IPhoto Library Explainations

Good Day,
I'm trying to understand how iPhoto works, specifically how it goes about creating the files and directories in the Library.
In the Library I have 3 large directories: Data, Modified, Originals. Originals I understand (they are the original un-edited versions of my photos). Modified I also understand (they are the modified versions of my photos). What is the Data directory?
I do have a question in regards to the 'Modified' folder. Why the heck does Apple maintain changes like this? I crop every single photo I take, thus I end up having a modified folder containing a copy of every single photo, and my iPhoto library doubles in size. When I was on a PC using Picasa it just created an .ini file that remembered the changes that were made. I suppose that method does result in slower image manipulation since the program has to reference the file then apply the modifications, but I'd be willing to live with that to cut my photo library size in half. There has got to be a better way to manage these changes.
Can anyone provide suggestions?

In the Library I have 3 large directories: Data, Modified, Originals. Originals I understand (they are the original un-edited versions of my photos). Modified I also understand (they are the modified versions of my photos). What is the Data directory?
The data file contains the thunbnails of the photos used for display
and the iPhoto6.library contains the structure of the data base, albums, books, etc
I do have a question in regards to the 'Modified' folder. Why the heck does Apple maintain changes like this? There has got to be a better way to manage these changes.
That is the way iPhoto works. This is a user forum and we can (often) explain how things work and sometimes provide workarounds for things. NO ONE here designed iPhoto or has any ability to modify it in any way - it is what it is - if you want to discuss your personal opinions of Apples decisions, contact them - iPhoto menu ==> Provide iPhoto feedback
I'd guess that the rational behind this structure is several fold
1 - iPhoto ALWAYS maintains the original so you can revert to it at any time
2 - iPhoto is designed to handle up to 250,000 photos and provide rapid response ON a wide variety of different chips both power PC and intel
3 - iPhoto does non destructive editing so you are never more than one step form the original
I'm not a software designer but I bet that MUCH though was put into the methods used and I know that they work very well - and disk is CHEAP
Even though you believe that you could do it better, you choice comes down to use what is there, use something else or build a better mousetrap and put iPhoto out of the photo business
I use iPhoto
LN

Similar Messages

How to explain. OK 1st all photos are visible in my iPhoto library; however, some are stored on hard drive and some are stored on external. All can be viewed in itunes, but none on the external will sync to my iPad. What's up with that.

How to explain. OK 1st all photos are visible in my iPhoto library; however, some are stored on hard drive and some are stored on external. All can be marked or unmarked in itunes, but none of the photos stored on the external drive will sync to my iPad. Anybody know what's up with that?

What really cheeses me off here is that Apple isn't allowing users enough customization. With each update of iTunes (and the OS and iOS) we're forced to give up something that worked well for the way we want to use the app and make do with fewer (and lamer) options. If Apple keeps this up, they're going to start losing customers fast. I mean if this isn't fixed soon, I'm pretty sure I'm going to give up on iTunes, and then I'll probably go ahead and get a Galaxy when I need to replace my iPhone.
What I don't understand about how they won't let users delete the list of available podcasts now is why? How is this making it a better program? I can understand that not all users are capable enough to right-click on a feed and select "Show all available episodes", so I can see why they want the complete list to be the default (and, surprise, it already was). But to not give users the option to delete that list? It's inconsiderate because it makes navigating feeds with a large back catalogue really frustrating. I'm flabbergasted that no one at Apple considered all the podcast feeds that keep hundreds of episodes available when they removed this feature. It smacks of rank incompetence.
What improvement were they trying to make here anyway? There was nothing wrong to my mind about how podcasts were managed in previous versions. Whatever improvement they were trying to make here, they should have realized that many users would at least want the option to keep things the way they were.
And reverting to a previous version is no solution. I can't sync my iPhone with the new iOS without this update, and (while I do have some issues--specifically how you can't play podcasts in the Music app anymore) I do like the new iOS.

Failure to recognize iPhoto library and failure to import same images

Okay so this one is strange. For some time now every time I open iPhoto is has had to rebuild itself. I took this as a bug and let it do it each time.
Now with Photos being on my machine I saw this as an opportunity to see if it fixed the issue with the new app. I opened Photos and asked it to select the MASSIVE iPhoto library I use. It said it can not open that one and failed after several times trying it.
I then took the step of exporting over 10k images and videos into a folder on one of my drives and then reviewing everything within the files to ensure no bad data or 0k files or anything. All looks good. I can however over and open each random file I tested and it looks okay. So the integrity of the images and videos seem okay to me.
I then also reset the permissions on ALL the files to 777 and the folder to ensure that the system could do anything it wants with them.
From here I tried to import them into Photos and instead of the 10,219 I am supposed to see it only imported a little over 3k and then said that the rest were not readable due to bad (or missing) meta data. I downloaded a meta data editor and tried to batch edit something like the date updated or date created to see if re-setting it with batch may update the meta data to a more modern format and allow for importing. That also did not work.
So here I am with no way to get all my content into Photos and not help I can find anywhere online to work around this.
I am almost tempted to run and PS script to open, process and save each file to get it to reset the information for each image. This seems like an extreme step but I am at a loss as to what to do other than have the system see them as totally new files.
This is also NOT ideal as I will loose any meta data I did have like date creation and I will have 10k files that all think they were made today. Manually sorting everything again into albums is also not very exciting to me but without being able to direct open or import the iPhoto library I am not clear what else I can do.
Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks for posting this because it explains a lot to me as a troubleshooter trying to help other people. No one should be using the guest network feature for their own devices. By default, most routers prevent devices on the guest network from accessing devices on the main network for security reasons. Some routers let you disable that security feature but it's a bad idea if you are letting other people use your guest network.
Furthermore, everyone should have WiFi Protected Setup (WPS) disabled in their router if their router supports the "external registrar" authentication method. That's the method where you enter an 8-digit code which is printed on the bottom (or side) of the router into a device you want to add to your network. You can read more about this here:
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/723755
To the best of my knowledge, Apple routers are not vulnerable to this exploit because they do not support "external registrar".
The major brand with the worst exposure to this problem is Linksys because WPS currently cannot be disabled in their consumer routers (at the time I'm writing this). The situation should begin to improve in March 2012 as Linksys starts to roll out firmware upgrades for certain models. Here's a link to the Linksys firmware release schedule:
http://www6.nohold.net/Cisco2/ukp.aspx?vw=1&articleid=25154

Sharing a single iphoto library and backing up with time machine

Alright,
I want to share my iPhoto library between several users on my Mac. I have found an Apple article that explains how to set up a disk image to store the iPhoto library in. This article is at
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1198
However, implementing as described in this article has a very painful disadvantage described below:
I back up Mac's my hard drive to an external disk using Time Machine. Once I've created a disk image to hold my iphoto library, time machine will now back up the entire iphotolibrary.dmg file each time I've added or changed any photos. Now I have a lot of photos, and my iphoto library takes up 27GB even when put on a sparse-disk-image. So that means that each time I add or change even just one photo, time machine has to write a >27 GB file to the external hard drive which contains my backup. Obviously this is a problem and will fill up even my 1.5TB drive pretty quickly if this continues.
I came up with an idea on how to solve this. I decided that I'd exclude the disk image that contains the common iPhoto library from the time machine backup and create a second library in the home directory of one of the users on my machine. Then each time that I added or edited photos I'd use a syncing application to sync the iPhoto library on the disk image and the iPhoto library in the user's directory. This way the iPhoto library in the user's directory would be backed up incrementally by Time Machine in the normal way, and Time Machine wouldn't fill up the backup disk with huge disk image files that have only changed slightly.
The problem with my new approach is that the snycing program that I'm using (Synk by Decimus Software) has some difficulty syncing the packaged directories like that used for iPhoto libraries. I get all sorts of conflicts and I'm worried that the file syncs will be unreliable and lead to instabilities and data loss.
An ideal solution would be exclude the disk image file from the Time Machine backup and then add the mounted disk image to the backup. I think that Time Machine would then correctly leave the large 27GB file alone and only do incremental backups of my iPhoto library. But I can't see any way to add mounted disk images to the Time Machine backup.
Thanks in advance for any help that any of you can provide.

This is a little more simple that all that.
For iPhoto 09 (version 8.0.2) and later:
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.
No need for dmgs at all. No need for Syncing software.
Note: No Syncing software can run on an iPhoto Library. Period. There is none that can parse the Library database. Attempting to sync two Libraries will lead to damage to at least one of them.
Regards
TD

Move an iPhoto Library to another user account on the same computer - File Permissions Error

I am having trouble moving an iPhoto Library from one user to another. I copied the library to a shared location, then on the same computer I switch to the other user only to find that there is a little red - in a circle on the folder. I am unable to do anything with the folder. I have checked the "Get Info" and permission to read and write is selected for all users. From everything I have read I should be able to just copy the Library to any location I would like and then open the Library on other computers. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Further information: I am running on OSX Lion (10.7.3) with iPhoto 09 (8.1.2). I have my iPhoto Library working in the account of an admin on the computer. Unfortunately I have redundant users on the computer and want to consolidate everything to the original user on the computer, or the user that set up the computer originally. This "original" administrator cannot be delete so I am moving everything from user "B" into the "original" administrator on the computer.

Because I had no idea what I was doing! :-P
I see now that I needed to move the library into the new user's Pictures folder, not import it.
My biggest problem was that I couldn't get rid of that dumb red circle. I think this happened because I just moved the user's Picture folder into the Shared folder before adjusting the permissions. Of course, I'm a bit like a kid trying to explain how the rocket got the moon. I could be mistaken...
Still, here was the work-around that worked for me:
- go into the user with the iPhoto library ("first") that I wanted to move to another user ("new")
- right click on the iPhoto library file, located in the in "first" user's Pictures folder
- unlock the folder and then change the permissions to allow everyone to "Read & Write"
- copy the iPhoto library into the "Shared" folder
- copy the iPhoto library into the "new" user's Picture folder
Because I didn't want two copies of that library, I then deleted it from the "first" user's Pictures folder. I assume iPhoto will just create a new one, which in my case will remain empty because that user doesn't use iPhoto.

IPhoto Library won't show up in Source List.

My most recently updated iPhoto library is located on my main hard drive. Other older libraries are on a couple of external hard drives. When I close iPhoto, reopen and hold down the Option key, I am able to choose which library I want to use. I do so, but the most recent library will only leave the source list on the left of the iPhoto window with no photo. What do I need to do to 'connect' iPhoto with this library of photos? iPhoto 9.2.3

Sorry for not explaining fully. On the source list, everything under "Library" and "Recent" is populated with the photos as they should be. It is in the "Albums" list where all albums are blank (without the photos). That is what is puzzling. Anyone with a solution?

Why can't I open IPhoto library stored on Time Capsule?

Our old iMac G5 was struggling with the 27k of photos on it and couldn't accept a software update, so I have bought a 2T Time Capsule and a MacBook, in the hope that I could copy my music and photos onto the Time Capsule and use the MacBook just to access and use the data.
I've dragged and dropped the music from the G5 to the TC and can get at that ok with the MacBook, and when I dragged the iPhoto library over it took ages, which was reassuring given the amount of data. However, when I try to look at the iPhoto library on the TC, while iPhoto on the MacBook can see all of the events, folders, numbers of images etc, when I actually want to look at a photo, all I get it a black screen with a grey triangle and an exclamation mark.
I've done the 'show package contents' thing, and all the photos are on the TC, and I can see them in Preview.
I've checked the TC formatting and it is MacOS Extended (case sensitive, journaled).
Possible issues:
- is it a problem that the TC is also set up to do backups?
- is it a problem that the MacBook is set up with two users?
Not sure what else the problem might even be...
Help me please, otherwise I'll have to pay someone to come and sort it out and feel like I've totally failed...
Thanks!

I've dragged and dropped the music from the G5 to the TC and can get at that ok with the MacBook, and when I dragged the iPhoto library over it took ages, which was reassuring given the amount of data. However, when I try to look at the iPhoto library on the TC, while iPhoto on the MacBook can see all of the events, folders, numbers of images etc, when I actually want to look at a photo, all I get it a black screen with a grey triangle and an exclamation mark.
Your iPhoto Library is very likely corrupted.
This is an iPhoto issue, so you need to post in the iPhoto support area to let the experts over there offer some suggestions to see if the library can be rebuilt. The link to the iPhoto support area is here:
iPhoto
The experts over there will likely also explain to you why you should never try to use the Time Capsule to store your "working" library with iPhoto.
The bottom line is that access to the library on the Time Capsule is very slow, and if there is any break in communications between the iPhoto application and the library....something that would easily occur using wireless.....this can corrupt the entire library.
You may be asked to trash the current library and use your backup to rebuild things.
In the future, you really want to place the iPhoto library on a USB drive or FireWire drive that is directly connected to your Mac. Access to the library is fast this way and this setup will work well. Time Machine will also backup the attached hard drive to your Time Capsule so you will have backups of both the Mac and the hard drive.
I'll let the iPhoto experts take it from here. Hopefully Terrence Devlin will answer your question, but you might be prepared for a bit of a lecture in the process.
Good luck on trying to rescue the library.

Iphoto library jailbreak crew needed

Help you mac wizards....Iphoto dilema has caused me to post my first question.
I was so excited to find this old post (shown below) that explains my exact dilema. The answers did not answer my question however. Thank you to Nayeli for posting, http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1898201
I thought I was going to lose my mind trying to explain what my situation was. Hopefully you don't lose yours reading all of this. Please scroll down to read the post from Nayeli so you have a better idea what's going on, then come back to where I join the discussion describing my problem.
(A side note, why does apple not give an option to edit the post, i only see "post message" or "discard and cancel." What about EDIT? I had to copy paste it into another program just to revise. When I click discard, it asks "are you sure you want to discard." No I don't but where is the EDIT option? Am I missing an obvious needed feature?)
My photo management is in the same mess as below. Pictures held hostage by iphoto and years of backups that I'm now trying to get out of iphoto and consolidated into a nice, beautiful, joyful, streamlined system that makes taking pictures fun again. Recently I got a new mpb and had been using a powerbook since 04 with 04 photo backups scattered about due to storage limitations here and there.
Over the last weeks, I've committed to cleaning up my mess and have slowly been getting a handle on things. Forums like these are invaluable. I've sorted it out as best I could with 5 different iphoto libraries. (They were originally 5 different i photo libraries, backups of hard drive and external hard drive, poor management and some of which pictures could be overlapping duplicates) All of which I can access in old iphoto format (from old old backups) instead of new 8 that iphoto converted them to that doesn't let you look thru folders without clicking find photo. I want to stop using iphoto and get into something like picassa where you have the benefit of file management but not the nightmare of having your images locked into a third party software program that takes mountains of work to free.
At this stage....i'm trying to do this in gradual steps.
As mentioned, I have 5 libraries, and all five folders in their original old iphoto 4 format so you can see piles of subfolders. I do not want to sift manually through folders to select which ones i want to export as there are 30,000 images or more. When Iphoto launches the libraries, it shows rolls, thumbs, etc.. there are 3 versions of the same photo. If I export, I have to pick, whereas I want to export the entire library and then enjoy the process of sorting photos when I can access them easily outside of iphoto, where I can have just ONE image not three. If I do a sort in finder for jpgs, it also gives me duplicates. What is the best way out of this iphoto octopus?
Apple Care told me to drag and drop the old library into new computer and that was WRONG. Creating the pile of excess files. I deleted them all and started over. Another mac friend said use extractor. That didn't work either. Another friend said use migration manager. Yet apple care said that won't work because old photos are iphoto 4 and new computer is iphoto 8. However due to the fact it "updated" the old library when I brought it into new computer, is it now ready for migration manager and will this program only bring one not three files of each image? If I had known how iphoto program really works years ago, I would have never entered into using it. Another friend only uses finder on her mac to organize and find photos, but I like to have more creative options than that, like what I see in Picasa.
Aperture came preinstalled on my new mpb but I've never used it and I don't know if it traps photos into a similar iphoto program or not. It gives me an option to import iphoto library. Will it import only 1 image, not thumbs, etc.. of each picture and how will it handle duplicates. I tried it just to see what would happen and an hour later, its still stuck on one image saying its importing thumbs. So this is not playing nicely with iphoto either and does import ALL images. So I'd still be stuck sifting out the original photos I want to start fresh from.
Should I first run a photo duplicator program to try and eliminate the excess thumbs and low res files, leaving me the original single image file?
Then I can export the entire library? As I said, I can't select the photos I want as solution was given below to someone in my boat, due to the fact I'm not sure where or what to select. And a manual select of individual photos would take me 20 years. I just want to extract my original photos and get them out of iphoto, where the date taken is intact. Right now, many of the photos in iphoto libraries are totally wrong, going back to 1970. I have spanked myself for waiting so long to tackle this disorderly photo management issue, but seeing now how much work is involved creating a solution, I am greatly anticipating liberation of iphoto and the development and use of a great new photo management system. WHich i haven't figured out. Step 1 is just to free my photos! Freeyourphotos.com would be a great website for someone who wants to develop a site just for great photo management steps, options, resources and posts for people looking for some education on this iphoto issue. Maybe next version will be like Picasa and let you manage photos better.
What exactly is batch change command and how does it work?
I want to start over, with all of my photos in one big photo folder that i can work with independent of anything else. Any tips for photo management comparisons from other high volume photo takers out there?
Sorry for the long post. I will be super grateful for help.
Thanks so much.
Lisa
Getting photos OUT of iPhoto
Posted: Feb 7, 2009 4:46 PM
Hi all,
I used to use iPhoto 4 a long time ago, and then stopped using it as my photos took up so much more space in iPhoto than kept outside of the software library in folders. I had a really small hard drive and no external drive at the time. Then at some point I tried using iPhoto 6... and to make a long story short I now have an incredible mess of photos, some of which exist both in an iPhoto library (either 4 or 6 or both) and in folders elsewhere, some of which are only in folders outside of iPhoto, and some of which are only in an iPhoto library. I now have a much larger hard drive and external drives, and am trying to set order to the mess (it will probably take me the rest of the year!)
To complicate matters even more, I just now accidentally updated one of my myriad versions of iPhoto Library to iPhoto 7.1.4 (the version I have currently installed), and have noticed that you can no longer see the originals folder inside the iPhoto library in the Finder, UNLESS you right-click on a photo in iPhoto and select "Show File", and then you can browse through the folders of the iPhoto Library. I suppose they made this change so you wouldn't mess with those folders and files.
Looking at the folders inside the iPhoto library that I accessed in that way for the library I accidentally upgraded, I see they are a mess...some dates have two folders, other folders say "Roll X" instead of being separated by date, etc.
*I want to extract all the photos that are in the iPhoto Library to folders outside of the program*--just the original photos--so I can
A. Have a backup of the pictures outside of any iPhoto Library, and
B. Reimport all my pictures once I make heads and tails of what is where (or perhaps just have iPhoto reference the originals in folders outside of the iPhoto Library, since I read that is now possible).
My question is this:
What is the best way of getting the pictures out of the iPhoto Library? If I get access to the original folders within the library by right-clicking any photo and then being able to browse inside the library, am I going to have any problems if I copy or move those original pictures directly to a folder outside of the iPhoto Library? Would it be better to export the pictures? Does exporting using "current" under "Kind" give you the original more safely?
Also, any suggestions on how to best have photos OUTSIDE of an iPhoto library organized so that iPhoto can reference them, but your backup is also organized? I'd like to have my photos organized by date in the backup as well, so that I don't have to backup all my pictures every time I add new ones, just add the latest to the backup drive.
Re: Getting photos OUT of iPhoto
Posted: Feb 7, 2009 5:16 PM in response to: Nayeli
Solved
My question is this:
What is the best way of getting the pictures out of the iPhoto Library? I
Select the photos you want out and export them as JPGEs - kind = current for the current edited version - kind = original for the original
f I get access to the original folders within the library by right-clicking any photo and then being able to browse inside the library, am I going to have any problems if I copy or move those original pictures directly to a folder outside of the iPhoto Library?
Copying photos out will not be a problem if you make no errors - for me that is not a good bet - it is best to stay out of yoru iPhoto library
Would it be better to export the pictures?
Yes
Does exporting using "current" under "Kind" give you the original more safely?
No - it gives you the current version which may be the original if no changes have been made or will be the current edited version if edits ahve been made
Also, any suggestions on how to best have photos OUTSIDE of an iPhoto library organized so that iPhoto can reference them, but your backup is also organized?
In the iPhoto preferences un check the advanced preference to "copy imported items to the iPhoto library"
HOWEVER - this is not recommended - it makes importing more complicated, deleting more complicated and makes replacing a hard drive or going to a new computer much more difficult - and it puts you totally in charge of your original photos - being sure that they are there and do not get moved
I'd like to have my photos organized by date in the backup as well, so that I don't have to backup all my pictures every time I add new ones, just add the latest to the backup drive.
Finally, any suggestions on what to do with pictures that you scan so that they appear by the date they were taken as opposed to the date they were scanned? Is there a way to modify the date of the photo info?
Select the photos in iPhoto and use the batch change command under the photos menu - the tiem and date option
LN

Given your post I have to say that your chosen nickname is amusing.
All the folks here who post in response to your issue are other users giving their time for free. Do we really have to wade through 1900+ words just to find out what the issue is? Frankly, after the first digression (and by the way, it is possible to edit posts for up to 15 minutes after you post) I nearly lost the will to live.
It is really better to
1. State as simply as you can the problem.
2. Mention any efforts you have made to solve it
3. Don't editorialise. Don't drift off into side issues.
(See how annoying it is when you've read this far and haven't even got to the answer yet?)
To leave iPhoto is really simple: Select the pics in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export. Set the Kind: to Original. Export to a folder on the desktop and off you go. Exporting will not export "the whole Library". It will export the Original or the Current versions of your pics, depending on what you set in the Export dialogue. There is no need in the world to use a duplicate finding application.
If the Exif on the camera was set to the right date then your Photos will still have that date.
If you don't want to export (why? because that's too simple?) but prefer to root around inside the Library:
Go to your Pictures Folder and find the iPhoto Library there. Right (or Control-) Click on the icon and select 'Show Package Contents'. A finder window will open with the Library exposed.
Ignore the contents of the Data folder, they are just thumbnails. Your Edited pics are in the 'Modified' Folder, the Originals are in the 'Originals' folder.
Exporting the Current version will do the same job.
If you find iPhoto frustrating and difficult to understand then I strongly advise you to avoid Aperture. It's not unusual for an Aperture library to have Originals, multiple virtual versions, Previews and thumbnails.
iPhoto, Aperture (and, I think) Picasa are Digital Asset Managers. They are databases. They treat your original file like a film photographer treats the negative and always protect it. Though they work in different ways, they all will have multiple versions of your photo. If you don't want this use a Photo Editor and the Finder to manage your pics.
For the record:
Your Photos are not "trapped" inside iPhoto;
With iPhoto 7 (iLife 08) the old iPhoto Library Folder is now a Package File. This is simply a folder that looks like a file in the Finder. The change was made to the format of the iPhoto library because many users were inadvertently corrupting their library by browsing through it with other software or making changes in it themselves.
There are many, many ways to access your files in iPhoto:
*For Users of 10.5 and later*
You can use any Open / Attach / Browse dialogue. On the left there's a Media heading, your pics can be accessed there. Command-Click for selecting multiple pics.
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!
(Note the above illustration is not a Finder Window. It's the dialogue you get when you go File -> Open)
You can access the Library from the New Message Window in Mail:
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!
*For users of 10.4 and later* ...
Many internet sites such as Flickr and SmugMug have plug-ins for accessing the iPhoto Library. If the site you want to use doesn’t then some, one or any of these will also work:
To upload to a site that does not have an iPhoto Export Plug-in the recommended way is to Select the Pic in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export and export the pic to the desktop, then upload from there. After the upload you can trash the pic on the desktop. It's only a copy and your original is safe in iPhoto.
This is also true for emailing with Web-based services. However, if you're using Gmail you can use iPhoto2GMail
If you use Apple's Mail, Entourage, AOL or Eudora you can email from within iPhoto.
If you use a Cocoa-based Browser such as Safari, you can drag the pics from the iPhoto Window to the Attach window in the browser.
*If you want to access the files with iPhoto not running*:
For users of 10.6 and later:
You can download a free Services component from MacOSXAutomation which will give you access to the iPhoto Library from your Services Menu. Using the Services Preference Pane you can even create a keyboard shortcut for it.
For Users of 10.4 and later:
Create a Media Browser using Automator (takes about 10 seconds) or use this free utility Karelia iMedia Browser
Other options include:
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.
Batch Change allows you to change some of the metadata on a photo in batches.
Regards
TD

What are the iphoto files I need to restore iphoto library deleted from drive

A few days ago my hard drive started making noises and I was getting all sorts of errors. I even got errors trying to do a time machine backup with the final error being "backup failed".
Earlier last week I imported a couple hundred photos of my kids from Christmas to present which also included our vacation last month. I deleted the photos from my camera after the import. Then foolishly, I didn't think to do any time machine backups between then and the time my hard drive started making noise.
I bought a new SSD drive. I could still access the bad drive so I moved my pictures directory from the bad drive to the new drive. It took nearly two hours. It appeared to have moved everything, but it did not move the iphoto library. The pictures directory is gone from the old hard drive.
I purchased FileSalvage and recoved thousands of deleted jpg files from my old drive, but none appear to be the pictures I lost.
It appears that FileSalvage will recover specific file types. There doesn't seem to be a way to just tell it to recover the deleted "pictures" directory or recover "iphoto library".
If I was able to specify specific file names to restore, what files would I even need to specify? I have iphoto 11.
I came across an article about iphoto library files from iphoto 6 and previous versions which explained the following iphoto files: library.iphoto6, albumdata.xml, Thumb32Segment.data, Thumb64Segment.data, ThumbJPGSegment.data, etcxxxxx.
mmm
Does iphoto 11 use similar file names? I'm not concerned with keeping my iphoto database in tact. I just want my pictures.
Maybe I'm asking the wrong question. Any advice on how to get my pictures back would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!!
MH

Simply, you can't recover the iPhoto Library. What you need to do is try recover the Photos that were in it. These will be saved as jpeg files* and that's what you need to search for. Recovering all the other files will do no good. You won't be alble to reconstruct the Library. Your aim is to get the Photos and then start over.
The search may find many files of the same name, try to recover the largest files - they are most likely to be your originals.
Regards
TD
*Assuming you're not shooting Raw. If you are shooting Raw then you'll know the suffix for your camera. If none of that makes sense then you're not shooting Raw

I backed up my iPhoto library manually to an external hard drive. How do I restore it?

I backed up select portions of my hard drive to an external hard drive. At the time, I didn't realize that it was going to be so hard to recover the original photos from the iPhoto library. The backup is basically just a command-line "cp" of the iPhoto Library directory. What's the best way to either recover the original photos or restore the iPhoto library to a new computer?

OK, sorry for the delay. Holidays and whatnot.
Sooooo... the backup was basically a command line "cp -r", however the partition that I backed up to on the external drive was FAT32. So that explains why it's no longer a package. Clearly a mistake on my part, but still need to find a way to recover.
I tried to rebuild the library DB, but it just bails out with the same exact message ("You can't open your current photo library using this version of iPhoto. You have made changes to your photo library using a newer version of iPhoto. Please quit and use the latest version of iPhoto.").
So crap. Should I keep trying to find a way to get iPhoto to recognize my backed up library, or should I give up on that approach and just try to manually get my photos out of the backup? If the latter, what's the best way to do that? I see an "Originals" subfolder, does that have all my photos in it (I only care about originals, don't care about edits)? What about the "Data" subfolder, which also seems to have some photos?

I need to create a new iPhoto library and import 'ORIGINALS' from a time machine backup on an external hard drive.

I made the mistake of installing OS 10.9 on my older MacBook Air and the machine has become horribly slow and unpredictable. I visited the Apple store and questioned a 'Genius' about getting rid of 10.9 and reinstalling the previous OS 10.6 for which I have the disks. He advised that I should reformat the Air, reinstall 10.6 and then restore from the Time Machine backup that I have.
He explained that of course, after I reinsatll 10.6, I couldn't import the iPhoto Library from the backup drive complete because it had been recreated using the OS 10.9 and wouldn't work with 10.6. I would have to create a new 10.6 iPhoto Library and move the actual ORIGINALS, from the backup into it. He actually had the path to the iPhoto library shown on my Air to the point of >Pictures >iPhoto Library > ORIGINALS.
I didn't question how he got the path to the point of > ORIGINALS and figured that it wouldn't take too much to do what he suggested. Now I can't find how to get to point of seeing the ORIGINALS in the path. When I go through the path >Pictures >iPhoto Library, the next column shows me the iPhoto Library icon and the info re size, creation date etc.
Can anyone advise how to get to the 'ORIGINALS' in order to import them and does anyone have any further suggestions that might help in completing this procedure ?
Thanks, in advance, for any assistance available.
p.s. is there any way of looking at a Time Machine backup and finding what O.S. was present when the backup was produced ?

Rather than do that, which means starting over from scratch, losing all your edits, organisation and so on, why not simply use iPhoto Library Manager to revert the Library to the older version? Easier, less destructive.
The instructions on that are here
If you really want to start over: you can access the Originals folder simply by going to your Pictures Folder and finding the iPhoto Library there. Right (or Control-) Click on the icon and select 'Show Package Contents'. A finder window will open with the Library exposed.

Migrating large iPhoto library from my old mac to a new iMac

Hi there. This seems a little complicated, but hopefully I can explain my problem clearly and somebody will have faced this same problem.
I currently have a Macbook pro of approximately five years old and it is running an outdated version of iPhoto (6.0.6) and has just over 5,000 pictures in its library which have been edited and updated.I have recently purchased a new iMac (11,3) which is running iPhoto 11 (version 9.1.5) which so far has only about 30 photos in it which were loaded as a “test” import and could be removed if necessary.
What I want to know is how do I best go about transferring my old iPhoto library and its contents (critically, I obviously want to keep the 5,000 shots intact in their edited state) over to the new iMac so that I can view my whole photo library in iPhoto ’11?
I have actually moved the whole iPhoto library folder across to the iMAC hard disk and put it in a separate dummy folder, however, I am usure about exactly how to go about combining them as it would appear that iPhoto ’11 may have a different underlying file structure and I don't want to mess this up!
It had occurred to me that it might be worth upgrading iPhoto on my macbook Pro to iPhoto ’11 (I have recently upgraded to snow leopard so I have access to the App Store)....... Am I right in thinking that this provides a simple down-loadable upgrade all the way to IPhoto’11. Would this help me in any way what I am trying to do, do you think?
Be grateful for all advice on this.
Thanks,
Alan.

It's really simple.
I have actually moved the whole iPhoto library folder across to the iMAC hard disk and put it in a separate dummy folder,
Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and point it at this Library. Iphoto will upgrade the library to the new format.
Regards
TD

Why/how is my iPhoto library larger than the hard drive it is stored on?

I store my iPhoto library on a 2TB external hard drive. The library file itself claims to be 2.65TB and created 12 years before I purchased the computer (see pic). I have confirmed this on other computers.
I know my library to actually be closer to 680GB as I've been using it for a long time. When I click 'get info' on the drive itself, it shows it is around 945GB full which makes sense as there are other files also stored there.
Could someone please explain how a 2TB drive can hold a 2.65TB file? Then, could someone help me restore it back to its actual size? I would like to back up my library but can't easily move such a massive file. I am also worried about its stability as I presume something is corrupt in there.
Thanks in advance.
p.s. When you look at the image below, you may notice other libraries (the one in question is highlighted). I have had MANY troubles with crashing libraries and gone through MANY rebuilds to get my library to where it is now; complete and working but oddly sized (and not appropriately backed up!). If I could easily and safely migrate all my photos, their originals, their edits, the places and faces etc to another program I would definitely consider it because iPhoto and Aperture are simply not behaving as I'd like them to.

I am unsure if it has been formatted MacOS but it is a My Passport for Mac so I imagine it was initially set up correctly - especially as it has worked well until now.
You can check that by selecting your external drive in the Finder and using the command "File Get Info ⌘I " on the drive. The General section of the info panel will show you the File System.
I have never seen that symbol in in iPhoto. In Aperture it is marking photos that have been downloaded from Photo Stream or Flickr or Facebook. Are you syncing your library with any of these services?

I lost my iPhoto library on external disk so how do I recover iPhone photos to iPhoto on MacBook?

I moved all of my photos to an external disk. No other backup. Big mistake. Now, how do I transfer photos on my iPhone (albums, events, faces) to my MacBook iPhoto library, which is now empty?

It sounds like you were running a "referenced" library? Were you?
Click to view full size
If you didi and you moved the photos to the EHD you would get a "Can't find XXXXX" message when you try to view a photos. Is that what you get?
Are those photos still on the EHD? You'll have to explain in more detail exactly what you did and how you did it before we can give you any suggestions on how to get back in business.
OT

Transferring photo files off of external hard drive to new iPhoto Library

Forgive me if this line of questioning is pretty elementary, but when it comes to advanced computing, I'm in the Stone Ages. I really have no clue how to remedy the following problems I've been running into and I'm hoping for some sort of help/detailed explanation.
I purchased a MacBook Pro back in 2009 and was using a G Drive Mini 500 GB to perform backups via Time Machine. I was under the impression that this was automatically transferring all of my files when I would plug it in, including my entire iPhoto library.
2 years ago I decided to sell my MacBook Pro to Best Buy in exchange for store credit, as I was getting by with my basic computing needs via my iPad. I figured I was in good hands security wise assuming Best Buy would wipe out all my personal data safely and responsibly and that all of my files were already backed up anyway via my G Drive Mini. I know this was a large assumption on my part now.
Truthfully, the only files I want off the G Drive are my old photos so I can put them on my girlfriend's MacBook Pro and then transfer those photos to my cloud based storage. So with that being said I attempted the following...
I plugged in the G Drive into my girlfriend's MacBook Pro thinking I could simply open up the G Drive, find the old photo files and drag and transfer all my old photos into her iPhoto for storage. I realize now it is not that simple.
I then attempted to access the photos by opening the iPhoto application I found under the Applications folder in the G Drive, but continuously received the following message, "You can’t open the application “iPhoto” because it is in a Time Machine backup.". The advanced computer experts probably already knew that was coming. Is there any way around this? Does anyone have any ideas how to transfer these photos?
I would really appreciate any help, but if someone had a direct solution that they wouldn't mind explaining to me, it would be greatly appreciated. I did some research on my own and it appears that I might need the original MacBook Pro that I owned even to access the photos, since the G Mini and Time Machine were really just archiving the files, rather than backing them up.
Thank you for any and all help.

So you're running Yosemite and iPhoto 9.6, right? In that case do the following:
1 - launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down to open the First Aid window. Be sure to follow the circled recommendation in the screenshot.
2 - run Option #4, Rebuild Database.

IPhoto Library Explainations

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