IPhone 4S Photos directly to an external drive

Does anyone know how to transfer iPhone 4S photos directly to a WD external hard drive without the need to first transfer to iPhoto?

NOTE: I want to be very detailed on what I want to accomplish and what I have tried, please understand why the lengthy, very descriptive, and repetative message. This may even help someone else who may have the same problem looking for a solution.
I tried dragging and dropping the files I have on my iPhone 4S directly onto the WD (Western Digital) external hard drive I have and it won't allow me. I get a a round/circular gray symbol with a diagnal line going across it. I know that when a green round symbol with a white plus sign appears the drag drop trick/feature works. I can however drag and drop documents from my desktop, Pages App and Keynote App but not from the iPhoto App to the external hard drive.
When I plug in my iPhone 4S on my Macbook, instinctively the iPhoto App opens/launches and I can see all the pictures I have on my iPhone on the iPhoto App under the Device tool on the left side of the tool bar that also instinctively opens/launches/appears when my iPhone or even my Camera, or iPod is plugged in.
The only option I know of and am allowed is to "Import" my photos (which is on the upper right hand side of the iPhoto App in a blue tab) and if I do that the picures WILL BE available on the iPhoto App. However although this would be a simple solution I don't want to do this because I have low space/memory. I suppose I could then delete the files but I feel it would be to much work and not as easy, especially knowing that I do have this option when working, for example, on a document using the desktop, Pages App or Keynote App.
The thing is that I don't want to import my iPhone pictures onto the iPhoto App (I have low space/memory), I want to import them directly onto my WD (Western Digital) external hard drive.
If this is happening with my iPhone I would imagen I would have the same thing happen (not being allowed to directly import the pictures to the external hard drive) when I plug in my camera or iPod so I would like to know how I can bypass the iPhoto App to directly transfer my images to the external hard drive.
(I want it to be as easy as it is on a PC when any of these types of devices are plugged in. On my PC when I plug in my iPhone, iPod, Camera, CD with pictures, or even my USB I can simply access them on the "My Computer" program, once I click on the device (Camera, iphone, USB, etc... on the My Computer program) I have the option to copy or save or import my images to any folders or vice versa, I can save photos documents already on the PC onto the these devices (USB, CD, etc...). I want this option on my Macbook. How do I get this option?
What I am thinking could work is:
If there was a way to see any Devices (iPhones, iPods, etc...) under the Finder App tool bar where I can then directly drag and drop or export my iPhone pictures onto the external hard drive (if this is an option that would help transfer the images onto the WD external hard drive?). On the Finder App I CAN see the external hard drive, I can also see my Time Capsule but I can not see my iPhone.
Dragging and Dropping is something that I have been able to do in the past (Before I got my WD external hard drive) when I want to put my pictures from the iPhoto App and documents onto, for example, a USB drive/Pin drive. I can also drag and drop iPhoto pictures when burning a CD.
Why can't I do this drag and drop feature with the WD external hard drive?
If anyone can help me or redirect me in any direction where I can find a solution I would really appreciate it.
Thank you.

Similar Messages

Can photo library be saved direct to an external drive?

can the iphoto library be saved directly to an external drive?

Not "saved" - Moved
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

Backing up iMac and photos stored on an external drive to another ext drive

Hi
I have been searching everywhere for a solution to my back-up procedure. But there are so many different options and scenarios and I am getting so confused. At the moment I have an iMac with a 1TB HD. Very little of it is used up as all my photos are stored on a 1 TB external HD and managed through Lightroom. At the moment I am backing up both drives using Time Machine to another 2TB ext drive. I don't really feel comfortable only using Time Machine to back up all my photos. And maybe that is only because I dont really understand how it works, especially when it comes to overwriting the data (which I have not had to do yet - even though I have had my iMac for over two years and I have about 400GB of photos on my 1TB external drive). What I would like to do (but am not sure how) is have two identical ext drives with my photos on that I can swap regularly and also use between my iMac and my new MacBook Pro which I am getting next week. I want to continue backing up my iMac HD with Time Machine and possibly even have a bootable clone. It would also be nice to be able to carbon the 1TB ext drive to my 2TB drive alongside my TM backups. So I will therefore have two exact copies of my drive with my photos on it. And a back up drive with TM backups and a copy of the photos (in a separate folder or something). But I am so confused about what is the best way to go about this.
Thank you so much in advance for your help or taking the time to read this looong explanation.

Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to another one...
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
Or SuperDuper...
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/
Or the most expensive one & my favorite, Tri-Backup...
http://www.tri-edre.com/english/tribackup.html
This last one can do everything CCC, SD, & TM can do, and so much more.

My repaired macbook now has Yosemite. I have my photo library on an external drive loaded with Aperture 2. Now unable to do anything.

My "photo management macbook" crashed and when it was repaired it was upgraded to Yosemite. This macbook is used exclusively for photos using Aperture 2 (I also have a new Pro retina and an older macbook as well, with Yosemite and Lion loaded respectively). I have my photo library on an external drive and it was loaded using Aperture 2. Now I cannot use Aperture, cannot see photos, cannot upgrade to Aperture 3.6 and so cannot migrate photos to another software package, which I am going to have to do this year sometime.
What can I do to get Aperture working and migrate my photos?

On Yosemite you can only run Aperture 3.6, but that will not run on Lion.
If you want to get Aperture running on your photo management macbook, restore it to the previous system from the last backup you made before the crash occurred, if you have a full Time Machine backup. If you want to keep the Mac on Yosemite, try to restore the older system to an external drive and boot the Mac from that drive, when you want to work with Aperture 2.
Otherwise your only option would be to buy the upgrade to Aperture 3.6.

Move iphoto pics to photo when library on external drive

Now that iphoto has changed to Photos, Im not sure how to import by library. First of all, I had my iphot library stored on a separate external drive due to size. Apparently leaving the Photos library on an external drive does not allow you to share using icloud. Not sure how this is helpful for people with very large libraries. Anyways, after Photos was installed, I switched it to access my iphoto library on the external drive and it converted it from iphoto to Photos, then dumped all my old events into one album. I then tried to set it back to the system Photos library and then attempted to import the photos from my old iphoto and the newly converted Photos library into the System Photos library but it wont allow me to select it. How do I properly move my old events/photos into the system library for Photos? Should my old events be converted to albums somehow? Will new photos added create a new moment...album or what.

Old Toad wrote:
Moments in Photo are the new Events, i.e. groupings of photos sorted by date taken.
When the iPhoto Library was first migrated to Photos there was a folder created in the sidebar titled iPhoto Events and all migrated iPhoto Events (which are now Moments) are represented by an album in that folder. To open the sidebar if it's not already open use the Option+Command+S key combination.
There's a way to simulate events in Photos.
When new photos are imported into the Photos library go to the Last Import smart album, select all the photos and use the File ➙ New Album menu option or use the key combination Command+N. Name it as desired. It will appear just above the iPhoto Events folder where you can drag it into the iPhoto Events folder
When you click on the iPhoto Events folder you'll get a simulated iPhoto Events window.
The downside to the simulation is that the Album/Events can only be sorted automatically by Title. But they can also be sorted manually, either in the sidebar or in the folder's window at the right.
Ask Apple for more sorting options in Photos via https://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html.
What about the other way? Can you convert the old events to moments so everything is organized together?

I am saving a video on iMovie directly to my external drive this video I'm saving is 4 hours long! when i click save nothing happens can you please help?

i am saving a video on iMovie directly to my external drive
this video I'm saving is 4 hours long!
when i click save nothing happens
can you please help?

Michael: are you still using an old version o0f PSE (e.g. PSE V4)? Problems similar to the one that you described are relatively frequent in old PSE Versions ( I was suffering a lot from them)..... and there are quite seldom in newer PSE versions. Unfortunately, I do not remember which PSE Version became much better in this area (was it V5? or V6?)
If using an older PSE version and encoutering often the problem: consider to migrate to a newer PSE Version..

How can I Copy/backup photos in iphoto to external drives smaller than iPhoto library

How can I Copy/backup photos in iphoto to external drives smaller than iPhoto library? I have several 128 GB SSD's that I want to use to copy/backup all my iPhoto photographs for a permanent archive due to stability...but my iPhoto library is larger than the drives (about 234 GB) so it would require two of the SSD's...how best to get the original photos onto the SSD's? I'm running Yosemite and iPhoto 9.6...thx.

Terrence - Can you explain what you mean by data loss? In the iPhoto Library? Or on the copy?
Larry - In what way is each photo "degraded"? Quality? Isn't it simply making an an exact copy, in this case a jpeg, as would happen if I dragged and dropped a different file type? Is there another type of degradation?
I am working on trying to create a correct backup as well (per your instructions) but I wanted to use this as a "put in a fireproof safe" archive on very small SSD's that would never have a mechanical hard drive problem (we've lost a couple over time so aren't real confident in their staying power)...I also recognize that I I won't have newer photos in this archive group but at least it would have 98% of our photos in another off-site location...at least that's the thought...
Thx for your input and look forward to more in your reply...

How do I transfer photos from my iPhone 4S directly to an external drive?

Hi. I can't figure out how to transfer my photos from my iPhone 4S to an external drive without first putting them into iPhoto. I have zero space on my computer and am now out of storage on my phone too. I can't see my phone under Devices in Finder and I also don't seem to have the Application Image Capture. These are all the suggestions that I've read elsewhere in other posts, but nothing has been helpful.
Please let me know if you have done this before or know what to do.
Thanks

Extracts copied from http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4083
You can import pictures from the device using Image Capture:
Connect the iOS device to the computer.
If Image Capture does not open automatically, you can navigate to your Applications folder and open Image Capture from there.
Choose the location to which you'd like to import pictures.
Click Options.
Click the Options tab if it isn't already selected.
Enable the option "Delete items from camera after downloading".
Note: Deleting photos after importing helps to reduce Camera Roll size, and it improves backup and restore times. You may choose Keep Photos if you wish to import the photos to additional computers.
Click OK.
Click Download All.

Can I transfer photos from old macbook to iMac and put all photos on a new external drive without losing any photos?

Had to purchase new Macbook so all devices could sync with Yosemite. I use iMAC and Macbook with iPhone, etc. I have many photos over years and do scrapbooking. I want to preserve my pix on an external hard drive and organize them. I am currently using external drive on iMAC and a separate one on Macbook that is outdated. I use them with TM for backup. Can I transfer pix data only to the iMAC via a transfer cable and then send all photos to new external drive for access and safe storage? I am confused about backup not preserving my photos. Help please me transfer and save my pix and properly set up my external for access. Thanks a bunch!

connie,
I assume you are storing your photos in an iPhoto library, since you are asking in the iPhoto forum?
if you want to store your iPhoto library on an external drive and keep them safe, you need two external drives. One drive to store the working copy of the photo library, that you are using to work with your photos, and one drive for time machine to make back copies of your iPhoto library.
Can I transfer pix data only to the iMAC via a transfer cable and then send all photos to new external drive for access and safe storage?
You could simply plug your new drive into the MacBook and copy the library from the old drive to the new. Then connect the new drive to your iMac and use the iPhoto library there.
Make sure, your new drive has the correct file system - MacOS Extended (Journaled) . See this link: iPhoto: Issues with FAT32-formatted drives
-- Léonie

How do i get my limited internal storage of my macBook Air to use iCloud for photos library now on external drive -- I want to take my photos with me on my macBook Air?

My primary computer is a macBook Air (late 2011). I have two external hard drive attached when I have it on my desk at home. I want to take it with me sometimes and not have to also lug a 3 TB external drive also. How do I get it set up similar to my music library with iTunes Match. The library is on the internal drive, but the media itself is on the external drive.
How do I get the same kind of result as seeing my library on my iOS devices?

I have already turned on iCloud Photo Library and it works just fine for my iPhone. BUT, what I want is for it work on my main machine, the macBook Air. I do NOT have an iMac or other to store the "system" Photos library. I do Not have room on my internal drive for the macBook Air ("system" library is located on an external drive). I don't want to have to lug that 3 TB drive with me. It also will not let me move the library file. The library file is close to 40 Gbytes and I have less than 20 left on my internal drive (and I don't dare let it get much smaller than this)....
Any ideas as to how to do this?
For my iTunes library, I ran into a similar issue, but I simply started a new library and dragged the files (on my external drive) into iTunes. This told iTunes where they were without copying them to the internal drive.
I would think something similar should work with Photos, but I don't know how to do it.

Having trouble exporting photos from iPhoto to external drive.

I am having trouble copying files to my external drive. It is a shared external drive connected through my wireless router. I can copy some photo's to the externaldrive folder and they transfer no problem and some of the photo's from the same folder appear to be transfering but as soon as the copying window goes away so does the photo's from the folder I was putting them to. New to apple so I am still learning the in's and out's and I am sure it's probably something easy. Any help would be appreciated. The external drive I was using on a PC before and the Mac seems to see most everything so not sure if that matters or not. Pic and video's came from same camera on the same day.

is there anyway to transfer direct to the hard-drive?
What does that mean? Do you mean have your Library on an external drive? Yes, that's easy.
I have a network HDD connected to my router
Two issues here.
1. That NAS is not an appropriate disk for an iPhoto Library - 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. Later versions simply won't allow the Library on such devices.
2. Router? Wireless connection? A strong warning: If you're trying to edit the Library (that is, make albums, move photos around, keyword, make books or slideshows etc.) or edit individual photos in it via Wireless be very careful. Dropouts are a common fact of wireless networking, and should one occur while the app is writing to the database then your Library will be damaged. Simply, I would not do this with my Libraries.
To move 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.
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

Help!!!!! iPhoto 11 has ruined my photos stored on an external drive!

I have been having numerous problems since upgrade to iPhoto 11. I moved my library to an external SeaGate GoFlex Network drive for more space. But I just added 22 pictures, got the wheel of death for every one. and then when I tried to find the library, it kept creating multiple iPhoto Libraries. Only one of which has my current photos and the other has all my other photos. How do I get this software to consolidate libraries and to remember that my library is on an external network drive?

What format is the external drive? To operate with iPhoto it must be Mac OS extended (journaled)
How is it connected? For succerss it must be a wired connection - not wireless
How were you "trying to find" the library? looking for a library can not create one
If the iPhoto library is on a properly formatted drive properly connected then having iPhoto use it as the default is simply to depress the option key and launch iPhoto and use the select library command
LN

Can you edit fcpx directly through an external drive?

Hello everyone,
So I've been wondering recently but can't find much in the way of answers on the internet. Are you able to hook up an external drive and actually edit the project directly on the drive through Final Cut Pro x? I have been considering getting a couple g drives with thunderbolt to speed up my backup process but wondered if it's possible to edit right there. Don't know if it's practical or not. Has anyone done it? Thanks all!

Videorock1 wrote:
I'm trying to do just that, but I can't get FCPX to acknowledge any external drive, other than to import from one. The drive I want to use exclusively for FCP projects is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). But it won't show up in FCPX. What am I not doing right?
Are you using 10.1.1? Hard drives don't appear in the interface as they did in previous versions.
When you create a new library, you choose where you want to store it.

How do I move photos from iPhoto to external drive as jpegs (iphoto 7.1.5)

I'm running out of space on my mac so wanted to move all my photos to an external drive. When I export my iphoto library though, they're not saved as individual jpeg files, which is what I want. I basically want to be able to plug the drive into any USB port and see my photos.
Please help me!
You used to be able to find the folders and drag and drop... I can't seem to do this anymore...?!

If you want to move your 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.
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 want to simply export your photos, that's what the File -> Export command is for.
Regards
TD

Photo's On My External Drive

I am planning to create a picture folder on my external drive, when I add the photo's will I be able to add them to lightroom, I already have some folders on my C:Drive/Internal, so, can I use both drives, as I do not want to add anymore pictures to my internal drive.Thanks

Yes, you can add to your LR catalog, your image files that are in your external hard drive, even from a CD or DVD. When you import them into Lightroom, in the File Handling Option, you may choose: Add photos to catalog without moving. I assume that you have already your images in your external hard drive.
And Yes you can use both drives, in fact, numerous drives and LR shows in what Drives your folders are. Hope this helps.

IPhone 4S Photos directly to an external drive

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for