Lost with 10000 photos on a external hard-drive!

hello-hello, I have just bought a new-mac.
I've got just over 10.000 photos on an external hard-drive.
These photos are from all sorts of places, old cameras, scanned in, emailed over, downloaded etc...
On my external hard-drive they are organised into about 300 folders and sub folders more subfolders.
When I import them into iphoto its obsessed about 'events'
Is there a way I can import my folders and subfolders into iphoto and view them through that?
Cheers

You can recreate your current folder structure in iPhoto using Albums, not Events.
Start at the bottom of your hierarchy and drag a folder of images to the Album section of the left hand pane in the iPhoto Window. iPhoto will create an Album of the same name. You can then create the enclosing folder in iPhoto (File -> New Folder) and drag the Album to it. You can nest folders inside folders as well.
A couple of general comments, as an fyi. Mimicing a FInder set up in iPhoto Window is not making best use of the additional organisation possibilities of iPhoto.
If you're folder system is date based then the calendar tool and/or smart folders make that form of organisation pretty pointless. The calendar tool makes it possible to find all the pics taken o0n a specific day/month/year at any time.
If the folders are Theme based, then keywording is also more flexible.
Regards
TD

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Couldn't start Photos app with a photo library in external hard drive

"Photos was unable to make a copy of your library before preparing it. Photos does not have the necessary permissions..."
The pop-up menu allow me to read some solution in this site (If Photos can’t copy or create a library - Apple Support), but it only contains with default location in the picture folder. I've been using my photo library in external driver which I made as one for timemachine, and the terminal solution didn't work for me('couldn't find location' after entering passwords). Please help.

"Photos was unable to make a copy of your library before preparing it. Photos does not have the necessary permissions..."
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Iphoto: How to safely delete or move photos. I have over 7000 photos. When I deleted some, I found that the event still shows up with a blank frame. Can I move some photos to an external hard drive but leave the pointer in iphoto?

iphoto: How to safely delete or move photos. I have over 7000 photos. I would really like to move tsome of the older photos to an external hard drive. (They are backed up in Time Machine, but I like the immediacy of having them available.) So question 1 - is it possible to split the iphoto library so that the directory tree points to an external drive in some cases? And if that doesn't work--I am willing to export and delete some of these photos. However, an earlier delete left me with events that have a name in the event folder, but no photos. Question 2 -- How do I properly delete photos so that all references disappear?
example:

Warning: Time Machine is not an Archiving application. It keeps rolling back ups. That means if you delete something from the source Mac it will eventually be also deleted from Time Machine. How long that takes depends on the amount of disk space TM has. So, remember, backing up in Time Machine is not the same as Archiving.
For the blank thumbnails: This can happen if you try delete too many photos at one go. Experienced users suggest you should delete in batches of 100 or so.
Yes you can split the Library, where some of the Masters are stored locally and some on an external disk, but really, you don't want to do that. iPhoto's file management tools are limited at best, and if the path to the files changes then you could find yourself repairing the links to the files - all of them, one by one.
Better: Have your entire Library on an External Drive.
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.
If you want to have a smaller library on your internal disk:
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
Regards
TD

I have a macbook pro with only 128gb of hard drive. I have lightroom installed and all my photos on an external hard drive. Can I store my lightroom library on the external hard drive too?

I have a macbook pro with only 128gb of hard drive. I have lightroom installed and all my photos on an external hard drive. Can I store my lightroom library on the external hard drive too?

Yes. Find the LR catalog file by looking in Edit/Catalog Settings/General. Close LR and navigate to that spot. The catalog file is the one that ends in .lrcat - move it to wherever you want. Next to the .lrcat file is a subfolder called Previews.lrdata. You can move that over as well, but if you don't LR will generate new previews. Double-click on the .lrcat file in its new home and LR will open with that catalog. Set Preferences to When Starting Up Use Most Recent Catalog.

Help...how do I download my photos from an external hard drive into iphoto

Help, can someone tell me how to download my photos from an external hard drive that was a previous dell computer with windows.. we ditched the dell and got the imac... but I'm lost....please help.

never mind i figured it out...thx

How do I export all my Iphoto photos to my external hard drive, maintaining their current state?

So I did the classic click and drag method, putting all my photos into my external hard drive, fast and easy. But what I noticed was that no information about the pictures was kept, no dates, locations etc. If you drag one picture the information comes with it, but not if you take a bunch at the same time. Then the original date is replaced by today's. I've got over 20.000 photos and I really want them on my hard drive, can someone please help me out here?

Export them using the appropriate options to include the desired metadata - see the user tip on exporting for details on eachoption
As to date - you probably are confusing the file date with the photo date - two totally different things - the photos date is internal to the photo in the EXIF data and is view using photo viewing software like preview or iPhoto - the file date it only concerned with th efile information and is views with file viewer software like nder
LN

How I can transfer photos from an external hard drive to my mac?

Hello,
I need help on how to transfer photos from an external hard drive (sumsung make) to my mac? If possible can you please tell me step by step, and also how I can post a video that was taken from my iPhone to facebook. It keeps telling me my video is being encoded, and then could not process. I must be dunce really. Your help is greatly appreciated.

What files are they? Is it a clone, a TM backup, or simply drag 'n drop?
If it's the latter, simply drag them back. If something else, please post back with detailed info.

I have been backing up my photos to an external hard drive. I usually choose the photos, copy and paste them to the EHD. It has started saying "an item named "unnamed.jpg" already exists in this location. I don't know what to do.

I have the MacBook OS X 10.5.8, 2.4 GHz, 2 GB. I have been backing up my photos to an external hard drive since I purchased it. I usually choose the photos, copy and paste them to the EHD. It has started saying "an item named "unnamed.jpg" already exists in this location. Do you want to replace it with the one you're moving? Don't replace/Stop/Replace". I don't know what to do.

Thanks Jim, I kind of thought that was the answer, but was hoping against hope that I was just missing something. Like I said, it's not a big problem. One work around I've found is to name a folder on the external hard drive the same as the name I give the folder to import to and then choose this folder to back up to. I still get a subfolder inside that folder named Imported on...... but at least it's in the folder with my chosen name.
Thanks again,
Jack

Can i move original photos to an external hard-drive

Hi
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Jamie

Yes and No
The Yes part:
It is possible to run an iPhoto Library with the Originals stored outside the Library folder, but I strongly caution against it - especially if the Library and the files are on different volumes, as you propose. Why? the short answer: if the files become detached from the database then you will end up reconnecting every single one, one by one. For more see this:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3062728?tstart=0
Further, if the external is not plugged in when you launch iphoto it will ask you where each file is. All of them. One by one.
So that's really a 'Yes... but...' I suppose.
The No part:
You have currently got a Managed Library. There's no way to convert to a Referenced one.
Then there's the... 'how much money do you want to throw at this' bit?
If you purchase Aperture this is a cinch. It can relocate masters, reconnect them if they get seperated and so on. Pay more, get more options. And Aperture can use the same Library as iPhoto, but there is a bigger learngn curve.

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I have a lot of photos that take up space on my hard drive. It is now full and I need to continue to use them but i need to load new photo also. How do i save the old photos onto an external hard drive and then still access them in iphoto?

This is where iTunes stores backups for different operating systems: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4946
I do not use a Windows machine, have a Windows Vista Dell I rarely startup now. But, from what I remember with Win boxes is, you will have to create on the external hard drive a file system like that one iTunes normally uses, and then in the iTunes preferences or control panel edit the location for the storage to specify the name of the external hard drive, or its letter code, with the name of that file system you created on the exernal drive.
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How can I store photos on an external hard drive and still manage w IPhoto?

The hard drive on my MacBook is almost full and I want to move my photos to an external hard drive. Can I do this and still manage and organize the photos using I Photo? I can export the photos, but when I do I lose the organization (Events, Albums, etc.) that are in I Photo. With my new DSLR camera the photos (JPEGS) are really big and I am quickly running out of storage on the MacBook. Thanks in advance for you help.
Jim in Seattle

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

HT5260 Hi, my name is Gerard and my iphoto library is getting very large I would like to know if I can store all or most of my photos in a external hard drive and access them from Aperture?

Hi, my name is Gerard and my iphoto library is getting very large I would like to know if I can store all or most of my photos in a external hard drive and access them from Aperture?

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

I imported my photos from an external hard drive into Lightroom, edited my photos but what next...?!

Adobe,
I imported my photos from an external hard drive into Lightroom, edited my photos and when i decided to export them the originals had not been updated and the deleted photos had not been deleted. How do i set it up so that once i import the photos, edit them and export they are then placed back in their original folder edited and updated?
I have managed to export the photos to another file but these were exported with an Adobe.xmp file. What is this and is this necessary?
Thanks for your help!

It's important to realise that LR is a DAM (Digital Asset Management) application - no images are actually imported into LR only links to where they are. Secondly, the details of any edits that you make to your images are kept only in the database and/or xmp files depending how you set this up in Preferences. In the general workflow e.g. edit in Lightroom, further edit in Photoshop and returning to LR then creating xmp files aren't really necessary. So just to emphasise - edits are stored in the LR's database, the original RAW images themselves don't change (non destructive editing). You can prove this yourself by desaturating an image (turning it into a B+W) and then look at the original images in Explorer - you'll see it's still being shown in colour.
Exporting an image is something different. By implication, you've finished with the image and perhaps want to save an image for posting on the web somewhere. Now assuming your not using any additonal and freely available LR export plug-ins, one way would be to Export a jpeg image to a folder on the desktop and this is allowed for in the Export dialogue. At this time LR reads any edits from it's database and applies those to the exported jpeg (or tiff) file it's going to send to the folder on the desktop.
As mentioned earlier, any edits and keywords etc are stored in LR's database - original RAW files remain untouched. XMP files also store the edits if LR is set up to create xmp files (in Preferences) but these are not really necessary unless you are going to be editing an already edited RAW file in another application. As an example - you import into LR's library a scanned negative. Now because strictly speaking LR isn't designed to work with negative images, you now open this file via Bridge into ACR and from here reverse the negative into a positive image. All fine and good except when you go back into LR what's shown is still a negative so what is needed is to update the metadata (LR > Metadata > Read Metadata from file) which will force LR to read the newly created metadata from the xmp file that Bridge generated. As already suggested, if you're happy editing your RAW files in LR and only LR then xmp files aren't really necessary - all the data being saved in LR's database.
Hope this has been of some help but if I might also suggest, purchasing a good book on LR from the outset thus getting to really know LR will pay dividends further on down the line.

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

When I try to import, I receive the following message: "An internal error has occurred: not enough memory". I always download my photos onto an external hard drive.

Yesterday,I downloaded an update for Lightroom 5. Now when I try to import, I receive the following message: "An internal error has occurred: not enough memory". The message comes up right after I click import, before I choose a file to upload.Here is the information I can think of that might be needed to answer this question:
- I always download my photos onto an external hard drive.It is about 10 % full.
- It says I have Lightroom 5.6 64 bit
- I am working from a newer laptop (Windows). The internal drive on the laptop has 289 gb and I am using 61 gb total memory.
- I have edited 2794 photos in Lightroom and it is all in one catalog.
- I did not have this problem until I made the update. I did have my first "bug" earlier this week when one of my photos had a line show up through the middle of it when I exported it. I was able to export it a second time without the line.
If there is more info. needed, let me know. I do photography as a hobby and know enough about Lightroom to edit out blemishes and adjust color balance, but not too much more, so forgive my ignorance if this is an obvious fix.
Sincerely,
Adrianne

Not Enough Memory typically refers to RAM. How much RAM do you have on your 64-bit OS computer? Do you have other programs running that may be using most of the memory?

Lost with 10000 photos on a external hard-drive!

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