Mine, her's & ours – how to organize photos in a multi-Mac family?

Hi folks,
from a quick search at Apple discussions I realize that my following problem is a very common, but essentially an unsolved one. So rather than a final solution, I'm looking for ideas and discussion on how to organize photos in a family setting…
The problem started when my wife got her own MacBook a few weeks ago, and when we started having two iPhoto libraries instead of one. We do have some photos that can be definitely labeled as 'mine' or 'hers'. But how should we organize family photos? What if one of us wanted to just grab their MacBook and show off the kids' pictures to a friend?
Duplicating photos involves a lot of manual extra work, and labels and keywords will inevitably run out of sync. If we keep photos on a network drive we can't just take them away from home. It seems like the problem is not just related to iPhoto, but to digital photography in general. Or is there another photo organizer – Aperture? Lightroom? Whatever else? – that serves families well?
If you've faced this problem, I'd like to hear how you approached it.
cheers
Hendrik

You could put an external HD connected to the TC. Then each time one of you take new photos upload them to a folder on your Desktop. Name the folder with the date of the shoot (this assumes that each of your delete the memory card in the camera after each shoot and upload) and a brief description like: 01/16/10-Aidan's 4th Bday Party. You can also rename the photos in the folder. I use the international date and a brief description: 2010-01-16-Aidans 4th-001.JPG, -002.JPG, etc. You an use a file renaming application likeRenamer4Mac orName Mangler to do the job.
Next import the folder into your iPhoto. This will create an Event with the same name as the folder. Then drag the folder to the hard drive on the Time Capsule. Then each of you can view the folders on the external HD and import those folders which you don't have - or not.
This will also act as a backup of the original files. I'm not sure what format the external HD needs to be to work in this manner but it shouldn't matter as long as you're only storing files. You can't run a iPhoto library from it if it isn't formatted OS X Extended (journaled). Also running a library wirelessly is fraught with problems like dropouts which can damage the database file.
That way you will have 3 backup copies of your photos - actually 2 as the two libraries on the TC really only count as one since they are on the same drive.

Similar Messages

  • How to organize photos in iPhoto on Mac?

    I always had my photos on my mac go in order January 2001 Feb 2001 January 2012, but after importing photos from my phone. My photos don't go in order. November 2012-January 2013-December 2012. It really bugs me. Help please.

    iPhoto > View > Photos > By Date

  • I purchased the Pages App on my iPhone. Does that include the Pages Application for my Mac Mini? If so, how do I get it onto my Mac?

    I purchased the Pages App on my iPhone. Does that include the Pages Application for my Mac Mini? If so, how do I get it onto my Mac?

    No it does not. The 2 are separate.
    To get Pages on your Mac mini purchase it from the Mac App Store. The icon is on your Dock.
    Peter

  • How to organize scanned documents on my mac

    I would like to find how to organize scanned documents on my mac so that they are cagorized and identifiable files

    I would change the file name from "Scan001" (or however your scanner saves them) to something helpful like HikingTrip1, HikingTrip2, etc. Then drag and drop them into folders you create with more names helpful to you. To quickly change a file name you can highlight the file icon and then single click on the file name portion and it will allow you to type. Is this what you meant?

  • HT201541 how to import photo from iPhone to mac book

    how to import photo from iPhone to mac book

    how to import photo from iPhone to mac book
    Connect the iPhone to the Mac using a USB cable, and then launch iPhoto, Photos, Image Capture, or Aperture, depending which applications you have installed. all can import from an iPhone.
    Which MacOS X version do you have and which iOS version? With newer systems you can also use Photo Stream:   iCloud: Photo Stream FAQ

  • How to organize photos in family sharing photo stream?

    How is the best way to use the family photo stream in Family Sharing? I am think of how can photos be organized? Often a family have thousands of photos in the share pool of photos? Does this work probably with Family Sharing and how?
    I hope that some can advice on photo sharing with Family sharing or refer to some good articles?

    You can create albums on the iPad.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/TI98

  • How to Export photos and videos from Mac to iPhone?

    Hi everyone,
    I was trying to export a video from my Macbook Pro (Mid 2014) running latest version of OS X to my iPhone 5 (running iOS 8). I have tried everything in iTunes and iPhotos to be able to export Photos and videos to 'Photos' icon in my iPhone, but haven't got success so far. It's easy to do in a windows computer just copy and paste but I don't know how to do it in a Mac...
    Could anyone here help me with that??
    Thanks

    running latest version of OS X
    Is that MacOS X 10.9.5, or have you upgraded to a Beta version?
    I have tried everything in iTunes and iPhotos to be able to export Photos and videos to 'Photos' icon in my iPhone, but haven't got success so far.
    What are your settings on your iPhone for iCloud?  Have you enabled iCloud Drive and iCloud Photo Library?
    Then you are out of luck. With these settings, syncing of photos with your iPhone is disabled, so you can no longer sync with iTunes.
    And the Photo Stream is behaving buggy and will not sync from your Mac to the iPhone.
    Try, if disabling these settings and restarting the iPhone will help.
    Otherwise, mail the photos or put them into Dropbox, until you can upgrade to Yosemite and iCloud Photo Library on your Mac.

  • How to save photos sent to my mac mail in iphoto

    How do I save photos sent to my mac mail in iPhoto? I've tried moving into folder in iPhoto.  No matter how I do it, it either jumps back to mail or doesn't show up.

    save to the desktop and import to iphoto - or right click on the image and from the resulting menu put into iphoto if that tis an option
    LN

  • How to organize photos

    I just recently bought myself an iMac to replace a Windows 7 PC. I am not all that familiar with Mac OS just yet, but I am quite advanced on the PC.
    I'll start with some background:
    OS is OS X 10.8.3
    iPhoto '11 version 9.4.2
    On my Mac I have two user profiles (one for me and one for my wife).
    I have a NAS that we use for backup.
    We have 42.0 GB worth of images in 17.000 files, across 1355 folders.
    I tried copying all these files to "/Users/Shared/Shared Pictures" on the Mac and then imported them into iPhoto. This resulted in first 42 GB of space being eaten (when I copied the files). And then another 48.2 GB was eaten by a file called "iPhoto-library". This file is located in "/Users/mette/Pictures" (where "mette" is my wife's name / profile).
    There are some problem with this for me:
    1) From my own profile I can't see any photos if I open iPhoto
    2) Why is the space taken up twice? I have an SSD disk in the Mac, and it's only 256 GB in size, so I don't want to waste 48 GB. on duplicated data.
    I would prefer that our photo library is still organised in files and folders, so that if I should ever decide to leave the mac world again, I would be able to move these files to Windows / Linux / Whatever.
    Does anyone have any ideas how to solve any of this? It doesn't have to involve iPhoto. If there is another app that can do it better, then that's fine with me (no more than 100 USD though).

    1) From my own profile I can't see any photos if I open iPhoto
    Because each profile or account has its own Library. The entire point of accounts is to keep the user's data separate. Are you realy sure you need to do that? There are ways to share the photos if you want to.
    2) Why is the space taken up twice? I have an SSD disk in the Mac, and it's only 256 GB in size, so I don't want to waste 48 GB. on duplicated data.
    Because you first copied the files to the Pictures Folder, then imported them. By default, iPhoto copies the files into the Library on import. The first set of copies in the Pictures Folder is redundant.
    I would prefer that our photo library is still organised in files and folders, so that if I should ever decide to leave the mac world again, I would be able to move these files to Windows / Linux / Whatever.
    You can run a Referenced Library - but you really don't want to, especially as you are new to macs and iPhoto. For details on how to do that - and the pitfalls - see this thread
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3062728?tstart=0
    It's not necessary to store the files outside the Library. If you do decide to move on all the data can be exported from iPhoto using the File -> Export command.  This User Tip
    https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4921
    has details of the options in the Export dialogue.
    But there is a bigger issue here than file storage. iPhoto is a lossless processor. That means your original file is never touched. Instead, the editing decisions you make a recorded in the database and applied live to the image when you view, use or export it.
    If you decide to move to Windows/Linux etc, what will you export? The Original file? Or the edited version?  Or both? There is no app on Windows or Linux that can parse the iPhoto Library and it's lossless processes. (On Macs, Aperture can.) AFAIK, the only app that can work on the same Library on both Macs and WIndows is Adobe's LIghtroom - which is expensive and has a significant learning curve. I don't believe that any app running on Linux is going to work with any of the major processing apps on the major OSes.
    You might want to factor that into your decisions on which app to use.
    Regards
    TD

  • How to organize photos in a new album or event

    First of all, please allow me to get something off my chest: recently, I gotmyself a new MacPro. My older MacBook died on me. One thing I was really happyabout is that, finally, I had iPhoto. Well, this turned into a nightmare. I donot consider myself as a tecno-idiot, but I guess I am from what I haveexperienced so far with iPhoto. It seems to me that is so"sophisticated" that its developers forgot those of us who only needthe simple pleasures of life...in this case just a place to store the photos ina particular order so we can see them or show them. Simple, no?
    Thanks.
    As for the actual problem, here goes: I use two notebooks, one is thisMac and the other is a Windows based unit.
    Let me first refer to the organization of the pictures in the Windows basedunit
    1. My pictures (all nicely organized each set in its own folder) havebeen on the Windows PC, using MS Office Picture Manager. Having iPhoto, Ithought I would move them to the Mac.
    2. As we all know, when one downloads pictures from a camera, their"names" appear as a bunch of letters and the number indicating thesequence.
    3. So, in MS Office Picture Manager, I have them organized in thefollowing manner 2003>wedding; 2003>Europe and so on right up to thisyear. Each folder begins with a year.
    4. In, let's say, 2003>Europe, I organized the pictures startingwith numbers so that I have them like so: 2003>Europe>1. Paris-Eiffeltower;  2. Paris-Eiffel tower-top floor;3. Paris-Eiffel tower-panorama Paris...and so on.
    Now, let me go to the Mac.
    1. I copy-pasted my entire photo collection to an external hard driveand from there got iPhoto to import them where they landed in"Events", each showing as an "Event". All seemed well sofar.
    2. It so happens that I am trying to sell my house. The realtor wantsa set of pictures, so I created a new "Event" and went into variousother events to pull pictures from them and form a special set for the realtor.And here is where the problem surfaced.
    3. I started moving pictures into the new "Event". I thengave each picture a number (1-, 2-, 3-, etc.) and a description (main entrance,entrance hall, and so on, just like I did in MS Office Picture Manager). So farso good.
    4. Then I went to View>sort>by name. It turned out that unlike PictureManager, iPhoto does not recognize numbers as "names" and so, it didnot put them in the right sequence.
    5. NOT ONLY THAT, the pictures got scrambled and some of thedescriptions were in  sequence and othersnot and some reverted to their original names (in Windows) and a couple evenwent further back and appeared as DSCN...whatever.
    6. I tried various ways. Nothing. So I called Apple support anddespite the fact that we seemed to be speaking different languages for a while,I finally understood that I needed to create an "Album" (under"Albums") and do the work there.
    7. So I did, but the 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. classification still would notwork. So I tried A-, B-, C-, D-, etc. and THAT would not work either. So I justgave up in frustration.
    So, my question is this: is there anyone who can kindly let me knowhow I can do something as simple and straightforward as creating a new album,move pictures from "Events" or "Photos" (I even tried fromthere) into the new album and have them sort themselves as sequence with thenames I give them. Or at least, stay in the sequence I assigned them.
    I am sorry for this long-winded message, but there was no shorter wayto explain this.
    Many thanks,
    Emile

    Emile
    Bear with me a minute. You're confusing a lot of things.
    1. As Larry says, on Windows you are using a File Manager for you your photos. All well and good if it works for you, but limited. Why? Because it doesn't leverage any of the extra information available with photos files. Essentially, a File Manager doesn't distinguish between a photo nd a Word file or a Music file. They are just files.
    2. Photo Managers like iPhoto (Or Picasa, Aperture, Lightroom et al) work differently. They are designed to leverage the additional information available in the photo file. Case in point: Date. In the File Manager you have folders created for Year/Month/Day. In iPhoto the pics are grouped into Events automatically. These Events are based on the date and time the Photos were taken, and which is recorded in the Exif metadata for the photo file.
    As we all know, when one downloads pictures from a camera, their"names" appear as a bunch of letters and the number indicating thesequence.
    These are Filenames assigned by the Camera. In iPhoto you don't change Filenames you edit Titles. Titles are quite independent of filenames and are an entry in the Exif metadata.
    I'm not sure what you've done in the renaming sequence, but iPhoto does not have a Sort -> by Name command. There is a Sort By Title command.
    But you would not use Events for this job anyway. You would use an Album. Create an Album, drag the pics to it and then you can sort them in any order you want, manually. Then using the Batch Change Command you can create a sequence for them. So, Title the pics 'House Sale' and check the box to append  number and the result:
    House Sale 01, House Sale 02 etc
    Regards
    TD

  • How to organize photos in iPhoto?

    Hi!
    All my photos are organized by events in iPhoto, and I would like to move all the photos i took during my exchange year to a seperate album or event. I tried to organize them by making a new album and drag all the albums into it, but it resulted in an album containing 7000 unorganized photos. How do i manage to keep the old sorting of the photos in the new album?
    - Gøril

    Open IPHOTO>HELP and enter 'switching photos' in the upper right hand corner.  Find switching between photo libraries'.  If your photos are organized the way you want them in the old library then you may try one of two methods.  Duplicate the old album and delete what you don't want i the new album or transfer those pictures you want album by album. That should retain the same organization.
    Ciao.

  • Undecided how to organize photos can I

    Can I just upload my photos into folders in My Pictures for now to make it easy, or should I use my canon organizer software. Because eventially I will want to use Elements 10 so want to make it as user friendly as possible now.
    It appears that I cannot have the same folder in elements every year - which is what I was doing in the past; such as, 2012 then family and vacation, etc. I tried to use 2013 and family and got the message that the folder was already being used.
    Photos I did have in elements organizer have been moved, and I spent a lot of time trying to reconnect and it didn't happen. Can I just delete the catalog and start over. I haven't uploaded many photos yet because I'm trying to figure out what to do.

    If it's not too problematic, start over, and follow these steps.
    1. Decide how you want your folder structure to be organized, and stick to the system. You can mostly automate the import process so that it adheres to your system, and Elements does have a way to expose the folder structure (with hierarchy) along the left side of the UI, so that you'll be able to double check and fix that hierarchy anytime you want. For example, I use an external drive, have a 'Home Photos' folder, with Year folders, then Month folders (named 01 Jan 2012, 02 Feb 2012, etc), then Date and/or Event folders (01_Feb_16_Birthday).
    2. You can create the folder hierarchy in Finder/Windows, or using Canon zoombrowser, which has the added benefit of letting you also see your RAW files, in addition to create folders automatically by date for you.
    3. Create a new catalog in Elements, then drag/drop the whole folder into Elements, or use the Import command to bring in everything in that's in your Pictures folder (wherever that is). Open that folder view in Elements (after the import is done), click the little hierarchy button that looks like a folder in the left pane, and you'll see your whole folder system, intact.
    4. Set up the Elements 'Watched Folder' feature to watch your pictures folder, so that any new files that are added to it (hopefully according to whatever structure you prescribed) will automatically be added to the Elements database.
    5. However you copy files into that folder, make sure you follow your hierarchy rules, because the instant they are added to your pictures folder, then picked up by Elements, if you create new folders or rename folders (without using the Elements folder view to do that work), they will get disconnected. Canon's importer, or Elements' built in importer give you the control to pick the folder structure while you import, so you can do this directly. If you do this manually, just be sure that you organize everything in sub folders BEFORE you move them into your Pictures folder, otherwise Elements will record their original position, but changes after being moved into your picture folder will be lost, and disconnects will happen. If you do have to make changes to the location of files, or their names (or folder names), do that in the Elements folder view, and disconnects will be avoided.
    Hope that helps!
    -Mark

  • How can organize photos by year?  by putting a folder inside of a folder?  So putting all of the events for one year under one folder so that it keeps them seperate?

    Looking for help in organizing my photos.   I would like to organize them so that i can put all of the events for a year into one folder  (i would like to keep multiple events under a folder)?  Help please?!

    Like Larry suggested:
    Click to view full size
    The top folder could be named 2011.  In it could be 12 smart folders each with the following criteria:
    Date is in the range"  mm/01/yyyy to mm/31/yyyy.
    So the 2011 folder would have 12 month smart albums each with the photos for that particular month.
    Or you can use the search by date function at the bottom of the window to search by year, month, week or day.
    OT

  • How you organize photos without Aperture ?

    Once again, which scheme do you use for organizing photos apart from Aperture built in engine ?
    Do you name folders like
    2006-08 New York
    or
    06-08 New York ?

    I am mainly an animator, so while most of my photos are simply personal, I still have some professional photo work as well.
    for my personal photos, I simply organize them by events, people, places, and things. and break it down further from there. I tend to find it easier for my uses to use all referenced files for my aperture library, so I have quick an easy access to the original files outside of aperture as well.
    all my personal photos are stored simply in the pictures folder, as I described above.
    for my professional work. I always keep a folder called Projects in the root of my user folder. In this folder I have all the types of Projects I may work on, Film/Animation, Illustration/Design, Photo, Sound, and Web Design, etc.
    within the Photo projects folder, I organize it usually by client, and if you have a lot of clients, it may be benificial to organize it by year as well, but I believe in just keeping a project folder with folders for individual projects for that client works well.
    it becomes an art at some point, haha

  • How to organize photos in alphabetical order?

    Normally it was't a problem to show photos on apple tv in an alphabetical order...today it seems, that apple tv organze it just by date of photography. does somebody knows how to solve this problem???

    To be honest, I've forgotten whether the photos are ordered alphabetically or by date.
    I usually put photos in an album and sort them by Date (iPhoto > View > Sort by) and then arrange them in the order I want (more often than not that's the same order as by date, but not always) which then changes the Sort by option to 'Manually'.
    Once they are in the order I want them, I batch change (iPhoto > Photos > Batch Change) both the title and the date (the date only if I have re-ordered them myself). The title I will set to say 'John's 5th Birthday' and iPhoto will append 001, 002 etc in the order I have set them manually. Batch changing the date will also put them chronologically into the order I have chosen.
    If I change the date on an album of photos, I tend to set it appropriately. Sometimes it may just be one or two photos that need changing, if for example someone else has given you a couple and the date on their camera is slightly out from yours. Other times I might be quicker just changing them all, so the 30 photos from John's birthday started at noon on February 1 and finished at 3.00 pm will be set to noon on February 1 with each photo adding 6 minutes.
    So for me it doesn't matter whether photos are sorted alphabetically by title or chronologically by date, they always appear in the order I want them.

Maybe you are looking for