Moving / backing up Iphoto Library

Hi everyone, I am changing computers and want to transfer my iphoto library. If I just copy the icon to an external drive and then paste it in the same location on my new computer will it work? Or should I drag all my pictures so they are in a jpeg version? Or both? Please, these are very valuable pics!

If I just copy the icon
That depends - you need to copy the iPhoto library to your new computer, not the iPhoto application.
By default is your iPhoto library in the Pictures folder.
The safest way to transfer would be
to connect an external drive (formatted for mac) to your old computer,
then to drag your iPhoto library to that drive,
and connect the drive to your new computer.
Then drag the library to the Pictures folder in your new computer.
Your iPhoto library should look like a fan of pictures, the file extension should be ":photoibrary", and the kind "Photo Library" for iPhoto version 9.4.3.
What is your iPhoto version?
Regards
Léonie

Similar Messages

Moving back my iPhoto library from an external drive to my computers drive

Hi!
I moved my iPhoto library file to my external NAS but when I then opened the file I couldn't see previews of the photos, they were just empty with "frames" around them.
I had to click each picture to see what they looked like, I guess there isn't enough bandwidth to preview all pics? It's gigabit (1000MBit) LAN but it does not seem to suffice.
Anyway, I tried to move my iPhoto library back to my computer but I keep getting this error message (this is freely translated from swedish so it might not by word-by-word but I guess you get the message anyway)
"Could not complete the transfer since there already is an object with the name "iPhoto Library""
I tried to rename the iPhoto Library file on my NAS but regardless what I rename it to (test, library, 123 etc.) I keeps saying ".......object with the name "insert name here""
I tried to create a new library on my computers HDD and drag an drop the iPhoto library file in iPhoto but I don't get all the metadata then and I don't get all my pictures.
Please help!

Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
iPhoto needs to have the Library sitting on disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Users with the Library sitting on disks otherwise formatted regularly report issues including, but not limited to, importing, saving edits and sharing the photos.
My guess is that the format of the NAS has damaged the Library and that's giving rise to these messages.
Try restart the NAS and the Mac, see if that makes a difference.
To move Photos/ Albums /Events between plus associated metadata between Libraries use iPhoto Library Manager.
Regards
TD

I moved my entire iPhoto Library to an external hard drive, which seems to have worked. But now my Mac Pro shows a backup of the same size in the storage info and has not freed up any space. help!

I moved my entire Iphoto Library from my Macbook Pro to an external hard drive. (Prior to this, I also copied the entire library to a different ehd, plus I have 2 other ehdrives with backups). I was trying to get more space on my hd. It has a capacity of 500GB, but was down to 70GB usable, with about 300GB used up by photos. I moved the library by going to Finder, using Command+Drag+Drop onto the new Seagate ext hard drive icon. The move seems to have worked, as the library shows up on the ehd, plus will open from there. My problem is that now my Macbook Pro shows that I STILL have only 70GB available out of the 500, and that 300GB is used up by "Backups", which it did not indicate before.
I cannot find this 300GB "Backup" in the Finder, only in the Storage info when I check "About This Mac".
I have restarted my computer, but the information remains the same. How do I reclaim the use of the 300GB? Why is it showing up as "Backups" when it used to indicate "Photos"? Are my photos safe on the external drive?
Thanks for any and all help!

I cannot find this 300GB "Backup" in the Finder, only in the Storage info when I check "About This Mac".
You are probably using Time Machine to backup your MacBook Pro, right? Then the additional 300 GB could be local Time Machine snapshots. Time Machine will write the hourly backups to the free space on your hard disk, if the backup drive is temporarily not connected. You do not see these local backups in the Finder, and MacOS will delete them, when you make a regular backup to Time Machine, or when you need the space for other data.
See Pondini's page for more explanation: What are Local Snapshots? http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
I have restarted my computer, but the information remains the same. How do I reclaim the use of the 300GB? Why is it showing up as "Backups" when it used to indicate "Photos"? Are my photos safe on the external drive?
You have tested the library on the external drive, and so your photos are save there.
The local TimeMachine snapshot probably now contains a backup of the moved library. Try, if connecting your Time Machine drive will reduce the size of your local Time Machine snapshots.

Since my last software update, my iphoto 11 will not import any photos from any source. The circle just spins...when I go to force quit, it says iphoto not responding. Backed up iphoto library, uninstalled and reinstalled iphoto. Still not working. Help!

Since my last software update, my iphoto 11 will not import any photos from any source. The circle just spins...when I go to force quit, it says iphoto not responding. Backed up iphoto library, uninstalled and reinstalled iphoto. Still not working. Help!

Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one. .
Regards
TD

Backing up iPhoto library located on external hard drive

I recently moved my iPhoto 09 library to a 500gb WD portable hard drive in order to free up space on my MacBook Pro hard drive. What I would like to know is can I back up this external library to another external hard drive so that I have two copies of all my photos. Would it work if I had an external hard drive connected to my airport extreme?
Thanks

Most Simple Back Up
Drag the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to another Disk. This will make a copy on that disk.
Slightly more complex:
Use an app that will do incremental back ups. This is a very good way to work. The first time you run the back up the app will make a complete copy of the Library. Thereafter it will update the back up with the changes you have made. That makes subsequent back ups much faster. Many of these apps also have scheduling capabilities: So set it up and it will do the back up automatically. Examples of such apps: Chronosync or DejaVu . But are many others. Search on MacUpdate

Backing up iPhoto Library from external hard drive through ChronoSync to Time Capsule

I have a 2008, 2GB Mac Mini. I moved my iTunes library, which is mostly movies, to a 4 TB My Book Studio, as it exceeded the space on my Mac. I back up my computer to a 2 TB Time Capsule. I exclude the My Book Studio from being backed up on the Time Capsule as it takes up all the space due to the iTunes library. I am wanting to move my iPhoto library as it is starting to take up to much memory on my Mac also.
My question is, if I move my iPhoto library to the My Book Studio, then get an application such as ChronoSync (or an App that will do incremental back ups & not do a completely new back up each time) to automatically back up my iPhoto library to my Time Capsule, can I set it to specifically bak up the library off the external hard drive, or will it only back up info that is stored on my Mac?
Thanks!

Thanks Terence!!! I received a reply back from Chronosync. I will be purchasing their app......it sounds pretty slick
Here is their reply to the same question I asked here:
ChronoSync Express will back up the contents of whatever volume or folder you target as your source target to the volume or folder you choose as the destination target. As long as you can access the volume or folder via Finder of your Mac, ChronoSync Express can access it as well. You can create a sync document that targets your iPhoto library and nothing else on the My Book Studio and backs it up to the Time Capsule then schedule it to run automatically.

Want to "move back" my iPhoto library +photos

Hi,
I am new to this forum and after reading a lot of pages I canot find any answer to my question !!
I changed my HD on my MBP (I have now a 320Go) and wanted to "get back" from an external HD, my iPhoto library and my files with originals photos wich have not been "imported" into iPhoto : menu "prefs/advanced/Import/copy in the iPhoto library is not checked".
I hope my explanations are OK !!
thanks
Jacques

James
Welcome to the Apple user to user assistance forums
my iPhoto library and my files with originals photos wich have not been "imported" into iPhoto : menu "prefs/advanced/Import/copy in the iPhoto library is not checked".
You are running a referenced library - which is not recommended for a number of reasons including it makes things like new hard drives and computers more difficult
One way to accomplish your desired move is to use alias herder - http://www.rorohiko.com/wordpress/downloads/aliasherder/ - to convert your library to a managed library - then you can simply quit iPhoto and drag the library where ever you want it and launch iPhoto while depressing the option (alt) key and point to it
Since the key to a referenced library is that the path to the photos does not change it may be possible to move the referenced library to your internal drive leaving the original photos where they are - I've not seen this but it seems that it might work - easy to give a try - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library to the pictures folder on the internal drive and launch iPhoto while depressing the option (alt) key - if it works you have a partial solution - if it does not simply launch iPhoto with the option key and point back to the library that still exists on the EHD and delete the one you just moved to the internal drive
And note that you have imported your photos into iPhoto - you simply have not copied the originals to the iphoto library - the importing process is much more than just copying the photo - it involved updating all of the iPhoto database pointers
LN
Message was edited by: LarryHN

Moving Events and iPhoto library to a new Mac

I just picked up a new Mini for my HTPC. I would like to move the Events and photos that I already have on my other Macs to the new one. I exported all of the photos to a flash drive and then imported them in on the new Mini, but of course it just imported the photos. It did not organize them at all.
Bottom line, is there any way to move my existing library over to a new Mac without having to re-label all events and stuff like that?
Thanks guys,
Steve

I lost my iphoto Library when I was moving all my files over to my Mac Mini. I had a clean mini with Leopard and had my photo library on my external only. I was messing around with the Time machine and i think it did a back up which I stopped right away, but I think it deleted the iPhoto library and my iTunes library.(the mini probably had an empty iPhoto library) So now I used Data rescue to try and find it and all of the files from that external are on my mini's desktop with just numbered jpeg files & mp3 files.One folder says recovered music & recovered pictures. Of course there is nothing that says iphoto library and all the files are so mixed up.I have been going thru all the photos and just dragging them in, but it is getting so tedious....Help! Oh, and the photos are very pixelaed now....would that be because they are just jpeg files....I am not sure if they were prior to this whole problem. I have a feeling there is no way around this. Thanks in advance. Robin

Back up iphoto library

Hi-I'm trying to backup my iphoto library to free up space on my 2009 13" 250gb Macbook. My library is about 25gb in size and I have a 1.5tb western digital external HD. I have already moved the "iphoto library" package file to the external HD. All of my pictures are still in iphoto and I want to delete them. Other discussion posts talk about choosing a different library when you open iphoto - I don't understand what the purpose of this is or how to do it correctly.
So my questions are:
1. Is it now safe to delete the library package file from my Macbook since it's on the external HD?
2. How do I restore that library to another computer at some point?
3. Can I access the backed up library (on the external HD) from iphoto?
Thanks in advance...

Post in the iPhoto forum.

Backing up iPhoto Library with DropBox

I moved my iPhoto library to DropBox in order to have a complete online backup of iPhoto (in addition to my local Time Machine backup and my SuperDuper bootable backup). The backup took a while since I have a large iPhoto library (20,000 photos, about 80 GB). What happened was that the size of the iPhoto library doubled on DropBox to 160 GB. There are a number of reasons for this (I found it too late), primarily because DropBox doesn't handle the symlinks well and creates duplicate copies of the photos in Folders called Originals, Modified, and Masters. Also my computer slowed down when I added a lot of photos to iPhoto, as it was syncing literally a couple of thousand files for every 100 pictures I added.
It seems like what I could do as an alternative to backing up the entire library is to just back up the Masters Folder to DropBox. However, I can't move the Masters Folder out of iPhoto to DropBox without breaking the iPhoto Library structure. I think I could use a symlink from the Masters Folder to DropBox, but I am not exactly sure how to do this (or whether this would work). I could also do some kind of automator script to copy the Masters folder to DropBox, but this doens't seem very efficient. I have scoured the web forums on this issue, but just don't see a good solution. It seems like a pretty fundamental issue to people with a lot of photos in iPhoto.

And the answer is that so far no one has found a good solution to cloud backup for the iPhoto library that I have seen here - If you want only the photos you could copy the masters folder to DropBox and then use image capture to get your photos off your camera adding each batch to DB and then importing to iPhoto
I go at it differently - two daily backups (Time Machine hourly and Carbon Copy Cloner making a bootable clone of my system daily) plus an occasional TM backup to an off site drive (at our vacation home) and rotating through three 32 GB SD cards so I have a year or more of the original photos on SD cards at all times
TD uses SmugMug to backup his photos along with a similar but more disciplined off site backup
LN

Moving photos to iPhoto Library?

I moved my photos from my PC to a folder within Pictures called Photos. However, when I try to move the photos from there to the iPhoto library nothing happens. This results in them not displaying when I load iPhoto.
A related issue is that I cannot delete folders or photos from a folder in Pictures. The folder or photos appear in Trash after dragging and dropping, but also appear in the folder that they were deleted from.

How did you move them?
The proper way is to quit iPhoto '08 on your Mac, move the iPhoto library out of the Pictures folder to the desktop and then copy your PC photos to a desktop folder - then import those photos into iPhoto (drag and drop onto the iPhoto icon in the dock or use the file ==> import menu)
As soon as you are happy with the results you can delete the old iPhoto library and the PC photos from your desktop
You should NEVER make any changes to the iPhoto Library within the pictures folder by any method other than running the iPhoto program
I also suggest that you download Old Toad's back up automator script and use it often
LN

Carbonite backing my iphoto library again after upgrading to ilife 11

I have Carbonite online backup and have my system backed up. Since upgrading to iLife 11, Carbonite wants to back up my system again thinking everything it backup already is new files/data. This want Carbonite support saids,"we have reviewed the log files and found that duplicate files are being backed up. As the iLife program has changed the My photo and video directories. These are being backed up again. We would suggest you make changes to the settings of iLife program, so that Carbonite does not recognize it as a new data. " My question, want setting am I changing so carbonite doesn't duplicate my back up? it wants to upload 137 gig of data (again) it will take for ever! Thank you for any help.

I also have Carbonite. Before upgrading to iPhoto '11, I divided my library into multiple smaller libraries just so my computer didn't seem so taxed. I have Carbonite in case my computer crashes or is stolen. After doing all this maneuvering of libraries and then the upgrade to '11, my Carbonite was going bonkers.... it even sent me an email saying I hadn't backed up in over a week. I don't know why I got that email. But, I think that Carbonite finally caught up somewhat to my moving around of files and then upgrading to iPhoto '11.
I think I prefer the concept of taking an external HD or two (making one or two additional copies of my libraries).... and, maybe telling Carbonite to not back-up those libraries (the ones that I don't actively use right now) until my Carbonite has caught up on my actively used libraries. Then, once it says that you are caught up, you can one by one add those unused libraries back to your "back-up" to catch any additional changes you may make on those libraries in the future. This way, your current changes are for sure being captured on your Carbonite back-up.
I don't know if this makes sense. And, perhaps your usage is different than mine. But, I had over 14,000 photos in my single library. Now, I have 9 libraries with up to 4,500 in a single library. I only actively use one library right now. And, will be making sure that one is on my back-up with Carbonite. Then, once that is done, I will add the other 8 libraries one by one until they are all updated all the while making sure my primary is being captured as well. But, if something does happen between now and then, I have my external HD with copies of my iPhoto library at least until Carbonite is all the way caught up.

Time Machine not backing up "iPhoto Library" file

I have run some utilities to make sure that my Time Machine backups are working and noticed that my "~/Pictures/iPhoto Library" file is not there in the backups. In the console I see this (paths cleaned up):
Feb 3 07:27:20 macpro /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[77655]: Starting standard backup
Feb 3 07:27:20 macpro /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[77655]: Backing up to: /Volumes/MacPro Backup/Backups.backupdb
Feb 3 07:27:23 macpro /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[77655]: Node requires deep traversal:/{home folder}/Pictures/iPhoto Library reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonMissedReservation|
Feb 3 07:27:49 macpro /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[77655]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 70.30 GB requested (including padding), 522.31 GB available
Feb 3 07:27:58 macpro /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[77655]: Copied 384 files (15.9 MB) from volume MacPro.
Feb 3 07:28:50 macpro /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[77655]: Copied 2261 files (109.1 MB) from volume Storage.
Feb 3 07:28:51 macpro /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[77655]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.47 GB requested (including padding), 522.21 GB available
Feb 3 07:28:54 macpro /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[77655]: Copied 9 files (1.7 MB) from volume MacPro.
Feb 3 07:28:57 macpro /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[77655]: Copied 11 files (1.7 MB) from volume Storage.
Feb 3 07:28:58 macpro /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[77655]: Starting post-backup thinning
Feb 3 07:28:58 macpro /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[77655]: No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
Feb 3 07:28:58 macpro /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[77655]: Backup completed successfully.
You can see that it does decide that it needs to be backed up (hence 70 GB of data) then it only backs up everything else. It will now do this every time.
Notes: This machine is running Mac OS X server and I do not have my home directory on my system drive. It could be a permissions problem, but I have tried fixing that (see below)
Since this problem started I have tried:
- Erasing my Time Machine disk and letting it do a full backup
- Holding down option-command while opening iPhoto and having it do all possible rebuilding steps
- Using Terminal to make sure permissions of the main file and package contents are set to same setup as my other computers that are working

I moved it to my system drive, was able to open it up fine with iPhoto ('09 BTW) and then ran Time Machine. Same thing happened, though this time it didn't say "needs deep traversal" like it did before.
As far as exclusions go, I double checked my "Do not back up" list and nothing in there that has to do with Pictures or iPhoto. Also, found and ran this command:
sudo mdfind "comapple_backupexcludeItem = 'com.apple.backupd'"
which output:
/{home}/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music Library.xml
/{home}/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library.xml
/{home}/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates
/{home}/Music/iTunes/Previous iTunes Libraries/Previous iTunes Libraries/Previous iTunes Libraries/iTunes Library 2008-10-04.xml
/{home}/Music/iTunes/Album Artwork/Cache
So that probably isn't it. It is weird that out of the 1.5 TB of data Time Machine backs up, it is only this file (folder)

I can't open my backed-up Iphoto Library on my new Mac with upgraded iLife. How can I retrieve all my pics??

Having backed-up my old iMac using time machine, thinking to open up my iPhoto Library to retrieve all pics from Time Machine, but iPhoto doesn't let me open it. First a pop-up appears: "The photo library needs to be upgraded to work with this version of iPhoto. Your photo library will not be readable by previous versions of iPhoto after the upgrade. The upgrade process for very large libraries may take an hour or more to complete." When I click Upgrade another pop-up appears "You can’t open your current photo library using this version of iPhoto. You have made changes to your photo library using a newer version of iPhoto. Please quit and use the latest version of iPhoto." But I am using the latest version iLife 11. Is there a way to open up the library in a different way, so I can get my pics back???

It sounds like the restored database is damaged.
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.

Would like to know how to back up iphoto library to external harddrive

I know this question has been asked and very well answered, but I could not find it in the pop up discussions. I have copied my library to an external hard drive by dragging and dropping the events into folders. This works, however is time consuming and all the photos, I think are out of order. I would like to use the "export library" link in iphoto, but when i do it say something about can't create volumes?? Sorry if this is not as clear as it could be, but I don't think I am the first with this problem. Links to previous solutions would be great! I do use time machine as a back up to an external hard drive, but would like to back up the library to a USB also, which I can then put somewhere else.
I have a Mac Mini 10.6.8. and a sweet new bluetooth keyboard!

Copy the iPhoto library intact to the EHD -- or use a incremental program so you can update it without recopying everything - I use Carbon Copy cloner - Superduper is another good one - there are others
LN

Moving / backing up Iphoto Library

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