Exporting photos and metadat from iPhoto '09 to Lightroom 3

After several years managing 110K+ photos and movies in iPhoto, I am reluctantly considering moving to Adobe Lightroom. I paid $200 for Aperture, but the most recent releases of both Aperture and iPhoto are so buggy that I'm not upgrading. I was very sad to reach this conclusion.
I am seriously considering moving to Adobe Lightroom for its power, stability, and availability on much cheaper PC hardware. Does anyone know of a way to export everything I've done in iPhoto (including hundreds of hours of tagging and photo editing) to Lightroom? I've spent a couple of hours reading forums and haven't seen anything (instructions or app) that will do the job.
I really wish Apple had nailed Aperture since I'm now needing it's photo editing power together with iPhoto's excellent organization capabilities. This was the promise of Aperture 3. Now I just feel dumb for spending the $200 (since the app is both buggy and available for $80 in the app store).
I would deeply appreciate any advice on the transition to Lightroom 3 from iPhoto '09... and I will always be an Apple fan.

Terence,
You rock for posting such a quick reply so late at night. Thank you!
I forgot about those checkboxes. Excellent point. Thanks for the description heads up. I'm fine losing the faces info (esp. since LR3 doesn't offer it as you said). It's the keywords and titles that I've spent 100's of hours on
Have you tried importing to LR with exported metadata? Did it work end to end for you? I'll check out iPhoto to Disk in depth.
I would like to keep my originals and the modified versions. Do you know of any way to avoid doubling the item count in my library to nearly a quarter of a million? I am hoping to avoid having an original and modified version of each file. I actually suffered that once through an iPhoto issue a couple of years ago and hope not to repeat.
To add more context to my Aperture and iPhoto '11 comments, the iPhoto '11 comments are purely a reflection of what I've read in hours of forum reading and not my direct experience. On Aperture, my experiences are actually limited -- focusing solely on importing a huge iPhoto library to Aperture. I spent tens of hours over several weeks trying to migrate and simply failed. The memory leaks got me time and again, no matter how I reconfigured the import (for example by splitting 110K photos into approx 50 individual imports). I should've called out that once (partially) imported, everything seemed to be faster and smoother in Aperture than in iPhoto. Thanks for the call out.
Guy

Similar Messages

How do you export photos and movies from iPhoto to your iPhone? I synced the device and noticed that some photos and some movies from iPhoto on my laptop were not transferred to my iPhone.

How do you export photos and movies from iPhoto to your iPhone? I synced the devices and noticed that some photos and movies on my laptop iPhoto were not transferred to my iPhone?

I am not sure, which answer you found - so just in case:
If you sync your iPhone with the iPhoto library, the photos will only stay on the iPhone until the next sync and they are not in the Camera Roll. If you transfer using the Photo Stream, they will only be vidsible in the stream, until they are replaced in iCloud by newer content.
So, if you want to transfer the photos permanently, save them to the Camera Roll.

How can I remove all photos and directories from iPhoto?

How can I remove all photos and directories from iPhoto as if it was a brand new install?
I am new to iPhoto and was unaware of how it works, honestly I still am a little confused as to when pics I am using 1/2 the time, some from iPhoto and some from MyPics.
Anyhow, I am looking to remove all photos from iPhoto because during the migration of all my photos from PC to MAC, somehow my timeline became messed up and all my photos that have been logged my dates since 1998 are now all messed up.
Although all my year folders are still in tact, IE 1998-2006, the subfolders and like pics are all intertwined somehow.
And when I search iPhoto for a given year, photos from 2,4, 8 yrs back show up in 2006.
Anyhow, I have selected and deleted all photos and folders within iPhoto, and then import the desired photos from MyPics, only to have the photos double up in the library. ( The old ones that should be deleted and the new imports)
I simply don't get it, they fill the trash and disappear when it's emptied, then reappear when iPhoto re-opens!
Can someone help????
I have completely reworked all my photos so that they are all in the correct folders outside of iPhoto, and now I want to import those and only those pics with that file structure.
IE Structure = YEAR > MONTH > DAY ( or if needed) > DAY/EVENT

Do you want to remove the existing full sized image files also? If so then just drag the iPhoto Library folder from the Pictures folder to the Trash and empty it. But be warned you'll lose all of your image files.
You are dragging the files to the iPhoto Trash bin and then using the iPhoto->Empty Trash menu, right?
In copying your photos to myspace and then back the original capture date may not be retained and then either the created date or modified date will be used by iPhoto. If the files in the current library are the originals from your camera then those have the best chance of retaining the correct Captured Date. You can check that out by dragging the Originals folder from your iPhoto Library folder to the desktop and then trash what remains of the iPhoto Library folder. Then launch iPhoto and it will ask you to create an new library. Then import that Originals folder and it's subfolders by dragging it into iPhoto's open window. You'll keep the same rolls that was. The roll dates may change but you can check the captured date of the files by using the calendar in the Source pane.
You won't be able to keep your folder structure within iPhoto. Each outside folder will result in a roll with the same title as the folder. You'll be able to create folders in the Source pane to put albums inside. You can create a smart album to include all photos in a certain date range, line one month.
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.
G5 Dual Core 2GHz, 2G RAM, 250G HD; G4 Dual 1Ghz, 1.5G RAM, 80G HD, Mac OS X (10.4.7) 22 LCD Display, 200G & 160G FW HDs, Canon S400, i850 & LIDE 50, Epson R200

I moved all my photos and videos from iPhoto to external hard drive and now can't play any videos. Please help!!!

I moved all my photos and videos from iPhoto to external hard drive, then totaly formated my macbook and now trying to play videos of external hard drive, but they wont play and they in "quicktime containers" and really small in size (50 - 150 Kb). Please Help!!! My misuse will kill me if find out that we have no more videos from our honeymoon...

I moved all my photos and videos from iPhoto to external hard drive, then totaly formated my macbook and now trying to play videos of external hard drive, but they wont play and they in "quicktime containers" and really small in size (50 - 150 Kb). Please Help!!! My misuse will kill me if find out that we have no more videos from our honeymoon...
You may need to prepare yourself for a "World of Hurt" from your wife...
Since the average 0.9 megapixel JPEG photo file of normal graphic complexity stored at a high quality compression setting is 125-135 KBs in size, I would have to assume any QT video files you created of more than a fraction of a second in duration were most likely saved as "reference" files to only be 50-150 KBs. Basically, a reference file is q QT (MOV) file that tells a video player how to play data that is still stored in its original source file container(s). For instance, you could trim and merge a number of files together and save the result as a "reference" file that takes up very little room on your hard drive. Or, you could post fles to a server and create a "reference" file that is small enough to be sent as an email attachment that plays the uploaded data on someone else's computer as long as they are connected to the Internet. Unfortunately, for these reference files to work, all of the resources referenced within the file must continue to exist in their proper locations in order to be found and played by the reference. Since you did not indicate what "but they won't play" really means here or how you actually "moved" your iPhoto library files to the external drive, I can only make some "educated guesses" at this point. (BTW: for future reference, iPhoto has a built-in function that allows you to copy your library to one or more back-up locations and then connect to them by default when iPhoto opens or switch source libraries at will within the opened application.)
If you created reference files and saved them to an external drive, you should be getting an error message telling you the app needs to know where the source files are located so the reference file can re-connect to the resource data. If the original files were also saved, then simple navigate to the source files in oder to tell the app where they are now located. If the source files were deleted as part of the reformatting process, then you are up the proverbial creek whithout a paddle with little or no hope of doing anything about this issue. (I.e., reformatting and then re-installing a system drive usually means you would have little hope of recovering the specific "lost" data you want as there is always a good chance that some of the data segments were overwritten during the process.)

How to Export photos and videos from Mac to iPhone?

Hi everyone,
I was trying to export a video from my Macbook Pro (Mid 2014) running latest version of OS X to my iPhone 5 (running iOS 8). I have tried everything in iTunes and iPhotos to be able to export Photos and videos to 'Photos' icon in my iPhone, but haven't got success so far. It's easy to do in a windows computer just copy and paste but I don't know how to do it in a Mac...
Could anyone here help me with that??
Thanks

running latest version of OS X
Is that MacOS X 10.9.5, or have you upgraded to a Beta version?
I have tried everything in iTunes and iPhotos to be able to export Photos and videos to 'Photos' icon in my iPhone, but haven't got success so far.
What are your settings on your iPhone for iCloud? Have you enabled iCloud Drive and iCloud Photo Library?
Then you are out of luck. With these settings, syncing of photos with your iPhone is disabled, so you can no longer sync with iTunes.
And the Photo Stream is behaving buggy and will not sync from your Mac to the iPhone.
Try, if disabling these settings and restarting the iPhone will help.
Otherwise, mail the photos or put them into Dropbox, until you can upgrade to Yosemite and iCloud Photo Library on your Mac.

Permanently Deleting Photos and Folders from iPhoto

I just purchased my first iMac on April 2, 2008 and simply love it. Goodbye Windows. WooHoo...
OK, now for my question. I am a semi-professional photographer that commonly takes about 500-1,000 photos during any given photo shoot. Normally (on Windows with Adobe Photoshop), I would load all 1,000 photos into my Adobe Catalog and review them. After a few days of edits and review, I may only want to keep the best 50-100 photos and I delete the others. But when I use iPhoto, even if I delete the 900 extra photos from my Library, they still sit in the iPhoto Library folders and take up space. I have opened the iPhoto Library Package and can see the Data, Modified and Original folders with all of the unwanted files, but I was advised by Apple Support to NEVER delete or remove files by opening the iPhoto "Package".
Is there any way to physically remove the unwanted photos from iPhoto once they are in my iPhoto Library, or do I need to edit and review them outside of iPhoto before I load them into the iPhoto Library which seems to be a permanent thing?
This is a common process for photographers who take a lot of photos. It's nice to be able to review and edit them before deciding on the best ones to keep. Surely there must be an option from within iPhoto that would physically removed the deleted photos and update the iPhoto Library correctly, without having to open the iPhoto Package and risk corrupting the Library.
Since each photo will be between 4MB (jpg) to 10MB (RAW) in size, do I need to use another application for my initial sorting, review and editing, then only import into iPhoto the "Keepers"? If so, what application should I be using?
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

JeanneV
As stated above:
Put the pics in the iPhoto trash and then iPhoto Menu -> Empty the Trash
This removes the pics from iPhoto and the Hard Drive.
A couple of notes:
1. You need to be in the Library view to do this. If you delete from an album it only removes the pics from the Album. To put pics from an Album directly into the trash use the -delete keystroke
Are you sure that you're in the Library View? This is the most common reason this doesn't work. On a longer shot there may be minor issues with your HD, but first make sure that you're in the Library View when deleting.
Also, I want to have iPhoto write the "Modified" version of my images on top of the "Original"... to save HD space. Can that be done?
No. iPhoto preserves your Original file no matter what. This is hardwired into the application and there is no easy way to defeat it.
You may export all your pics from iPhoto. Empty out the iPhoto Library (put the pics in the trash, empty the trash) then re-import the one previously exported. But this is long winded and will need to be done as your library grows. And, of course, this will defeat the Non-Destructive editing feature of iPhoto.
You can run a library from 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.
Of, if you don't want your Original file preserved, then simply don't use iPhoto. There are alternatives out there. Search on MacUpdate.
Regards
TD

How to import tags and metadata from iphoto 11 to Organizer

I have been using iPhoto 11 and I have around 26000 photos in my library. I am considering to buy the Photoshop Elements 10 and I downloaded the trial. I would like to import my photos from the iPhoto Libray to the organizer with all the metadata that they have, faces, places .... I have not been able to import that, only the photos and the tags but not the faces or places. Does anyone know how to get my photos and the organizer to recognize the place and faces that I already have marked in the iPhoto?
Thanks in advance for any response.

Hi Victoria,
Though I'm not very sure but perhaps the way face information is created and stored by iPhoto is different from that in Organizer. SO that might be the reason why people tags in iPhoto and Organizer behave differently. Organizer associates a face rectangle (portion of the image with a face) with people tags. That might not be the case with iPhoto perhaps.
Since tags are written in image metadata, they can directly be retrieved. Infact Places information if embedded as GPS data (demographic latitude/longitude format) should be read by Organizer.
Someone else might give a better advice on this one. I just told what I think the reason could be
Thanks
andaleeb

How do I move photos and videos from iPhoto onto my iPhone?

Hello! I downloaded all my videos and photos from my iPhone onto our Mac mini. My wife wants to put some of them on her iPhone. How do I get them from iPhoto onto her iPhone? Thanks for the help!!!

You sync them using iTunes. Se:
iTunes: Syncing photos
For videos see:
iTunes: May be unable to transfer videos to iPhone, iPad, or iPod
iTunes: Frequently asked questions about viewing and syncing videos

Looking for a method other than portable EHDs to backing up photos and videos from iPhoto.

(MacBook Pro 15in Mid-2009, iPhoto '11)
I currently have my iPhoto library (approx 250GB and growing) backed up to 2 1TB external hard drives. I also have my entire photo library on Shutterfly. My computer backs up to CrashPlan regularly, but I need to delete the original library from my computer to free up space and the library will no longer be in storage there. Therefore my library would be stored on 1 EHD and backed up on 1 more EHD that is exactly the same.
I would like to have all of it backed up 3 times, so the photos are taken care of but I am in a quandary on what I should do about my videos. I would like to have an alternate method such as USB or SD card (worried that the EHDs will conk out or I will drop one), but I don't know if this is realistic or not (I realize that I would need multiple USBs or SD cards to back up this size of library). Flickr doesn't allow videos longer than 1:30 in length, and iPhoto keeps crashing on me when I try to upload videos to Flickr in any case.
Is using a USB drive realistic? Is using an SD card even possible?
Thanks for your advice!

LarryHN, you said "YOu need one more trifitional hardvdrive". Do you mean I need one more external hard drive? Right now I have 2 1TB Other World Computing Mercury Elite Pros. I am open to buying one more external drive but I was thinking it should be a different kind/brand in case the ones I have turn into duds for some reason.
Thank you for your point about Crash Plan. In any case it will be a moot point once I delete the library from my computer so I wasn't figuring that into my backup scenario.
Please forgive me for my lack of education on this, but why won't USB thumb drive or SD card work? Can't I split the photos and videos up among several memory sticks?

How can I delete duplicate photos and events from iphoto?

I'm new at Mac and I managed to duplicate photos & events while syncing my phone. How can I delete the duplicates?

iPhoto Library Manager - duplicate annahailtor or DeCloner
LN

How to best backup photos and videos from iPhoto 08, version 7.1.5? Never upgraded OS since purchased iMac in September 2007.

I have an external hard drive but am not positive it's backing everything up.

Have a look at > ▶ 3 Ways to Back Up Your iPhoto Library - YouTube

Unable to upload photos to Costco from iPhoto 11.

Hard drive went bad on my iMac. When they replaced it, they upgraded me to OS X, 10.7.2 and iPhoto 11, 9.2.1. Now I can't upload photos to Costco from iPhoto.
On the previous iPhoto I could IF I used the one-by-one uploader. A pain but at least it recognized my iPhoto pictures. Now I can't even get to them at all from any Costco attempt. Anyone else having trouble with Costco? Any ideas?
Thanks!

I should have called Costco before posting here and wasting the time of anyone reading this. In case anyone else needs specific info from Costco, they are helpful when you call 866-459-9284.
Two mistakes I have been making. The first occurs when I click upload photos and leave the upload speed on Costco's default setting of "Fast (up to 5x faster!)". The option below "Fast: is "Full Resolution". I had never noticed the small print that explains fast as being useful for up to 8 x 10 prints, calendars and photo gifts but Full Resolution for enlargements and posters. So for anyone else ordering larger prints from Costco, select Full Resolution at the point where you select photos in the Costco site. Failing to do this is what caused my 3.1 MB file to upload as 700 KB for a 12 x 18 collage.
The other info the Costco rep passed along was to Export photos at Maximum from iPhoto to Desktop as opposed to simply copying and pasting or dragging onto Desktop. Again using the 3.1 MB collage file as an example.....when I copied it onto the desktop, the file was 3.1 MB but when I exported it from iPhoto to the desktop at Maximum, the file became 10.2MB.
Here is the message Costco support sent to me, in case it will help anyone else reading this.
We have enclosed the following steps to assist you with exporting photos from iPhoto.
1. Open iPhoto and find your image or images. If you're exporting a single image, click on it to highlight it. If you're exporting a series, click on the first image and S-click on the last image to highlight them. If you want to export an album, open it and press C+[A] to highlight all. Then click on the File menu and choose Export.
2. Click on the File Export tab and make sure the image format is set to JPEG for best results. (Even if exporting to the same format, choose JPEG as the image format type from the list instead of Original or Current. The Original and Current choices won't give you some of the exporting options that may be available.)
3. For File Name you can choose the current file name, the title that you've given the image in iPhoto, a named sequential order, or an album name.
4. Choose a location where you'd like to export the image or images. We recommend creating a new folder for the images on the Desktop to easily keep them together. Click on the New Folder button and name it something easy to locate (e.g. „Costco pics‰).
5. Click on the OK button to export.

I have got two photos by mail from iPhoto. My friend has put descriptions in the description field. The I got the mail I saw the description below each photo. If I check the photos with Preview they have Exif and JFIF fields but no IPTC field.

I have got two photos by mail from iPhoto. My friend has put descriptions in the description field. The I got the mail I saw the description below each photo. If I check the photos with Preview they have Exif and JFIF fields but no IPTC field.

Does you friend use any accented letters in the descriptions? That might cause it but I don't know for sure.
Has he run any repair operations on his library, i.e. repairing the database file? Another possible fixe that's easy to apply is the following:
1 - delete the iPhoto preference file, com.apple.iPhoto.plist, that resides in your
Home/Library/ Preferences folder.
2 - delete iPhoto's cache folder(s):
Home/Library/Containers/com.apple.iPhoto
and, if there is one, the
Home/Library/Caches/com.apple.iPhoto folder
3 - reboot, launch iPhoto and try again.
NOTE: In Lion and Mountain Lion the Home/Library folder is now invisible. To make it permanently visible enter the following in the Terminal application window: chflags nohidden ~/Library and press the Return key - 10.7: Un-hide the User Library folder.
For Mavericks, 10.9, go to your Home folder and use the View ➙ Show View Options menu to bring the this window:
The demo version of GraphicConverter can be used to view/check/edit the ITPC fields in an image file after exporting.

How do i export all photos and videos from IPhone5s

how do i export all photos and videos from IPhone5s?

Sorry,I need to export from my IPhone 5s to my MAC,
not sure where/how to export, save.
right now we have ITunes, Preview, some programs didn't get added back when the new drive was put in.
we have IPhoto on the back up and I think photo booth.
I've not had any success getting photos and videos off the phone an into something on the MAC.
thank you for your help!

How can I email a video clip I downloaded into my iPhoto library to my friends? I tried creating an email and attaching the clip but there is no sound and no picture when the 5 minute attachment "plays." How can I file= export it to them from iPhoto?

How can I email a video clip I downloaded into my iPhoto library to my friends? I tried creating an email and attaching the clip but there is no sound and no picture when the 5 minute attachment "plays." How can I file=>export it to them from iPhoto?

Have them install Quicktime on their PC's from Apple's website, that's the easiest fix.

Exporting photos and metadat from iPhoto '09 to Lightroom 3

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for