How to manage iphoto library location?

I can have iphoto library either in Mac's SSD (128GB) or external hard-disk. If the whole library is in SSD, it can't grow beyond 128GB or at max 512 GB). If I move the whole library to external hard-disk, I will have to mount it every time I need to look at the photos. Is it possible to split the library between mac's internal SSD and external hard-disk such that favorite and recent photos stay on both SSD and hard-disk and all the photos in external hard-disk? Whenever hard-disk is plugged in, it can sync and show all the photos in iphoto. Is it possible to do this in mac?

Yes. By having two Libraries.
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

Similar Messages

How to manage iPhoto library that's too big for my hard drive

I have a mid-2007 iMac with a 250 GB HD. My iPhoto library is 164GB. Is there a way to move this library off the HD to a backup drive? I have no more capacity to operate with.
O'S X 10.7.5. IPhoto '11

Yes, you can move the iPhoto Library to any other attached Mac drive and it will work fine. Double-click the moved file to launch iPhoto, and it will remember the library location the next time - you can just launch iPhoto normally from that point on.
Delete the original once you're sure the new file works.
You might also want to look at iPhoto Library Manager, which lets you split a large library file into multiple libraries. I think it's about $20-30.
Matt

How to manage iphoto library

I currently have 33,000 pictures in iphoto. How do you recommend managing my library? Ideally I would like to have a separate library by year. Since I have about 5 years worth of photos in this existing library how do I seperate them?
Thanks

ics7
The free way: IF you have enough disk space: Duplicate your library and remove the pics for the other four years... repeat as necessary.
Inexpensive: iPhoto Library Manager
Regards
TD

How to manage a library

how to manage a library? I would like to save half of the library to a external HD, is it possible?

I would like to save half of the library to a external HD, is it possible?
Storing libraries across multiple devices is not supported in iPhoto - you would need Aperture for that.
What you could do, would be to split your library in two libraries, one with the older events, and one with the newer events, for example.
A simple way to do this is
Update your backups, so you have a current backup copy of your system, before you start deleting from your iPhoto libary.
Then connect the external drive and check, if the file system of that drive is correct - MacOS Extended (Journaled). If the drive still has a different default file system, you need to move all data to a different drive and reformat it, see: Format external drives to Mac OS Extended before using with Aperture
Drag the iPhoto library in the Finder from your Pictures folder (or the current location) to a folder on the external drive. This will create a copy on this drive. Test this copy, if it working. If you are satisfied, that the copy went well, delete the events you do not currently need from the internal libary on yor mac. Ensure that the external drive will be included in your backups.
The more flexible solition would be to use the paid version of iPhoto Library Manager. That will allow you to move selected events to another library. See:
download here: iPhoto Library Manager

How to tranfer iphoto library to G/drive mini

How to tranfer iphoto library to GDrive mini/. Can I keep in 2 spot - one in computer and one in Gdrive mini. I recently lost photos from the old hard drive. It's no longer on the computer.

There are some wireless external hard drives that can be used with the iPad.
The Kingston Wi-Drive, which costs $50 for the 16 Gigabyte, and then $30 more for every 16 gigs more. It works by you turning it on and then accessing the files on it from an app that you download on your iDevice. You can access music, movies, and other stuff. No connections or anything, it works like a WiFi connection, you connect to it from the setting on the iPad under wireless networks.
Then there is the Seagate GoFlex, which some would recommend over the Wi-Drive. But this one costs $199 and had 500 Gigabytes of storage. It works the sameway as the Kingston: no wires, runs over its wireless connection. You can actually fit up to 300 HD movies on it.
Another option:
Expand your iPad's storage capacity with HyperDrive
http://www.macworld.com/article/1153935/hyperdrive.html
On the road with a camera, an iPad, and a Hyperdrive
http://www.macworld.com/article/1160231/ipadhyperdrive.html
Mac - How to Move the iPhone & iPad iTunes Backup folder to an External Hard Drive
http://osxdaily.com/2011/03/05/how-to-move-the-iphoneipad-itunes-backup-folder-t o-an-external-hard-drive/
Windows - Change iPad default backup location
http://apple-ipad-tablet-help.blogspot.com/2010/07/change-ipad-default-backup-lo cation.html
Windows - Changing IPhone and iPad backup location
http://goodstuff2share.wordpress.com/2011/05/22/changing-iphone-and-ipad-backup- location/
 Cheers, Tom

How to make iPhotos library available to other users

how to make iPhotos library available to other users

To give others selective access to your iPhoto library, you have the option of using iCloud Photo Sharing, if the privacy implications don't bother you. The images will be stored temporarily on Apple servers.
If you want to give full read/write access to more than one user, see the support article linked below.
iPhoto: Sharing libraries among multiple users
There is a way to share the library without moving it to a secondary volume. If you really need to do that, ask for instructions.

How to manage one library with two accounts

how to manage one library with two accounts

you can only be logged into one account at a time on the iTunes store. However, you can authorize your computer for both accounts, making your computer work with both. In the menu bar just click [Store > Authorize Computer]

HT5037 How to use iPhoto Library Upgrader

How to use iPhoto Library Upgrader

Hello Terence,
sorry that I come here with a completly different thema but I follow your answers since long and they are always excellent! And I do not know who could help... as I can not find the solution in Apple Support Communities.
I am very afraid with my MacBook Pro: midd. 2012
Prozessor: 2,3 GHz Intel Core i7
4GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Intel HD Graphics 4000 384 MB
Software: OS X 10.8.5 (12F45)
Kernel-Version: Darwin 12.5.0
iPhoto 11, Version: 9.4.3 (720.91)
iPhone 4s, 64GB Version:7.0.2 (11A501),
Symptoms:
1. I have notice three days ago that Spotlight allways answers I should go to the web when I look for data in my computer. It seems that Spotlight can not find anything from my computer.
2. Timemachine has no data before the 28th. January 2014 (!?) No idea why this happens
3. In Finder window when I go to "Alle meine Daten"(= All my data) there is absolutely nothing there...it means 0 objekts are there.
4.In Systemeinformationen (=Systeminformations) if I go to Software and then to Programs... there is nothig there because the Plug-In do not react quick enough (Das Plug-In hat beim Sammeln dieser Informationen nicht schnell genug reagiert). I am asking me which Plug-In it is and where to find it...
5. On my iPhone the Photo-stream suddenly shows only 110 fotos from Dezember on, but in My MacBookPro the iPhoto Stream shows of course the lasts 1000 ones...from 25.01.2013 to 03.02.14 as it did allways before.
I am not going to sync anything until I discover what is going on...
6. On my Contacts suddenly appeared the link address of a "game" in my own card ( both in iCloud and Lokal AddressBook)... and I have never ever played an online game (!?). So I deleted this two links as I discovered them some days ago...
I do not know what is going wrong here but I'm afraid to loose all my data in the computer, so I am making a secure copy in an external drive right now...
Could it be a virus inside... a software problem may be...?
The mayor Problem is how to get the programms to work (Spotlight, etc), or how to repair them.
I'm trying to find something wrong in the Protocols I have here, for example
- the Repair protocol for users from 27.01.2012 ( /Users/Begona/Library/logs/fsck_hfs.log).
- the Datasystem-Reppairprotocol from 01.02. 14 (/var/log/fsck_hfs.log)
- the Installationsprotocol from 04.02.14...
but I am really lost.
Thank you very much for reading this, help would be high appreciated
Begoña

My iphoto library, located on time capsule ( +/- 50G) does not load at all after upgrade to OSX to Yosemite ?

Dear all,
I am guessing, this is not the end for accessing to my iphoto (last update) library, my life memories, but after upgrade to OSX Yosemite, my iphoto library, located on time capsule (+/- 50G) does not load at all. I have sent the report to Apple.
I am, worried to save or see my pictures back.
Thanks fo your help.
Clémentine

eurclem wrote:
Hi Larry,
Sorry, for the delay, in the meantime I have restored my previous OS.
But to answer you, basically , I use the time capsule as both a backup volume and an external drive.
It's a 1 To Capacity.
Best Regards,
Clémentine
That is a bad idea
1 - since you have files on the same disk as your backup you have no backup for those files which apparently includes you photos - having no b means it is just a matter of time until you lose them
2 - The TimeMachine backup grows until it fills the volume it is on - when the TC is full iphoto (and maybe other programs) will stop workig due to lack of space
You need at least two external hard drives - one for the iPhoto library (this one needs to be directly connected with a fast wired connection like Thungrbolt, Firewire or USB and be formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) ) and a separate EHD for you TM backup
LN

How to open iPhoto Library copied from Macbook onto external HD, on my iMac ?

How to open iPhoto Library copied from Macbook onto external Hard Drive, on iMac? "Not enough storage??" is message that appears.

How much free storage do you have on your iMac's system drive and on the external hard drive?
And how have you been trying to open the library? Do not import the library into iPhoto.
You simply connect the hard drive with the library and double-click the iPhoto library on the external drive to open it in iPhoto. That will work, if you are using iPhoto 9.6, the only version of iPhoto, that is compatible with MacOS X 10.10.
Or hold down the alt/options key while double clicking the iPhoto icon. This will bring up a library chooser panel. Select your library on the external drive.
If the iPhoto Library has been created by an older version of iPhoto it will need to be upgraded to the new version, and that may require temorary additional free storage on your system drive and the drive with the library.
If the library has been created by iPhoto 7.1.2 or earlier, you need to install and run iPhoto Library Upgrader, see: iPhoto '11: About the Library Upgrader

How to export iphoto library to other location ?

iphoto is taking lots of memory space... how would I export photos to another location, like an external disk?

The iPhoto Library is a SQL database and must be kept intact - you can use it on an external 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 synchronize iPhoto library on 2 macs

I LOVE iPhoto....it and any apple software that is its successor will be how I manage my pictures hopefully for the rest of my life.
But here's the thing.....I have a LOT of computers. And I am very good at making sure everything is backed up. But let's say I want to designate one computer as the master iPhoto library holder....every time I import photos, sometimes hundreds, I make adjustments and assign keywords. I then want to make sure those changes to my iPhoto library exist on my other computers.
The only way to do that seems to be to hook up the 2 computers however I desire (ethernet, firewire 400/800, etc) and copy the entire iPhoto Library file from the master computer to the secondary machine every time. There's no way to tell the secondary machine to synchronize with the primary so that the only thing that gets copied over are the NEW images and all their assigned keywords and adjustments.
Anyone know of a program that solves this problem and can synchronize iPhoto Libraries say across a local area network?
Thanks and Happy New Year!!!

David
You cannot do this. There is no application that will merge the data from the master db file with the data on the client libraries.
The nearest you can come to it is to use iPhoto Library Manager to mve files and associated metadata between libraries, and so keep them up to date, but there is no automation in this.
An alternative is to point all the iPhotos are the same library:
Move the iPhoto Library Folder to an external HD set to ignore permissions.
On each machine in turn: Hold down the option (or alt) key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting dialogue, select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new library location. From that point on, this will be the default library location. All machines will have full access to the library, in fact, all machines will 'own' it.
However, there is a catch with this system and it is a significant one. iPhoto is not a multi-user app., it does not have the code to negotiate two users simultaneously writing to the database, and trying will cause db corruption. So only one user at a time, and back up, back up back up.
Regards
TD

How is the iPhoto Library organized

I apologize if this topic has been covered - point me to earlier discussions if appropriate.
I'm curious about the filing scheme in the iPhoto Library. When I look in the Finer in the Library I see that there are folders by year, and within those folders are subfolders, and sometime sub-subfolders, identified (named) with numbers (eg 8, 12,15). The subfolder numbers do not begin with 1, and thought sequential there are gaps in the numbering. How does iPhoto decide what folders to create and what to put in each folder? There doesn't seem to be much rationale?
Also, one of the folders in each year (buried down a few layers) is Orginals - which seems to have the original versions of images I modified. How to I access those Orginals within the iPhoto (v 2) program?
Thanks much everyone.
Jim

Hi, Jim. A correction to my prior post: Pictures aren't filed by the date on which they were imported; they're filed by their "last modified" dates.
Brie will correct me if I'm wrong about this, but I don't think there's any simple way to determine within iPhoto (v. 4 or earlier, anyway — I've never used any later version) whether an image has been altered or not. You have to look into the Finder file hierarchy to determine that, and it isn't very easy. Every image you've edited in iPhoto remains right where iPhoto put it initially, but as soon as you edit it, a *copy of the original, unedited image* is stored in an Originals folder in the same location as the edited image. So the way to figure out which images have been edited is to look in the Originals folder within the day-month-year folder to which a given group of pictures was imported, and compare the filenames of the images stored within the Originals folder with the filenames of those stored outside it, in the same enclosing Day folder. The images for which there are no copies within the Originals folder are unaltered from when they were first imported into iPhoto. The ones for which there are copies in the Originals folder have been altered, and the altered versions of those pictures are the ones outside that folder. That's all clear enough. What's much more confusing is that the originals of pictures you haven't altered are NOT in the Originals folder — they're loose outside it.
If you aren't thoroughly bewildered yet, I can keep working on you. ;o) But in sum, iPhoto's storage habits are strange and arcane enough that most people never bother trying to understand them, and even those who study of them ultimately find it doesn't do them much good. iPhoto is completely inflexible about these arrangements, so if you want your pictures stored in a folder hierarchy you can readily understand and manipulate yourself, iPhoto is the wrong application for you to be using. I have eight separate iPhoto Libraries for different groups of pictures, and of the roughly 100,000 pictures I've stored in all, only a third are in any of those libraries. The rest are filed according to my own needs and preferences, in Finder folder hierarchies of my own design, and I manage them using other applications. iPhoto is a convenient tool for managing my less important images.

Managing iPhoto Library with multiple accounts

I want to share my iphoto library with multiple user accounts on the same machine. Any suggestions how to do this so when new photos / events are added & created they are accessible to all?
Thank you.

I have another question, do you know anything about using the "referenced library" approach instead? Would this work better?
When you use a Referenced Library you are responsible for file management of your photos, not iPhoto. So when you say "work better", what do you mean?
How to do it:
Simply go to iPhoto Menu -> Preferences -> Advanced and uncheck 'Copy Files to the iPhoto Library on Import'.
What Happens:
Now iPhoto will not copy the files, but rather simply reference them on your HD. To do this it will create an alias in the Originals Folder that points to your file. It will still create a thumbnail and, if you modify the pics, a Modified version within the iPhoto Library Folder.
Some things to consider:
There are a number of potential pitfalls using this system.
1. Import and deleting pics are more complex procedures
2. You cannot move or rename the files on your system or iPhoto will lose track of them on systems prior to 10.5 and iPhoto 08. Even with the later versions issues can still arise if you move the referenced files to new volumes or between volumes.
3. Most importantly, migrating to a new disk or computer can be much more complex.
My own opinion:
I've yet to see a good reason to run iPhoto in referenced mode unless you're using two photo organisers.
If disk space is an issue, you can run an entire iPhoto Library from an external disk:
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library 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.
If you're concerned about accessing the files, There are many, many ways to access your files in iPhoto:
*For Users of 10.5 and later*
You can use any Open / Attach / Browse dialogue. On the left there's a Media heading, your pics can be accessed there. Command-Click for selecting multiple pics.
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!
You can access the Library from the New Message Window in Mail:
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!
*For users of 10.4 and later* ...
Many internet sites such as Flickr and SmugMug have plug-ins for accessing the iPhoto Library. If the site you want to use doesn’t then some, one or any of these will also work:
To upload to a site that does not have an iPhoto Export Plug-in the recommended way is to Select the Pic in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export and export the pic to the desktop, then upload from there. After the upload you can trash the pic on the desktop. It's only a copy and your original is safe in iPhoto.
This is also true for emailing with Web-based services. However, if you're using Gmail you can use iPhoto2GMail
If you use Apple's Mail, Entourage, AOL or Eudora you can email from within iPhoto.
If you use a Cocoa-based Browser such as Safari, you can drag the pics from the iPhoto Window to the Attach window in the browser.
*If you want to access the files with iPhoto not running*:
For users of 10.6 and later:
You can download a free Services component from MacOSXAutomation which will give you access to the iPhoto Library from your Services Menu. Using the Services Preference Pane you can even create a keyboard shortcut for it.
For Users of 10.4 and later:
Create a Media Browser using Automator (takes about 10 seconds) or use this free utility Karelia iMedia Browser
Other options include:
1. *Drag and Drop*: Drag a photo from the iPhoto Window to the desktop, there iPhoto will make a full-sized copy of the pic.
2. *File -> Export*: Select the files in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export. The dialogue will give you various options, including altering the format, naming the files and changing the size. Again, producing a copy.
3. *Show File*: Right- (or Control-) Click on a pic and in the resulting dialogue choose 'Show File'. A Finder window will pop open with the file already selected.
Regards
TD

How to share iPhoto library among users on same iMac without using an external drive?

How can I share my iPhoto library with another user on the same iMac for use with iCloud. I do not want to use an external drive.
Thanks

For iPhoto 09 (version 8.0.2) and later:
What you mean by 'share'.
If you want the other user to be able to see the pics, but not add to, change or alter your library, then enable Sharing in your iPhoto (Preferences -> Sharing), leave iPhoto running and use Fast User Switching to open the other account. In that account, enable 'Look For Shared Libraries'. Your Library will appear in the other source pane.
Any user can drag a pic from the Shared Library to their own in the iPhoto Window.
Remember iPhoto must be running in both accounts for this to work.
If you want the other user to have the same access to the library as you: to be able to add, edit, organise, keyword etc.
Quit iPhoto in both accounts. Move the Library to the Users / Shared Folder
(You can also use an external HD set to ignore permissions, a Disk Image or even partition your Hard Disk.)
In each account in turn: Double click on the Library to open it. (You may be asked to repair the Library Permissions.) From that point on, this will be the default library location. Both accounts will have full access to the library, in fact, both accounts will 'own' it.
However, there is a catch with this system and it is a significant one. iPhoto is not a multi-user app., it does not have the code to negotiate two users simultaneously writing to the database, and trying will cause db corruption. So only one user at a time, and back up, back up back up.

How to manage iphoto library location?

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