Managing a large iphoto library

There's plenty of discussion on this topic but im not sure there is a clear winner on the best way to manage a large iphoto library stored on an external hard drive across a MacBook Air and an ipad. Ideally I want to have all my photos on the ipad for viewing and sharing, reduced file size is fine, and be able to sync with my latest photos that are to be uploaded on the mac book air.
I have aperture, and currently have my library split so old photos are on the external drive and newest ones on the macbook air. This gets around the fact i cant fit my full library on the air However, this means I can't sync with the ipad without erasing the older photos not currently in the MacBook Air.
One idea I read about was to store the originals on the harddrive and only thumbnails on the MacBook Air allowing all photos to be stored in a sync-able library. However I'm worried that splitting out the originals will mess with the library.
Any suggestions much appreciated

One idea I read about was to store the originals on the harddrive and only thumbnails on the MacBook Air allowing all photos to be stored in a sync-able library. However I'm worried that splitting out the originals will mess with the library.
I have no idea where you read this but it is not possible with iPhoto - it is with Aperature
generally the best idea for iPhoto is to keep interesting and recent photos on your MBA and the complete library on an EHD using iPhoto Library Manager - http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/ - to manage the libraries and move photos as needed
as to the iPad - best to ask in the iPad forum - you can not "share" an iPhoto library with an iPad - you can only share selected photos from the library - I would think you would do this from the complete library on the EHD
LN

Similar Messages

IMovie '11 slow to load at every launch (large iPhoto library to blame?)

I'm running 10.6.7 on a late 2010 13" macbook pro. I have a very large iphoto library (over 200GB) that is full of movies made with various digital cameras. I do have a casio AVI video codec installed into quicktime as a plugin, fyi, but all the movies and clips open fine within iPhoto when I double click them.
The first time I opened up iMovie it said that it needed to scan the iphoto library and then create thumbnails. This took several hours, but finally completed. When it finished, I could see all of my movies as events in the iPhoto Videos section of the Event Library within iMovie.
The problem I'm having is that every time I launch iMovie it takes 5 minutes or more to actually open up. The program launches and then I get the spinning beach ball. Opening activity monitor and shows iMovie as "unresponsive" and there is massive disk read activity for a long time. It seems like it's scanning my drive and looking at a LOT of the files. Gigabytes of data is read. After a while, it finally settles down and I can see all the events. All of my clips appear to play fine within iMovie. But it makes using the program somewhat an awful experience as everytime I open iMovie I have to wait such a long time.
I tried trashing the preference file for iMovie and it asked me to recreate all the iPhoto library thumbnails. But I was back to square one aftewards, the same thing... long, long startup time.
Any thoughts or helpful ideas would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

iMovie remembers which you worked with last time you used it. If this is your iPhoto Library it will load all the thumbnails from iPhoto.
To manage your movie clips yourself you can make "events" for them.
1) Make a new event from the File menu.
2) Drag in the clips from iPhoto to that event.
3) Wait until iMovie has made thumbnails for these clips only.
When you quit iMovie it will remember that you worked with this event the last time and it will only load those thumbnails. Much faster. And you can create a new event for the next batch of raw footage.
The downside of this is that you get some videos duplicated so you have them in both iPhoto and iMovie on your disk.

Copying large iPhoto library to NAS drive - why is it so difficult?

I have a 2009 iMac, and a large iPhoto library (about 15000 images, circa 90 GB in size). I am trying to transfer the library from the iMac's hard drive to a 3TB Western Digital NAS drive (connected via Gigabit Ethernet) that I've just bought, and it's a nightmare.
I've tried a variety of different approaches - dragging and dropping the iPhoto Library package file onto the pictures directory of the new drive, just exporting the images contained in the 'Masters' subdirectory of the package file, and now using iPhoto Library Manager to attempt to pull the images from my current library into a new iPhoto library that I've created on the new drive. Each way seems to be incredibly lengthy - not just several hours, or even overnight (which I'm prepared for), but days and days - with the iPhoto Library Manager approach the import had been running for about 24 hours and was less than a third of the way through before iPhoto crashed and it stalled.
What is more, I also seem to be unable to delete any of the incomplete package files from the directory on the new drive - again, the progress bar just sits there reading 'Deleting 1 file' and doesn't really do anything. The new drive is formatted as Mac Share, and I can otherwise connect to it and browse through the various directories on there, save small files to it etc, without a problem.
What am I doing wrong? Many thanks for any suggestions.
S

Hi Terence, have read a few of your posts in similar threads this morning and am v relieved I did as I was definitely going to do this all wrong!
Having read your advice on referenced libraries, multiplie libraries, and NAS (ie all being bad) I have come up with the following planned approach for my situation but I would like to run it by you if thats ok?
I don't think I am particularly unusual in my scenario - I am an amateur user who has a personal photo lirbary from the last 10 years and expects it to grow pretty darn big in the future given we now seem to take 100 photos a month since having baby last year!
It already takes up 60GB (50%) of my SSD and so it has to go somewhere...the question is where...
However, where I think i may be less usual is that I don't really use events and additional tagging, I just like iPhoto as a viewer, organiser and slideshow.
From your advice to date I now understand that:
- I can't have my library on my NAS (had been plan 1!)
- Referenced libraries are strongly discouraged (plan 2)
- Using multiple lirbaries to split it down is also discouraged (plan 3, although less beneficial given none of them can go on NAS).
- I should use an ext local HD connected to my laptop when I need to access my photos. (should therefore be plan A but....)
The problem I have though is that using a local ext HD is the least appreciated option by my wife as she hates things being plugged into the laptop in the evening when she kidnaps the laptop for reading her forums, and will likely annoy me if I need to keep getting it from a cupboard, and can't stay in the living room with the little one roaming around and grabing everything gadget I own!
Plus, the most likely value in old photos is going to be that one unexepcted moment in the future when I want to bring one up to show a friend and I am away from the house....
SO, what I am thinking of doing is splitting the situation in 2:
- most of my organising, deleting, managing etc as well as obviously my importing, will happen within the first 6 months of taking a photo. Therefore I will have an iPhoto managed library for that. It will live on my local SSD and all will be good.
- and I will export all older photos to my NAS where they will the live from then on (and continue to move the 6 month expiry photos to this each month or two depending on size constraints). I will try and use events in iPhoto to organise everything before I do this, so that the folders will be useful and useable outside of iphoto on the NAS if I ever need to find anything to view.
- I will then re-import these photos into a second library in iPhoto so I keep the slideshow and viewing capabilities (not sure whether this needs to be a separate library, but probably makes things easier for me to see and manage).
If the links in this ever do get broken with iPhoto I am not sure this matters for me? - I could just re-import each folder and select the event name as the folder name. As mentioned, I don't tend to go into minute detail with events, so there won't be that many (ok, in 30 years time this may be more painful...but I imaging by then we will all be machines and there wil be a new way!)
And if I find I also want access to my <6month photos on NAS as well then I will keep a duplicate export of that on NAS (not managed as a libary within iPhoto) and continue to overwrite it with an export each 1-4 weeks depending on how I much I use things.
What do you think? Have you seen anyone take this approach, and can you see any obvious pitfalls from your experience that I am still missing?
Your advice is much appreciated,
cheers
Jon
A final point is that I have lots of photos from my pre-Mac days and these need to be brought together and consolidated into iPhoto and organised before I do my split. I was going to buy iphoto library manager as apprently it is good at finding the duplicates (I will have 1000's due to lazy copying discipline when i was younger) and I was going to use it for managing libraries anyway, but it is $30 and now I don't need all its functions I think I will just use a bespoke programme for finding any duplicates. I don't want to hijack the thread for this, but any recommendations would obviously be appreciated!

How to move a large iphoto library from one external drive to another

Hi all (my first ever post to a forum!)
I have a large iphoto library (379 GB) on an external drive (Lacie 1TB w/usb 2.0) and want to move it to a another ethernet connected external drive (LaCie Network Space 2) so I will be able to access it from other computers.
Moving it with drag and drop or copying is calculated to take 66 day's!
Wander if that could be explaned with the fact that these are around 70.000 individual pictures/files, and if it could be speed up by first compressing the library.
Wander if anyone can shere their experience on that? (what software to use or?)
I have an 21.5 inch, mid 2010 iMac (3.06 GHz Intel Core i3 with 12 GB 1067 MHz DDR3).
I also have the new Macbook Air (1.3 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 2.6GHz - with 3MB shared L3 cache).

iPhoto needs to be connected to the computer you are using it from via a sired connectin both for speed and also for data reliability
THe copy estimate is often way off - let it run and see - it will probably drop a lot quickly
Compressing would not help (assuming you shoot JPEG) since the JPEGs in the library are alread highly compressed
LN

How do i delete a backup? I deleted a large iPhoto library, but it didn't create any space as there is now a backup that is the same size.

I deleted a large iPhoto library from my hard drive to make space for an updated version. When I emptied the trash and checked on memory, there was an equivalent sized backup, so I still can't download the new library. How do i delete the backup from my hard drive?

You could be seeing the local Time Machine backup files.
See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #30 for the details on Local Snapshots.

Manage or Reference iPhoto Library?

A newbee question - what is the consensus about doing a hard import (manage) of my iPhoto library?
And what about miscellaneous pictures - just leave them where they are and Reference?
Thanks.

Part of the answer will rest on how you plan to use your pictures. Another part depends on your personality.
As a rule, I don't use external editors (photoshop, photoshop elements, etc..) very often. I find the editing features in Aperture to be sufficient. On occasion I will use PSE and/or a plug-in. If I was in a situation where I found myself using a lot of external editors, I would most likely consider using referenced files.
Also, how disciplined are you? Using referenced files might require you to be pretty disciplined in how you set up/manage your folders and how you set up your images. I no longer remember, maybe somebody can clarify, but I wonder if Aperture/iPhoto behaves like iTunes in that any file/folder deletion has to be done via Aperture or else it gets very confused very quickly.
Personally, I like iPhoto/Aperture for its organizational and management features. When I work with my images I prefer for Aperture to take care of the image storage. One less concern.
Of course there is a question of personal preference. Many prefer to deal with referenced files. It gives them more flexibility. For example, a person will have a much easier time switching from iPhoto/Aperture to Lightroom if they use a referenced file system.
Just my $0.02 worth, and of course YMMV. Good luck with your quest.

How can I restore an older, large iPhoto library?

I switched from a laptop [MacBook Pro 15inch 2.53GHz Mac OS X (last job I left)] to all I could afford... Mac Mini... I kept my rather large iPhoto library (132gig approx) on an external Hard Drive. Somewhere along the line, after switching to the Mini, my iPhoto stopped being able to access my old iPhoto library from my external hard drive.
Please help if you can... Somegood pictures and videos
So Grateful, (*-*)

THe critical question is
One thing you could check immediately is the formatting of your external drive. Is it formatted MacOS X Extended? The current iPhoto 9.4.x will not open libraries on a disk with the wrong formatting. You should see the formatting in the Get Info panel - select the drive in the Finder and press the key combination ⌘I.
Does the format show as MacOS X Extended (Journaled)?
Withou answering specific questions it is not possible to assist - without correct and complete information we would only be making wild guessses and might make things worse
Other questions that you did not answer
What is your current iPhoto version?
What exactly is happening, when you are trying to use your iPhoto library on the external drive? Do you get an error message? If yes, which message?
And which iPhoto version created your iPhoto library? We need to know more, to be able to help.
Also please verify that your profile is correct and that you have OS X version 10.7.5
LN

I am thinking of buying a "new" iPad but I have a very large iPhoto library which I would like to keep intact and be able to view on my new iPad. Is there a way to use a external storage device to store the iPhoto library and view it on the iPad?

I am thinking of buying a "new" iPad but I have a very large iPhoto library which I would like to keep intact and be able to view on my new iPad. Is there a way to use a external storage device to store the iPhoto library and view it on the iPad?

You can't use an external hard drive like you would with a computer.
You can use a USB flash drive & the camera connection kit.
Plug the USB flash drive into your computer & create a new folder titled DCIM. Then put your movie/photo files into the folder. The files must have a filename with exactly 8 characters long (no spaces) plus the file extension (i.e., my-movie.mov; DSCN0164.jpg).
Now plug the flash drive into the iPad using the camera connection kit. Open the Photos app, the movie/photo files should appear & you can import. (You can not export using the camera connection kit.)
When you first connect the USB flash drive, you will only see thumbnails of the pics on the iPad; you have to import the pic file to see the full size. With your large library of pics, you will have to do this repeateably and then delete pics so you don't exceed your memory capacity.
 Cheers, Tom

How do I import a large iPhoto library into an iMac running Yosemite without losing the existing division of the library into albums?which file do I look for on the older Mac, running Snow Leopard?

Import of library

You don't import one library into another. Simply copy the library from the older Mac to the Pictures folder on iMac. If you already have a library on the iMac rename it first.
Next launch iPhoto on the new iMac with the Option key held down and select the newly copied library.
If you have photos in the original library on the iMac you can merge that library into the larger, copied library with the paid version of iPhoto Library Manager. Or if you also have Aperture 3.3 you can use it to merge the two libraries.

Photo Management with large iPhoto libraries

I have over 50,000 photos in iPhoto and this slows iPhoto to the point of hanging. I am now importing new photos into a new library but this is a nuisance when wanting to select photos from both libraries for a specific porject. I'm not keen to have to import photos from one library to another. This seems very cumbersome. I have backed up my photos onto an external hard drive with Time Machine.
What's the best and most practical way to manage a large number of photos with many themes.
I'd appreciate some suggestions. I'm quite new to iPhoto.

A large SSD. Or external drive. Might help to max out RAM.
Some laptop models can take dual SSD internal
http://www.macsales.com/ssd
Might want to look up the iPhoto forum and support.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/ilife/iphoto
Move iphoto library to external drive -
http://basics4mac.com/article.php/move_iphoto_lib
You probably thought you were in MacBook Pro forum.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro
http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro/

Large iphoto library duplicates

how to clean duplicate photos from large iphoto library

Okay, being the naturally impatient type, I tried downloading and running Iphoto Library manager, and doing a rebuild. It hung.
Hopefully some helpful person will come along with a suggestion soon.

Importing large iPhoto library for the first time

My wife and I have a devently large photo library (10,000+ files) on an external hard drive. We use iView Media Pro to catalog the photos and the files are organized meticulously. I am considering switching to iPhoto or using both programs concurrently because I like iPhoto's integration with other Apple programs like iWeb. Does anyone have any recommendations with how to make these programs work together? I like the batch renaming function in iView but I like the smart folders in iPhoto. Any advice is appreciated. Plus, I am worried about losing my keywords when I import to iPhoto. How do I keep my keywords?

Chet:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. I use iView and iPhoto concurrently with iPhoto in the alias mode. iView is my primary management tool and iPhoto is used mainly for creating books, calendars and cards. I've created some Tutorials to assist users in transitioning to an all iView system, an iPhoto alias system with iView syncing the keywords, etc.
I always add my photos to iView first, batch renaming and adding keywords. Then I import that folder into iPhoto so as to get the new names and have the keywords available to iPhoto. NOTE: You must sync the keywords back to the files with iView before importing.
I feel it works very well, giving me the best of both worlds. There is one caveat to all of this: edits done by iPhoto are recognizable in iPhoto only as the edited version is saved in the Modified folder of the library. Also, any edits done by iView will only be seen by iPhoto when iPhoto uses the full sized image in a slideshow, book, etc. The thumbnail is not updated that way.
Do you Twango?

I am wondering what is the best way to merge a very large iphoto library (from my MBP) to my new iMac (which has a few hundred photos on it now), and then upgrade to Aperture?

I have about 50GB of photos on my old MBP iphoto library.
I have a new iMac with a few hundred photos that I've uploaded since I bought it last December.
The iMac is where I want to keep everything stored as my main photo library, and manage it with a new Aperture installation.
Before I go and do this, and possibly muck it all up,
I would like to figure out the proper steps.
I am not too familiar with how to transfer files in the first place, so any help for a beginner would be much appreciated.
Starting from how to safely move the files from the MBP to the iMac, if anyone could walk me through this process.
I've been searching around but I have a specific goal (with getting everything into Aperture) so I don't want to get crossed up.
Thanks for your help!!

I have about 50GB of photos on my old MBP iphoto library.
To be able to merge your libraries, your Aperture version and iPhoto version must match. For basic reading see: Aperture 3.3: Using a unified photo library with iPhoto and Aperture
and Aperture 3.3: How to use Aperture to merge iPhoto libraries
Assuming you are running the latest Aperture and iPhoto versions:
Before merging libraries ensure that your iPhoto Library has no issues. While still on your old mac run the "library first aid tools" on your iPhoto Library. Hold down the key combination ⌥⌘ and double click your iPhoto Library, then select "Repair database".
Make sure you have a backup of your current Aperture Library and iPhoto library.
Do both macs have a FireWire port? Then you could connect your macs in Target Disk Mode:
See OS X Lion: Transfer files between two computers using target disk mode
This way your new mac could see your old mac as an external disk and you could copy directly between the macs.
Otherwise copy your iPhoto library by drag-and-drop to an external disk (on your old mac) and connect that disk to your new mac. Check, if the external drive is formatted for mac (MacOS X Extended (Journaled)). Otherwise reformat it, before you copy the iPhoto library to that drive.
When your iPhoto Library has been moved to your new Mac launch Aperture and use the command "File > Import > Library" from the main menu bar. If there are duplicates in the Aperture library (if you imported earlier from iPhoto) you may be prompted if you want to "Add" or "Merge". If you have lots of duplicates, pick "Merge", otherwise "Add".
Post back, if you need more detailed instructions.
Good Luck.
Léonie

How do I import a large iPhoto library into an existing iPhoto library?

I have a Pictures folder on my desktop (recovered from another machine). The total size of the iPhoto library I am trying to import is 23.7 GB. It is from a graphics environment.
When I select 'Import Library', and then select the iPhoto Library folder as the source, it sits at the "preparing to import" screen for a long period of time. It has lasted an hour. I am letting it run all night this time to see if it works.
I would appreciate any tips or help you can give in case this didn't.

CTSi
You're probably running into file permissions issues. The photos 'belong' to the old machine. To fix this Download BatchMod from
http://macchampion.com/arbysoft/
And apply it to the iPhoto Library Folder using the settings found here:
http://homepage.mac.com/toad.hall/.Pictures/Forum/BatChmod.png
(Credit to Old Toad for this one).
Note: If you import the entire contents of the iPhoto Library Folder then you will get The Original Pics, plus the modified versions plus the thumbnails, a mess of duplication.
The best way of doing it is to
a: Go into the Originals Folder and drag the photos from there into your iPhoto Window, one at a time. This will import the pics into your current iPhoto Library Folder. However, you will lose titles and keywords and rating etc., but you will maintain the roll structure.
b. If the keywords etc are important to you, then Merge the libraries. To do this, you'll need iPhoto Library Manager. http://homepage.mac.com/bwebster/iphotolibrarymanager.html
Regards
TD

How to best manage a large photo library

When our family became Mac users in 2008, it was suggested by apple support to create separate iPhoto libaries for each year due to the size of our photo library. So we did this and also purchased the iPhoto Library Manager application to keep everything straight. Now that some time has passed and advancements have been made in the Mac applications (I saw the new Photos came out 4.10.15), I was wondering if this still was necessary. We are now approaching a combined photo library of 350g. Suggestions???

My 2 cents: it was never necessary. And iPhoto 11 library is good for 1,000,000 items. I'm not sure what suggestions you are looking for.

Managing a large iphoto library

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