ITunes no longer links to photos?

Question

I had a large photo library on an external hard drive - i followed itunes help and in the prefs i said: Don't caopy to itunes library when i imported serval gigs of photos to the app.
everything was fine.
now, i just hooked a camera to itunes for th efirst time and imported. the pref still says dont import.
but now - it imports to itunes library on my local hd which i dont want AND all the external HD photos i had imported are no longer present in iphoto.
is there a way like in itunes to physically move the iphoto library folder location to my external harddrive?
it certainly doesn't make sense to clog my local hd with many gigs worth of photos that i have dupes of elsewhere. there has to be a better way to handle this?
Thanks.

Answer 1

RecordIt
I'm afraid you're swapping the names of iTunes and iPhoto a bit in your query, but here goes.
1. Yes you can easily move the location of your iPhoto Library Folder to the external. Simply copy it to the new location. Then hold down the option (or alt) key when launching iPhoto and choose Locate. Then point iPhoto to the new location, thereafter it will be your default location.
However, if you launch iPhoto with the disk not available, iPhoto will create a new library at your Pictures Folder, so that disk must always be connected if you're using iPhoto.
2. Is there a particular reason why you chose not to 'Copy Files to the iPhoto Library Folder...' I've yet to meet a good reason not to, unless you're using two photo organisers.
Some notes on this system: You become totally responsible for file management. Importing, deleting become more complex, migrating is also more complex. While iPhoto will not copy in the Original files, it will still create aliases to these files, still create a folder for modified versions, still create a folder of thumbnails. That's just the nature of the beast.
i just hooked a camera to itunes (sic) for th efirst time and imported. the pref still says dont import.
Where did you import these pics too? iPhoto? From the camera card? That won't work. You need to first copy the pics to the location you choose and then import them - that's what I mean by importing being more complex.
As for having dupes elsewhere: If you copy them into the iPhoto Library Folder then... delete them? Alarming? Perhaps. Don't do it immediately, leave it for a few weeks until you feel confident with iPhoto.
Some other comments:
1. You can quickly recreate your current folder structure in iPhoto - simply drag your folders of images to the Source (or left-hand) pane. iPhoto will import them and create an album of the same name. You cna then create the enclosing folders in iPhoto (File -> New Folder)
2. Many people are concerned that finding files will be difficult if they allow iPhoto to copy the files in... There are three ways (at least) to get files from the iPhoto Window.
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.
Rolls in the iPhoto Window (View -> Film Rolls) correspond exactly with the Roll Folders in the Originals Folder in the iPhoto Library Folder. You can move photos between Rolls, you can rename rolls, edit them, create them, as long as you do it via the iPhoto Window. Check out the Info Pane (wee 'i', lower left) the name and date fields are editable. Edit a Roll Name using the Info Pane, the Roll Folder in iPhoto Library Folder/Originals will also have the new name.
Regards
TD