
sue

Susan,
If you put everything in the trash and then emptied the trash they are gone.
Your hope is data recovery software and only if you don't use the computer and let it overwrite the files.
Search Google or Discussions for such software.

IPhoto Library accidentally put in the trash

My husband somehow accidentally put our iphoto library in the trash --don't ask, somehow it happened. The good news is that we haven't emptied the trash so the photos are still there, but I need to know where to move them. We had been getting this message: "Your iPhoto Library was not found. Do you want to find your library? iPhoto can't continue without Photo Library. Make sure disk containing your Photo Library is connected." It gave us the options of 'creating library', 'choosing library' or 'quit.' We just figured out that it was in the trash so now my question is where do we move the library to? I don't want to select 'choose library' and then have it retrieve from the trash since once day we will empty the trash. Where does the library belong? I'm not that computer savvy but I am a devoted iphoto user. Please let me know what's the best way to do this. Thank you very much.

hi flip,
Drag the entire iPhoto Library folder out of the trash and drag it in into your users Picture folder. Launch iPhoto and it should open the library just like nothing ever happened.
Lori

Restore saved iPhoto library after hard drive repair

My hard drive crashed and Apple were kind enough to repair it although it happened 1 week after the extended warranty expired. I was able to save the hard drive files to an external drive just before it died, but now when I try and import the iPhoto library back into the newly repaired computer one of 2 things happen: The photos begin to transfer and then the application (iPhoto) unexpectedly quits, or, the blue bar at the bottom says Working and nothing happens for as long as 10 minutes.
I would really appreciate some help as I no longer have covered support. One of the photo text files may be corrupted. How do I identify the problem file?
Thanks very much,
Colin Sieff

That's because importing from another iPhoto Library folder isn't the way to restore an iPhoto Library. I'm surprised you were able to do it without a bunch of warning dialogs.
If you still have the original iPhoto Library folder intact, the thing to do is restore it as I've described earlier. If you have sufficient disk space, quit iPhoto and drag the existing iPhoto Library folder from Pictures to the desktop. Then drag your backup iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, and the only thing left to do is to start iPhoto. If all's well, move the desktop copy of the iPhoto Library folder to the trash, then empty the trash.

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 can I move itunes/iphoto library from SSD to HD on my new imac?

I have a lovely new imac with the SSD option. My old comps' boot disk was migrated to the SSD because it is the boot disk for the new computer. This is great and speedy but now I'd like to move my huge itunes and iphoto libraries from the SSD to the 2TB HD. I would rather not move the whole 'home' folder. I would appreciate if anyone could tell me how to do this.
with thanks in advance, nedro
Message was edited by: nedro
Message was edited by: nedro

Go to ~/Music/iTunes and drag & drop the iTunes Media folder to your HDD. It will not actually be moved, it will be copied. Depending on its size this can take a few minutes. When the copying is finished open iTunes and go to Preferences/Advanced. The first area is +iTunes Media folder location+. Click the Change button, browse to the location of your iTunes Media folder on the HDD and press Choose.
Quit iTunes. Then drag only the iTunes Media folder from the SSD to the Trash and empty. When you restart iTunes it will be using the media folder from it new location.
To move the iPhoto library, quit iPhoto. Got to ~/pictures and drag & drop the iPhoto Library to the HDD. It will be copied to the HDD. Drag the library on the SSD to the Trash and empty. Open iPhoto, follow the dialog in the window that appears to locate and choose your iPhoto Libray on the HDD.
Dah•veed

Installed New Hard Drive and moved iPhoto library manually to new HD

I dragged my old iphoto library to new hd but when i opened it up i have a ton of duplicate photos and events dont seem to be in order? Any help with restoring iphoto events to their old self is greatly appreciated!

Your "Firefox personal data", like bookmarks, are stored in your Profile folder in Firefox. See this support article about how to recover that data from that old hard drive and transfer it your your new Profile.
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Recovering+important+data+from+an+old+profile

Trying to restore photos from external drive and realized TimeMachine had been turned off. Found in Imac backup folder in iPhoto library a modified folder with many of the missing pics. Can I restore these?

I recently had a hard drive crash on my iMac. After replacing the drive, I discovered that TimeMachine had apparently been turned off for six months, and all my photos from that period were missing after the restore. In looking on the external drive used by TimeMachine, I discovered a folder called Imac backup, and under iPhoto Library was a folder called Originals and subfolders for each year. To my surprise, there were photos covering the missing time period! Somehow I imported the 2011 folder from the external drive into iPhoto, and then I discovered they were small files of less than 100 KB each, not the 1-2 MB original photos. So now all of 2011 is screwed up, not just from May on. These photos also include faces pulled from many larger group photos.
I can get Jan - April restored using TimeMachine. But in continuing to explore the Imac backup folder, I found a similar folder in iPhoto Library called Modified. This folder has many of the missing photos in their original MB size in folders indexed by date for the missing period after April. Is there a way that I can get these modified photos back onto my new hard drive and into the iPhoto library without causing more damage? If TimeMachine was turned off after April, how did those modified photos and all those small images from the missing period find their way to the external drive?
Any wisdom greatly appreciated.

What you want to do is merge the two Libraries? The only way to do this is to use the paid ($20) version of iPhoto Library Manager
I created a new iPhoto Library on the iMac and dragged the entire iPhoto Library from the MacBook into that new Library. It worked, however it all came over into one big album and my previous album structure was gone
Never import one Library to another. Every version and thumbnail is imported like a distinct photo, you lose all your Albums, Keywords etc., the link between Original and Previews is destroyed, the non-destructive editing feature is ruined and so on. In summary: it's mess.
Regards
TD

How do i copy my iPhoto library to EHD for a back up?

I know this has been asked before but I forget the specifics, i will save it this time.
My question is do I drag the whole iphoto library folder ? (to the EHD) or just the iphoto library icon within the folder?
I remember I accidently moved the whole library to my EDH one time and i do not want that to happen again.
I just want a secondary back up.
thanks

Yes. Drag the entire iPhoto Library package or folder from your Pictures folder to the EHD.
If you're looling for a backup then use the EHD for Time Machine. That will backup your entire boot drive on an hourly basis to the EHD giving you a current backup at all times. You will have to reformat the EHD to use it with Time Machine. If you have files on the EHD that only exist on the EHD you'll need to either get another EHD for your Time Machine or move them back to your boot drive before reformatting the EHD.
More info on Time Machine can be found here: Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions
OT

Can't drag out some pics

I'm trying to get a few pics out into a folder on my desktop. I'm dragging them out and all's going well, but all of a sudden, there are a few random pics that won't go out. When I try to drag them out, I get the little circle with a line through it next to my icon. Why on earth would there be some images in my iPhoto that I can't drag out of iPhoto???
Thanks,
Dan P.

When I select "Show File" it takes me to the modified folder for that event, but the file is NOT there. When I select "Show Original" it takes me to the actual file in the originals folder.
It appears that a LOT of my modified files (modified only because of the camera's auto rotation I believe, not due to anything I did) are gone.
I tried choosing "Revert to Original", but that appears to have no effect, since after doing so, the menu still has the options "Show File" and "Show Original". I tried simply copying the original over to the modified folder and that appears to work, but have been told I should never manually move files around in those folders.
This is VERY frustrating, I don't know what to do. I just tried to export a picasa web album, and it won't let me because it's looking for modified files that aren't there.
Any further input appreciated.
Thanks,
Dan P.

Transferring iPhoto Library to External Drive/Time Machine

Hi LarryHN and Terrence Devlin (and any others who can answer my questions);
I have successfully transferred my iPhoto Library for the first time to an new external drive (thank you LarryHN and Terrence Devlin for your awesome threads). Would I be able to do this again when my iPhoto Library on my laptop requires another transer without changing the first transfer?
However, another part of LarryHN's thread is that the iPhoto Library transfer to an external drive is not a back up, why is it not considered a back up? I am trying to utilize Time Machine (also for the first time) but they are recommending I use an external drive with nothing on it (as they would be wiped out). Luckily I haven't wiped out my iPhoto Library on my laptop and am willing to re-do that after I set up Time Machine.
I appreciate your recommendations!

If you're running the library on the EHD as your working library then it's not a backup, it's your working copy.
To have a backup you must have two copies of the the working library on different hard drive. so to use Time Machine you need a dedicated HD just for it. When set up TM will backup your MB Air hard drive and any other EHD connected to it.
If you need to run your library from an EHD because your MBA doesn't have enought room and you want to use TM to backup your files including the iPhoto Library you'll need to have 2 EHDs.
So where do you want to run the library: on your MBA or on the EHD?
If you intend to run the library on your MBA make sure it's up to date and then reformat the EHD as OS X Extended (journaled) with Disk Utility. Connect it to the MBA and launch TM. It will ask if you want to use that drive for you backup and click yes. From there it's automatic. The first backup will take a while so have your MBA plugged in to a power outlet and let TM do it's thing.
This website has the best information on TM available: Apple OSX and Time Machine Tips
An alternate solution would be to use a backup application that can make incremental backups like Synk Pro. It will copy only those new or modified files from your working library to the backup copy on the EHD. I use it and have it configured to do the copy as soon as I quit out of iPhoto to keep the writing to disk at a minimum. Synk Pro will backup any selected file or folder you select so it doesn't have to be the entire hard drive if you don't want it. Personally I think TM would be a better solution for you as it will backup other files that may be important to you, i.e. music, documents, movies, etc.
OT

Exporting iPhoto Library files to external HD

I'm running out of HD space on my MBPro. Exported large number of files from Library, which includes a lot of Nikon NEF files (RAW); however, my MBPro 150 GB HD, shows little change. I looked in Pictures/iPhoto Library, right-clicking on iPhoto Library to expose contents, and see the NEF files are still there.
What is best way of transferring all files out of iPhoto Library to an external drive?
Thanks

If you want a way to maintain the keywords, titles and comments on those photos and be abel to get them back into iPhoto easily put the photos you want to move into an album or a single event, select the album or event and use the Share->Burn menu option.
This will create a mini library on disk that can be mounted in iPhoto to view the photos and, if needed, copy them back into the library.
Or you can create a second library on the external HT and copy the photos (either in an album or event) to it from the working library with iPhoto Library Manager (which will maintain the keywords, titles, comments, etc.) and then delete the photos from the working library.
Happy New Year
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) 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 or later), 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 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. Just put the application in the Dock and click on it whenever you want to backup the dB file. 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.
Note: There's now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

How to copy iPhoto library to my new Macbook?

I did a search and found some related topics that helped, but I wanted to make sure I got some more detail on this, as it seems to be a bit more complicated than I thought:
I recently purchased a MacBook Pro, and need to copy my iPhoto library from our iMac to the Pro. So, here's what I did, which apparently is not correct:
I have a backup of the iPhoto library on an external hard drive, where I simply copy the iPhoto Library folder periodically.
So, I simply connected my MacBook to that external, and selected the folders I wanted to import, and clicked on "Import to Library."
I believe what I ended up with is essentially all the thumbnails on the new library - all the images are there, but at a low resolution, and I don't seem to have the actual picture files anywhere.
From my research here, it sounds like I need to actually copy the iPhoto library from the iMac (or external hard drive) onto my MacBook, and then open them up with iPhoto.
First, is that correct?
And second, how do I delete the thumbnails that are already on my library, since I don't actually see any files? Under iPhoto library in my Finder, there is simply an iPhoto Library "icon."
Thanks for any help,
Bruce

Connect the External Hard Drive to your new computer, quit iPhoto, drag the iPhoto library from the pictures folder to the trash (empty it later after you are all done), drag the entire iPhoto library as a single entity from the EHD to the pictures folder on your new MacBook and launch iPhoto - it will find the iPhoto library you just put in the pictures folder, convert it if needed and you will have on the MB exactly what you had before on the iMac
LN

Dragging out of iPhoto library

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for