How to import external HDD iPhoto library to internal storage Photos+iCloud

I have a larger iPhoto library of +250GB on a external USB drive, I want all of that in iCloud with the new Photos app, however I would also like to have them on my internal drive on the 'optimized storage' options so I have access to them (and if need be the full version can download from iCloud to my internal drive). How do I do this?

So here's how I think this could work:
1. Upload the library on your USB drive to iCloud, note that the drive needs to be formatted HFS+ in order to work based on this article: https://help.apple.com/photos/mac/1.0/?lang=en#/pht211de786
2. Create a new library on your internal drive
3. Make that library your System Photo Library in Photos Preferences
4. Turn on iCloud Photo Library and set the preference to 'Optimize Mac Storage'
Doing this will no longer sync the library on the USB drive with iCloud.
iCloud Photo Library FAQ - Apple Support, https://help.apple.com/photos/mac/1.0/?lang=en#/pht6d60b524,

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How can I save the iPhoto library ( ie all current photos) to another media / HD and maintaing the access to it

I am struggling with the export features of iPhoto:
- That is for the mac, (but also for iOs7 on the iPad would be interesting)
1/ how to generate a backup ( from the iPhoto library) -
- just rename it and then copy it to another device / HD ?
2/ what is the recommended procedure, to have several Photo - Collections, ( iPhoto libraries)
and then to switch between them.
Thx in advance

iPhoto for Mac
Back up:
Most Simple Back Up:
Drag the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to another Disk. This will make a copy on that disk.
Slightly more complex: Use an app that will do incremental back ups. This is a very good way to work. The first time you run the back up the app will make a complete copy of the Library. Thereafter it will update the back up with the changes you have made. That makes subsequent back ups much faster. Many of these apps also have scheduling capabilities: So set it up and it will do the back up automatically.
Example of such apps: Chronosync - but there are many others. Search on MacUpdate or the App Store
Switching between Libraries:
Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'
or
File Menu -> Switch to Library
or
Double click on your preferred Library.
There is no recommendation to have multiple libraries. They're inconvenient.
iPhoto for iOS:
The iPhoto for iOS forum is here
https://discussions.apple.com/community/app_store/iphoto_for_ios
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 my Iphoto library to an external hard drive?

How do I move my Iphoto library to an external hard drive?

Here's a worflow for that:
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 do I rename the iphoto library on one computer before importing it to another location with other iphoto libraries?

How do I rename the iphoto library on one computer before importing it to another location with other iphoto libraries?

How do I rename the iphoto library on one computer before importing it to another location with other iphoto libraries?
Quit iPhoto.
Select the Library in the Finder, click the name, and edit the name like for any file.

How do I move my iphoto library from one external hard drive to another?

how do I move my iphoto library from one external hard drive to another?

Drag it there in the Finder and then launch iPhoto with the Option key held down. Point it to the new instance of the library.
(58012)

How do I access my iphoto library on time machine backup external drive using Lion, originally saved from old computer and system

how do I access my iphoto library on time machine backup external drive using Lion, originally saved off old computer and system. It's not letting me open the folder???

Once again here's how to restore an iPhoto Library from Time Machine:

How do you move your iphoto library to an external hard drive--step by step because I dont even know the basics--Help!

I have no more space on my hard drive and my computer keeps freezing. I would like to move my 10,000 photos from IPHOTO to an external hard drive but dont know how to do it. I am reading answers to similiar questions but dont know how to do even the simplest instructions like "after you quit Iphoto how do you copy the iphoto library from our pictures folder to the external disk????" Ugghhh I have no idea how to do this. Please help a busy mom of three who sits here for an hour and just spins her wheels!!!

Make sure the external drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled), quit iPhoto, drag the iPhoto library to the external drive, depress the option key, launch iPhoto and use the select library command to select the iPhoto library on the external drive
Fully test the library. Once you are sure it is totally ok delete the old library - test one more time prior to emptying the trash
Check and make sure that your backup system is backing up yor external drive
LN

Importing from an iPhoto library only half appear in the application but half are left in the library,how to move on?

when I import from an upgraded iPhoto library half the photos appear in the application but half are left in the library. How do I get my iPhoto to show all the photos?

Thank you this. It is the version that came with Yesomite which asked me to upgrade the file from an earlier version of iPhoto 6. This did and it it rebuilt the Library. when I came look at the photo on the latest iPhoto only half go them appeared. I was opening the library that comes from the choice when you hold down command and option keys at the applecation start up. The other photographs were in the updated library but did not appear on the screen in the application window. They are present in the library but not showing in the application. IS that I have not given the time for them to load? This seem unlikely however. Thanks again

How to import iPhoto Library into the new Photo app

Hello so, my Mac just updated to the new Photo app. but how to I get my iPhoto Library over? I didn't get the option to import my iphoto library over there. it is really annoying me, since I dont want to use the new app before I know to import over.

You don't import, you just open the library with the new app.
Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch Photos. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'

How do you export your iphoto library from a mac air to an external hard drive to free up space on the mac air

how do you export your iphoto library from a mac air to an external hard drive to free up space on the mac air

Go to Pictures folder and copy the library to the external drive. Then, open iPhoto holding Option key and select the library in your external disk. Finally, delete the library on Pictures

How can I import my old iPhoto library into my new version of iPhoto?

Just purchased new iMac and am trying to import my old iPhoto library, but keep getting Unreadable Files message. I have the library file and see that it shows up as an iPhoto Library under the Kind column.

Now that you're tried to open the correct library once see if you can perfor the following: apply the two fixes below in order as needed:
Fix #1
Launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
Since only one option can be run at a time start with Option #3, followed by #4 and then #1 as needed.
Fix #2
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
1 - download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
2 - click on the Add Library button, navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
3 - Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the File ➙ Rebuild Library menu option.
4 - In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
5 - Click on the Create button.
Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments. However, books, calendars, cards and slideshows will be lost. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.

How do I import and old iPhoto library?

Hi all,
I recently had to send my macbook back to apple when it kernal panicked on me and eventually broke. I'm now reinstalling everything and I can't seem to import my old iphoto library in iphoto 06.
I can see the old library on my backup drive but I can't select it to import!
Any advice would be appreciated!

Morganator
Don't import it under any circumstances. If you do then each of the versions of your pics get treated as individual images and you end up with a mess.
To restore the library: Put it in the Pictures Folder or where ever you want it. Hold down the option (or alt) key when launching iPhoto. From the resulting dialogue select 'Choose Lbrary.' Then navigate to the library location. If iPhoto sees a valid library then it will open it.
Regards
TD

How can I restore an iPhoto library from Time Machine (ML) - when I TM doesn't see the backup??

Hi,
I recently did a Time Machine backup of my MacBook Pro (Mountain Lion) onto an external HDD. Around the time of the last backup, my system was behaving funny so I decided to rebuild the OS X.
Because the last TM backup was of a system that as mentioned, was somewhat 'unstable', and I only had a few backups available (didn't have TM running too long beforehand) - I decided not to use TM to 'restore' my system. I just did a clean install of ML and planned on pulling files over manually. I'd done this before and it worked a treat.
This time ran into a snag. The backup disk TM used was an external HDD which I wanted to upgrade (suffice to say it works fine). So, I needed to move the backup.backupdb directory to my other HDD. The copy seemed to work fine ... so far so good.
I installed the new ML OS on my MacBook Pro and that was fine too. I was able to pull most of my files over by going into the TM backup and copying what I needed.
BUT, for some reason, this didn't work for the iPhoto library?
Alas, I found that you need to do a 'restore' iPhoto library file from whithin TM. So I fired up TM and noticed that it didn't recognise the old backup file located on the HDD. I.e. when I turned on TM, pointed it to the external HDD (where I copied the previous backup to), it started a fresh backup.
So ... my question is - "How do I restore the iPhoto library if I can't get to it from TM?"
Thanks in advance to anyone that can help! The last 15 years of photos are stored in this library!

Hi ...
I've found a solution to my problem.
Time Machine locates extenal HDD backups differently depending if they were done via a network or via a USB/FireWire/Thunderbolt connection.
My initial backup was done via a direct Thunderbolt connection. I ran into the above issue b/c the second time when I tried looking for the backup file the HDD was conencted to my iMac and I was accessing it via a network conenction.
I simply connected the drive directly to my MacBook pro and ... voila. I was able to see the backup, select the iPhoto library and begin the restore.
Hope this helps.
BTW - I found this out by reading the 'blue box' selection on this page: http://pondini.org/TM/E2.html
(Thanks goes to Pondini!)

I own a MacBook Pro and an iMac. How can I copy my iPhoto library from my MacBook to the iMac?

I own a 13" MacBook Pro and a 27" iMac and I have different iPhoto libraries for each one of them.
How can I copy the iPhoto library from the MacBook to the iMac without losing the pictures I have on the iMac library?
Is it possible to merge the libraries?
Can I do this without using an external HDD? (e.g. connecting them through an ethernet cable?)
Thanks for your help!

1. By eirher a: renaming one of the Libraries or b: copying them to another folder
2. If you have Aperture 3.3 or later and iPhoto 9.3 or later you can merge libraries with Aperture.
Otherwise the only way to merge Libraries is with the paid ($20) version of iPhoto Library Manager
3. Yes.

How to import external HDD iPhoto library to internal storage Photos+iCloud

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