IPhoto File System

I thought this was a pretty simple process.
I heard that you can make it so that when you import photos into iPhoto it will leave the pictures and/or folders in their original file system and NOT import them into iPhoto's file system.
I was really excited about this because I HATE how iPhoto organizes photos...I can never find one if I look for it in Finder.
So I unchecked the button under Advance so that I could keep my own file system/organization.
I cleared out all the photos from iPhoto and deleted all files in the iPhoto Library folder.
I have several folders, about 15, which have names such as "My Birthday" or "Sister's Birthday" and corresponding pictures in the folders. These folders are inside one folder on my Desktop.
I thought that if I simply dragged that single folder into the iPhoto window it would import all the folders, BUT KEEP THEM THERE. I thought that it would use that folder as reference.
But this did not happen. It still copied all the photos into iPhoto's goofy file system/organization.
Please tell me there is a way to do what I want and that I'm not misunderstanding this feature.

Thanks that cleared a few things up.
I imported that single folder off the desktop into iPhoto. Now if I go into my iPhoto library and into Originals I'm presented with the year and if I go into a specific year then I can find all my files easily...in my own file organization.
The year thing is no big deal, even though one year says 1969. I can deal with it.
However, each individual picture files is now an alias.
The whole reason I wanted to do this from the beginning was to:
1) Get MY photos in MY own organization.
2) Save disk space
You see, because I don't like iPhoto's organization at all I've been keeping two different "libraries".
I have the folder on my desktop with ALL the pictures in MY own organization.
Then in iPhoto I have ALL the same photos, but in iPhoto's organization. I don't use iPhoto for editing at all so I never get confused about whether iPhoto or my desktop folder has the newest version.
So a quick run through:
I'll have taken picture with my digital camera. I pop the card into the reader and copy the files into the desktop folder and name/organize them etc. Then I will copy that folder into iPhoto.
The resultant is I have my own "library" on my desktop to quickly access photos and then I have the same exact photos in iPhoto, but where I can easily mail them and show them off.
Do you understand how I have this set up...? I know it's a little confusing.
As you can see have these two libraries double disk space. So I want to only have the iPhoto library, but in my OWN file organization so that I can find it easily.
Now back to the alias thing...
It seems if I delete the folder off the desktop then the alias will be looking at nothing and then I won't have any photos. yikes!
Hopefully you followed this.
All I want it to be able to use iPhoto, but have its library so that I can organize it.
Thanks again. Major points for you if you can help me some more.

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IPhoto file system problems (unique)

A while ago I moved all my pictures from a 2007 MacBook to a 2006 iMac. I bought the iMac from the school I attended and it was running an older version of iPhoto. Instead of "Events" they were "Rolls." Anyway, I've since updated to iPhoto '11 9.2.1. On my MacBook I frequently opened the iPhoto library to access photos for emailing or uploading rather than going through iPhoto. I've never modified any folders or photos or anything else within the file system, only in iPhoto. Ever since I updated iPhoto, however, something strange has occurred. The file tree used to mimic the events in iPhoto so it was easy to locate the pictures I wanted. Now, it is very confusing. All previous events from my MacBook are the same, but new photos aren't. After importing photos and organizing them into events, the file system doesn't reflect it. Instead, my photos within the file system are all over the place. The organization is based on the date of importing and not the events in iPhoto which frustrates me to no end since I am a bit OCD with file organization. Anyway, does anyone know what I can do? It drives me crazy. In iPhoto itself, the photos are organized by event exactly like I want. In the file system in Finder, however, it is not. You might ask why I care.... I just do. Obviously something is wrong and/or different than before.
If this has been answered before, I apologize. I've tried to do some research so if you know where, just point me in the right direction. Thank you SO much for any help!

Answered here: https://discussions.apple.com/message/8925249#8925249
Unfortunately I couldn't find it until I asked it and it was suggested on the sidebar. Sorry everyone!

Reloading iphoto library and streamlining iphoto file system.

I had a hard-disk failure recently, and lost a lot of photos: basically all the full size files. Only the thumbnails remained on the system disk, so when I had the new drive installed, the engineer made these the iphoto library.
Fortunately, I had most of my photos backed up on a separate harddrive (in the 'originals' folder). What is the best way of putting these into my iphoto library in place of the thumbnails already there? (ie, don't want to see both in iphoto).
I'd put the iPhoto library on the separate hard-disk, but unbeknownst to me, about a year ago, iPhoto began saving imports on the system drive again, so these were the pictures I lost.
On another point, since I installed iphoto 6, the location of photos has become confusing, with the whole photo library pre-iphoto 6 duplicated in a folders called 'Originals' and 'Data'. Neither of these maintain the original easily navigable and logical date hierarchy file structure, but have saved all photos in a folder marked 2007, by roll number. The date folders which remain only contain a 'data' folder containing .attr files. Not very practical.
In short the whole thing is a mess: for some photos the system has saved 5 copies in various places.
Is there anything that can be done to consolidate the iPhoto library and put it back on a date-based filing system?

raggabishp
To start at the end:
Is there anything that can be done ... put it back on a date-based filing system?
No, once you use iPhoto 6, that's the file system. But it's not that difficult to follow: A Note about the iPhoto Library Folder:
In this folder there are various files, which are the Library itself and some ancillary files. Then you have three folders
Originals are the photos as they were downloaded from your camera or scanner.
(ii) Modified contains edited pics, shots that you have cropped, rotated or changed in any way.
This allows the Photos -> Revert to Original command - very useful if you don't like the changes you've made.
(iii) Data holds the thumbnails the the app needs to show you the photos in the iPhoto Window.
Finding the Picture file is easy: There are three ways (at least) to get files from the iPhoto Window.
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.
Rolls in the iPhoto Window correspond exactly with the Roll Folders in the Originals Folder in the iPhoto Library Folder. You can move photos between Rolls, you can rename rolls, edit them, create them, as long as you do it via the iPhoto Window. Check out the Info Pane (wee 'i', lower left) the name and date fields are editable. Edit a Roll Name using the Info Pane, the Roll Folder in iPhoto Library Folder/Originals will also have the new name.
So the structure is different, but - especially if you use the Film Rolls view - very straightforward.
There is no easy way to rid yourself of these 'thumbs become originals'. If the thumbs have the same filenames as the Originals, then you could overwrite the thumbs with the Originals, but you would need to do that on a file by file basis, I'm afraid.
Other than that, compare the full size pics with the thumbs and trash the duplicates is all I can suggest.
Regards
TD

IPhoto The library could not be opened because the file system of the library's volume is unsupported.

Have Yosemite installed on both my MBA and Mac Pro. iPhoto 9.0 running well on the MBA but when I tried opening iPhoto on my Mac pro get the message "The library could not be opened because the file system of the library's volume is unsupported." This is after I upgraded iPhoto.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

While holding down the command & option keys boot into iPhoto and have it repair the Library. If that does not work then download "Library Manager" and have that program work. I found that better than the Apple program.

Trying to make a iPhoto Library on my external hard drive but I get "the library could not be opened because the file system of the library's volume is unsupported.

Trying to make a iPhoto Library on my external hard drive but I get "the library could not be opened because the file system of the library's volume is unsupported." I reformatted my hard drive to ExFAT because I want to be able to use it on PC and MAC.
iOS: 10.10.1
Mac Book Air
External: WD 500 GB recently reformatted (no files on it currently)

The iPhoto library must only be on a volume formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) - it can not be on any other format drive
LN

Unsupported File System Error When Trying To Upgrade iPhoto Library on QNAP

I upgraded to iLife11 from iLife08. My iPhoto Library is stored on a QNAP server and has worked just fine for many years. When iPhoto[9] tries to upgrade the library it gives an error "The library could not be opened because the file system of the library's volume is unsupported."
Other iLife11 applications such as iMovie recognize files from the QNAP just fine.
I have tried moving the original iPhoto Library into another folder and then creating a new library on the server but get the same message.
I have upgraded to iPhoto 9.0.1 already.
Any ideas?
Appreciation In Advance.

my NAS backup is going to see the whole disk image as a 'new file' and
I don't think that will be the case if you use a sparse bundle disk image.
+A sparse bundle is essentially the same as a sparse disk image. The difference is that a sparse image is one giant file on your disk and a sparse bundle is lots of small files (8 megabytes each). They work and look the same way, but you can right-click on a sparse bundle, select "show package contents" and see the individual 8 meg sections.+
If the backup software can do incremental backups and work on packages I think it will work on the sparse bundle disk image. Might be worth a try.
Happy New Year

A "genius" at an Apple store told me to delete the photos from my documents folder and trash them and I would still be able to keep them in iPhoto. Now I cannot use the photos other than in the iPhoto file. Can this be undone?

How can I retreive deleted iPhotos which were deleted from the documents and trash files? I stupidly did this because a "genius" from Apple Store assured me that I would still have access to the photos.

Check iPhoto's Advanced preference pane to see if it's set to a referenced or managed library;
If it's set to a referenced library you photos are gone.
If that's the case they might be able to be recovered with a file recovery app like SubrosaSoft FileSalvage. It will run in demo mode so you can see if it can recover your photos before having to purchase it. Use the iMac as little as possible till them so as not to overwrite them.
If it's set to a managed library launch iPhoto with the Option+Command keys held down and rebuild the library's databse file.
What verson of iPhoto and system are you running?
OT

How can I transfer iPhoto files from one admin user to another on the same Mac?

i created a new admin user on my computer, so now my husband has one and so do i. how can i transfer our iphoto files from his admin user to mine as a shared file? i was able to do this with itunes easily but i am not able to do it with iphoto.

You want to share the Library?
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.

IPhoto9: "library could not be opened because the file system of the library's volume is unsupported."

Can please anyone help me with this issue.
After upgrading from iPhoto8 to iPhoto9 my library won't open anymore. I have stored all my pictures on a NAS (Buffalo Link Station Duo). It all worked fine but since upgrading to iPhoto9 I do have the following problem:
When opening iPhoto I receive a message that the library needs to be updated. I assume that iPhoto should just do this sort of automatically in order to upgrade to iPhoto9.However, next message I receive then is
"The library could not be opened because the file system of the library's volume is unsupported."
Apple support so far does not seem to be able to solve my issue. Anyone else having had the same issue and having a solution to this?
Thanks a lot for your help.

There is no solution.
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.While you have been lucky to date, many folks with a library on a NAS found that it worked for a while and then the problems started.
Workaround: Put the Library on a Disk Image formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and store that on the NAS. But the real solution is to use a properly formatted disk for the Library.
Regards
TD

Camera attached with USB - How to access the flash file system?

OK...this is maddening for someone that is so used to using a Windows file system that can be enumerated on any device, whether a hard disk or attached USB flash device. All I want to do (at this moment) is see the file system on the flash in my camera so I can delete certain images. None of the Leopard utilities seem to be able to access this as a "device". Perhaps this can be done from the terminal with Unix/Linux commands...not something that I want to do.
Can someone help me?
Thanks.

Scott Radloff wrote:
This has more to do with the camera than OS X. Some cameras use communication protocols that do not play well with the Finder. For these cameras, support is built into iPhoto.
It is also built into the included Image Capture utility, which is more flexible than iPhoto in some ways for simple downloads. You can preview and select individual pics, and set the folder where the pictures go.
Terence Devlin wrote:
Almost all Canon and some Kodak cameras refuse to mount in the File System. It’s a characteristic of the brands.
In the case of Canon it is lack of support for USB Mass Storage which almost all other brands do. But as stated it is much better and safer to use a card reader instead of the USB cable. A card reader always shows up on the desktop for drag-and-drop.

File system chaos; how to backup and restore one's home folder??

My young son managed to drag the desktop icon from the hard disk to the trash. I dragged the desktop out of the trash but the file system on the hard disk seems to be whacked: iphoto, itunes were unable to find their libraries (I solved this though), and other apps seem to suffer the same problem as well. I'm guessing my best option is to reformat the disc and reinstall OS 10.4.7 but I want to make sure that I get all documents, files, etc. from my home folder. Can I simply drag that folder to an external drive, perform the reformat/reinstall and then drag the home folder from the external drive back? What is the best way to proceed?

There are some article by Apple on Disk Utility, and you do not want to always use the Install Disk to repair your drive if the version is earlier. You'd be better off with fsck in single user mode.
You can repair permissions from any boot drive running Tiger, as it looks in the /Receipts regardless (unlike 10.2 which had a messed up method).
As for finding all the files to backup - I would use Disk Utility Restore, then backup the whole volume to a blank partition on your FW drive. And while at it, setup an emergency boot volume for OS X that you can use for repairs in the future.
And maybe create separate accounts, then backup those accounts, and limit what others can or cannot do.

I am on 10.6.8, after trying Yosemite. Now I can't access my iPhoto file

i am on 10.6.8, after trying Yosemite. Going back was troublesome. I had to reload my apps from Snow Leopard disk. Now I can't access my photos from iPhoto file. (iPhoto won't open.) It says I must update. The only available iPhoto is for Yosemite.

a suggestion for the future - do a bootable clone of your system prior to upgrading - then is is as simple as cloning back to your boot drive and you are instantly in business
Since you did not do this your choices are:
1 - restore your backup of the Photo library from before you upgraded (assuming hat you have reloaded the same version of the application that you had
2 - Use iPhoto Library Manager - http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/ - to downgrade your library - see section 10.4 o the IPLM help page - http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/Help/table%20of%20contents.html
3 - start over with a new library and import your original photos from the Masters folder of your upgraded library
LN

Warning: SUID file "System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAg ent" has been modified and will not be repaired.

Having had awful trouble with my iphoto app. to the point where it just crashes all the time and won't syncronise with my ipad or iphone and I just can't open it, I've been trying to fix it unsuccessfully. So I trashed the iphoto file after extracting the raw images inside. I then did a 'repair disk permissions' using disk utility and got the above warning. Can anyone tell me if this is a critical issue or one that can be ignored? Thanks

As long as the report ends up with 'Permissions repair complete' then, as far as permissions go, you are fine. You can ignore the various statements in the report:
Permissions you can ignore on 10.5 onwards:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1448
Using 'should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r--' as an example, you will see the that the permissions are not changed, but the | indicates a different location. This is because an update to Leopard onwards changed the location of a number of system components.
Poster rccharles has provided this description of what it all means:
drwxrwxrwx
d = directory
r = read
w = write
x = executeable program
drwxrwxrwx
| | |
| | all other users not in first two types
| |
| group
|
owner
a little more info
Before the user had read & write. A member of the group had read.
After, only the user had read & write.

File system management when sharing photos/music with other users in Mac OS

I'm a new convert from the Windows world. I'm trying to setup multiple accounts for each user within my household. However, I'd like us to all share the same set of folders for photos within iPhoto and music in iTunes. Is it best to just used the "shared" folder instead of keeping them in the standard home directory and trying to share those folders with other users? What is the best approach to this. I would imagine most people do this for managing their music if not photos as well. Just trying to learn best practice on the file system management before I copy over gigs of files from my old PC.
Thanks much,
champlir

champlir
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. This might help with iPhoto.
There are two ways to share, depending on 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.
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. then:
Quit iPhoto in both accounts
Move the iPhoto Library Folder to an external HD set to ignore permissions. You could also use a Disk Image or even partition your Hard Disk.
In each account 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. 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.
Finally: If you’re comfortable in the Terminal, and understand File Permissions, ACL’s etc., some folks have reported success using the process outlined here . (Note this page refers to 10.4, but it should also work on 10.5). If you’re not comfortable with the terminal, and don’t know an ACL from the ACLU, then you’re best doing something else... Oh, and the warning about simultaneous users still applies.
Regards
TD

File system IS journaled extended

New iMac. And the file system is Mac Journaled extended, but getting the famous "wrong file system" error message when loading up iPhoto for the first time. It is the default settings, so iPhoto Library resides on my harddrive.
Any reason why I'm getting this error message and unable to use this product?

That means your original library is corrupt.
Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one. .
Regards
TD

IPhoto File System

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