Loading a Back Up iPhoto Library, without imorting all of the photos

I backed up my entire iPhot library on to an external Hard Drive. I then went and dumped all of these photos off of my local Hard Drive, freeing up a ton of space. Now I want to use iPhoto to look at my backed up library on my external drive. However, it appears as though when I try to look at these photos on the backup drive it wants to import ALL of the photos back on to my local Drive.
Am I correct? Am I doing something wrong? What can I do to view this backup Library without importing them back on to my local HD?

Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and point it at the Library on the External. This will open the Library, it will not move any pics back to your internal.
Regards
TD

Similar Messages

IPhoto library has lost all my landscape photos.

Hi, My iPhoto library has lost all my landscape photos (the thumbnails are there, but no photos when you try to slide show them).
I've tried reverting to original and restoring the library. No luck.
I have them all in a back up outside of iPhoto - as individual jpg files. Can Iphoto help to re-import the missing ones bring them back into the library?
I'm hoping to avoid having to start from scratch!!!
I don't know what caused the issues - I haven't made any changes to the back end!!!
Thanks.

If that doesn't help...
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. (In Library Manager it's the FIle -> Rebuild command)
This will create an entirely new library. It will then copy (or try to) your photos and all the associated metadata and versions to this new Library, and arrange it as close as it can to what you had in the damaged Library. It does this based on information it finds in the iPhoto sharing mechanism - but that means that things not shared won't be there, so no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your events, albums and keywords, faces and places back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.

How can I re-sync my iPhone and iPad after accidentally deleting my iTunes library (without losing all of the apps on my devices)?

Long story short: A sequence of bad decisions on my part caused me to delete my entire iTunes library (song files, apps, itl file, everything in the music folder). Another bad decision left me without a Time Machine backup of this folder. I have a backup of my music and I can redownload audiobooks from Audible, so I'm not stressed out about my audio.
The problem is my iPhone and iPad. I've downloaded >400 apps and have over 100 on each device. How can I begin syncing them to this new, app-free library without having every app deleted (along with their organization, settings and related-documents). I use these devices heavily so this is a huge conundrum for me.
The next step would seem to be to restore my audio files to a new iTunes library, but how do I then sync my devices to that library without wiping out every app on my iDevices? I'm a pretty technical user and am willing to hand edit the ITL files if necessary. I think that i _may_ be able to find a version of the itl file that's about a year old from an ancient backup. But that still doesn't solve the whole problem.
Thank you,
Spencer

I managed to lose an earlier reply I'd started before you came back with your "solved" so I didn't bother to retype it.
It went something like this:
You should be able to recover the media with the tips in this post from forum regular Zevoneer but I'm not sure what the implications are for your application settings. You can probably transfer your purchases into an authorised library, backup the device, recover any other media using third party tools, then restore the device from the backup.
The older .itl file is useful however as iTunes should see this as the "home" library for your device which will allow you to preserve the application settings. (.itl file? Mac? I assume the library has migrated from PC to Mac at some point). Any files in the Previous iTunes Libraries folder or did you kill those as well? The most recent of these would be the best place to start.
And no, the .itl file is not editable by mortals...
Once you've restored the media from backups or recovered whatever else you useful can from the device, the scripts MusicFolder Files Not Added and Super Remove Dead Tracks should help get the library up to speed with the contents of the media folder.
tt2

Extracting photos from backup of iPhoto Library without iPhoto

I recently had to do a clean install of Mac OS X 10.7.5 because I had some funky file structures in my hard drive that were rendering my 8 year old Macbook unusable. I have a full Time Machine backup on an external hard drive and had to drag and drop what I wanted from the backup over to the cleaned hard drive as opposed to doing an automated restore (because I didn't want to restore the funky file structures that had screwed up my mac in the first place). So now I have everything I want back on the cleaned Mac except iPhoto won't open after being copied over from the backup. Fine - I didn't really care for iPhoto anyway so I don't want to buy it. Now I am trying to extract the photos from my backed up iPhoto library to get them on the Mac in plain old folders. I right click the library, select show package contents, select "originals" and then try to copy that folder to my cleaned hard drive - I get an error that I do not have sufficient permissions to do that. Same thing with any folder level.
I have tried iPhoto Library Manager - but that needs a working iPhoto application...
How can I get these photos out of this back up library without having to copy each one individually???? It's driving me nuts. grr.

Here's how to restore an iPhoto Library from Time Machine:
OT

Backing Up iPhoto Library

I have decided that it's time to back up my computer somewhere other than my house. Principally, I am concerned that I have a redundent backup of my family photos. I am looking at a service called Mozy. My question is this: if I want to backup the photos I have imported into iPhoto library, is there a single file I can serve to the remote server or do I have to export all of my albums to separate folders and then upload those to the remote server? Thanks in advance.

One caveat is this: If you have for some reason imported photos to your iPhoto library without copying files to the iPhoto library.
When I first switched that seemed like a non-distinction. I didn't want duplicates so I imported photos from an external HDD to the library *+without copying+* them to the library. With this setting the iPhoto file referenced in this thread will only contain links to the actual photos on the external HDD and backing it up will not actually back up the photo files.
It's a long shot but I thought maybe worth mentioning.

IPhoto 08 unable to upgrade or load older backed up iPhoto 06 library

Hi, I've been looking at posts for a couple of hours for a similar issue, but nothing seems exactly the same to me. We have been using iPhoto 08 for quite some time. Prior to upgrading to iPhoto 08 (from iPhoto 06), I had several iPhoto libraries...some backed up to external drives. Now I want to see some photos from one of those older, backed up libraries. When I try to open it in iPhoto 08, it says I need to upgrade the library. Fair enough. So I click Continue and then I immediately get a an error message saying the library is damaged and unreadable. If I use Terminal to examine the contents of the iPhoto directory...it seems everything is there (jpgs, AlbumData.xml...etc) and I can copy a jpg out of there and open it individually. So the data seems to be there. And AlbumData.xml is pointing to an existing location. But iPhoto 08 can't upgrade the library. What gives? If I try to run iPhoto Library Manager, once I get by the selection screen it again tells me I need to upgrade and I get the same "unreadable" error so that doesn't seem to work. I suppose I could copy all the jpgs out manually and reimport them, but that seems like a lot of work as there are thousands of photos. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance!!

It sounds like the database file is damaged. (And by the way, that's not the AlbumData.xml file. That file is used for Sharing. The actual db file in a v6 Library is the library6.iphoto file)
As iPhoto Library Manager can't do the job, I fear your next move is a manual re-build of the LIbrary:
To create and populate a new library:
Note this will give you a working library with the same Rolls and pictures as before, however, you will lose your albums, keywords, modified versions, books, calendars etc.
In the iPhoto Preferences -> Events Uncheck the box at 'Imported Items from the Finder'
Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Create Library'
Go into the damaged iPhoto Library and find the Originals folder. From the Originals folder drag the individual Roll Folders to the iPhoto Window and it will recreate them in the new library.
In the future, in addition to your usual back up routine, you might like to make a copy of the library6.iPhoto file whenever you have made changes to the library as protection against database corruption.
Regards
TD

Using a backed-up iPhoto Library - HELP!!

Hi all. I'm looking for some guidance on how to recover photos that were recovered from a failing hard drive. My wife had a collection of digital photos that were originally imported in to Aperture 2.0. A while later, she started using iPhoto 09 for new photos. Eventually, she imported all of the photos from Aperture into iPhoto 09. Her collection is just over 2,500 photos. Well, last week, her hard drive started to act up and she asked me to back up her pics, and to do it from iPhoto as that's where the total photo collection then resided (Aperture + iPhoto). So I did, and we eventually had her hard drive repaired. After reinstalling iPhoto, I planned to just put the original saved iPhoto library that I backed up for her back into her pictures folder. I did, but now, when we open iPhoto, we are presented with the error message "unable to locate original" and the options are "cancel" or "locate original." So now you see our delimma (the originals went away with the bad hard drive).
Can someone please advise as to how to proceed? All of the photos are there, in the copied library, however, we are unable to use them as they are. Is there a way to convert them so they will work (hopefully without loosing all of their new attributes, e.g. "place", "faces", etc.)
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Regards, bamarich.

What do you mean when you say:
All of the photos are there, in the copied library, however, we are unable to use them as they are.
and
So now you see our delimma (the originals went away with the bad hard drive).
It sounds like iPhoto was running in Referenced mode.* Was it?
If the actual photos “went away with the bad hard drive“ then they are gone.
Regards
TD
*If you're running a Managed library, then it's the default setting, and iPhoto copies files into the iPhoto Library when Importing
If you're running a Referenced Library, then you made a change at iPhoto -> Preferences -> Advanced and iPhoto is NOT copying the files into the iPhoto Library when importing.
Regards
TD

Easiest way to recreate a corrupt iPhoto library without loss of metadata?

I have stumped the community with my problematic undeletable keywords in a specific iPhoto library. I've been trying to be diligent about identifying, keywording, describing and titling these images, and now I have about 3500 images, each of which has from 3-12 of more than a hundred keywords linked to it; most also have descriptions, and titles in addition to filenames. I've run into a bizarre problem where sometimes an incorrect applied keyword cannot be removed from a particular image or series of images without deleting/readding the images to the library and starting over with them; or deleting/readding the keyword, and that means getting the new version of the keyword accurately back on the images to which it does belong.
(my thread on the keyword problem is here [https://discussions.apple.com/message/25995671#25995671])
The problem recurs over and over, but so far, only in this one library, despite multiple repair and rebuild database steps. It's semifunctional now, but I have to assume that sooner or later the whole thing will explode, so need a way to get all my images and their information safely out of this library and into another one. The images are quite well backed up to six other drives in 2 locations, but I have to assume at this point that my oldest TimeMachine backups for this library, in addition to being some hundreds to a thousand images behind, are perhaps also corrupt.
I do not want to lose the hours and hours of work that went into this library--not the labelling of individual items, or the ability to find/reuse those keywords for newly added items. Fortunately, because of the way I make use of this one, albums are unimportant, so I just need to retain images, their titles/descriptions/keywords, and ideally the keyword collection as a whole.
How can I recreate this library, retain as much of the metadata as possible, and minimize the chance of carrying over the corrupting keyword problem to the next iteration?

Looking carefully at the FAQ, it looks like it will make all of my referenced libraries (the majority of them) into managed libraries. I either have to give in to managed libraries and let ILM do everything (which I do not like, as I frequently access photos from other programs, plus I do not trust iPhoto or ILM to be around as long as I or someone else may wish to access my photos); or cave in to the not-so-siren call of a more professional library manager like Aperture.
Thank you for the very helpful suggestion; I have to really think about this one for a bit--decide whether to do the short-term fix or a longer term change in how I've organized my now tens of thousands of images, and their associated metadata.
I really want a photo manager that will be infinitely flexible, not touch my original image data unless I deliberately take things to photoshop, but attach metadata like title, keywords, and descriptions permanently to the images for archiving--not just keep them in a propietary database; not lose track of photos when I need to move them to long-term backup or get confused by multiple duplicate backup drives; and allow me to access images from other programs ideally without having to open the photo manager every time; and is broadly enough used and supported to ensure that new versions will be available for the long term, or that migration assistants will be available for the next great thing. And I want perpetual motion and world peace too.

Questions re backing up iPhoto Library

I have a 20” iMac purchased last January and have been using iPhoto a lot since recently acquiring my first digital camera. I am adding extensively to my collection of digital photos and wish to back up my photo images to DVDs in case the originals are accidently lost or corrupted. However, I am running into some seeming weirdness along the way that is making it difficult for me to figure out how best to accomplish this. I would appreciate one of the experts on this forum clarifying this situation for me.
It appears that one way to back up the photos to a DVD is to open up iPhoto, and then click Library/Share/Burn, after which you insert a blank DVD to complete the process. However, I note a discrepancy here. When I click on Library I note that I currently have 653 photos in the Library at a size of 3.4 GB which would easily fit on a DVD. The discrepancy shows up when I open up the iPhoto Library folder in the Pictures folder and find that the size of the iPhoto Library folder is 4.73 GB which would be too big to fit on a DVD. Why does the size of the Library show up as 3.4 GB in the first case and 4.73 GB in the second case? Which value is correct? Should I back up the Library in iPhoto per the Library/Share/Burn indicated above or should I attempt to burn the iPhoto Library folder to a DVD? If the latter, what would be the best way to do this?
A related issue is creation of new photo libraries. I plan to continue to back up my library by burning to DVDs, which means that I would want to create a new library every time the current library reaches a size of about 4 GB. This would assure that each library would fit on a DVD. I encountered another bit of weirdness in my attempt to find out how to create new libraries and to switch between libraries. It appears that in creating a new library or in switching to a different iPhoto library it is first necessary to locate the current iPhoto Library folder and rename it. I can find no explanation for this. My plan would be to retain “iPhoto Library” as the name of the original library with “iPhoto Library - 2”, “iPhoto Library - 3”, etc. as the names of subsequent new libraries. Why would I want to or need to rename these libraries? Weird!
Back to my current iPhoto Library: If the actual size is 4.73 GB it won’t fit on a DVD. It would seem necessary for me to create a new library and then transfer some of the photos in the current library to the new library in order to reduce the size to about 4 GB. I presume that this is possible and would appreciate guidance on how best to accomplish this. I don’t want to chance losing any images in the process!
To date, except for the oddities incurred in working with iPhoto, I have not had much difficulty in making the transition from a Windows computer to the new iMac. I’m now a definite Mac fan! I trust that one or more experienced hands here can steer me in the right direction so that I can continue to enjoy the use of iPhoto, hopefully knowing what I am doing and why.
Bob

Hello, Bob,
Terence is correct. You don't need to rename your library.
I use iPhotoBuddy to manage my libraries; currently I have ten of them. I separated them chronologically by dates and named them appropriately, such as iPhotoLibrary2007.
You can burn DVDs or CDs in two ways:
1. From WITHIN iPhoto Burn from iPhoto This method is good for iPhoto backup when you would like to keep iPhoto's structure. You can just insert the disk when you want to use the photos, and you will have them just as they were in iPhoto.
However, the photos cannot be read by photo print places nor by PCs. You may note that the disk used size is larger because you are getting the full iPhoto--thumbs, originals and modifieds. The disk icon will appear in iPhoto's source pane and can be accessed without having to reimport the photos.
2. From FINDER Burn from Finder This method is good for preserving your photos for use in any computer or photo processing company. You may find that this method will allow more photos per disk because you are only burning the photos that you exported to the desktop folder/file. When you insert this disk and open iPhoto, you will not see the disk in the Source pane and will have to reimport the photos to use them.
Which method you use depends on what your ultimate goal is. If you want to delete the photos from your current library, but have access to them easily,then method 1 would probably suit you better.
If you are looking to archive the photos as a backup and are ok with reimporting them if you need to, then method 2 may be better for you.
Another suggestion for you is to get an external drive (or two) to use for iPhoto. As your photo collection enlarges, you may find that it is too big for your computer's drive to handle. You keep the iPhoto application on the computer's drive, but you can put the library(ies) on the external. It is easy to do; just drag the entire iPhotoLibrary (located in Pictures folder) onto the external. (Be sure the external is Mac-formatted first).
When you open iPhoto and it asks you to create or locate the library, just point it to the external drive.
If you make use of an external for your iPhoto Libraries, remember that unless you copy them onto disks, you have not backed up. That is why you may need a second external, for backup.
I have two external drives for iPhoto, and I make iMovies->DVDs of all our family photos and videos, and I burn DVDs of my photos. I had an external drive fail once. Fortunately, none of my photos were on it, just some papers of my daughters and some documents of mine. Makes me extra-cautious

How can i restore an iphoto library without using time machine

I somehow created a new iphoto library and my old one was deleted and wasn't saved using time machine. Is there any way i can get my old library back. Please help!!!

The dock icon always enters the last IPHOTO library opened - so all may not be lost ..
Look in Macintosh HD/Users/*your name on your mac/Pictures
iPhoto Library is the default - if you have another iPhoto library with some extension that may be the new one -- so simply click on iPhoto to reset the dock icon.
If you use time machine - and the Iphoto library is empty - Enter time machine while in this folder and back up through time until you find the last one with pictures.

How can I back up the iPhoto library when iPhoto won't open and I can't simply copy the iPhoto library packet because "some of the data in the packet cannot be read from or written to"?

How can I back up the iPhoto library when iPhoto won't open and I can't simply copy the iPhoto library packet because "some of the data canny be read from or written to"?

Regarding not being able to open iPhoto. As a test launch iPhoto with the Option key held down and create a new, test library. Were you able to create a new library?
If so then your current library is damaged and needs to be repaired.
Apply the two fixes below in order as needed:
Fix #1
Launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
Since only one option can be run at a time start
with Option #4 and then #1 as needed.
Fix #2
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
1 - download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
2 - click on the Add Library button, navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
3 - Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the File ➙ Rebuild Library menu option.
4 - In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
5 - Click on the Create button.
Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments. However, books, calendars, cards and slideshows will be lost. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.
OT

I can't open my backed-up Iphoto Library on my new Mac with upgraded iLife. How can I retrieve all my pics??

Having backed-up my old iMac using time machine, thinking to open up my iPhoto Library to retrieve all pics from Time Machine, but iPhoto doesn't let me open it. First a pop-up appears: "The photo library needs to be upgraded to work with this version of iPhoto. Your photo library will not be readable by previous versions of iPhoto after the upgrade. The upgrade process for very large libraries may take an hour or more to complete." When I click Upgrade another pop-up appears "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." But I am using the latest version iLife 11. Is there a way to open up the library in a different way, so I can get my pics back???

It sounds like the restored database is damaged.
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.

How do I re-download my iphoto library if I can no longer find iphoto on my desktop or in my finder without loosing all of my photos?

How do I re-download my iphoto library if I can no longer find iphoto on my desktop or in my finder without loosing all of my photos?

How did you install it in the first place? If it came with your Mac, and the Mac didn't come with Lion installed, then reinstall iLife from the Applications disc that was in the box. If you no longer have that disc, you'll have to order a replacement from Apple customer service. Either that, or restore the iPhoto application from your backups.
If you got iPhoto from the App Store, you can download it again by launching the App Store application.

Backing up iPhoto Library from external hard drive through ChronoSync to Time Capsule

I have a 2008, 2GB Mac Mini. I moved my iTunes library, which is mostly movies, to a 4 TB My Book Studio, as it exceeded the space on my Mac. I back up my computer to a 2 TB Time Capsule. I exclude the My Book Studio from being backed up on the Time Capsule as it takes up all the space due to the iTunes library. I am wanting to move my iPhoto library as it is starting to take up to much memory on my Mac also.
My question is, if I move my iPhoto library to the My Book Studio, then get an application such as ChronoSync (or an App that will do incremental back ups & not do a completely new back up each time) to automatically back up my iPhoto library to my Time Capsule, can I set it to specifically bak up the library off the external hard drive, or will it only back up info that is stored on my Mac?
Thanks!

Thanks Terence!!! I received a reply back from Chronosync. I will be purchasing their app......it sounds pretty slick
Here is their reply to the same question I asked here:
ChronoSync Express will back up the contents of whatever volume or folder you target as your source target to the volume or folder you choose as the destination target. As long as you can access the volume or folder via Finder of your Mac, ChronoSync Express can access it as well. You can create a sync document that targets your iPhoto library and nothing else on the My Book Studio and backs it up to the Time Capsule then schedule it to run automatically.

Want to "move back" my iPhoto library +photos

Hi,
I am new to this forum and after reading a lot of pages I canot find any answer to my question !!
I changed my HD on my MBP (I have now a 320Go) and wanted to "get back" from an external HD, my iPhoto library and my files with originals photos wich have not been "imported" into iPhoto : menu "prefs/advanced/Import/copy in the iPhoto library is not checked".
I hope my explanations are OK !!
thanks
Jacques

James
Welcome to the Apple user to user assistance forums
my iPhoto library and my files with originals photos wich have not been "imported" into iPhoto : menu "prefs/advanced/Import/copy in the iPhoto library is not checked".
You are running a referenced library - which is not recommended for a number of reasons including it makes things like new hard drives and computers more difficult
One way to accomplish your desired move is to use alias herder - http://www.rorohiko.com/wordpress/downloads/aliasherder/ - to convert your library to a managed library - then you can simply quit iPhoto and drag the library where ever you want it and launch iPhoto while depressing the option (alt) key and point to it
Since the key to a referenced library is that the path to the photos does not change it may be possible to move the referenced library to your internal drive leaving the original photos where they are - I've not seen this but it seems that it might work - easy to give a try - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library to the pictures folder on the internal drive and launch iPhoto while depressing the option (alt) key - if it works you have a partial solution - if it does not simply launch iPhoto with the option key and point back to the library that still exists on the EHD and delete the one you just moved to the internal drive
And note that you have imported your photos into iPhoto - you simply have not copied the originals to the iphoto library - the importing process is much more than just copying the photo - it involved updating all of the iPhoto database pointers
LN
Message was edited by: LarryHN

Loading a Back Up iPhoto Library, without imorting all of the photos

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