Move iphoto library

HI,
I am running out of space on my MacBook because of too many pictures, any suggestions on the best way to make sure all is saved properly and I don't lose any photos once I delete from the hard drive?
I appreciate the help.

This should assist you:
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2506
Ciao.

Similar Messages

How do I move iPhoto library to a wireless, remote HD?

How do I move iPhoto library to a wireless, remote HD?

Same as any HD.
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.
But Note: A strong warning: If you're trying to edit the Library (that is, make albums, move photos around, keyword, make books or slideshows etc.) or edit individual photos in it via Wireless be very careful. Dropouts are a common fact of wireless networking, and should one occur while the app is writing to the database then your Library will be damaged. Simply, I would not do this with my Libraries.
Regards
TD

HT1229 How to move iPhoto Library to a NAS backup?

How do I move iPhoto Library, which is now stored on a separate backup hard drive, to a new LaCie 2Big NAS backup? My iPhoto library is large, 73GB, and I have kept it on a separate 250GB backup up hard drive connected directly to my iMac; the iPhoto Library is not in my Pictures folders, as is usual. The 250GB is full, and I now want to store the iPhoto Library on a new LaCie 2Big NAS backup hard drive.
I assume I could move the Library back to Pictures folder on the iMac, so that the Library is stored on my iMac, and then it would be backed up on LaCie, but I would rather not take up all that space on the iMac. How do I store it on the LaCie? Usually to move iPhoto Library, you locate it, and then drag to new location. The LaCie does appear in my Finder. Should I drag and drop it?
I asked LaCie support, and they said the following:
If you do intend to place data on the share that needs to be accessed directly by an application on your computer (such as iTunes or iPhoto), however, then you might want to check with support for the software application itself for advice on the best way to accomplish this. It is important that such an application is able to locate the files once you relocate them to the NAS drive, or else the program will not function properly.
I want to access the Library through iPhoto. The LaCie is not connected directly to iMac, but instead connected via ethernet to my Airport Extreme.
Suggestions?
Thanks,
Armando

I experienced the same frustration when i bought my Iomega NAS (which I do not recommed by the way).
I wanted my iPhoto library to be stored on it, thats the main reason i bought it.
But as you have discovered the library connot be stored on a non Mac formatted disc.
So I began to store my photos in a logical folder structure (based on events) on the NAS and access that folder structure from some other software (Adobe bridge).
The PC users in my household could therefore also access this folder stucture and view all the photos. Bonus.
I wasn't satisfied though. I wanted to use iPhoto. Location, Faces, Events, simple editing, etc.
So I created a new iPhoto library on my Mac and then went to iPhoto preferences / Advanced and UNTICKED the 'Copy items to the iPhoto Library'. This creates what I think is called a reference library. This kind of library has some pros and cons but for me it is all pros.
Then simply drag your file structure from your nas into iPhoto and voila. All your photos and any home movies are added to iPhoto but accessed from the NAS.
I continue to add new photos into the event based file structure on the NAS and then drag the new folder across to iPhoto.
This also has the added benifit in that you don't need iPhoto to view the photos (PC users)
This method works perfectly for me. Enabling me to use iPhoto AND my NAS.
Hope this helps.

How to move iphoto library from one account to another?

For one reason to another I'm making myself a new account on my mac. I'd like to move my iphoto library from the old account to the new one. I was wondering if the instructions about moving the library to a new location (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iPhoto/9.0/en/pht6d607c42.html) is just for moving the library within an account? Or does it also work for moving from old account to a new one on the same machine.
If not, any instructions for moving the library to a new account on the same machine?

If you have any problems with the library in the new account you might have to download and run BatChmod on the library to reset the ownership and permissions to the new account owner for all of the files in the library. User the settings shown in the screenshot below:
Click to view full size
For Owner use the owner name for that account. If the account uses a different Group then use it also. You can find the group name by seleting a file in your other account and typing Control+i to bring up the Info window. The ownership and group will be shown near the bottom.
OT

Tried to move iPhoto library and now can't find it

I can now see that I should not have done this...
PRIOR to backing-up on my shiny new external HD I thought I should do some housecleaning. My wife and I share an old G3 iMac (10.3.9, iPhoto 2.0.1) I wanted us to be able to work off a central repository of photos. Unfortunately our broadband connection has been on the fritz and I didn't have access to these forums WAH!
I used the finder to try to move our main iPhoto Library folder from my wife's user directory to one in Shared. Apparenly I didn't have the permission set to allow my wife's account to make this move. This was an attempted drag and drop - but when I tried to drop, I got a permissions error.
I then logged-in as myself (I have the greatest powers, so I figured...) and checked/set the permissions on the Shared folder. (Idon't now specifically recall whether the Shared folder was inaccessible to my wife's (admin) account, tho it would seem strange for someone not to be able to write to a "shared" directory)
Nevertheless, after doing this, I can no longer locate my wife's libary folder - with 3 years of family photos. Neither iPhoto sees it, nor does Finder. It's like the whole folder got "dropped" somewhere out of sight when I was unsuccessful moving to Shared.I sense that the files are still around, because 1,700 pix at around 900K each should be more than a gig, and my 38GB cap. HD still has the same 7GB free space it has had recently.
I NEED TO GET THESE PHOTOS BACK! HELP ME PLEASE!
Thank you for any suggestions - you can even whip me for messing with the library in your replies.
G3 Dalmatian! Mac OS X (10.3.9)
G3 Dalmatian! Mac OS X (10.3.9)

I FOUND THEM I FOUND THEM!!!!!!
Just as you said Brie Fly, it got dropped and hidden - in MY trash, therefore when I searched without revealing hidden files, i couldn't see it. I swear I looked at that trash can in the dock a number of times - but it must have been under my wife's account - whose trash is empty.
So although I got the library running - it is in my user account. I cannot write to my wife's pictures folder from my account. I have to find an equally accessible (shared?) folder - but will do it using copies, keeping the original safe and sound. before anything though - a HUGE thanks to you, and a full back up on my SHINY NEW EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE!
Wooo Hoooo!!!!! you can't imagine the depths of despair and now corresponding joy - we have 3 young kids and the prospect of losing 3 years of them. (3/4 - 1/3 of their lives) was devastating. Holy Toledo...REDEMPTION! (I hope my boss will understand about my spending just about the whole day working on this.)

If I move iphoto library to separate hard disk will my old slideshows work ?

I need to move my photo library and Movies (Events and Projects) to an external hard disk as my 700gb drive on my iMac is now full (*see note below)
I have brought 2 Samsung External drives (3TB each) which I plan to partition each for Photos and Movies i.e 2 partitions on each drive, and will use one for use with iPhoto and iMovie, and the other drive for a dedicated backup. I will backup the remainder of my iMac hardisk to a seperate disk.
What has just occured to me is that after I have moved the libraries I cannot see how existing iMovie projects and iPhoto Slideshows will work, as each Application will be looking for the source files on the original iMac hardisc (I assume).
I am running Snow Leopard v10.6.8 ( I did not want to upgrade to Mountain Lion as I was told the iPhoto and iMovie changes were a 'backward' step. However I now want to upgrade to Mountain Lion, for security updates reasons mainly, and so need to free up my hard drive.
Can anyone advise on the best way to proceed ?
* - the iMac hard disk become full very suddenly possibly due to duplicates, as I have noticed duplicate events and clips in my iMovies event library. I have noticed that some events are also now not showing, with message 'No video clips match the current selection' (I have not search criteria set).
Thanks

I won't talk about iMoive - best to ask on that forum - but yes, everything will be exactly the same after you move the Library because you'll tell iPhoto to look for that library. That's what step 3, below, is all about.
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

If I Move iPhoto Library to External Drive Does It Keep Organized?

Can anyone tell me:
In iPhoto 09 8.2.1 if I take the time to organize, edit, "faces" "events" etc...and I move iPhoto to an External Harddrive, a Western Digital "My Book"...Does moved library stay edited, organized face tagged, etc?
Thanks

See this document how to format a drive for photo libraries: (it explains it for aperture, but it is done the same way for iPhoto)
Format external drives to Mac OS Extended before using with Aperture
Also if I do format the drive how will that effect what is already on there (not just photos but documents, etc)?
I thought you were buying a new drive to use with iPhoto. If there are already documents on the drive, you need to copy them temporarily somewhere else. Reformatting will erase a drive completely.
Disk Utility (it is in the "Utilities" folder in "Applications") will show you, if your drive needs formatting.
The left pane shows your disks and disk partitions, and the right pane lets you do useful things, like reformatting and repairing your drive.
If you select the drive in the left panel, you see the formatting in the footer of the panel.
Is your drive correctly formatted?

How to move iPhoto Library from internal drive to ext. drive?

Hello,
If someome can assist me with the procedure on how to move my iphoto library from my internal drive to external drive, so that I can keep and access all my iphoto library files primarily from the external drive. In addition I would also like to know once the process has been completed if it would be safe to delete the internal iphoto library? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Jag

First and foremost, before you begin, make sure you're doing some sort of backup of those photos and your systems. Preferably with Time Machine to some sort of external drive (besides the one that will store the photos) or Time Capsule.
Then you can follow these steps:
1) Make sure the external drive is formatted for the Mac. You can use Disk Utility (applications-->utilities) and select the drive to find out if it's HFS Extended format.
2) Quit iPhoto, then drag the iPhoto library onto the eternal drive and let it copy.
3) Once it's done copying, hold down the Option key and click to launch iPhoto, it will ask you to select an iphoto library and you would choose the one on the external drive.
4) You're safe to delete the original iPhoto Library from there.. however I still recommend you've made extra sure to back your stuff up.

How to move iPhoto Library from MacBookPro (Leopard) to new iMac (Mavericks)

Hi,
I've just purchased a new iMac and want to move my iPhoto Library from my older (2008) MacbookPro. Have looked it up and tried to do so, by copying the iPhotoLibrary file from the old machine to the new, and starting iPhoto with option key down & pointing to the new library. When that didnt work, I tried booting with the option & command down, and attempted to Repair, and then to Rebuild the Library.
In all cases, iPhoto opens, but doesnt see any photos in the iPhoto Library. The iPhoto Library works fine on the old macbook pro.
What shall I do?
Thanks
Tom

Ok I know it's been awhile but I finally was able to try your suggestion.
I downloaded iPhoto Library Manager on my macbook pro, connected my macbook pro to my new iMac and did a Rebuild Library from the existing library on the macbook pro, setting it up to save to my new iMac.
It began to do the rebuild (though there were many "unreadable files") and went through the operation, which looked like it was going to take several hours to complete.
But at a certain point (after an hour or so), the macbook pro complained that I dont have enough space on my startup disk!!
So I can only guess that the rebuild must have done something to the original iPhoto Library after all (even though the settings on my iPhoto are to NOT copy files to Library on import if that matters...). The Library is 32 Gb though I dont remember what it's size was before...
Sure enough, my starup Macintosh HD now has only 1GB space on it. Yikes!
I stopped the rebuild process.
Not sure if I need to now just trash the original library to make space on my HD (of course I can save it elsewhere in case its useful), but since the rebuild didnt even get halfway through its process, the rebult library on the new iMac isnt going to do me any good. Maybe I've just lost all the years of work I've done organizing my library. Maybe I just need to start over with new kind of software (or using iPhoto start again from scratch on the new iMac).
What do you think happened? I thought the rebuild wouldnt affect the original library.
Tom

Move iphoto library with albums from imac to a new macbook proac

I have an approximately 7,000 photo iPhoto library that I want to move from an older iMac to a new MacBook Pro. I want to do it completely to that albums I have already structured are retained. Can I do this and if so, what is the best way.
The older computer has iPhoto '09 version 8.1.2. The newer one has iPhoto '11 version 9.1.1

To move an iPhoto Library to a new machine:
Link the two Macs together: there are several ways to do this: Wireless Network, Firewire Target Disk Mode, Ethernet, or even just copy the Library to an external HD and then on to the new machine...
But however you do choose to link the two machines...
Simply copy the iPhoto Library from the Pictures Folder on the old Machine to the Pictures Folder on the new Machine.
Then launch iPhoto. That's it.
This moves photos, events, albums, books, keywords, slideshows and everything else.
Regards
TD

Move iPhoto library from one user to another?

How can I move (transfer) an iphoto library from one user to another on an iMac running 10.6.8 or alternatively allow one user to work with another user's iPhoto? Both users are on the same computer.

hi
fast you open your old user and copy the iPhoto library on disk partition or any external disk.
next log in your another account and paste the iPhoto library file on users>(acc. name)> Picture
after that when you open your iPhoto then hold the OPTION button and and choose the specified path (iPhoto library ) file
i hope solved your problem

Can't move iPhoto library to external drive

My poor little iMac only has 200 MB of hard drive space on it, so I need to make some room! I'd already moved my iTunes library from it last year, but I figured now I need to move my iPhoto library to my external hard drive too.
I went to Apple help for instructions, which said drag the iPhoto library folder to the hard drive. I couldn't find an icon that looked like a folder in Pictures, but I found an icon that said "iPhoto Library" so I moved that icon to my external hard drive. On the hard drive, the icon turned into a blank document icon. I put my iMac's iPhoto library in the trash, reopened iPhoto, selected "choose library" and tried to choose the iPhoto library that was on the external hard drive, but it was grayed out, so I couldn't! I went through all these steps several times.
Also, just for curiosity's sake, I double clicked on the iPhoto library blank icon on the external hard drive. It said it needed an application to work with it, so I tried to choose iPhoto, but that wasn't working either.
I have iLife '08, by the way. The hard drive is a 250GB WD. Can anyone tell me how to do this?

What is the size of the resulting file on the external HD? Also how is the external HD formatted? If it's one of the FAT formats for PCs that may be the problem. Try copying that file back to your desktop and see if it will reconvert back to a library. If that's the case, reformat the HD to OS X Extended (journaled).
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 08 libraries and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

Move iphoto library to external drive

Hi everyone. I'm a first-timer here. I'm trying to free up space off my local hard drive and want to move an iphoto librabry to an expernal drive. When I do I get this message after more than an hour: "The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in “File Name” can’t be read or written. (Error code -36)". I wonder what I can do to move the library? If it's a corrupt photo(s) or video(s) how can identify which one(s) is/are corrupt as there are literally thousands of photos and videos. Any help is appreciated. Cheers.

What format is the extrenal drive? How are you moving the iPhoto library?
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

Trying move iPhoto library, won't copy to new home

So I'm trying to move my iPhoto library from a newer MacBook Pro to an older Macbook, where there is more space for it, using an external hard drive.
When I try to copy the library from the hard drive to the Macbook, I get a 'not enough space' error, even though there is more than enough space on that Macbook.
From reading up in this forum I thought it might be a permissions issue. This seems to be confirmed bc now when I open iPhoto on the Macbook, I get an error saying 'Unable to write to library "iPhoto Library". Check you have permission to write to the library directory.'. (This didn't happen the first time I opened the library on the MacBook, which I did once the original copy request didn't work.)
When looking at the permissions under 'Get Info' it had my user profile on the MacBook as being able to read and write, and 'staff' and 'everyone' as read only. When I tried to change the permissions to read and write for 'everyone', I got an 'unexpected error has occured' BUT now it is showing that 'everyone' has read and write access.
I just want to have my iPhoto library (which is large, approx. 192 GB) on the MacBook and be able to use it the same way I was using it where it was before. Was I supposed to do something to the permissions before I moved the library onto the external hard drive from the MacBook Pro? Is there something I can do to get the library onto my Macbook despite the 'not enough space' error and resolve the permissions issue?
The external hard drive is formatted as Mac OS extended (journaled) and so is the MacBook's hard drive. I've tried the rebuild etc feature in iPhoto but it won't work because iPhoto says I don't have permission. I've also tried deleting the iPhotolock.data file as suggested in some similar questions in this community, but that didn't help, and tried to rebuild the library using iPhoto Library Manager, but that doesn't work because it can't open the iPhoto library due to the permissions error.
I've backed up both machines (2013 MacBook Pro which was the iPhoto library's original home, and an older MacBook (circa 2009) to which I'm trying to move the library) using Time Machine so they reflect the machines prior to moving the iPhoto library off the MacBook Pro). Both are running Mavericks and iPhoto 11.
Thanks in advance.

Here are two pages from the top Time Machine site out there about what you're seeing:
Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions 30. What are Local Snapshots?
OSX Tips Where did my Disk Space go?
Ask in the system forum as Terence suggested how to remove the local snapshots.
OT

Cannot move iPhoto library '08 to 11

Copied the iphoto 08 library to new machine. iphoto 11 does not recognize or import the 08 library. Any advice?
Thanks
Ken

Since you give us no details on what you did - no
the correct way to do it is Connect the two Macs together (network, firewire target mode, etc) or use an external hard drive formed Mac OS extended (journaled) and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity from the old Mac to the pictures folder of the new Mac - launch iPhoto on the new mac and it will open the library and convert it as needed and you will be ready move forward.
LN

I can not move iPhoto library to external

I cleared out (formatted) a WD HD and want to use it for my external iPhoto library. My Macbook Pro is not big enough to house 400GB of photos. When I select iPhoto library from pictures and drag it to my HD it has a little xed out white circle. Can anyone tell me why this will not let me move the library?

I just did a windows format since I could not do anything on my Mac. Looking up how to format a HD for a Mac was helpful and I am now moving my photo library YEAH!! Thanks!

Move iphoto library

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