IPhoto library disappeared while dragging iPhoto to external drive
I have a Mac Pro OX S and iPhoto 11,9.6.3. As I was dragging the iPhoto folder from my finder menu to a newly bought 4 T Seagate,I lost all of my photo library in a second.There is blank box instead! would anybody have a solution?thanks!
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.
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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... -
Storing iPhotos on external drive
Is there a good way to set up an iPhoto Library on my Time Capsule or external drive?
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.
Be sure to use a wired connection. 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.
Regards
TD -
How do I save albums, events in tact from iPhoto to external drive to comply with iCloud limits? Thx
How do I save albums, events in tact from iPhoto to external drive to comply with iClouds limits? (iMac Lion, need to remove 280gb of photos>
Not sure if I understand correctly?
Do you want to move 280 GB of photos from iPhoto on your Mac to an external hard drive?
If that is the case, iCloud has nothing to do with it. You can move your iPhoto library to an external drive to free up space on your internal drive.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iPhoto/8.0/en/6331.html
If that is not what you're trying to do, please rephrase your question. Thanks. -
Trouble using iphoto on external drive
Hi,
I have an i photo library on a WD My Passport external drive and am having trouble getting photos off of the drive. When I select he photos I'd like to export, where I 'd like them to go, and hit okay, I get an error message that says: Unable to create/... what can I do to get photos of the drive?
any thoughts?
thanksCouple of questions:
What format is the external drive?
Select one of the affected photos in the iPhoto Window and right click on it. From the resulting menu select 'Show File (or 'Show Original File' if that's available). A Finder Window should open with the file selected. Does it?
Regards
TD -
I have recently switched from a PC to a MacBook Pro.
I have a large number of documents and photographs on a multiterrabite external drive, backed up on a second multiterrabite external drive.
Both external drives are formatted for MacIntosh. This has been verified by agents at an Apple store and also at Best Buy in two different cities.
This is the problem:
The MacBook Pro will not allow me to cut-and-paste to and from or to click-and-drag to the external drive. I can copy-and-paste, but then I must send the original to the trash, which doubles the time and effort. Is there any way to cut-and-paste?
Also, the MacBook Pro will not allow me to rename multiple documents or photographs. I can click-and-rename a single one, but this is impossibly time consuming. I can batch-rename in iPhoto, but when I transfer the photographs to the external drive, the rename does not transfer.
I’m reduced to using my wife’s Toshiba to cut-and-past, rename, and transfer documents. It works perfectly. Is there any way to do this on the MacBook Pro?
Thanks!
Roderick Guerry
[email protected]Roderick Guerry wrote:
The MacBook Pro will not allow me to cut-and-paste to and from or to click-and-drag to the external drive. I can copy-and-paste, but then I must send the original to the trash, which doubles the time and effort. Is there any way to cut-and-paste?
No, this is a philosophical difference between Apple and Microsoft. Apple believes that it's dangerous to cut a file in case the user never pastes it; in that case the file is lost. Microsoft seems to not have this problem (if I remember Windows correctly) because they don't delete the originating file if it's cut but never pasted.
Even though Macs have a lot of keyboard shortcuts, philosophically Macs have traditionally been mouse-first. This applies to file copy operations. In your case, what a Mac user would do is open the source window, open the destination window (on your second drive), and then Command-drag the selected files from the source to destination window. This is because a normal drag would leave the originals behind, while adding the Command modifier key tells OS X that this is a Move, not a Copy, so don't leave the originals behind.
(In addition there are different rules for drag-copying within the same volume or between different volumes. If you drag between two folders on the same volume, the files are moved. If you drag between different volumes, the files are copied unless you hold down Command to delete the copies on the source volume.)
Roderick Guerry wrote:
Also, the MacBook Pro will not allow me to rename multiple documents or photographs. I can click-and-rename a single one, but this is impossibly time consuming. I can batch-rename in iPhoto, but when I transfer the photographs to the external drive, the rename does not transfer.
Two problems in this case. First, batch file renaming is not built into OS X unless you build something with Automator. However, there are many utilities that can do batch file renaming which you can find at macupdate.com or on the App Store. Since I work with media I often batch rename using one of the media managers I have lying around like Media Pro or Adobe Bridge (comes with Photoshop).
iPhoto is a database front end designed to shield the file system from the consumer and let them concentrate on creativity and sharing. As such it is often a poor choice for managing files directly. When you "transferred the photographs" chances are you moved the originals, not the ones iPhoto edited which are stored in a hidden folder.
Roderick Guerry wrote:
I’m reduced to using my wife’s Toshiba to cut-and-past, rename, and transfer documents. It works perfectly. Is there any way to do this on the MacBook Pro?
There will not be a way to do it exactly like Windows. As described above, there are ways to do it "the Mac way." If it is possible to remove judgment on which way is "better" you might find the Mac way to be acceptable, but of course sometimes we simply prefer what we're used to. -
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 -
I wish to move my iTunes library from my PC to an external drive to make room on my PC. How do I do this?
The following may help: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
Note the following fine print therein:
Note: If you move your library to an external drive, you'll need to power up and connect the drive before starting iTunes. If you don't, iTunes will prompt you to either locate the library or to create a new library (which will result in an empty library). No matter what, it's always a good idea to have a backup of the media you have in iTunes. -
I lost all personal data while installing maverick in external drive. How can I recover lost data?
I lost all personal data while installing maverick in external drive. How can I recover lost data?
If all your files are missing
You may have logged in as a different user, such as Guest. Open the Users & Groups pane in System Preferences. Your name should be at the top of the user list, under Current User. See also this support article.
If files are missing from one folder
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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.
-
Must have done something wrong..
1. formatted external disk to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) - required a partition, but that went fine. Entire new external disk was included in the partition formatted to Mac OS Extneded (journaled).
2. moved iPhoto library to new external disk
3. Holding Option key down, opened iPhoto
4. Choose library feature appeared, however when new library function option appeared and "choose library" selected, the iPhoto folder appearing in the new external drive was greyed out and not able to be selected. Therefore the default library remains the original iphoto library on the Mac.
I've moved the original iphoto library to the trash and then tried to start iPhoto. A message comes up that the iPhoto is in the trash and needs to be pulled out before iPhoto can start (clearly the new iphoto library on the external drive is not being seen.
Can anyone suggest where I went awry? Thanks!Try trash the com.apple.iPhoto.plist file from the HD/Users/ Your Name / library / preferences folder.
(On 10.7 or later: Hold the option (or alt) key while clicking on the Go menu in Finder to access the User Library)
(Remember you'll need to reset your User options afterwards. These include minor settings like the window colour and so on. Note: If you've moved your library you'll need to point iPhoto at it again.)
What's the plist file?
For new users: Every application on your Mac has an accompanying plist file. It records certain User choices. For instance, in your favourite Word Processor it remembers your choice of Default Font, on your Web Browser is remembers things like your choice of Home Page. It even recalls what windows you had open last if your app allows you to pick up from where you left off last. The iPhoto plist file remembers things like the location of the Library, your choice of background colour, whether you are running a Referenced or Managed Library, what preferences you have for autosplitting events and so on. Trashing the plist file forces the app to generate a new one on the next launch, and this restores things to the Factory Defaults. Hence, if you've changed any of these things you'll need to reset them. If you haven't, then no bother. Trashing the plist file is Mac troubleshooting 101.
Then try select it again. -
How do I import ( copy) iPhotos from External Drive that contains the iPhoto library photos.
My old hard drive was failing and with the help of an Apple Consultant, I made a new library ( on external hard drive) and copied all the photo files off the iMac's internal drive to the external drive. Then the iphoto library was deleted from the hard drive and the internal hard drive was replaced.
Photo Storage is the name of the external drive as it is designated for photos only. Lightroom recognises the drive but does not see any of the photos. It says no photos available? Is there something I am missing.Import is just a word for copying photos from the phone to a computer and not that different than what I do in Windows -- although I haven't compared the speed on a large number of photos. If you are importing and using iPhoto, you might try doing it with Image Capture which will allow you to copy them directly to an external drive. It may be faster than doing it to iPhoto but I haven't compared the speed. Instructions from http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4083 are shown below.
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. -
IPhoto Library file partially copied to an external drive
Hi,
I tried to copy my iPhoto Library file to an external drive. The file is about 8GB and when I copied the file to the external drive, it stopped copying up to 277MB. The message from the finder indicates that the "operation can't be completed because an item with the name "iPhoto Library" already exists. I deleted the file from my external drive and empty trash so the file shouldn't be there. I also created a new folder for the destination and still the same problem. It stops copying up to 277MB. Very strange. Now I can't backup this file.
Thanks for your help.Was having the same issue. Noticed that Time Machine was running. Stopped that and I was able to copy the file over. Another suggestion that I saw was in the link below.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10132724� -
IPhoto keeps "dropping" my library that's located on an external drive
iPhoto can't seem to hold on to my external Western Digital drive.
My iPhoto library is located on the drive (connected via USB). When I launch iPhoto, it loads up all my photos from the library, and they look fine. But if I try to print a photo and/or start moving around within the library in iPhoto to view other images, every thumbnail goes black and I get messages that iPhoto must quit, and that a device (the external drive) was removed improperly. This happened like five times in a row.
I've checked the power and USB cables, and I'm pretty sure they're not the problem.
When I unplug and replug the USB cable, the external drive remounts. When I launch iPhoto again, it prompts me to select my library. Then all the photos are back, at least until the next time I start printing photos or moving around in the library.
This problem only came up when I moved to the new Mac Mini and new iPhoto (I had other iPhoto problems on my old MacBook, which I also ran from a library on the external drive, but I didn't have this problem).
I need iPhoto to quit dropping the external drive -- any ideas? Thanks.Most likely cause: A damaged USB port on either the Mac or the Disk, or a faulty cable. To check for this try a variety of each.
When the drive dismounts, is it gone from the Finder too? If so, it supports the Hardware theory.
Less Likely but also possible: what format is the External Drive? iPhoto requires a drive formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Regards
TD
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