Iphoto 6 external drives

Aloha,
I am just moving to mac from PC and am concerned about using iphoto with an external drive. Will this mess up the applications, do i need a 3rd party library manager?
a. iphoto buddy
b. iphoto library manager
if so why and which one?
I have read the threads but am confused when need these applications with iphoto6.
Any advice welcome.
thanks
macbook Mac OS X (10.4.7)

nayrsmith:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. There's no problem with having your iPhoto library folder on an external HD and running it from there. See Moving iPhoto Library Folder to a New Location.
The only reason you'd need either iPhoto Library Manager or iPhoto Buddy is if you had more than one iPhoto Library and wanted an easy way to switch between the two. If you only have one library then you don't need them.
Just be sure the external HD is formatted for the Mac, i.e. Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Many drives come formatted for PCs and should be reformatted using Disk Utility.
Do you Twango?

Similar Messages

Dedicated iPhoto external drive

I have recently started to use Time Machine. I purchsed a 2T WD for that. I backed up everything and it seems to be running fine.
Now, I want to take ALL of my photos and movies off of my mac and have them in another external drive 500G)(to save space on the comp). I moved the iphoto library to this second external drive(500g).
My question is: how do I "link" this second external drive(500g) (the one woith the iphoto) to the Time Machine (WD 2T)?
I already have the iphoto library backed up (WD2T) as I never deleted it ffrom the mac (which I will be doing once I am sure I hve a proper back up of my External).
Any suggestions would be greatly helpful.
PS my file is about 300gigs movies and photos.

Time Machine will back up both your Mac and the external hard drive to the 2 TB WD drive if you want.
The critical element here is that the 500 GB external drive....whether it is connected using USB or FireWire to your Mac....must be formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Assuming that this is the case, open System Preferences (gear icon on the dock) and open Time Machine. Then, click Options
Here you will see a list of items that are currently Excluded from Time Machine backups. The 500 GB hard drive will appear here by default.
Click on the name of the 500 GB hard drive to highlight, then click the - (minus) button at the bottom of the Exclusions list to remove the drive from the list of Excluded items.
Now Time Machine will back up both your Mac and 500 GB external hard drive to the WD disk on the next pass.
Strongly recommend that you keep the iPhoto Library on your Mac until you are sure that everything is working correctly. Then, you can delete the iPhoto Library from the Mac and use the iPhoto Library on the 500 GB external as your "working" or "live" library with iPhoto.
When you want to do this, you will need to hold down the option key on your Mac while you click to open iPhoto an then "point' iPhoto at the new location for the library on the external drive.

Best way to set up iPhoto; external drive

HI!
I want to set up iphoto in a way that steals less of my ssd drive space. I will buy a usb 3 harddrive, where I store my pictures. In iphoto I just want a reference to the picture on my external harddrive. But when working, some times I want to delete pictures; can I do this from iphoto, or will I only delete the reference?
How do I make sure that I have no duplicates, when I store files this way?
Ok, how do I set this up; is iphoto the best way?

But when working, some times I want to delete pictures; can I do this from iphoto, or will I only delete the reference?
It will only delete the Reference. iPhoto is not the best way. If you want to use iPhoto the best way is to run a Managed Library from the external disk.
For more on iPhoto and file management see this User Tip:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6361
Aperture is much more powerful in this regard.

How do i use an external drive for iphoto library

I am looking to use an external drive to store my photo library.
Tips

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

I am migrating to a new iMac via TimeMachine back up. My iPhoto libraries are on external drive. I'd like to migrate only the internal hard drive data to the new internal Drive then just plug in iPhoto library drive. Is this going be a problem?

I am migrating to a new iMac via TimeMachine back up. My iPhoto libraries are on an external drive. Both drives are backed up on Time Machine. I'd like to migrate only the old internal hard drive data to the new internal Drive and then just plug in iPhoto library drive to the new iMac. This would save having to transfer several hundred GBs of data. Will this work using Set Up Assistant?

Your user account on the new Mac must have a different UID than on the old one. See the pink box in Problems after using Migration Assistant for an explanation.
You'll need to change the permissions on the iPhoto library on the external HD. Do a Get Info on it, click the padlock at the bottom of the Sharing & Permissions section of the Info window and enter your Admin password.
Then click the plus sign, select the user account you want on the next screen, and click Select. Then change Read only to Read & Write for that user via the little arrows. Finally, click the "gear" icon and select Apply to enclosed items. That may take a few mintutes on a large library.

Trying to move my iPhoto library to external drive

I'm trying to clear up room on my internal drive and so trying to move my library to an external drive. I've copied the photo library to the external drive. How do i point the iPhoto application to this new location so that I can delete the library on my mac's drive. Follow up question, do i need to make any changes with time machine so that the new location continues to get backed up?

1 - Option - launch iPhot
2 - Yes - in the TM preferences under options be sure that drive is not excluded
3 - what format is the EHD? It MUST be Mac OS extended (journaled) to work for the iPhoto library
The general answer including those points is
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

My iphoto library disappeared. i am trying to restore my library from time machine -- from an external drive -- but everytime it tries to copy my library it tells me it can't do it because i don't have access to my iphoto library??!!! help!!

My iphoto library inexplicably disappeared! i am panicked but i do back up by time machine to an external drive and also to JustCloud. I am trying to restore my iphoto library from a back up on feb 28, 2014 and it says it's copying but then gives me a message that it can't do it because i "don't have authorization to access iphoto library"?! what does this mean? i really want to get my library back on my mac. Also if anyone knows why this happened or where my photos might be on my computer, i'd appreciate help with that, too.

Thank you Terence for your help. I was able to restore my backup from my time machine ext drive to a new 1tb seagate ext drive. so i felt sort of ok. but yesterday that older ext drive i used for time machine wouldn't open! i called applecare and they trouble shooted with me and said it's probably a goner and data is probably corrupted. it's only a few years old and i'm very careful with it. my husband accidentally dropped my new drive last night -- i know, unbelievable, i was SO upset, poor guy -- but I'm so stressed with all of this. i have 10 years of photos and videos. so now i only have the one newer drive with a backup. i have to buy another one today to backup again so i at least have two backups. i tried to delete a ton of files last night to free up the 30 gb of space i need to get my full library back on my mac. i have 90gb free and deleted 7 years worth of photos i had on picasa that were in my "pictures" folder and also a ton or random photos and videos i had in that same pictures folder and thought that would give me the 30 gb but it hardly freed up any space at all! do you know why that is? all of this stuff is really a pain and really stressful. thank god i did have a backup in the first place but now i am panicked the one i have left will somehow crash. especially after my husband dropped the drive lastnight! it didn't fall far and fell onto a wood floor and seems fine, but after my older ext drive crashed yesterday -- and i lost my entire iphoto library a fewweeks ago off my mac -- i feel cursed. any answers you have would be great. thank you.

How can I create an iPhoto Library from photos on an external drive?

Here's my issue:
I have a MacBook Pro running OS X Mavericks, and I am just about out of hard drive space.
I also have about 20 GB worth of photos on an external drive. The photos are not organized at all, just got dumped into a folder there during a hasty backup a couple years ago.
I'd like to use iPhoto to get these photos organized, but don't have the space to import them into the library on my laptop.
How can I create and manage an iPhoto library with these photos while keeping them on the external drive? They are on a terabyte drive, so I have a feeling I'd like to make that my main library moving forward.

Check that the drive's formatted as Mac OS Extended, drag the iPhoto library to it, launch iPhoto with the Option key held down, and choose that library.
(114618)

Trying to backup one of my iPhoto libraries I keep getting a error message that basically says that the file could not be backed up because there is another file on the external drive with the same name, etc. There is no other file.

While trying to copy one of my iPhoto libraries to an external hard drive I get the following error message "You can’t copy “iPhoto Library old” because it has the same name as another item on the destination volume, and that volume doesn’t distinguish between upper- and lowercase letters in filenames." There is no other file on the external drive with this name. I have asked this question before and was told that there are some duplicate photos (files) in my library and I needed to go to "show file contents" and look at certain files to find duplicates and delete the duplicates. I did all of this and the library will still not copy and always stops copying in the exact same place on each attempt. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

You've been deleting your actual Photos.
Don't change anything in the iPhoto Library Folder via the Finder or any other application. iPhoto depends on the structure as well as the contents of this folder. Moving things, renaming things, deleting them or otherwise making changes will prevent iPhoto from working and could even cause you to damage or lose your photos.
Best way forward now is to recover the surviving Originals from this library and start over from scratch.
Regards
TD

I have my iphoto library on an external drive, but it filled up. Can I have another library in another external drive and use them both?

I have old pictures in my external drive that I filled up. I would like to make another iphoto library in a new external drive and have this one for new pictures. Can I do that? And how will I be able to see my old pictures on my older external drive? My iphoto is 9.5.1.

Yes. Another way to switch between libraries is with this menu in iPhoto:

How can I merge two iPhoto libraries stored on an external drive?

Today I was in a One-to-One at the Apple Store. I want to merge two i-Photo libraries into one. One library is on my Air, the other is on my iMac. Both libraries have been moved to an external drive. When I try to move one onto the other, they won't go. Yet I am certain that while at the store today, the person there started to merge them. He did not need the library manager software in order to do so. We stopped the merge in order to move on to another issue. Now that I am home, I can't get the libraries to merge. What am I failing to do? Thanks!

The only way to merge two libraryies is to use iPhoto Library Manager which will merge two libraries and keep keywords, titles, faces, places, and other metadata intact.
If one imports one library into another library every image file in the first library, originals, thumbnails, face files, etc, get imported as an original photo. You will end up with a total mess. DO NOT IMPORT ONE LIBRARY INTO ANOTHER LIBRARY!
If you have backup copies of your libraries get them back and use iPhoto Library Manager to merge them.
OT

How do I save 2 iphoto libraries onto one external drive?

Hi
I have an iphoto library on my MacBook Pro and I have an older library of different photos on my graphite iBook.
I'd like to store all my photos onto one external drive.
How can I do this without losing either library in the process?
I actually have the same question regarding music on iTunes.
Thanks
AS

Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Do you want to merge these libraries into one? If so, then you'll need the paid version ($20) of iPhoto Library Manager
It's the only way to merge Libraries while preserving all metadata, versions and so on.
Otherwise, simply rename one of the Libraries (so they don't overwite each other) and Copy the iPhoto Library from the Pictures Folder to the External Disk. in each case.
To choose which library to open: holf down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location.
Regards
TD

I recently upgraded to Yosemite. Yesterday when I opened up the iPhoto (which I have it in my external drive due to the size of file) I get the message that it is not compatible with the new system(or something like that) and ask me to upgrade so I d

I recently upgraded to Yosemite. Yesterday when I opened up the iPhoto (which I have it in my external drive due to the size of file) I get the message that it is not compatible with the new system(or something like that) and ask me to upgrade so I did. Then another message pops ups and asked for rebuilding the Thumbnails. So I clicked rebuild. Next it asked me to do one of three things(I can't remember all of them) so I chose the last one which is to download a photo to iPhoto. Now I only have that photo I downloaded in iPhoto file but not the rest of my pictures. The iPhoto library which is stored in my EHD shows it has 349GB but it only show one thumbnail of the last picture I downloaded after the rebuild process. What can I do to recover the rest of the file?
Thanks for your help.
George Kyaw
<Email Edited by Host>

I recently upgraded to Yosemite. Yesterday when I opened up the iPhoto (which I have it in my external drive due to the size of file) I get the message that it is not compatible with the new system(or something like that) and ask me to upgrade so I did. Then another message pops ups and asked for rebuilding the Thumbnails. So I clicked rebuild. Next it asked me to do one of three things(I can't remember all of them) so I chose the last one which is to download a photo to iPhoto. Now I only have that photo I downloaded in iPhoto file but not the rest of my pictures. The iPhoto library which is stored in my EHD shows it has 349GB but it only show one thumbnail of the last picture I downloaded after the rebuild process. What can I do to recover the rest of the file?
Thanks for your help.
George Kyaw
<Email Edited by Host>

How do i transfer my IPhoto library from one troublesome external drive to a new one?

My iPhoto library is on older external drive that I no longer trust. How do I transfer it to a new drive? If both are hooked up to iMac can I simply copy from one to the other?

Be sure the new drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) and drag the library intact from the old to the new drive - depress the oprion key and launch iPHoto and use the select library window to select the new location as the default - be sure to fully test the new location before trashing the old one if you plan to
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 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:

Iphoto 6 external drives

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for