External Hard Drive automatically opens iPhoto

Whenever I plug in my external firewire hard drive it automatically opens as a device in iPhoto 08 and attempts to load ALL images on my hard drive. How do I stop this from happening?

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. If your external HD is, as Terence suggested the possibility of, formatted for PCs, FAT 32 or 16, you should backup the contents and reformat it with Disk Utility to OS X Extended (journaled). That will save you a lot of headaches on down the line.
A lot of 3rd party hard drives come formatted for PCs and Macs can read an use them, but at a price: stability and compatibility. You run the risk of losing a lot of data if you continue to use it in that format.
Of course if it's formatted for Mac this message will self destruct in ten seconds and I'll disavow ever making this post.
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. 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 now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

Similar Messages

How can I use my external hard drive for my iphoto instead of my mac book pro memory?

i don't know if this question has been asked before: how can I use my external hard drive for my iphoto instead of my mac book pro memory? just like itunes all my song are save on my external hard drive. make sense?

Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)
And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto
And backup soon and often - having your iPhoto library on an external drive is not a backup and if you are using Time Machine you need to check and be sure that TM is backing up your external drive
LN

My iphoto library (located on an external hard drive) was open when the hard drive was accidentally disconnected. We plugged it back in, but the library is frozen. Any suggestions on what I can do without corrupting/losing my iphoto library?

The cable to the external hard drive that houses my iphoto library was accidentally disconnected while the library was open and up on the screen. We plugged it back in, but now the screen is frozen. Has anyone experienced this before? If I force quit, will I corrupt and lose access to the library on the external hard drive?

Shutdown the Mac. Disconnect and power off the external drive (if it has its own power supply). Reconnect the external drive and power on (if applicable). Boot Mac. If the external drive is not reading properly, open Disk Utility, select external drive, run Repair Disk.

IMovie Project from External Hard Drive not Opening?

Please help!!
Fairly new to MACs, iMovie and iDVD, I didn't have a clear understanding of how saving iMovie projects worked. Reading various tutorials, I thought I had a clear understanding of how they work. Apparently not with my recent frustration with iMovie.
I created several iMovie Projects but needed more space in order to make more projects for my internship thus I did what I thought was common sense -- get an external hard drive.
I exported iMovie projects into my user account and from there, dragged the saved projects into an external hard drive and then deleted the iMovie projects from my user account.
However, when I needed to retrieve these projects, I simply turned on my hard drive and clicked on them to open. However, whenever I tried opening them, they wouldn't open. Is it because I didn't export them to the hard drive in the first place?
What I don't understand is why iMovie is not opening or recognizing the saved iMovie projects from the external hard drive when the size and kind clearly indicate that it should open with iMovie automatically.
What is the proper way of saving my iMovie projects and events so that I can always have access to whenever I need to open up an old project or simply edit?

Freeing up space on your Mac hard drive in iMovies ’08.
The application iMovie ‘08 has two main libraries displayed in the iMovie window: Events and Projects. Events are the main imports from your video camera, say. These files are big and you have the option to save them on an external hard drive and so iMovie knows to find them there. Projects are your editing instructions like what clips you want and where. The files are small and you save them on your Mac hard drive. They are NOT the clips only signposts where to find them (in Events on your external hard drive). You can move Projects to your external hard drive as back-up but iMovie will not find them there. If you then delete Projects from your Mac, iMovie can no longer make use of them unless you manually export them back into iMovie from your external hard drive. See Apple Article HT1026 iMovie '08: Moving iMovie footage to another drive (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1026). Here the external hard disk is used for moving Projects from one computer to another and, by implication, back to the source computer.
Sharing the projects to iTunes for syncing with Apple TV creates (publishes) movies that take up the same amount of space on your Mac as the source Projects. You can still burn DVDs in iDVD using the iTunes Movies as your Media so provided you have iMovie Projects backed up on your external hard drive you can delete them from your Mac and just use the iTunes Movies (for Apple TV and iDVD). In addition, publishing iMovie Projects in iTunes for syncing to Apple TV results in these files being duplicated in both Movies/iMovies Sharing/iTunes AND in iTunes/iTunes Music/Movies so delete them from here and get even more GBs back! Tell iTunes in Advanced not to save these iTunes published movies anymore in order to stop further duplication ocurring.

Accessing old Iphoto library on external hard drive in new iphoto

We recently bought a new macbook pro with iphoto 9.5.1. Previously, we had a 2008 macbook and had transferred the very large iphoto library onto our Toshiba external harddrive. After downloading Tuxera NTFS to be able to use the external hard drive on this computer, I tried to open the iphoto library. It said that the photos needed to be upgraded to be usable on the new iphoto. So I downloaded the iphoto upgrader. When running it, it says the iphoto library selected (the one on the external hard drive) does not need to be updated. When I try to open it through iphoto, it says that it needs to update and starts the process. Within a minute is says that some of the permissions on the library are incorrect and asks if I want to repair it. After clicking to repair it, iphoto stops responding and we have to force quit to stop it. Any ideas on how to access the library? I have over 20,000 pictures in that library and would like to be able to access them on a regular basis.

fter downloading Tuxera NTFS to be able to use the external hard drive on this computer,
An iPhoto library MUST be on a volume formatted OS X Extended (journaled) in order to be used from there. So your NTFS server won't work. You'll need another external hard drive formatted as I described:
There is just no way to make it work on your drive as it is configured now.
OT

External hard drive isnt opening on iMac

Hi everyone, I was advised to post a different discussion instead of having two questions in one, (good tip thank you)
So here is my second questions.
My other problem is that i want to get all my photos onto the imac. My hard drive wont open on my imac - (buffalo HD-PXT500U2/B) it recognises its there but wont aloow me to actually open it to view any file. (Also mac compatible.)
I called apple support again to see if there was anything i can do, the only thing they suggested was that i have to reformat my hard drive (which would mean loosing all the info on there). They suggested putting all my info on my PC, reformatting the EHD, then sucking up all the info again on my EHD, then giving it to my imac. Apart from the fact that i dont think my PC could handle 500 GB of info on it at this stage - this would take days. (currently to download 15GB of data takes an hour or so)
I asked about migration assistant or something similar which was at my start up (i didnt use it) which says it can transfer info from PC to mac - they said it wouldnt work, although i am still unsure as to why.
I have used google again to see what i can find as a fix, but its a mindfield out there and my brain is beginning to get fried - i have spent days trying to find out what fixes there are. I cant even find migration assistant anymore on the imac ( i dont know where it lives)
Please please please help me as I am just about ready to throw in the towel - it shouldnt be this hard or this much of a headache should it?
I am trying to start up my own photographic business which is why I was advised to make the switch, but I am already 2 weeks behind on editing as I am constantly waiting on the delivery, fix, help to get my imac up and running properly.
I do need simple step by step instructions as I am new to mac.
Thanks so much for reading
Faery
xxx

Reading between the lines, basically you have a drive that's Windows-formatted, that already has a lot of files on it, which you want to read with your Mac.
The usual drive format for Windows drives is NTFS, which in theory Macs can read, but not write to. An older format is FAT, which Macs can read and write to. Since you're not able to even read the drive, I'm a little puzzled.
When you attach the drive to the Mac, what happens? Do you see a drive icon appear on the desktop? If not, make sure that the Finder is set to display drives. Go to the Finder menu, click Preferences, General, and make sure external drives are set to show on the desktop.
If you still don't see it, open Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder). Do you see the drive there? If so, click on its partition/volume name (not the drive model line, there should be another line beneath it which displays the drive "name" that you've given it). The information at the bottom of the screen should tell you what format the volume is.
If it's NTFS, you could TRY installing Paragon NTFS. As I say, in theory with NTFS you certainly should be able to read the drive, but it might help. Worse case, you're out $20.
Failing that, does this hard drive have any kind of protection or encryption built into it? Some drives have proprietary encryption which relies on software that you install on your system. In that case, you would only be able to read it from your Windows system. If that's the case, maybe you can turn the encryption off on the WIndows side, then try again connecting to your Mac.
Matt

Storing images on external hard drive but using iPhoto

Hi
I am a new apple user so I'm trying to figure out how to use iPhoto. I think it's a great way to organize my photos but I've run into the problem of my hard drive getting to small for my images so I wan't to put all of my images on an external hard drive to free space on my MacBook. Can I do that and still use iPhoto to tag people and organize my pictures? Will I always have to have the hard drive connected to be able to use iPhoto or does it "cache" the images so that I can organize them but not view the full pictures?
(My iPhoto is called iPhoto '09 version 8.1.2)
Would very much appreciate a little guidance! ;-)
Angelica

Yes you can do this.
Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
This means that you will always have to have the disk connected to view the pics.
You can also do it differently, where the Library is stored on the Mac and the Photos are on the external.
But...
I very strongly recommend that you do not do this. See this thread here for more on that
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3062728?tstart=0
Regards
TD

How do I merge my photo's from my external hard drive into my iPhoto on my hard drive

I have 12,000 photos on my external hard drive, and i have about 1200 on my Mac Mini Hard Drive, these 1200 would be duplicates if i merge them, how do I merge into my Mini without Duplicating photo's

And as photos or as an iPhoto library
Which ever it is you have to restore them to disk first and then use them - how you use them depends on what you have - which you still have not answered
I
f these are just photos then import selecting not to import duplicates
If they are in two iPhoto libraries for the same version of iPhoto then use iPhoto Library Manager - http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/ - to merge the libraries eliminating duplicates
What do you have?
LN

How do I get itunes library to move to external hard drive automatically?

I have a 250 GB Verbatim external hard drive. This hard drive has an existing itunes library from my PC. I figured out how to combine the two itunes libraries, (1 from PC and 1 from Macbook). I cannot figure out how to set up itunes to automatically save to external hard drive. In other words, I've gotten everything onto my Mac, but not onto the external, which is what I want. When I try to move the itunes folders to my Verbatim in Finder, it gives me the circle with the line through it. It will not let me move anything over to the Verbatim. Please help!

On the copying issue, if the drive was used with a PC initially it is quite possible it is formatted to NTFS. Macs can read NTFS drives but not write to them You could try to use a utility such as NTFS-3G to enable read-write, or you could use Disk Utility to reformat the drive to FAT (probably FAT32) which can be read by both PCs and Macs. FAT has certain disadvantages too, such as not being repairable by Macs, and there is a limit on single file sizes (2GB or 4GB depending upon the FAT version).
Once you get your whole iTunes folder (not just media) onto the external drive, start iTunes with the option key held down and show it the new location.
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
do not confuse moving your whole folder and library with just storing media on another drive:
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449

Projects from external hard drive not opening on desktop. Please help.

I use my external hard drive to create, edit and save all my imovie projects. In this external drive I have all my raw clips, events, projects etc.
My home computer is my primary place of work, and I am now trying to open a half edited project from my external hard drive on my daughter's mac. Note this project was saved in imovie 8 and she has imovie 9, although I cannot see this being an issue.
Can anyone else suggest why imovie only opens my events, but doesn't open the project in the project library. I have tried copying the .rcproject from the external hard drive to the desktop along with the events, but to no avail. Any further suggestions, I have a pending deadline.
Thanks.

You should be able to get this to work.
I would suggest the following:
1) Move the RCPROJECT file from the desktop to the Movies/iMovie Projects folder.
2) Use the Events on the external drive. Your project will be pointing to the external drive. It will not know how to find anything on the internal drive.
Then restart iMovie.
This should work, as iMovie is forward compatible. However, once you open the project in iMovie 09, you will no longer be able to open it in iMovie 08. (Of course, you could make a copy of it in its current state.)
I am less sure about your events. Your events will be converted to iMovie 09 format. I don't think you will be able to still open them in iMovie 08. You might if you delete all the cache and thumbnail folders and let iMovie 08 regenerate these, but I am not sure. Your best bet is to upgrade to iMovie 09 or better yet, iMovie 11 on your home computer.

M4v from external hard drive to open in idvd?

I created a project on imovie, burned a copy of the dvd on idvd, and saved it on an external hard drive (and deleted it from my hard drive). I've lost the copy of that DVD and want to burn another copy, but I can't figure out how to get it to open in idvd.
Any ideas? Thanks.

riokim1231,
maybe you have tried this. but have you gone to edit/preferences/sharing..? you can check share my library on my local network. that should allow you to view content on your mac mini. you can play any content contained in that library. there will be a little arrow to the left of the name of that library. click it and it will show any playlist to include movies and music videos. hope this helps...

Itunes on external hard drive wont open in Win7

I have my itunes stored on an external hard drive using Windows XP. I have just changed my computer to a Win7 version, and now I cant access my library. I can see it there but cannot find the correct path to it. I have been able to access it on my old XP PC so it still works OK, but frustrated not being able to get it to work on a later OS/computer.

Do you have the itunes database file from XP also on the exHD?
iTunes Library.itl
Copy it from XP onto the exHD.
Then connect the exHD to Win 7, do a shift-start of itunes.
Which means, press *AND HOLD* the shift key while starting itunes, keep pressing until you get the prompt. Then browse to the exHD and choose the ITL file you copied over.

Does an external hard drive automatically put different computers data apart

just took all data off one imac onto a hard drive using time machine and now i want to put some data on from another imac using time machine
will the hard drive keep the data seperate as i need to put all data took off first imac back on it at some point but dont want my stuff going on it as well so when i open my time machine to back up will it keep the two seperate?

You can back up two computers with Time Machine onto the same external drive without any problem. Time Machine will create a different folder for each computer, so their backups won't have conflicts

Transferring photo files off of external hard drive to new iPhoto Library

Forgive me if this line of questioning is pretty elementary, but when it comes to advanced computing, I'm in the Stone Ages. I really have no clue how to remedy the following problems I've been running into and I'm hoping for some sort of help/detailed explanation.
I purchased a MacBook Pro back in 2009 and was using a G Drive Mini 500 GB to perform backups via Time Machine. I was under the impression that this was automatically transferring all of my files when I would plug it in, including my entire iPhoto library.
2 years ago I decided to sell my MacBook Pro to Best Buy in exchange for store credit, as I was getting by with my basic computing needs via my iPad. I figured I was in good hands security wise assuming Best Buy would wipe out all my personal data safely and responsibly and that all of my files were already backed up anyway via my G Drive Mini. I know this was a large assumption on my part now.
Truthfully, the only files I want off the G Drive are my old photos so I can put them on my girlfriend's MacBook Pro and then transfer those photos to my cloud based storage. So with that being said I attempted the following...
I plugged in the G Drive into my girlfriend's MacBook Pro thinking I could simply open up the G Drive, find the old photo files and drag and transfer all my old photos into her iPhoto for storage. I realize now it is not that simple.
I then attempted to access the photos by opening the iPhoto application I found under the Applications folder in the G Drive, but continuously received the following message, "You can’t open the application “iPhoto” because it is in a Time Machine backup.". The advanced computer experts probably already knew that was coming. Is there any way around this? Does anyone have any ideas how to transfer these photos?
I would really appreciate any help, but if someone had a direct solution that they wouldn't mind explaining to me, it would be greatly appreciated. I did some research on my own and it appears that I might need the original MacBook Pro that I owned even to access the photos, since the G Mini and Time Machine were really just archiving the files, rather than backing them up.
Thank you for any and all help.

So you're running Yosemite and iPhoto 9.6, right? In that case do the following:
1 - launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down to open the First Aid window. Be sure to follow the circled recommendation in the screenshot.
2 - run Option #4, Rebuild Database.

How can i make an external Hard drive default for iphoto

I have maxed out my memory on my MacBook with iPhoto 09. I have been trying to export photos to an external HD and then make the external HD my default drive for future photo downloads from my camera. Also, I need to clean off space on the internal HD, but not sure of the safest way to do this and make sure I don't loose any photos. Any tips to move forward? I am a Mac novice to say the least.
Thanks

Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
Regards
TD

External Hard Drive automatically opens iPhoto

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for