MAJOR MESSUP with iphoto: HELP?

hello good samaritans,
when my macbook pro started with the "your startup disk is almost full" messages, i moved (thinking that i was copying) the iphoto library to an external hard drive. then i "made room" in my startup disk by trashing those photos that were now "safely" duplicated elsewhere.
when i restarted iphoto, of course, i didn't find my photos. i brought the "copy" back from the external hard drive and nothing was ever the same. i tried various things that probably made everything worse. i was able to recover only maybe 20% of all my picture. ARE THEY ANYWHERE? are they lost forever?
THANK YOU
rvk

RVK
Welcome to the iPhoto user discussion forums
i moved (thinking that i was copying) the iphoto library to an external hard drive.
Is this copy still on the external HD? If it is quit iPhoto and launch it while depressing the option key - use the select library option and point to the iPhoto library on the external HD
If everything is ok you can not trash the iPhoto library from the pictures folder on your internal drive
LN

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TD,
Thanks for the excellent explanation of the application and how it differs from what I have been used to doing. Without going into too much details, I would like to say that Picasa may be a file organizer, but it does allow me a concept of "albums" which is virtual and when I choose to put the same picture in multiple albums, it does not make a new copy each time.
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Rolls, on the other hand) 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
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So, rolls are in fact "real" and not virtual concepts right? I would actually be moving the files from one roll to another underneath when I move a picture in iPhoto from one roll to another. Is that the correct understanding I have?
And, then FYI: A Note about the iPhoto Library
Folder:
In this folder there are various files, which are the
Library itself and some ancillary files. Then you
have three folders
Originals are the photos as they were
downloaded from your camera or scanner.
(ii) Modified contains edited pics, shots that
you have cropped, rotated or changed in any way.
This allows the Photos -> Revert to Original command
- very useful if you don't like the changes you've
made.
(iii) Data holds the thumbnails the the app
needs to show you the photos in the iPhoto Window.
Very cool. That makes sense, and I did read about this folder structure in some other posts which is very helpful to get started.
If I drag and drop a folder from Finder to the
source section of iPhoto why does iPhoto not bring
everything in as "Originals". I see that some of my
pictures go into the corresponding "Modified" folder.
It seems like there is an internal "modification"
that is done at the time of import which I am unable
to check on/off.
Your camera has an Auto Rotate feature, right? What
happens there is that your camera doesn't rotate the
pics, it simply puts a flag on them "Display Me This
Way". Part of the core philosophy of iPhoto is to
leave your original file untouched, so it creates a
modified version, showing the rotation. How to stop
it? Turn off auto-rotate or rotate the pics before
they come into iPhoto.
Excellent point. I will change that setting on the camera. Of course for all the pictures I have downloaded already, I suppose there is no way to change the rotation settings, right?
Also, in the same method, I see that the picture
got duplicated on the file system - once appearing in
the original folder which I dragged from the Finder,
and the second time showing up under Originals or
Modified folders within the iPhoto library folder
under Pictures.
How do I elimiate this duplication? Can I eliminate
it and keep the "file system folder structure"
available?
Trash your Original file structure. Let iPhoto do the
file management. Freaky, right? Well don't do it
right away, leave it until you feel confident in
iPhoto, until you feel that you can trust the
application.
The other alternative is to not copy the files into
the iPhoto Library Folder (You can change this at
iPhoto -> Preferences -> Advanced). The down side is
that iPhoto will still create the modified and data
folders, when you delete from iPhoto you'll need to
track down the individual pic yourself to delete it
from the HD and things like migrating the library to
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Ok, now that I understand the application a little better, I see that the original files and folder structure is not useful at all.
But unfortunately, I would like to keep the folder structure on my external hard drive so that if I log into windows on bootcamp, I could use Picasa to access the same set of pictures. I currently have an automator action (backup folder/sync folder) which takes all the contents of Pictures folder and replicates it to the external drive. Then when I log in from Picasa, I have set the option to only scan the external drive.
If I trash the original structure and simply sync the iPhoto Library folder, and then access it through Picasa, will there be any problems if Picasa drops some of its "database type" files (I know for sure it drops a Picasa.ini)?
If I do not move any files from one folder to another, is it ok to let Picasa access the iPhoto Library folder?
Most people who want to keep their own structure do
so because they're afraid they won't be able to find
the picture files: 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'.
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selected.
Thanks very much again for the detailed explanation. I really appreciate it.
And, as I said above, Rolls have a direct
correspondence with the iPhoto Library Folder.
And I suppose if rolls are "real" then the virtual equivalents would be things like smart folders?
-rpmm

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Hi, Hope this is in the right place.
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John
iPhoto is a photo organiser - that is a database. Like any database the data has to be imported into the application.
What format is that NAS? iPhoto does not sit happily on disks that are not formatted for Mac OS X (journalled). You will find issues with saving changes to the db and with sharing pics among other apps.
You can put a library on an external disk:
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library Folder as an entity 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.
With my old PC, it allowed me to pick where I wanted my photos stored and what name I would like to call the pictures and then it named them all in succession automatically. Will iPhoto do t
No. For a start, filenames have no relevance in iPhoto - it's all about visual organisation. You can attach titles, keywords and comments to pics, of course, and can add them to the File on export.
If you want to set the pics in a spot, then do that with the Finder and thereafter import them. You can use a batch file renamer such as FileList to rename the files prior to import.
and telling iPhoto to not import duplicates.
Using a Referenced rather than a Managed library means that iPhoto will not copy the files, but rather simply reference them on your HD. It will create an alias to the Original file, a thumbnail and, if you modify the pics, a Modified version.
However, you need to be aware of a number of potential pitfalls using this system.
1. Import and deleting pics are more complex procedures
2. You cannot move or rename the files on your system or iPhoto will lose track of them
3. Most importantly, migrating to a new disk or computer can be much more complex.
Always allowing for personal preference, I've yet to see a good reason to run iPhoto in referenced mode unless you're using two photo organisers.
As a general comment: iPhoto is a bit different from most photo apps. It's happiest when it manages the files and lets you go on to manage your Photos. That's a key distinction though, between Files and Pictures. iPhoto is about Pictures, not Files.
You do all your work in the iPhoto Window - there is never a need to go into the Photo Library on the Hard Disk. To find and access photos:
There are many, many ways to access your files in iPhoto:
For 10.5 users: You can use any Open / Attach / Browse dialogue. On the left there's a Media heading, your pics can be accessed there. Apple-Click for selecting multiple pics.
To upload to a site that does not have an iPhoto Export Plug-in the recommended way is to Select the Pic in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export and export the pic to the desktop, then upload from there. After the upload you can trash the pic on the desktop. It's only a copy and your original is safe in iPhoto.
This is also true for emailing with Web-based services. If you're using Gmail you can use THIS
If you use Apple's Mail, Entourage, AOL or Eudora you can email from within iPhoto.
If you use a Cocoa-based Browser such as Safari, you can drag the pics from the iPhoto Window to the Attach window in the browser.
Or, if you want to access the files with iPhoto not running, then create a Media Browser using Automator (takes about 10 seconds) or use THIS
Other options include:
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.
To use an external editor
You can set Photoshop (or any image editor) as an external editor in iPhoto. (Preferences -> General -> Edit Photo: Choose from the Drop Down Menu.) This way, when you double click a pic to edit in iPhoto it will open automatically in Photoshop or your Image Editor, and when you save it it's sent back to iPhoto automatically. This is the only way that edits made in another application will be displayed in iPhoto.
By all means post again if you need more info.
Regards
TD

MAJOR MESSUP with iphoto: HELP?

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