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

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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

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 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

How to copy from time-machine backup of iTunes copied to external drive onto micro SD card

del Name: MacBook Air M
Have a new MacBook Air 6.2, Processor:Intel Core i5, 1.4, Memory: 8 GB, HD: 256 GB
It operates OSX Yosemite 10.10.1
I downloaded fresh copy of iTunes 12.01.26 onto the air.
I have a large time machine backup of iTunes songs a previous iTunes libraries (194 Gb)
This is stored on an WD 1 TB external drive using a 3.0 usb cable.
How do I copy a selection of iTunes songs (approx 40GB in size) from the external drive
onto a 64 GB SD card. The card fits with a nifty adapter into the expansion slot of the macbook air.
Grateful to know step by step approach

Thanks for the advice. My time machine iTunes backup includes several previous backups and is approx 164 gb in size. My SD card is 64 gb. How can I restore chosen directories so that it fits the SD cards capcity
Thanks - again

How do i move time machine backup to a new, bigger external drive in lion?

i did some research and cma across severla different ways to transfer my time mashine backup from an old hd to a bigger one. i dont want to lose my backup and i just want to make sure im doing the right thing. also there were different ways of doing it in leopard and snow leopard so now im wonderign if there is another way of doing it in lion, which im usung.
any help is appreciated.
thank you

I would suggest you partition your new external drive and create a 2nd partition that's large enough to hold files you want to off load so you can free up space.
Or if you're using Time Machine, each backup is suppose to allow you to go back in time and restore files that have been deleted or modified since the last backup. So, if you were to start using your new external drive and performed an initial full backup in Time Machine; then delete your iPhoto file and do another backup, you should be able to go into Time Machine and restore your iPhoto file from your first backup. I would still off load the files to a 2nd partition just to be on the safe side and if Time Machine backups were to somehow become corrupted. Any important files, in my opinion, should be backed up in more than one place... just in case.

Time machine backup with 1/2 gig external drive

I use a 500mb external drive to back up my MacBook Pro. It now says I have 15.2 gb free. Can I erase the Passport and start again? It says it needs 277.2 gb for a full back up. I thought of seeing what was my latest full backup and off loaded into my System harddrive. I have checked the box saying to let me know when the old backups are deleted, but I have never been told anything. I am on Mavericks 10.9.4, and have 16 gig of ram.

That means you've backed up more than one volume (what Apple calls a "disk") or machine to the same destination. It could be the result of erasing the primary volume, depending on how you restored it.
Time Machine will delete older snapshots when necessary to make room for new ones, but it will never delete the last snapshot of any volume or machine. So you can end up without enough space for a new snapshot.
You can try to delete old backup folders by dragging them to the Trash, but often the Trash will then fail to empty completely with strange error messages, and you then can't empty it at all without erasing the volume, nor can you put the folders back where they were.
The best course of action is to put the backup drive aside and stop using it until you're sure you'll no longer need the data it contains. Then erase it and start over. Meanwhile, start another backup on a different drive. You should do that anyway, as one backup is not enough to be safe.
Don't erase your only backup.

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

I have a time machine backup file on a USB hard drive. I bought a time capsule / airport extreme, flat 3TB. I wish to transfer the backup file from the usb hard drive to the time capsule hard drive. 10.6.8

I have a time machine backup file on a USB hard drive. I bought a time capsule / airport extreme, flat 3TB. I wish to transfer the backup file from the usb hard drive to the time capsule hard drive. 10.6.8

Unfortunately, Time Machine backups that are stored on a drive that has been connected directly to a Mac are completely different than Time Machine backups that are stored on a Time Capsule.
Frankly, it is not worth the effort and trouble to try to transfer the old backups to the new Time Capsule.....my opinion....having done this in the past.
It is possible though, but I would not recommend it due to the complexity and downsides involved with this. To give you an idea of how to do this, check out this support article.
http://pondini.org/TM/18.html
Even if you transfer the "old" backups over to the Time Capsule successfully, Time Machine will not simply "add on" to the old backups.
Time Machine will make a new complete backup of your Mac and then add incremental backups from that point.
My advice.....start a new backup on the Time Capsule and move forward. Keep the USB hard drive around for a month, maybe 2 or 3 in case you need to go back to an old backup for some reason. At that time, you will not likely need the old backups at all since you will have a current 2-3 month history of new backups. At that point, you can erase the USB drive and use it for another purpose.

Moved my iphoto library to an external drive and now I can't import photos from my camera or iPhone - will only import previously impoted photos - why?

Anyone else had this problem? Anyone know how to fix it?
I haven't deleted my photos of my computer's hard drive yet so can go back to using that if it will fix my problem
Thanks

No that is not a problem and no one has reported it here
to change the library depress the option key and launch iPhoto and use the select library command - see if the behavior is the same on both frives
How did you move the iPhoto library to the external drive?
What format is the external drive?
LN

Time Machine and iPhoto library move

Hi,
I've been mulling over moving my iPhoto library (85gb) to an external drive for a while now to save some space on my iMac's internal drive. I wondered what affect this might have on my Time Machine backup as my TM drive has only 8gb available. Now, I know TM will delete old backups to free up space but I wondered if TM would even see this as new data because I will be pointing iPhoto to the new library, so will TM backup the entire 87gb, or will it see it as the same library and only backup new, or changed data from now on?
I haven't been able to find an answer to this so I just decided to go ahead and do it, and, I'm confused. I now have an old iPhoto library on my internal drive which is no longer used and will be deleted in due course, and a new, current library on my external drive. I included the volume in the TM prefs and started a backup.
TM came up with this: 29/10/2013 16:08:06.573 com.apple.backupd: 192.08 GB required (including padding), 8.14 GB available
Why does it require 192gb? it then preceeded to (slowly) delete older backups, freeing up a small amount of space with each one. After deleting about 15 backups, I stopped it cos I didn't like where it was going.
Then, I decided to exclude the new volume just to see what would happen. This time it said: 29/10/2013 18:16:48.085 com.apple.backupd: 101.39 GB required (including padding), 31.81 GB available
Where has this 100gb come from?
Edit: I have just noticed that I renamed the old library to differentiate it from the new one. Would that have triggered TM to backup the whole library again? Even if that's the case, that's 85gb, plus the new volume, another 85gb, totalling 170gb. So why did it need 192gb for both and 100gb for one?
Not sure what to do now as I don't really want to lose too many more old backups.
Can anybody help me work this out? And, once worked out, will TM allow me to 'go back' in iPhoto to restore from previous backups?
Thanks

Yes I'm aware of the Pondini site and its extremely helpful, but in this case it doesn't answer my question.
To update the original post, I renamed my old library back to 'iPhoto Library' and, I guess, because it hadn't completed a backup of the library with the 'iPhoto Library - Old' name, it the potential 100gb backup reverted back down to around 7gb.
So, lesson learned; do not rename the iPhoto library.
My question that remains is will the iPhoto library on the external drive offer the incremental backups in time that the original library did? Or will I effectively lose all those backups?
Thanks,

I just backed up my photos by copying my iPhoto Library onto an external drive. Now the Library on my MacBook won't open. I can only open the photos if the external is plugged in. How can I resolve this issue?

I just backed up my photos by copying my iPhoto Library onto an external drive. Now the Library on my MacBook won't open. I can only open the photos if the external is plugged in. How can I resolve this issue?

Exactly what did you do?
The correct steps are
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
My guess is that that you have not switched iphoto to use the external drive yet - opttion launch and select libary
LN

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

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 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 to Time Machine backup iPhoto library stored on external drive

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