IPhoto library move to external HD | organization

My laptop is running out of space so I'm moving my large iPhoto library to an external hard drive. I know how to move the content and adjust iPhoto to route to the new location, but can I do this WITHOUT affecting my organization/events? I have 200+ GB of data and it would be an absolute mess to have to rebuild everything.
Thanks!

If you move the iPhoto Library as an entity to the new drive, and open it there by double clicking it, you will find all your events, albums, etc just like before.
Just follow the steps to format the drive correctly and to set the "Ignore Ownership flag" as described in this document:
iPhoto: Sharing libraries among multiple users - Apple Support

Similar Messages

How do I move my iphoto library from one external hard drive to another?

how do I move my iphoto library from one external hard drive to another?

Drag it there in the Finder and then launch iPhoto with the Option key held down. Point it to the new instance of the library.
(58012)

How can i move my Iphoto library to an external hard drive?

How do I move my Iphoto library to an external hard drive?

Here's a worflow for that:
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.
Now you have two full versions of the Library.
3. On the Internal library, trash the Events you don't want there
Now you have a full copy of the Library on the External and a smaller subset on the Internal
Some Notes:
As a general rule: when deleting photos do them in batches of about 100 at a time. iPhoto can baulk at trashing large numbers at one go.
You can choose which Library to open: Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'
You can keep the Library on the external updated with new imports using iPhoto Library Manager

How do I import an old iphoto library from an external hard disk while keeping my editing and organization in tact?

I am running iPhoto '08 on a MacBook Pro 2.2 GHz Intel C2D (MacBook Pro 3,1). I backed up my hard drive contents onto an external hard drive, then formatted my computer and installed Mountain Lion. I then re-installed iPhoto '08 and ran all the updates. Now, I would like to import my old library from the external disk onto my computer without losing my editing and organization; however, when I select "import to library" from iPhoto, the old iPhoto library is not a selectable option.
I know how to "show package contents" and import directly from the Original and Modified folders, but I don't want to lose my organization. Can I simply drag the content of those folders into my new Original and Modified folders? Will iPhoto read that correctly?
I tried to open the old library from the external disk, thinking to export them all to a folder and import from there, but that just opened my new library and none of the old photos were imported or available.
I'm running out of ideas and would appreciate any help you guys can give. Thanks!!

You don't import it.
Just drag the iphoto Library from the external to the Pictures Folder.
Then open it:
Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'
Never import one Library to another. Every version and thumbnail is imported like a distinct photo, you lose all your Albums, Keywords etc., the link between Original and Previews is destroyed, the non-destructive editing feature is ruined and so on. In summary: it's mess.

How do you move your iphoto library to an external hard drive--step by step because I dont even know the basics--Help!

I have no more space on my hard drive and my computer keeps freezing. I would like to move my 10,000 photos from IPHOTO to an external hard drive but dont know how to do it. I am reading answers to similiar questions but dont know how to do even the simplest instructions like "after you quit Iphoto how do you copy the iphoto library from our pictures folder to the external disk????" Ugghhh I have no idea how to do this. Please help a busy mom of three who sits here for an hour and just spins her wheels!!!

Make sure the external drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled), quit iPhoto, drag the iPhoto library to the external drive, depress the option key, launch iPhoto and use the select library command to select the iPhoto library on the external drive
Fully test the library. Once you are sure it is totally ok delete the old library - test one more time prior to emptying the trash
Check and make sure that your backup system is backing up yor external drive
LN

I was trying to move my photos from the iPhoto library to an external hard drive. I now have a desktop display of thousands of cascading photos. How do I remove them from my desktop screen?

I was trying to move my photos from the iPhoto library to an external hard drive. I now have a desktop display of thousands of cascading photos. How do I remove them from my desktop screen?

Strangely enough we can not see you so it really helps if you share with use exactly what you have, exactly what you did and details about the problem
what version of iPhoto and of the OS? What exact steps did you do? where are you seeing these "thousands of cascading photos" now and using what software and what exactly did you want to accomplish
The correct way to move your iphoto library to an external drive is to verify the drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journal) and then drag the iphotl library intact as a single entity to is
The correct way to move some or all of your photos is to select them in iphoto and export 9file menu ==> export -- https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4921 ) to the external drive
LN

IPhotos Movies won't load after iPhoto Library moved to external harddrive

I recently moved my iPhoto library to an external harddrive (as it was getting too large). Since then, whenever I try select iPhoto Movies in iMovie my iMac freezes up. Not sure whether this is because:
- iMovie cannot find the moved library, or...
- iMovie is trying to reload hundreds of movie clips and freezing in the process
Is there a way to fix this, please?

I recently moved my iPhoto library to an external harddrive (as it was getting too large). Since then, whenever I try select iPhoto Movies in iMovie my iMac freezes up. Not sure whether this is because:
- iMovie cannot find the moved library, or...
- iMovie is trying to reload hundreds of movie clips and freezing in the process
Is there a way to fix this, please?

If I move the oldest 2/3 of my iPhoto library to an external hard drive, will I still be able to access those older photos? I assume that I will be able to select the source (internal hard drive or external hard drive)?

If I move the oldest 2/3 of my iPhoto library to an external hard drive, will I still be able to access those older photos? I assume that I will be able to select the source (internal hard drive or external hard drive)?

Yes, if you have a second library.
Here's one way to do what you want:
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.
Now you have two full versions of the Library.
3. On the Internal library, trash the Events you don't want there
Now you have a full copy of the Library on the External and a smaller subset on the Internal
Some Notes:
As a general rule: when deleting photos do them in batches of about 100 at a time. iPhoto can baulk at trashing large numbers at one go.
You can choose which Library to open: Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'
You can keep the Library on the external updated with new imports using iPhoto Library Manager

Can I move the default location of the iPhoto library to an external source, leaving a preview image on my main HDD? Do I need to move to something like Apature to do this?

Can I move the default location of the iPhoto library to an external source, leaving a preview image on my main HDD?
Do I need to move to something like Apature to do this?
I currenlty have a NAS which holds all my images.

Yes you can, but you really, really don't want to.
You can store your photos on the External and have iPhoto link to them in that location. It's called having a Referenced Library.
In this scenario iPhoto creates an alias to the files in the Library and that's why you don't want to do this. Aliases work fin when everything is on the same volume or disk. However, if the alias points to something on another disk or volume and something in the path to the file changes, then the alias is broken. That means you could find yourself fixing each alias for every single photo in your Library, one at a time if something goes wrong.
And heaven forbid you would ever want to move the files to another disk.
See why I say you really, really don't want to?
Also note, that your edited photos would still be on the internal HD as they are always stored in the Library.
Aperture, on the other hand, can deal with this scenario quite easily, and has tools to reconnect to the original should the link be broken
Regards
TD

I was trying to move iphoto library to my external hardrive, realised it was incompatible with Mac. The iphoto will not open now, message is "Iphoto library is either in use by another application or has become unreadable". I have read other posts.

Hi,
I was trying to save a copy of my iphoto library by copying images to my external harddrive. I wasn't sure how to do it, realised the hard drive is not compatible. Now the iphoto library wont open and reads "iphoto library is either in use by another application or has become unreadable".
I have tried to use options command and click on iphoto then rebuild yet nothing happens and same error message occurs.
I have gone to my personal drive, desktop, iphoto library, and found file Albumdata.xml and when i click on it, there is a lot of text in it, i am assuming these are all my photos.
I have tried clicking and dragging this file to iphoto app and it doesn't work, as the same error comes up in iphoto being in use or unreadable....
What am I meant to do with albumdata.xml file and how do I reopen Iphoto from here on in?
Please help as I am not technically minded and still trying to understand how to use the Macbook at all as I am used to Microsoft.
Thank you very much,
KS

Rule Number One - NEVER go directly uinto the iPhoto library - there are no user servicable parts in it and making any change no matter how small can corrupt your library and cause data or photo loss
Exactly how were you trying to save a copy of your iPhoto library?
Albumdata.xml does not contain your photos - and again NEVER make any changes to the content of the iPhoto library - no dragging - no changes - never go into the library
We need to know exactly what you did
And probalby the easiest solution is to load your backup from before you messed things up
For reference after you get things working
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

How do I move my old iPhoto library from my external hard drive to my new Mac?

Hi guys!
I recently bought a new MacBook Air as my MacBook Pro was on its last legs... I have my backup for my old MacBook Pro on an external hard drive and I'm trying to put a selection of albums from my old iPhoto onto my new MacBook Air iPhoto. I can't simply click and drag it over as I get an error message "The iPhoto library is a Time Machine backup, and so cannot be used as the main library...". I've tried to reopen iPhoto while holding option and selecting my old iPhoto library from my external hard drive to open... AND I get the same message.
If anyone could help me out that would be amazing!
FYI: The hard drive I am using is a G|Drive mobile with Thunderbolt 1 TB.
Thank you very much in advance!
Cheers,
Kendall

I may sound like a real rookie here, but on my new MacBook Air there isn't a "Pictures" folder under "Users/kendallwilson" like there used to be on my old MacBook Pro (Early 2011). I'm still working out the new software on my MB Air, so where exactly should I open this new window to start following the steps you just provided me.
Thanks again!

If i move my iPhoto library to an external hdd, will Time Machine backup these photos as well?

I've moved my iPhoto library to an external HDD, I was wondering if now it has been moved outside of my iMac whether Timemachine will still back up my photos, or do I have to change any timemachine preferences to accomodate such a change, any responses will be welcomed-thankyou!

Thanks, Linc, you are the greatest!
So I moved my iTunes library to my external disk. When I checked Time Machine's Excluded list it was not there. Then I entered TM and saw that the library had been backed up from the external disk. So all is well and apparently the OS guys stopped adding external drives to the Excluded list.

I upgraded MacbookPro 2009 from 10.6.8 to Yosemite. Beforehand I made a backup copy of my Iphoto library onto an external hard drive. Lets call it BU. I also deleted half of my photos from the default library on my laptop, lets call it DE. I then in

I upgraded MacbookPro 2009 from 10.6.8 to Yosemite 2 weeks ago. My iphoto is now a nightmare. i went to our local apple retailer but they could not help either. Perhaps someone can help. Beforehand the OS upgrade I made a backup copy of my Iphoto library onto an external hard drive. Lets call it BU with 50GB. I also deleted half of my photos from the default library on my laptop, lets call it DE, now with about 20GB, to gain space. I then upgraded to Yosemite.
I have also installed since a long time Iphoto Library Manager 3.8.6. (this may be the cause of the problem as it was not upgraded and perhaps thus not compatible with iphoto 9.6 which I have now after the upgrade to Yosemite) It all worked fine before the upgrade, switching in iphoto between the two libraries DE and BU.
It also worked fine after the upgrade for a few days. At one stage Iphoto asked me to upgrade the iphoto version as it otherwise could not read the photos when I tried to load the BU library into iphoto. I did click yes to upgrade iphoto. As a result I became a brand new but totally empty library, no photos.
BU was still on the external disc, however the "Master" file was empty. We fortunately discovered all photos were in another file called Old Master, also under BU. We made another copy of the Old Master file onto the external disc. Lucky we did, because shortly afterwards we could not open anymore the BU file thus had no access to anything in there. Now I have 17000 photos in a file called Old Master on my external disc and another smaller library DE on my laptop. When I tried to import the photos from Old Master into a new iphoto library it was very messy. All events dates were mixed up, many photos were imported twice. I have no idea whether all my 17000 photos have been imported.
Can anyone suggest what is the most time efficient way? How do I best import my 17000 into a new library ensuring I don't loose any in the process. I do not wish sorting through 17000 photos for a week or so. Shall i also get a new iphoto library version now? Thank you for anything that may work.

Yes, the Old Master file has a folder for each year where I find all photos from that specific year. I am attaching a screen shot of the file.
In the meantime i have managed to download all photos (it did not download any video files though in mpg, avi, 3gp, m4v,mp4 and mov format) to a new iphoto library. Unfortunately the photos are quite mixed and often doubled up. I ma considering to purchase iphoto library which checks all duplicates in iphoto. this will save me a lot of time. What do you think?

How do I reimport iPhoto Library from an external hd?

Hi all - apologies if this has been posted before (but, couldn't find exactly what I need in the forums). I think I need to rebuild/erase, whathaveyou, my current iPhoto Library on my Mac because I'm getting a perpetual error/alert:
*"The Volume for "CDY_.0005.JPG" cannot be found. Insert the disk or*
*connect to the server volume and wait for it to appear on the desktop,*
*then try again."*
*Here's what happened:* I originally downloaded some pictures and video clips off of Compact Flash memory cards into a new folder ('Photos') onto the desktop of an IBM Thinkpad. I then transferred that folder - 'Photos' - to a new external hard drive (250 GB, Western Digital MyBook Essential Edition). They are visible on the external. I then tried to tranfer this 'Photos' folder from the MyBook into my iPhoto Library by going to 'Import to Library' and then choosing the appropriate drive (i.e, my external MyBook). This folder and it's contents (i.e, the images and their respective folder in which they were placed) seemingly went into my iPhoto Library, and also seemed to organize themselves appropriately....what I mean by this is:
All of these images/videos I'm talking about are for my grad project, and must be organized by date. I had one scouting camera at each of 26 different sites. Each of these sites has it's own folder....and each of folder (site) contains an album for each date the site was checked. So in other words, I've got LOADS of albums organized by date checked and site. *+I must preserve this structure or data analysis and, subsequently, my thesis, will be quite painful, cruel and unusual punishment!+*
*By the way, I have tons of images and videos named "CDY_.0005.JPG" because of the way the scouting cameras save files to the memory card. Each time the card is cleared (each date I checked a site and downloaded images on a card), images are again saved numerically:
CDY.0001.JPG.....CDY.0002.JPG etc etc. Also, these cameras were set up to take motion-activated video (they're infrared), and for every video it captures, it takes a still photo. So, every still photo is essentially associated with a video, and vice versa.
This error/alert occurs when I try to view images that were transferred from the IBM/MyBook to iPhoto. Additionally, since I did the transfer, another qwerky thing occurs: Regardless of what I'm trying to do in iPhoto, when I open iPhoto and click *anywhere else* outside of the iPhoto window (such as back to the desktop or click to open any other program) I get this exact same alert, but it's always an .avi file, not a .jpg, and in this alert (.avi), I am forced to force-quit iPhoto because if I hit cancel, the pinwheel appears indefinitely and never goes away, at which time I forequit and see 'iPhoto (not responding). Essentially rendering iPhoto useless for my purposes (I've got to be able to go back and forth between Excel and iPhoto, for example, and cannot do so because of this alert).
So, I feel like to I need to start from scratch to fix this problem (through a series of discussions with Apple reps and the Mac gurus, I was told this is probably due to corrupted files, I may need to rewrite the program etc etc). And...so...the real QUESTIONS:
*Is this really the solution (backing up my iPhoto Library to the external, which I've done, then clearing my current iPhoto Library on my Mac entirely, then reimporting)?? I don't really have much time to fiddle with too many different solutions...if re-creating a new library seems extreme, I guess I really don't care, as long as it works.*
*If I do this, and delete/clear all the photos in my iPhoto Library on the Mac, then reimport them from my MyBook external harddrive, will they be imported in the same structure as they were before I deleted them from iPhoto? Will I still have all photos in the same albums under the same folders? It is essential for me to retain this structure, as I am analyzing images/videos for my grad project and all these images are organized very specifically by certain dates. *Is it possible to do this??** I was told that if I burned my Library, or folders, onto a DVD, and then brought them back into iPhoto, this would retain the folder structure. True??
Thankyouthankyouthankyou in advance if anyone has some thoughts! I'm still relatively new to Macs, so rudimentary, kindergarten step-by-step thoughts are encouraged....Cheers!

TD-
Great, thanks for helping. I think I've got some useful info for you. I went throught the process you suggested, here's what I found out:
I viewed the rolls through the Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals route. I see the rolls, but I do NOT think these images from the pc are there. Here's what's weird: Towards the end of my 'rolls' list (they're not named, just numbered), the rolls jump from 495 to 503. Though I didn't check all those rolls up to 495 (it would take forever!), I'm pretty sure those are my 'ok' files/rolls. I don't think they house any of the pix I was having issues with (the ones that came over from the pc). BUT...roll 503 DOES in fact have one image, and here's what happens when I click on it:
Only that jpg icon shows up where the picture normally would be viewed, it has a shortcut arrow in the bottom left corner (like that which would appear on any shortcut icon on your desktop), and the info for this image is different than the other ones:
Kind: Alias
Size: 4 kb on disk (usually these scouting camera images are upwards of 800 or 900 some kb)
Created: 9-23-07
Last opened: fetching...
And finally, the infamous alert comes up for this specific image: "The volume for bla bla bla cannot be found...." etc etc.
I'm pretty confident that the missing rolls that should be after 495 are from when I tried to transfer the folders of images from the IBM because those are the very last things I 'imported' into iPhoto. Thoughts??? One other weird thing I noticed, too, was some of my rolls do NOT show all of the images that are in the iPhoto folders...in other words, say roll 300 shows 4 images in the 'Originals' folder you asked me to go to. Well, each roll was created when I would download each card, so essentially I know that each roll represents each time a card was downloaded. But, when I go straight into iPhoto and look in that folder that represents when I downloaded each card, there are many more images there than are in the 'roll' folder for the same download...yikes, does that make sense?!
Thanks again...I feel we're getting somewhere at least!

I can't copy my old iPhoto library from a external HD to my new mac?

Hi. I just bought a new mac and want to have all my old iphoto pictures from my old mac into my new iPhoto library. I've tried to copy the old iPhoto library into a external HD(works fine), but the problem is that I can't copy it out from the external HD an in to my new mac again. It just say that it doesn't work because it doesnt have enough storage.
I don't get why it would say that, because the old iPhoto library is 89.55 GB and I haven't used any memory at all on my new macbook pro, and my old macbook pro has memory enough to have the iPhoto library on it (the mac is 5 years old and has almost a full memory), so why can't my new macs memory manage the iPhoto library when my old mac can? It doesn't make sense at all.
I've googled it, and it says everywhere that it should work by simply copy to external HD and move over the library from there and into the pictures folder, but this definitely doesn't work for me.
I hope that some please can help me with this, I don't know what do to.

Do you know how much space the cheapest macbook pro with reatina has?
http://www.apple.com/mac/compare/notebooks.html
A basic MBP may only have
128GB solid-state drive

IPhoto library move to external HD | organization

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for