Is it possible to store iPhoto files externally in a similar way as iTunes? My hard drive is almost full now and I really need to clear some space.

The capacity on my internal drive is quickly approaching it's limit, this is due to the amount of photo's I have stored thru iPhoto's, I do back them up externally, but as it is, if I want to transfer photo's to an iPad or iPhone, it seems they need to be on my internal hard drive. I see no way of storing them externally in a way which allows syncronisation with my devices. If as with iTunes where you can set a path for storing songs etc externally, this would be very helpful.
Can anybody offer suggestions on how to overcome this problem?
Thanking you in advance...

Move your iPhoto Library to an external disk.
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

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My MacBook Pro hard drive is almost full and I wish to store my Aperture Library on an external drive, how do I do this and is the use of USB2 suitable or do I need to use a Firewire external hard drive?

My MacBook Pro hard drive is almost full and I wish to store my Aperture Library on an external drive, how do I do this and is the use of USB2 suitable or do I need to use a Firewire external hard drive?

You'll get better performance if you use a Firewire hard drive (especially if you buy a 7200 RPM drive). Firewire's IO speed is significantly faster than USB 2. USB 2 has a theoretical max speed of 480 Mbps except that it has extremely high over-head. The fastest speeds you can typically get are about 300 Mbps. Firewire, on the other hand, has very little overhead. The fastest speeds you can get are very nearly 800 Mbps. You will typically be constrained by the maximum read/write speed of the drive, not the speed of the I/O on the Firewire bus. Now if you had one of those nice shiny new Macs with the Thunderbolt I/O and a Thunderbolt drive (Light Peak) ... I think they alter space and time so that your data arrives before you know you want it.
Also... unless you want to buy a solid state drive (very expensive), try to keep your hard drives from becoming much more than about 60% full if you want great performance. A nearly "full" hard drive is, on average, only about half as fast as the same hard drive when nearly empty.
USB 2 will work perfectly fine... just not as fast.
Also... it's much safer to move the entire Aperture library than to "relocate masters". Your images must be managed. You can Aperture manage them, or you can manage them. But someone has to manage them. If you "relocate" them so that they are no longer stored inside the Aperture library then you'll need to work out a system of how you decide to organize things and it's critically important that you don't start moving files around or deleting things without Aperture's knowledge. If you do, you'll break the links to your masters and start having problems with missing masters. If you have Aperture manage the library then you don't need to worry about any of that stuff.... it's safer.
Do make backups (use the Aperture Vault or use some other backup program, but make sure you back up your work if you care about it.) There are only two kinds of hard drives in the world: (1) those that have failed and (2) those that are going to fail. There are no exceptions to this rule. Hard drives are cheap. Backup software is built into Aperture and into your Mac.

Want to save files, documents, bookmarks, iTunes and iPhoto libraries, each in separate folders to external hard drive prior to full sweep and overwrite for the purpose of full sweep of Macbook?

Never done this before and cannot find a manual for OS X 10.7.5 Lion. Basically I want to clean my 2009 Macbook6,1 as though I were selling it and start out fresh but before I attempt it I want to stash my contents (Files, Documents, Bookmarks, iTunes and iPhoto libraries to my external Hard Drive, all in separate folders to return them to Macbook after the full sweep and big overwrite. Can anyone help me?

That may not be the best approach (see below).
Format the drive for a Mac (see #1 in Using Disk Utility if you're not sure how).
Create the folders you want on it.
Open a second Finder window and drag what you want from one to the other.
If you only copy the stuff listed, you'll lose your AddressBook, Mail, Calendars, preferences, and probably all sorts of other things.
A better option might be to back up your entire system, either with Time Machine or one of the "cloning" apps. Then you can restore selectively from TM, or copy selectively from the clone.

It keeps saying my hard drive is almost full even though I delete as much as possible and use an external hard drive, cant figure out where else I need to look?

I've tried to keep my computer as organized and clean as possible. I only have 400 songs and not a ton of pictures. I can't figure out where else I need to look on my hard drive. Any suggestions?

I can't really figure out how much I have left in memory but here is some basic info:
Model Name:          MacBook Pro
Model Identifier:          MacBookPro5,5
Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:          2.26 GHz
Number Of Processors:          1
Total Number Of Cores:          2
L2 Cache:          3 MB
Memory:          2 GB
Is there somewhere to look to see a breakdown of what memory is used where?
Thanks for your help!

My Macbook Air is sending a message saying my hard drive is almost full. What software is recommended to delete unused files and to delete duplicated files? Thank you.

What software is recommended to create space in my Macbook Air's hard drive?

Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:
iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash
Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature. Then restart the computer. That will temporarily free up some space.
According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of the data. There is little or no performance advantage to having more available space than the minimum Apple recommends. Available storage space that you'll never use is wasted space.
When Time Machine backs up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of recently deleted files. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as Backups. The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself. If you followed bad advice to disable local snapshots by running a shell command, you may have ended up with a lot of data in the Other category. Ask for instructions in that case.
See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space.
You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) or GrandPerspective (GP) to explore the volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one. Note that ODS only works with OS X 10.8 or later. If you're running an older OS version, use GP.
Deleting files inside an iPhoto or Aperture library will corrupt the library. Any changes to a photo library must be made from within the application that created it. The same goes for Mail files.
Proceed further only if the problem isn't solved by the above steps.
ODS or GP can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.
Back up all data now.
If you have more than one user account, make sure you're logged in as an administrator. The administrator account is the one that was created automatically when you first set up the computer.
Install the app you downloaded in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.
Triple-click anywhere in the corresponding line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C:
sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
sudo /Applications/GrandPerspective.app/Contents/MacOS/GrandPerspective
Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. Type carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator. Ignore any other messages that appear in the Terminal window.
The application window will open, eventually showing all files in all folders, sorted by size. It may take a few minutes for the app to finish scanning.
I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means. When in doubt, leave it alone or ask for guidance.
When you're done with the app, quit it and also quit Terminal.

I receive songs or photos from friends on email, and when I download them, they stay in my Downloads file. How can I move these to my hard drive for long-term storages and organization?

How can I transfer song or photo files from Downloads on Firefox to my own hard drive for permanent storage?

If the hard drive that crashed is the one that stored the itunes library, be sure to restore the library from Time Machine (mac) or whatever backup you use on windows. That will get back your music. I suspect that the replacement drive has an empty itunes library and thus, perhaps, the itunes match used that to sync to its servers.
Try posting in the iTunes Match forum, you'll probably find more knowledgeable folks there.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/itunes/itunes_match

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I've racked my brain with this issue - done everything I know to do - and still I get this:
I've clearly moved everything to external drives except for 1GB of dropbox data that I keep across all my devices.
I've tried all of 'where did my disk space go' 's suggestions.
Terminal commands to disable local backup
What's interesting to me about this is that I do have 4.45 GB of Applications - is that “Other?”
I'm to the point where I'd like to wipe and start all over.. but that scares me! Suggestions?
iMac 10.7.5 (Lion)
4 GB Memory plus
2.8 GHz Intel COre 2 Duo

Mac Mini, the main hard drive is almost full with a file type "other." what is it and how do i get rid of it

I have a Mac Mini 'server.' it has 2 500gb hard drvies, the main drive has 440gb of 'other' files on it. when i restart my computer it looses another gig or 2 to the 'other file.'
how do i get rid of it? it is something that appears on the iphone and ipad as well.
any idea's
thanks

The 'other' is unlikely to be a single file in a single folder, it could be thousands of files. You are therefore going to need to track the culprite down more.
There are utilities you can buy that will visually show you which folder is the biggest. However you can also do this in Terminal.app free of charge.
If you launch Terminal.app from the Utilities folder then do the following commands -
sudo du -h -d1 /
This will show which folder at the top level of your boot disk is the biggest i.e. contains the culprite. You then need to
cd bigdirectory
and do
sudo du -h -d1 .
(the full stop at the end is needed)
Which will do another check in the bigdirectory and let you see which sub folder or file is the culprite, you may have to repeat this a few times till you find what you are looking for.

I recently moved some of my older tv series purchases to an external hard drive as my iTunes library hard drive was getting full. Now, when I connect my iPhone and iPad to iTunes, I get the message that my iphone is synced with another library! Help!

I didn't rename my iTunes library or anything. How can I sync with iTunes without erasing all my apps, app data and settings/messages etc on the iPhone/iPad?

If you moved your iTunes library by simply copying it to another drive, you may not be able to access your music even if you reconnect to that library, you may get a lot of "not found" errors because the music is not where the library thinks it should be. First thing to do is put it back where it was. Then reconnect it. Then follow the steps in this link:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364

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I'd like to store my Aperture /IMovie Libraries on an external hard drive.
That is fine and recommended.. use the fastest disk you can afford.. ie Thunderbolt>USB3>FW800>USB2.
In addition, I'd like to partition the external hard drive so that Time Machine can use it to both back up my IMac and the external library drives.
Let me be clear.. you want to partition the one disk.. use it for TM and move your files to the external disk.. and then backup to the same disk.. You can do it.. but that is not a backup.. that is an experiment in how long you can get away with running files and backups on the same disk before you lose everything.. like Russian Roulette.. pull the trigger enough times and laws of probability will do you in.
You must have backups on a different disk .. otherwise it is pointless.
Can I set up a RAID 5 format for redundancy?
No.. you can buy special USB and Thunderbolt external drives that support RAID..
BUT that is still not a backup.. let me show why.. you make a silly move and corrupt your file in aperture.. it is not that rare.
Raid will corrupt all copies of the files.. it is replicated across all disks.
Delete a photo it is deleted across all disks.. you have no recovery.
Alway, always consider RAID system one disk.. backup onto another disk.. and if the photos or movies are at all important to you.. ie your family .. make another copy and store in a relatives house.. There is no such thing as too much redundancy.

Is it possible to use an external hard drive for time machine backup and also as a regular hard drive?

Is it possible to use an external hard drive for time machine backup and also as a regular hard drive?

I am using an external drive in the exact way that you described. You just keep it plugged in to the computer when you want to access the movies and files. In order to put files on it, just go to finder open up the drive under devices and drag and drop files onto the drive. It is just like using a usb drive with a terabyte of space.

I have been using an external hard drive on a PC, I have now moved over to a macbookpro, is there a way to reformat the hard drive without deleting the files currently on the hard drive?

I have been using an external hard drive on a PC, I have now moved over to a macbookpro, is there a way to reformat the hard drive without deleting the files currently on the hard drive?

if it's fat32 then the mac can read it without problems
if it's ntfs then you can install programs which make it possible to write to it too otherwise it's read only

New iMac. Flash drive is primary for OS and apps. I want to use my HD 2 (1 TB hard drive) for my bulky photo and music files. Can I direct iPhoto and iTunes to use the larger hard drive as the primary target when importing?

New iMac. Flash drive is primary for OS and apps. I want to use my HD 2 (1 TB hard drive) for my bulky photo and music files. Can I direct iPhoto and iTunes to use the larger hard drive as the primary target when importing?

Yes. Unfortunately, I don't know the specifics because I don't use iPhoto anymore and I completely copied over 15 years of MP3 files recently when I installed 10.7. Needless to say, I have not opened iTunes since and probably never will again - not because of iTunes but because of my stupidity. I did have some of the files backed up but I hadn't backed up in a while.......anyway....
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Sorry I couldn't help more.

The backup files for my devices are saved to my internal hard drive. I have a small internal hard drive and would like them to be saved to an external drive. How can I change where iTunes automatically backs up to?

The backup files for my devices are saved to my internal hard drive. I have a small internal hard drive and would like them to be saved to an external drive. How can I change where iTunes automatically backs up to?

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A search of google or the fourms would reveal ways to create a folder link to relocate the physical location where the files are stored.

I recently moved my Aperture Library file to an external hard drive. Can I now create a vault to be saved on my Time Capsule for the Aperture library on this external hard drive?

I recently moved my Aperture Library file to an external hard drive. Can I now create a vault to be saved on my Time Capsule for the Aperture library on this external hard drive?

One thing to bear in mind, if you are using Time Machine on your Time Capsule and have it set so the TM backup includes your external drive, you will effectively be backing up your Aperture library twice on the same drive, once with Time Machine and once with the vault. This isn't a problem unless you start to run out of space.
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Is it possible to store iPhoto files externally in a similar way as iTunes? My hard drive is almost full now and I really need to clear some space.

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