How to Back-Up an iPhoto Library to a Flash Drive in Mountain Lion

I have been backing up my entire iPhoto library (about 34GB) to a flash drive every month for the last couple of years.
I tried to do it last night, after upgrading to Mountain Lion, and could not complete the backup. I tried several times, and the same thing happened each time - the first 190MB or so were transferred very quickly, then the pace slowed until finally, after 225.1 MB were transferred, I got an error message: "The operation can’t be completed because an item with the name “iPhoto Library” already exists."
I tried trashing the partial file on the flash drive, renaming the partial file, using Disk Repair - same exact thing happens. Always stopping after 225.1 MB.
I have 5 years of photos on my iMac, and am freaked out about losing them. Anyone have any ideas?

That'll be the problem then.
iPhoto needs to have the Library sitting on disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Users with the Library sitting on disks otherwise formatted regularly report issues including, but not limited to, importing, saving edits and sharing the photos.
Regards
TD

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How to copy iphoto library to a flash drive in mountain lion

I have been backing up my entire iPhoto library (about 34GB) to a flash drive every month for the last couple of years.
I tried to do it last night, after upgrading to Mountain Lion, and could not complete the backup. I tried several times, and the same thing happened each time - the first 190MB or so were transferred very quickly, then the pace slowed until finally, after 225.1 MB were transferred, I got an error message: "The operation can’t be completed because an item with the name “iPhoto Library” already exists."
I tried trashing the partial file on the flash drive, renaming the partial file, using Disk Repair - same exact thing happens. Always stopping after 225.1 MB.
I have 5 years of photos on my iMac, and am freaked out about losing them. Anyone have any ideas?

That'll be the problem then.
iPhoto needs to have the Library sitting on disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Users with the Library sitting on disks otherwise formatted regularly report issues including, but not limited to, importing, saving edits and sharing the photos.
Regards
TD

The pictures of various trips on my iPhoto library to separate flash drives such that I could put on a slide show for each trip. How can I do that?

I want to copy the pictures of various trips on my iPhoto library onto separate flash drives such as I could do slide show on each trip. How could I do that?

Now if there any way for me to put a caption on each slide?
Your welcome.
You want the caption written directly into the photo?
Since you are exporting from iPhoto, you could download the BorderFX plug-in, if your mac is compatible with this plug-in. It will allow you to write the titles or dates you are seeing in iPhoto directly onto the border.
You can download BorderFX here: BorderFX - iBorderFX iPhoto
If BorderFX is not compatible, use any photo ditor, that suports graphics, like Photoshop, Previews, to write into the photo.

Sorry folks, I did something bad, I was looking how to save my current iphoto library to my external drive and I hit a wrong button, lost my current iphoto and now have only the backed up version from 2007, Woops I never was the quick witted one... PLEASE

I switched my current iphoto library out for the saved one on my external drive by mistake. It said, Switch Libraries.... Do you want to switch the current iphoto library from AAA iphoto library (what I called the old one I guess - in my OWC) toOWC Mercury on-the-go and relaunch iphoto? cancel or relaunch
Sorry, I was looking for a way to save my current iphoto images to my hard drive. Yeah, I guess just drag something over right? Anyway, now I cannot retrieve my last 2 or 3 years of photos, Can You HELP me?
Mac os X version 10.6.8
2.66 GHz Intel core 2 Duo
etc

Depress the option key and launch iPhoto = use teh select library option and select the correct one
yes to move your library to an external drive
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

How do you copy your iphoto library to ext. hard drive?

I am sorry to ask this lame question, but: How do you copy your iPhoto library to an external hard drive, just to back it up? I'm confused, because of three things: a) I can't seem to find, in iPhoto pref's, where you select what the "path" is to the library; b) in the iPhoto library folder on my computer (which is NOT on my boot drive, but a different internal drive..) the newest "year" folder in there says 2005, yet we have imported many newly-taken photos for the last 3 years, AND c) in the user>Pictures folder there is a "file" called iPhoto Library, but I can't quite figure out exactly what that is, what it does, etc.
So, I apologize, but if someone can help me figure what I would like to think should be a very simple backup, I would be grateful. Thank you very much.

I am sorry to ask this lame question, but: How do you copy your iPhoto library to an external hard drive, just to back it up?
Drag it to the external drive
a) I can't seem to find, in iPhoto pref's, where you select what the "path" is to the library;
There not one - you change the path by launching iPhoto while depressing the option (alt) key and using the select library option to repoint to a different libary - however you would not do this to a backup library - it would just be a copy
b) in the iPhoto library folder on my computer (which is NOT on my boot drive, but a different internal drive..) the newest "year" folder in there says 2005, yet we have imported many newly-taken photos for the last 3 years,
This is probably an unused older library - a backup for a previous version
c) in the user>Pictures folder there is a "file" called iPhoto Library, but I can't quite figure out exactly what that is,
That probably is your iPhoto library and it is probably not a file but a Unix style "package"
Launch iPhoto and in events view select a photo and right click (control click) on it and select the show file option to see the path to the currently active library - I find the column view the easiest to see the path
LN

How can I transfer my iPhoto library safely to external drive?

How do I transfer pictures from iPhoto library to external hard drive without losing information? What hard drive would work best for this? I have no more space available on iMac hard drive.

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

How to Time Machine backup iPhoto library stored on external drive

Hi Mac users.
Can you kindly teach me how to backup iphoto library stored on an external drive to my external time machine drive. My internal drive is full so I moved my iPhoto library to a separate drive and deleted the library to create space. Thank you.

Actually there's nothing to do. TM backs up all connected volumes automatically. One has to exclude a volume or folder(s) to keep them from being backed up in the TM preferences.
If you find that the EHD is not being backed up exclude it and the "unexclude" it and force a new backup.
OT

How do i manage 1 iphoto library on 2 external drives?

I'm trying to find the most efficient way to manage 1 iphoto library across 2 external drives. In case one of my external drives dies, I'll have a backup.
I know how to copy my iphoto library onto another drive, but my question is how to manage the 2 drives when i add photos/videos to them from my iphone.
Currently, I import photos/vids from iphone onto 1 drive. Then unmount the external drive and hook up another drive. I direct iphoto to use the new drive as it's library and then import the photos/vids again onto the second drive. I make sure the event is named the same, so I have the same iphoto setup across both drives. Then i delete the photos/vids from my iphone.
Is there a more efficient way to do this? Or software that can do this in one step?
Thanks in advance for any help!

You want to have a backup of your working library on your MacBook Pro on each of two external HDs, correct?
If yes then use a backup application like Synk or Synk Pro that can incrementally backup the library, i.e. copy only those new of modified files. If you go to MacUpdate.com and do a search for "backup" you'll get a list of potential candidates.
Then all you need to do is connect EHD#1 and run the backup app to update the library then connect EHD#2 and do the same. It only takes several seconds to make the incremental backup. Synk Pro can be configured to automically start the backup when the external drives are connected. I'm not sure but believe some of the other backup apps could do the same.
OT

HT5664 how do you copy the iPhoto library to the hard drive

I copied some photos onto a DVD and my new iMac won't let me download them into iPhoto. I don't understand the instructions to download the iPhoto library into the hard drive. How do I do that? What do I do once that part is downloaded?

1. Drag it.
2. If you're moving loose files, open iPhoto and import or drag them into it. If you're moving an iPhoto library, double-click it.
(93079)

Backing up iPhoto Library to multiple flash drives

-I am already backing up using Time Machine but would like to back up an approx 80 GB iPhoto photo library to 3 or 4 -32 GB flash drives for off site storage. Is there a way to do this that keeps all data, albums, and formats? I know I can create a disk image but I don't know how to split it for copying to three drives.

You can do what you want if you use the Share ➙ Burn menu and burn them to DVDs, but not flash drives.
If you go to flash drives you can keep the metadata (keyword, titles, keywords, etc.) and
Events.
Export selected Events out of iPhoto to a folder on the Desktop via the File ➙ Export ➙ File Export menu option. Select the options shown in this screenshot. Selecting Kind=JPEG will assure you can get the metadata, keywords, etc. embedded in the exported file. Select either High or Maximum as the JPEG Quality.
Warning: if you've edited any of the photos in the library do a Photos ➙ Revert to Original before exporting so you'll get the original image size and all of the metadata. Because if you've cropped or edited the photos in some way you may not get the equivalent of the original file.
This will create a subfolder for each event and put the photos for those events in those folders like in this test of 7 events.
From there you can drag them onto the Flash drives. It would be best to format the flash drives to OS X Extended (journaled) unless you want to be able to move the photos to a PC.
Then start dragging the subfolders onto a flash drive until you get close to the max capacity of the drive. Put in another drive and repeat with new event folders.
OT

How can I move my iphoto Library to another hard drive?

I would like to move my iphoto library to another drive. I've already copied it to the other drive, do I now just delete it from the internal drive? If so how does iphoto know where to find the photos?

doug4747
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.
Regards
TD

How do I export iPhoto library to a flash drive and can photos be viewedon a PC?

How do I export iPhoto library to flash Drive and can it be viewed On a PC?

This User Tip
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4921
has details of the options in the Export dialogue.

How do I transfer my iPhoto library to two separate drives using Aperture

Hi, I'm using iPhoto 9.4.2. My photo library is taking up most of my Macbook Pro's hard drive space so I bought Aperture 3.4.3 after reading the following description:
"As your iPhoto library grows, it may become too big to store on your computer’s hard drive. Aperture lets you set up as many external drives as you want and specify where to store each of your photos."
I want to put most of my photos on an external drive and only the most recent photos on my Mac's hard drive. I can't figure out exactly how to do this, though.
Hopefully someone can provide simple instructions. Thanks!

"As your iPhoto library grows, it may become too big to store on your computer’s hard drive. Aperture lets you set up as many external drives as you want and specify where to store each of your photos."
This is referring to turning your Aperture/iPhoto library into a referenced library. Aperture lets you relocate the original image files to a folder outside your photolibrary (this folder may be on external drive) and reference the originals in this location. This way the library itself will be smaller, but if you want to edit or export the referenced images, you need to make sure the external drive is mounted.
Relocating original files is simple: Just select the images you want to relocate in the browser and use the command "File > relocate original file(s)". But after relocating you are responsible for protecting the originals. Do not move, renmae, or edit them in any way. Make sure you have a working backup of your library before you start restructering it.
See this part of the manual for more help: Aperture 3 User Manual: Working with Referenced Images
Just in case Aperture should lose the connection to some referenced originals (this can happen sometimes, if the you need to restore your harddrive) use the command "File > Locate referenced files" to reconnect them.
Regards
Léonie

How to move a large iphoto library from one external drive to another

Hi all (my first ever post to a forum!)
I have a large iphoto library (379 GB) on an external drive (Lacie 1TB w/usb 2.0) and want to move it to a another ethernet connected external drive (LaCie Network Space 2) so I will be able to access it from other computers.
Moving it with drag and drop or copying is calculated to take 66 day's!
Wander if that could be explaned with the fact that these are around 70.000 individual pictures/files, and if it could be speed up by first compressing the library.
Wander if anyone can shere their experience on that? (what software to use or?)
I have an 21.5 inch, mid 2010 iMac (3.06 GHz Intel Core i3 with 12 GB 1067 MHz DDR3).
I also have the new Macbook Air (1.3 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 2.6GHz - with 3MB shared L3 cache).

iPhoto needs to be connected to the computer you are using it from via a sired connectin both for speed and also for data reliability
THe copy estimate is often way off - let it run and see - it will probably drop a lot quickly
Compressing would not help (assuming you shoot JPEG) since the JPEGs in the library are alread highly compressed
LN

Best way to transfer iPhoto library to a flash drive?

What is the best way to transfer my entire iPhoto library at once to a thumb drive? My Mac won't charge, I'm running on 11% battery, and I'm terrified of losing all of my photos! Please help!

Drag the entire library to a drive, partition, or disk image formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
(96368)

How to Back-Up an iPhoto Library to a Flash Drive in Mountain Lion

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