Iphoto library to file folder structure on External Hard Drive?

So I've had some recent problems with my iMac that make me question just using regular Time Machine to back up my photos. So I got an external drive and formatted it for both Mac and PC - just in case my computer crashes and I just dump it and go the PC route...sad I know...
But anyways I'm trying to get my photos out of iphoto with a file structure similar to iphoto - but in explorer view. I have gone to Finder and did show package contents. But with iLife 11 the pictures are stored by date, rather than by how I have it in iphoto.
And if I also tried the export feature in iphoto and it seems to get hung up when it sees a MOV file. Any ideas? I don't really want to pay for any kind of app - I'm thinking there is an easy way and I'm just not aware of it.
Please help!

What version of iPhoto? Recent versions of iPhoto 11 have this in the Export panel:
File -> Export
This User Tip
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4921
has details of the options in the Export dialogue.
Earlier versions: Apps like iPhoto2Disk or PhotoShare will help you export to a Folder tree matching your Events.
Be aware that exporting to folders on n external disk is not a back up for your iPhoto Library. Yes, you can choose to export your originals or your versions, but you can't have the connection between them maintained. So you lose the lossless processing. Read the link above on the export settings carefully: do it wrong and you'll lose a lot of data.
Best back up for an iPhoto Library:
Most Simple Back Up
Drag the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to another Disk. This will make a copy on that disk.
Slightly more complex:
Use an app that will do incremental back ups. This is a very good way to work. The first time you run the back up the app will make a complete copy of the Library. Thereafter it will update the back up with the changes you have made. That makes subsequent back ups much faster. Many of these apps also have scheduling capabilities: So set it up and it will do the back up automatically. Examples of such apps: Chronosync or DejaVu . But are many others. Search on MacUpdate

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I just transfered my Iphoto Library of 40k pictures to an external hard drive. I want to put them on a new desktop, how do I do that?

I just transfered my iphoto library of 40k pictures to an external hard drive. I now want to put them onto a newer desktop. How do I do that?

Drag the iPhoto Library from the External to the Pictures Folder on the newer machine.

HT204259 iPhoto library imported into Photos from an external hard drive

Although I've imported my iPhoto library into Photos from an external hard drive, I cannot access them unless the external hard drive is connected to my laptop. I thought Photos was supposed to save what I import into the Photos Library on my laptop hard drive. What am I doing wrong?

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Trouble moving iPhoto Library (9.6) with Yosemite to External Hard Drive

I fresh installed iphoto, and updated it to current version (9.6) on Yosemite. There are no photos on it yet. I am trying to transfer it to my new hard drive that is formatted Mac Extended Journaled. Every time I get error code 36.
Previously, I tried moving iphoto library over to hard drive when I had photos on it, and I got the error code. So I uninstalled iphoto, reinstalled it, I am still getting the error code.
Any ideas? I am moving library from House icon > pictures> iPhoto Library and dragging that to Hard drive.

Thanks for the speedy reply.
I am not sure what you mean by "create the library on the drive".
I just tried importing 10 photos into iPhoto on my mac and then i quit iPhoto and went User>Pictures> iPhoto Library and dragged to my external, but got the same error 36. I just cannot get the iphoto Library to drag over to my external without being stopped by error code 36.
My goal is to import my photos into iPhoto that is stored on my hard drive, so I dont have any of those photos on my mac. Any ideas or clarification if I didnt follow your instructions Thanks

My Mac computer hard drive is nearly full so I want to know if I can keep my PSE 11 Organiser as the place where I import and organise and can I then create file folder on my External Hard Drive to keep the files

Also wondering when I am editing my photos and open the editor from the Organiser, will be edits take longer if my photo files are saved to an external hard drive.

Elements will work with images stored on an external hard drive. Keep it connected to the same port.
Saving images may be slower (ehd's usually have a slower write speed) but if you keep the program on the internal drive, performance should be the same.

Is there a way to access my iTunes Library, which is stored on a (PC) External Hard Drive, on a MacBook Air (through an Apricorn Universal Hard Drive Adapter), without transferring the music files off of the external hard drive?

Is there a way to access my iTunes Library, which is stored on a (PC) External Hard Drive, on a MacBook Air (through an Apricorn Universal Hard Drive Adapter), without transferring the music files off of the external hard drive?
In other words, because the MacBook Air only has 120 gbs of hard drive space & my old hard drive, from a Lenovo, has 500 gbs of hard drive space (and I have over 120 gbs of music), I’m looking to manage my iTunes music from the external hard drive permanently. Upon attempting to access the iTunes library held on the external hard drive the following message comes up: “The iTunes Library.itl file is locked, on a locked disk, or you do not have write permission for this file”. Is there a way to get around this?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks so much!

You will have to engage a split library which means you will have to start answering questions on this forum because you will need to learn a lot about how iTunes works in order not that have a big mess at the end of it all. It also won't be easy when the time comes to relocate it all to different drives.
You can go to advanced preferences and turn off organize media and copy to items to media folder when adding items to library. Next read about how to selectively consolidate items to the external drive.
Sept. 2010, Consolidate selected content - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2589812 and April 2014, https://discussions.apple.com/message/25414357
"...selected the new tracks directly in iTunes, Control-clicked on the selection, and saw that now you can consolidate selected items." - http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20090919000326840
Remember that when you start iTunes without the external drive turned on iTunes will present you with a bunch of broken links. If you have automatic downloads enabled with iCloud you may have to turn that off to prevent iTunes from repopulating your drive trying to deal with those "missing" tracks.
If you add tracks in bunches to iTunes and want them to go to different media folders you will need to either add them by holding down the option key while dragging if the desired media folder is not the one set in preferences, or by changing the media folder in preferences. Changing media folder preferences only applies to new files added, not old ones.
Okay, I am going to stop typing because you might just reply to me, "Oh, okay, forget it," and I don't need the exercise.
What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management
What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html
Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391

Hello, I just successfully copied my iPhoto (v.9.5.1) library to my WD My Book external hard drive. Then I uploaded photos from my various cameras (Canon Powershot

Hello, I just successfully copied my iPhoto (v.9.5.1) library to my WD My Book external hard drive. Then I uploaded photos from my various cameras (Canon Powershot & Canon SLR) to the My Book iPhoto only. It seemed successful and I was able to move some around & organize my events - seeing the pictures and even sending them through the iPhoto send program. But today when I reopen the My Book iPhoto, many of my pictures are missing (mostly the ones from the Canon SLR). I see the newly made events, but they have 0 pictures! I have shut down, disconnected the drive, reconnected & restarted = same thing. Can anyone tell me how to recover these photos? (They are still on the cameras' memory cards, so all is not lost!)
thank you!

andrea, don't work with your iPhoto libraries at all, until you have freed a considerable amount of disk space on your Mac. Each iPhoto crash due to lack of disk space can leave you iPhoto library corrupted, and you cannot run a library repair with only 7GB of space available.
First free space by moving large media files of your drive, and then continue to trouble shoot your library.
The WD My Book was properly formatted & partitioned into 1TB (a Super Duper backup of my whole MacBook Pro) & 2TB (the place I plan to house all my photos/videos & work from to be able to get them off the computer hard drive).
How are you planning to backup the partition with your media (videos, photos)? Do you have a second drive to back them up also?

Can't create new folder on an external hard drive, and how to transfer files?

Hello everyone,
the non-English speaking videographer I translate for is having problems operating his Premiere CS5 for Mac from an external hard drive. He cannot create new folder on the external hard drive (the "New Folder" button is grayed-out when tries to export media onto the external hard drive) and when he simply tries to create new folder, the "new folder" option isn't available.
He suspects it's because the hard drive was formatted for PC.
Questions:
- should PC-formatting cause that problem?
- what's the proper way to transfer media files from PC-formatted external hard drive to the internal hard drive on Mac?
Would appreciate your advice.
Dimitri Vorontzov

He is right on the money
Now, for the sad or FAT part. You need to format the drive as FAT32 to make it work both on PC and MAC but, and that is a big BUT, the max file size of any given file will be 4GB. I haven't treid other formats yet, like the journaled MAC OS extended, but I don't think that would work. We transfer our files through or own gigabit network so I never had to try it, other than FAT32 formatted SDHC cards.

I moved my FCP events and projects folder onto my external hard drive and now everything is gone on FCP. When I tried to reload those folders onto FCP nothing happened. I still get the missing files image.

I moved my FCP events and projects folder onto my external hard drive and now everything is gone on FCP. When I tried to reload those folders onto FCP nothing happened. I still get the missing files image. When I try to import the folders manually something pops up that says it is incompatable. It is possible to retrieve everything that was lost?

"When I tried to reload those folders onto FCP nothing happened"
Brownale6 how can u reload folder in to FCP.
As you said folders are moved to external disk but have you checked it should be like this
For Event
external disk>Final Cut Events>your event folder.
For project
external disk>Final Cut Projects>your project folder.

I have a new MAcBook Air and my photos don't fit on the internal hard drive. I want to store my photos on an external hard drive which I will connect to my Air when using Iphoto. How do I set an external hard drive as the default drive?

I have a new MAcBook Air and my photos don't fit on the internal hard drive. I want to store my photos on an external hard drive which I will connect to my Air when using Iphoto. How do I set an external hard drive as the default drive in Iphoto?

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.
Regards
TD

Can I move my itunes media folder to an external hard drive without having Itunes managing the media folder

Hi all....I have spent weeks tidying up my music collection. I moved it all to Itunes media folder. Since I don't like how Itunes manages this folder I manually organised it myself so that albums where together etc. I am wondering if there is a fool proof way to move my media folder to an external hard drive without letting itunes manage and consolidate files as this will reverse all the work I did in organising. Im not sure if Im posting to the right place but fingers crossed:)
Thanks in advance

Just one more thing puhlease:) This is the list of things that are in my iTunes folder. Album artwork, Automatically add to iTunes, iTunes media, Mobile apllications, podcasts, previous itunes libraries, voice memos. Then it has files itunes preferences, itunes libary extras, itunes libarry genius, itunes libraary, itunes music library......Is there stuff in there that doesnt need to be there as some are repeated in itunes media folder which contains....automatically add to itunes, books, downloads, home videos, mobile applications, music, podcasts, tones, voice memos and itunes preferences. Any thoughts on deleting some folders??? Thankyou so much for your time on this

ITunes Music Folder Missing on external hard drive after changing iTunes Media Folder Location from MacBook Hard Drive. Not deleted...just missing?

I store my iTunes media folder on my external hard drive and can no longer find it there. It seemed to becomd lost after I re-designated the default iTunes media location. I had downloaded some things from iTunes without my external hard drive plugged in and when they downloaded they downloaded to the default location on my Macbook Pro. In recognizing that, I wanted to move those files from the hard drive on my MacBook Pro to the external hard drive. When I re-selected the location as the external hard drive a copy process began. I cancelled the copy process fearing the small number of files from my Macbook Pro would over-write all of the files on my external hard drive so I quit the copy process. Now I do not see my "iTunes Music" folder on my external hard drive. I fear that I have somehow lost the path but I believe the content is still on my external hard drive although I no longer see the "iTunes Music" folder on my external hard drive. I know I didn't delete it, but it isn't there. Is there a way to make it re-appear? I would really appreciate any guideance anyone has.
Thank you.
Best,
Matt

When you change the location in preferences it tells iTunes to start, from this point on, storing new media files in the new location. It then presents you with the option to move any old files in their current locations to the new location. It doesn't move the library files which are not media files. Read the links below to understand how iTunes works because you are the one with the computer in front of you and are in the better position to understand how it stands as regards to iTunes files.
What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management
What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html
Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
Now, did you keep the whole library on the external drive, or did you keep just media? From your description of the situation it sounds as if you kept the whole library there and when the external was not attached it returned to default location on the internal drive. What you should have done then was plug in the external drive, hold down the option key, and guide iTunes to the library file on the external. At this stage you could have dealt with the mislocated new files on an individual basis.
I guess the key question is, did your trying to move the couple of new media files to the external drive overwrite the iTunes folder there, which because you then canceled may have also just resulted in it being deleted. I am not going to test the theory on my system.
How big was your library on the external? If it was 40GB do you now suddenly have 40 GB free?
Look for any iTunes folders on the external drive. In view options turn on "calculate all folders sizes" and see if there are any big ones.

How can I edit lightroom 5 smart previews on mac book pro (mbp) when the lightroom 5 master image files are on my external hard drive is disconnected from the mbp

How can I edit lightroom 5 smart previews on mac book pro (mbp) when the lightroom 5 master image files are on my external hard drive is disconnected from the mbp? So far when I try to disconnect the external HD from the mbp, I get the following pop up window: The disk "external hard drive A" couldn't be ejected because "Lightroom" is using it. Quit that application and try to eject this disk again. When I do that and restart Lightroom 5, the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - Select Catalog screen pops up but doesn't list my external hard drive A as a choice.
I've reviewed Adobe's Lightroom Help | Smart Previews Lightroom 5 web page and still haven't been able to figure what I'm doing wrong. Any help would be appreciated.

Your internal HDD. by default, is named 'Macintosh HD'. From what information you supplied, it looks like there is already a Lightroom catalog installed on you local (internal) HDD using the standard naming convention Adobe uses as well as a Lightroom catalog on your external drive which you created. To be sure of which catalog Lightroom is loading when it starts up, To do this, start Lightroom as you normally would. After it starts, select the Lightroom menu item, then select the Catalog Preferences item and finally, navigate to the General tab. The Location information will tell you exactly what catalog Lightroom is opening by default. This will likely be the Photography Mac Book Pro Versions catalog on your external HDD. Once that is confirmed, you are ready to proceed. As an additional test/verification, you can shut down Lightroom and, this time, start Lightroom while holding down the ALT/OPTION key. This will cause Lightroom to pause and display a screen which will allow you to chose a different catalog to open. Navigate to the /Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom folder and select the Lightroom 5 Catalog.lrcat file. When Lightroom comes up, there should be no previews or folders as this catalog should be empty. Now you can be certain which catalog is being used and which catalog has all your data and you are ready to migrate your current catalog. Shut down Lightroom.
To migrate your current catalog, use Finder to locate your Photography Mac Book Pro Versions folder on your external drive. Select the folder and select COPY from the context menu. Next, use Finder to navigate to the /Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom folder on you internal HDD. You can start at the Macintosh HD level and work your way down by opening each level (Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures). Select the /Pictures folder and then select PASTE... from the context menu. When the COPY/PASTE is complete, you should see the following files on the Macintosh HD:
Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom/ and
Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Photography Mac Book Pro Versions
The Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom folder will contain the empty default catalog the Adobe created when Lightroom was installed and Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Photography Mac Book Pro Versions will contain a copy of the catalog you created on your external HDD.
You are almost done now. Make sure your external drive is still attached for this step. Restart Lightroom using the ALT/OPTION key again. When the Select Catalog screen appears, select the Choose a Different Catalog button (lower left side). When you do, a Finder window will open to allow you to navigate to a catalog of your choosing. Navigate to Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Photography Mac Book Pro Versions and select the file Photography Mac Book Pro Version.lrcat. This is the copy you just created. Select the Open button and Lightroom should start. You should see all of your previews and settings just as before. Also, in the left hand panel, all of your folder should show up and none of them should be dimmed and none of your previews should display a small exclamation point badge. Either a dimmed folder name or an exclamation point badge indicates that Lightroom can't find the associated image file. If everything looks good, go to the Lightroom menu, select Preferences and then select the General tab. Under Default Catalog, select an option to either load the LAST catalog opened or select the Users/[user name]/Pictures/Photography Mac Book Pro Versions catalog from the drop down. Shut down Lightroom and then restart it normally. This time, when Lightroom starts, you should be viewing the new copy of your catalog. You can confirm this by looking at the General tab on the Catalog Preferences screen (Lightroom/Catalog Preferences menu items). Shut down Lightroom once again and this time, eject your external drive before restarting. This time, your folders in the left hand panel will be dimmed but you should be able to work with your smart previews. If Lightroom should display a Select Catalog screen with the external drive detached, double check your settings as it indicates Lightroom is still looking at the copy of the catalog on the external drive rather than the new copy you made.
Finally, if you are seeing dimmed folders and/or exclamation point badges with the external drive attached, this indicates a problem. You can select any folder and select Update Folder Location from the context menu. This will allow you to navigate to the copy on the external drive and select it. Lightroom will then update the catalog (select to synchronize the content). This will not only clear the dimmed folder problem but also remove the exclamation point badges for all photos in that missing folder. However, it may indicate that not all went well with the copy of the catalog so make sure to verify all went well. You can use the Get Info option on the two folders. You should see the same number of files/folders for both the copy on the internal drive as well as on the external drive but you can't rely on the byte count because of the possibility of differences between the geometry of the two drives. Hope this all helps!

Itunes cannot see the itunes music folder on my external hard drive

I recently put all of my music on an external hard drive to free up space on my computer,
However, when I am in itunes and trying to point the library to the music folder, itunes still cannot see it. Instead all it can see is the E drive WD Passport, and folders named autorun, WD Sync Data Wd Windows Tools.
Can anyone tell me how I can see my itunes music folder on my external hard drive while I am in preferences, advanced, library location, change??

I don't know enough about iTunes for Windows to help you with this. But if you post your question in the Using iTunes for Windows forum you will get help from people who know more about this.
(This is the forum for Apple's Mac OS X web browser, Safari.)

ITunes Music Folder Missing on external hard drive after changing iTunes Media Folder Location from MacBook Hard Drive

The store my iTunes media folder on my external hard drive and can no longer find it there. It seemed to becomd lost after I re-designated the default iTunes media location. I had downloaded some things from iTunes without my external hard drive plugged in and when they downloaded they downloaded to the default location on my Macbook Pro. In recognizing that, I wanted to move those files from the hard drive on my MacBook Pro to the external hard drive. When I re-selected the location as the external hard drive a copy process began. I cancelled the copy process fearing the small number of files from my Macbook Pro would over-write all of the files on my external hard drive so I quit the copy process. Now I do not see my "iTunes Music" folder on my external hard drive. I fear that I have somehow lost the path but I believe the content is still on my external hard drive although I no longer see the "iTunes Music" folder on my external hard drive. I know I didn't delete it, but it isn't there. Is there a way to make it re-appear? I would really appreciate any guideance anyone has.
Thank you.
Best,
Matt

Any ideas? Anyone?

Iphoto library to file folder structure on External Hard Drive?

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