IPhoto 4 picture sharing

Question

My wife and I both have PowerBooks running OS 10.4. To this point, all of our digital pictures (1000+ images) are stored on my harddrive. We have backed up all the pictures on an external harddrive but are having trouble viewing the images on iPhoto when my wife uses her computer to view the pictures. Also, all the additional information that we have added under "comments" or "title" doesn't seem to stay with the images once they're saved onto the external harddrive.
Is there a way to "sync" photos with iPhoto and use an external drive as the primary storage site? How do we keep the extra information saved with the images?
Thanks

Answer 1

John,
1- you talk about your digit pics stored on an external drive. Well are they within an iPhoto library? (meaning when you backed up your library from internal, did you copy the entire IP library to the external??)
2- having a copy/backup on an external drive, will not make iphoto "share" with another computer unless iPhoto is up and running on your computer and you pointed IPhoto to that "external" iP library.
3- there's no reason (except to save space on your internal HD) to have iPhoto "run" an iP library backup on an external, that you already have on your internalHD.
(the reason to make a backup, usually, is to use that to revert to original (most recent) if your original IP library shoud crash or disapear)
4- you say "use an external drive as the primary storage site?" Not sure if I understand you question correctly. The question is not asked properly, because the answer is obvious. Sure you can use an external as a primary (but the word "storage" does not fit here). If the external becomes your primary, then it is not your backup anymore.
If iPhoto should crash while operating with the library on the external and the library becomes corrupted, then you do not have a backup on the external...., because the external will then have a damaged unusable library, with no other backup in sight to fall back on!!!
that being said,'
If you point your computer to an "external" ip library, and iPhoto is running on your computer, go to share tab in the iP preferences. Select 'look for shared photo' -for your computer to look a the other computer iP library, and select 'share my photos'- to allow other computer (your wife's) to find your iP library. Then if your 2 computers are networked, each library will show on the other computer when iPhoto 4 is launched on computer #2. and vice versa.
hope this answer your questions?
P.S. I strongly suggest to keep one iP library on your powerbook, have iP4 operate it. Then use the external to periodically/(or everytime you add photos to the internal library) do a backup on the external.
About the "extra information saved with the images?"
you say:
all the additional information that we have added under "comments" or "title" doesn't seem to stay with the images once they're saved onto the external harddrive.
the way to make a true backup to an externalHD, is to copy the entire iPlibrary containing all its subfolders (albumData.xml, Data, ...... Modified, Originals,..... Thumb32....) Iphoto needs theses folders to assign the proper "comments or title' to every photo. If you look into the iP library folders on your own, outside using iP interface, YOU WILL NOT see the title or comments. if you penetrate into these folders such as modified or originals. the photos still have their old name given by the camera. IPhoto needs all the items contained into Ip Library, and has to be accesssed through the iPhoto interface. So lauch iphoto4 on the 2 computers, make sure you are sharing in ip preferences. and that should be sufficient.
michel
Message was edited by: Michel Vézina