External hard drives and iphoto

hi.
i have an external hard drive where i would like to store some of my very large photo library. i would like to use iphoto but it seems like when i use "add to library" for a folder on my external drive it copies all the photos from that folder to a folder on my iBook..where i dont want them to reside. is this what is happening? i would like them to only live on the external drive and only appear in iphoto when the drive is connected...is this possible?
Also, are there...dare i say it...alternatives to iphoto? i have picasa2 on...dare i say it again...a pc, and i really like the way that program works. is there anything similar to that out there? Please help me out! I would really appreciate it.
Nate

Hi ngrego,
iPhoto imports all images into it's own database (iPhoto Library folder). this is the only way it works.
You can however have the iPhoto Library folder reside on the Mac formated external drive.
Drag the iPhoto Library folder to the external drive.
Launch iPhoto Holding down the Option key. At the prompt choose to open another library and navigate to the library on the external and choose it. iPhoto will now use this library to import all images to.
As far as other programs, you can try Graphic Converter, iViewMedia and iViewMedia Pro, and a slew of others that can be found at VersionTracker.
Lori

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IPhoto, external hard drive and iPhoto Buddy

Currently, I use iPhoto Buddy on my iMac and store all my iPhoto databases on an external hard drive (about 5 data bases with 10,000 photos in each).
I have a need to take the databases with me on my MacBook this week and wanted to know the best way to do so. Would this work?
Download iPhoto Buddy on my MacBook and plug in my external hard drive. Map the databases to the external hard drive. Now I should be able to open up the iPhoto databases. But, what happens when I return and plug the external hard drive into the iMac and try opening the iPhoto database on the iMac? Will it be messed up since I made changes on the MacBook?
Are there any other, better solutions I should use? I want the changes I make this week on the MacBook to save when I plug that external hard drive into the iMac.
Thank you,
-D-
MacBook, iMac (duo) Mac OS X (10.4.8)

-D-:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. You can do what you suggested - copy the 4 libraries to your MacBook and have iPhoto Buddy link them up in it's database so you can easily move between the two.
When you get back home one way to quickly update your iMac is to use a backup program likeSynk and backup the libraries from the MacBook to the iMac (DO NOT SYNC THE LIBRARIES - JUST BACKUP FROM THE MACBOOK TO THE IMAC). That will take much less time that copying all of the libraries back in their entirety. There are a number of backup apps you can use. Just do a search at VersionTracker.com for backup. The Feb. issue of MacWorld has a review of several backup programs.
If you need to move photos from one library to another you should consider iPhoto Library Manager which can move rolls/albums between libraries while preserving the keywords and comments like this.
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.

External Hard Drive and Iphoto

I am getting low on HD space due to my photos in Iphoto 6. Can I run this program from an external HD. I am thinking of getting a LaCie Quadra d2 hd.

khayato wrote:
I am also putting the iphoto library to an external hd. However, I have once the external hd accidentally disconnected from my macbook. iphoto then failed to locate all the photos (seems it just cant locate the library etc.) I have spent lot of time to fix it. So i think it is much safe to put in the mac hd instead of the external one but facing the problem of disk full
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.
LN

Can some please provide instructions on how to import an iPhoto library from an old Mac to a new Mac without getting a bunch of duplicates? I tried transferring my pictures using an external hard drive and then copying it to the Pictures folder on my Mac

Can someone please provide instructions on how to import an iPhoto library from an old Mac to a new Mac without getting a bunch of duplicates? I tried transferring my pictures using an external hard drive and then copying it to the Pictures folder on my new Mac. I ended up getting a bunch of duplicates. My old Mac has an older version of iPhoto while the new Mac has iPhoto '11. Is that the cause of the problem? Please advise. Thanks.

Simply copy the iPhoto Library from the Pictures Folder on the old Machine to the Pictures Folder on the new Machine.
Then launch iPhoto. That's it.
This moves photos, events, albums, books, keywords, slideshows and everything else.
Regards
TD

How do I backup my iPhoto Library to an external hard drive and keep my photos grouped by their events?

How can I backup my iPhoto Library to an external hard drive and keep my photos grouped by their events?

I have attempted to make sure my iPhoto library has been backed up on the external hard drive and that it is safe to delete some events from my internal hard drive
You need to think this through.
Time Machine is a back up application. It keeps a rolling back up of the data. It's called rolling because it means you can revert to the data you had on a specific date and time. But that's not eternal, and as time goes by, and your drive fills up, older backups are deleted. So if you delete Events on your Mac they will - eventually - also be deleted from the Time Machine back up.
If you wan tot archive data hendon't use Time Machine for that job. Here's how you might archive an iPhoto Library:
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.
Now you have two full versions of the Library.
3. On the Internal library, trash the Events you don't want there
Now you have a full copy of the Library on the External and a smaller subset on the Internal
Some Notes:
As a general rule: when deleting photos do them in batches of about 100 at a time. iPhoto can baulk at trashing large numbers at one go.
You can choose which Library to open: Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'
You can keep the Library on the external updated with new imports using iPhoto Library Manager

How can I move the photos I have in iPhoto to an external hard drive and use that as my library?

I bought a new Mac Pro. My old computers main drive is so bloated that I need to reduce it's size. I want to move my photos, music and movies to an external hard drive and have iPhoto, iTunes, and iMove access them there.
How do I do that so it work?
Thanks,
Keith

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.
There are similar options for iMovie and iTunes, but best to check their forums for details.
Regards
TD

I have tried transferring my iphoto library to my external hard drive and it's not working.

I have a Macbook Pro. I have recently gotten into photography and to save space on my internal hard drive, I bought an external hard drive to keep all of my photos on. It's a Toshiba with 1 TB of memory. I have searched and searched on how to transfer my iphoto library to it and I'm getting the same answer. I open two finder windows, one with pictures open, the other with the external hard drive open. I have tried to drag the iphoto library icon to the second window to the external hard drive and instead of it staying there and loading everything it gives me the circle with a diagonal line through it and floats back up to the pictures finder window. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I really need help!

you need to make sure the drive you are moving the iphoto library to is formatted in the mac OS extended journaled format
you can view and/or change this in the disk utility which is found in the utilities folder in applications within finder.
on the left side select the external HD and then click on the erase tab it will show you the format it's currnetly in, if it's not mac OS extended journaled select that from the drop down and then hit the button that says erase.
after the erase is complete try the article i gave you again to move the location of the lbrary and it should work.
good luck

I need to get my iPhoto library off my external hard drive and onto my new Imac

I just purchase a new iMac. I've been trying to get my old iPhoto library onto my new iMac from my old iMac. I have the tower and when we tried to connect the new computer with the tower back up of course it did not work so I've had to transfer everything manually. The latest thing I'm working on is my iPhoto library with over 22,000 pictures. How can do this without losing the quality of my pictures. I can open them through my external hard drive on iPhoto, but I really want them on the actual computer. I've read several places that importing my iPhoto library would be a mess and I don't want that either. HELP. Everyone says it's a mess but I don't see any solutions.

If you have an iPhoto Library on your new Mac and it contains photos you want to keep then rename it before you copy the library from your old Mac.

Can i put my photos on my external hard drive and still open them in iPhoto

I am an amateur photographer and an art teacher and i have thousands of photos and music files on my computer that i would much rather put on my external hard drive so they dont take up so much room on my computer. I would like to extend the life of my computer as long as possible and want to keep as much memory free on the actual computer as i can. is there a way for me to put my pictures and or music on my external hard drive and still have it open regularly like it does now in iphoto or itunes?

they are backed up but there are thousands of them i have a small business selling my photos online and i was wondering if i could put them on the external hd and still have them open in iphoto or put my music on the hd and have it open in itunes so i dont have all of it on the computer. i take hundreds of photos a week and my photo gallery is not shrinking by any means any time soon so the more i can put in places other than my hard drive the better but i need them accessible at all times through my iphoto and other programs like photoshop illustrator etc.
DR.

Can I move all my photo that I can see on iPhoto from my Mac hardrive and put them on an external hard drive and still be able to see them as thumbnails in iPhoto? Thanks! The reason, I need to know if I can do this is b/c I am running out of HD space!sp

can I move all my photo that I can see on iPhoto from my Mac hardrive and put them on an external hard drive and still be able to see them as thumbnails in iPhoto? Thanks! The reason, I need to know if I can do this is b/c I am running out of HD space!sp

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

Can I keep photos on external hard drive and still use iPhoto?

I have virtually no space left on my eMac's 80GB hard drive. For a long time, I have kept my sizable iTunes library on an external hard drive connected to the eMac. It takes a bit of extra time to open up the iTunes library and to upload music from newly purchased CDs, but generally the external hard drive and eMac perform well together. My question is: Can I do the same with my photos (put them on the external hard drive) and still use iPhoto to access them and edit them? I have checked some of the Apple knowledge base documents, and there seem to be warnings against this. I am currently using iPhoto 6.0.6. I have purchased iPhoto 7.0 (with iLife '08) but haven't put the new software on the computer because there is not enough space. I would like to straighten out this space problem and get the benefits of the new software. (I have backed up quite a few of the photos onto CDs, but I like to have them handy--therefore on the eMac or on a hard drive connected to the eMac.) Thanks ahead to anyone with some good ideas on this topic.

winesmile
Yes it is, but you cannot access the at the same time as iPhoto can only open one library at a time.
So, a solution might be to have the entire library on the external, and to carry the smaller subset on the laptop.
To do this, follow the instructions above to move the library, but instead of deleting the library on the laptop (in the final step), put the pics from the earlier years into the iPhoto trash and empty it. (iPhoto Menu -> Empty Trash. Hint: Don't so them all at one go! Better a few a a time.)
Now you have the full library on the external (and if you want to access the full library, use that) and the 07 & 08 years on your laptop.
To switch between libraries, simply hold down the option (or alt) key when launching.
As you add photos to the Library you can use iPhoto Library Manager to move pics and albums /events between libraries, and so keep them up-to-date with each other.
Please note this is the only way to sync the libraries, there is no app that can do this automatically.
Regards
TD

I copied my iPhoto library to an external hard drive and all the event windows are black. Once you click on a square the photos are still there. How do I fix that?

I copied my iPhoto library to an external hard drive and the event windows show up black.
The photos are still there once I click on an event but they don't show in the window.
My next step is to delete the iPhoto library from the internal memory to free some memmory space but I don't want to do this until I see that the library works fine on the external hard drive.
How do I fix that?

Hold down the "option" + "command" keys and launch iPhoto.
Select the "Rebuild Thumbnails" choice.

I opened my iPhoto library today which was stored on an external hard drive and several of my videos now will not play. The weird thing is that each file shows a duration of 1 second and when I open them it just shows one frame. What the

I opened my iPhoto library today which was stored on an external hard drive and several of my videos now will not play at all. The weird thing is that each file shows a duration of 1 second and when I open them it just shows one frame. What the !&%$#@ Where did my original video files go?

Sounds like a good plan, you can never be to safe and having a second External HD is safer than one.
The only thing that I would do different, is setup the 3T as my TimeMachine Backup and then erase and move my Photos, Videos and perhaps even iTunes Media to the 1T. That way you will have room to backup both the Internal Hard Drive and the 1T External Hard Drive to the 3T using TimeMachine.
Take your time, study and use the > Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions if you get stuck or aren't sure how to make the move.
Also see > iPhoto: How to move the Library folder to a new location
iMovie ’08: Storing or moving your video library to an external hard disk
and > iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder

I accidentally updated iPhoto on my (now) external hard drive and now it won't let me access any of my photos. What can I do?

I accidentally updated iPhoto on my (now) external hard drive and now it won't let me access any of my photos. What can I do?

So, you have two versions of iphoto? One from the old machine and one from the new?
If so, forget about opening with the older version of iPhoto.
For the newer version:
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.

IPhoto Library moved to External Hard Drive and need help moving library

Hi - Recently I had my hard drive replaced. I purchased Disk Warrior and moved all files to my external hard drive. Now that my hard drive has been replaced, I'm having trouble moving all my photos back to iPhoto. Nearly all of my 8K+ photos are blurry after I import and enlarge. The ones that are fine have dimensions of or more than 1K x 1K. The digital photos that I moved and are blurry when enlarged are 340x360 (hundreds range). How can I correct?
Thanks so much in advance.
Audra

I think I might need to back up ---- So I had a failing hard drive, went to Apple and purchased Disk Warrior. Installed Disk Warrior and tried to recover everything from my hard drive. Then all that was recovered was supposedly moved to my external hard drive. I have now received my computer back with the new hard drive. I plug in my external hard drive and have been trying to move all my images from the external hard drive to iphoto. In both places (external HD and when the photos are imported), the image is at the lower dimensions.
Thanks for your time.

External hard drives and iphoto

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