Moving iPhoto files to external hard-drive

Hi everyone,
I've seen versions of this question asked many times but felt the need to ask myself before I go into the Genius bar to have someone help me. I take A LOT of high quality photos and they are currently taking up 60GB on my tiny 150GB hard drive. I need to move these files off my hard drive to free up space because the computer is prompting me to delete things, the hard drive is full! I downloaded iPhoto Library Manager a few months ago and created a back up copy of my library and put it on an external hard drive. But now - I want to move all of them OFF my hard-drive. I know how to make a copy... But how can I move all of these files so they are just on the external hard drive?
Thanks for your help in advance!

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

Similar Messages

I moved itunes file to external hard drive and want to move the file on my pc to recycle bin. When I move i get an error message that it cannot delete ituneshelper.dll access is denied. Can I move that file to the recycle bin?

I am trying to free up space on my pc and moving itunes files to external hard drive. I have followed instructions and believe I have file copied to new drive, but I am having trouble moving file to recycle bin as the instructions say. I am getting the following error message: cannot delete ituneshelper.dll:access denied, make sure disk is not full or write protected and file not in use. I know the file is not in use when trying to move. Any help would be most appreciated. I am on Windows XP.

Yes. And you should not have moved that folder. Put it back. To move your iTunes library move the folder from User's Music.
tt2

Moved my files to external hard drive, now files not found. Help?

My Itunes folder having outgrown my memory, I moved all the files to my external hard drive, following the directions in Itunes. I was able to play the songs as long as the hard drive was connected. However, I opened Itunes mistakenly without the E: Drive connected, and it opened blank, with no files in place. I closed, hooked up the hard drive, and opened Itunes again, holding down the shift key and choosing the library on E: (the xmp file). The files now show up, but when I try to play them, I get a message indicating that the file isn't found, do I want to find it? I can, but I don't want to go through 5000 files and add each one individually. If I try adding or importing the folder again, the file is simply in itunes twice. I can always import everything again, but I don't want to lose all my ratings, last-played, etc. It took a lot of time to listen to and rate all those songs. Any help would certainly be appreciated. Thanks.

I am having the same problem. I moved my itunes library to an external drive to free up the space on my notebook and now I "get files not found do you want to search" If I search I can find the song in Windows but have to find each song individually, I have 2600 songs I burned from my CD collection, it would take way too long. I have tried copying the file to the same drive, I have reintalled itunes multiple times. I have checked Apple and my computer is "authorized". Is there any way out of this? Otherwise I will be limited to just having the music I already have on my ipod and being unable to add any more, and if that ever bocomes compromised I would be unable to restore it. None of my music is purchased from itunes, it is all burned from my CD's.

Iphone won't sync after moving iPhoto library to external hard drive

I moved my iPhoto library to an external hard drive, now my iTunes will not sync with my iphone. It has an error when syncing photos and quits
iPhoto works just fine, iTunes works just fine. This only occurs when syncing. Please help!

Put your iPhoto library on the external hard drive and hold your Option key down when opening iPhoto. Then just select the library on the external drive. You can have multiple libraries too.
Dave M.
MacOSG Founder/Ambassador  An Apple User Group  iTunes: MacOSG Podcast
Macsimum News Associate Editor  Creator of 'Mac611 - Mobile Mac Support'

Moving iPhoto library onto external hard drive

I would like to transfer all of my photos over to my external hard drive as my MacBook is filling up fast.
I followed the directions on moving the iPhoto library onto my external hard drive. I can see the iPhoto icon on the external drive. I no longer see it under Me/Pictures.
If I select the iPhoto icon on my external hard drive to open iPhoto, it opens without any photos. If I press "option" while opening iPhoto from the icon at the bottom of the screen the only option I have is from the following: Users/Me/Movies/iMovie Projects.localized/iPhoto Library. This option does open iPhoto so that I can see my photos. There is an option there to "Create New" so I added my hard drive. But if I use that as my default, I get no pictures.
A couple of questions. How do I complete this process? Where are my pictures now? I'm assuming they are on my external hard drive. I didn't delete them from my MacBook so I'm also assuming they are there but not visible.
Thanks

As we're not sure what you have done exactly it's hard to be certain how to progress.
This is how you move an iPhoto Library
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.
There is no way you've done that if you can no longer see the Library at Me/Pictures.

Moving Picture Files to External Hard Drive

I have been using PE3 on my desktop computer for about a year. I am now scanning several thousand photos from slides using my laptop and a Windows file structure and will soon incorporate them into PE3 with my other photos soon.
Given HD space limits on my desktop computer, I plan to begin storing all my photos on an external hard drive.
1. What is the best method to move the existing PE3 files to the other drive? I understand that some methods lose the file structure that exists. Is that true?
2. What is the best method to incorporate the scanned photos into the PE3 system? I guess I can copy the files into the new HD structure and then inport the photos into PE3.
I would be interested in inputs from someone who had made such a change.
Please help,
Doug

Doug
Just to add to Gary's answer
Can you clarify if you are using the Organizer or not. You say "a Windows file structure." Is this a folder based system and you use Windows Explorer for file management-renaming, moving, deleting, etc.
If this is the case, you can simply move the photos without any trouble.
If you use Organizer and have images tagged or built into collections, you should move the images inside of Organizer. Otherwise the underlying MS Access database does not get updated and this is when photos "get lost" in Elements.
A second option would be to move your pictures outside or Organizer and then do a File>Reconnect>All Missing Files. If the only change is a different drive letter, it should find them on the new drive. You'll have to "accept" these changes.
Either way, I would recommend doing the moving/reconnects in batches. Sometimes Access gets "confused", especially if you throw a huge number of files at one time.

Moving music files via external hard drive-- Can you keep ratings/playlists

I keep all my music on an external hard drive in order to prevent it getting lost. Anyways... what I'm wondering is if I go to move my music from one computer (comp. A) to another computer (comp. B), is it possible to keep all the ratings and my playlists? I've seen the stuff for transfering with your ipod, but the problem is my 30Gb doesn't hold all my music, and I would reeeeeaaally hate to go through and redo all the ratings. If anyone knows maybe a file involved with itunes that might contain the ratings or playlists that I could store with the files themselves to transfer that would be excellent. Thanks to anyone who can help out. If you need clarification on any of the details just lemme know.

It looks like it should, thanks. One other bit that I'm wondering about is how do I load that Library list once I've installed itunes on comp B? Is it just a matter of going file>import or file>add new file to library? Thanks again

Moving music files to external hard drive

I bought an external hard drive and want to free up my main C drive by moving my music, pictures and videos to it. One of the folders in My Music is "iTunes" which has the folder "iTunes Music" which holds all of the music that iTunes communicates with. The new external drive is the "H" drive. How do I tell iTunes that all of my music is now located elsewhere, without actually having to go down the list song by song, which would be impossible, time wise. Some sort of single bulk change from one drive to another. Thank you

Well, you never said that's what you wanted to do, so why don't you calm down and stop yelling at the people who are trying desperately to help you.
"How do I tell iTunes that all of my music is now located elsewhere, without actually having to go down the list song by song, which would be impossible, time wise. Some sort of single bulk change from one drive to another. Thank you."
All you asked for was assistance with moving your iTunes music. We provided instructions, which you chose to ignore.
Moving your entire My Documents folder is a completely different procedure and you could have saved everyone a lot of frustration if you just made it clear that you wanted to do that in the first place.
At the risk of complicating this thread any further, I am going to remove myself from it. Moving your My Documents folder is not something I feel comfortable helping with, as I am not a Windows user and I don't want to provide the wrong info for you and end up screwing up your entire machine.

Moving iphoto library to external hard drive.

My mac mini is fast running out of disk space and I am trying to move the iphoto library to an external hard drive.
I have copied the library across to the external disk, renamed the exisiting library and have now tried to restore/rebuild the iphoto library using the new library on the external disk. All of the albums/events/faces appear in the finder window but iphoto hangs for up to 8 hours before I force quit and try again. I only have 20gb of photos and would not think the library should take this long to rebuild??
I am running Lion along with the most current update of iphoto.
Any assistance greatly appreciated.

That article is missing a key piece of info:
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

Moving iTunes files to External Hard Drive

Folks:
I just purchased an external hard drive to store iTunes songs and pictures, etc., and get those files off my laptop hard drive to create some room. Truth is, I really don't need to travel with my iTunes files.
I've copied the files to the new drive already. I've also changed the location pointer for iTunes files to the new drive. Problem is, if I look at the info on a song, iTunes still thinks the song is located in the old location on the laptop, which is true. How do I get it to recognize the new location? Delete all of the files from the laptop (scary)? Is there another way to get iTunes to point to the new location?
Thanks, Henry

If you follow the steps in this article, it should work.
Just delete everything from your exHD and start over.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
Also - naming your exHD a letter far down in the alphabet is a good idea.
E: F: and G: are frequently used by other USB devices, and if your exHD letter changes, you'll get all the ! marks again.
So name it K: or Q: or W:, something another USB is unlikely to use.

Moving FCE Files to External Hard Drive

I have finally been convinced that I need an external hard drive for captured files. This is due to the problem of the Capture Scratch file crashing with 10.3.9. This is a problem about which Apple has finally written an advisory.
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n93488
I have ordered an external hard drive. What I'm wondering is whether I can begin limited work on a project until the drive arrives in a few days? In other words, will I be able to move FCE browser files, including a few completed timeline clips, by copying and pasting from my internal drive to the external drive and then continue the project? Thanks.
iMac 17 Mac OS X (10.3.9) FCE 1.0.1

If you have already captured your material you should be able to proceed with your project. Of course this assumes that your startup HD isn't really full !
-When you get your external HD you will actually use the Finder to copy your Final Cut Express Documents folder and its contents to your external HD.
-Then, in FCE, CLOSE any projects that are open.
-Then, go into your FCE Preferences and point FCE to your new Capture Scratch location on your external HD.
-Then close FCE and restart it.
-Then, to open your project, in FCE do File > Open and then locate your FCE project file in your FCE Documents folder on your external HD.
-At this point you will probably also have to Reconnect Media as Piero described. Be sure to reconnect to the clips that are on your external HD and not to the clips that are on your startup HD.
-Once that's done and you are satisfied that everything is working properly you can (and should) delete the Final Cut Express Documents folder on your startup HD to free up space. But don't do this until & unless you are sure things are working properly with your external HD.

Moving iTunes files to external hard drive -- error message

Trying to copy iTunes files from iBook G4 to a nearly empty 320 GB FreeAgent Pro external hard drive. When I attempt to consolidate the files, I receive an error message saying "there is not enough room on external hard drive to copy files". I have a very small internal hard drive on the laptop and not very much music so the message doesn't make sense to me.
The external hard drive appears in Finder, and says the format is "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)".
Any tips on where to go from here? I'm about out of room on the laptop and desperately need to move files to an external hard drive to free up space.
Thanks,
Brendan

If you follow the steps in this article, it should work.
Just delete everything from your exHD and start over.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
Also - naming your exHD a letter far down in the alphabet is a good idea.
E: F: and G: are frequently used by other USB devices, and if your exHD letter changes, you'll get all the ! marks again.
So name it K: or Q: or W:, something another USB is unlikely to use.

Moving iphoto from one external hard drive to another...

I have read through several posts on this, but can't seem to get it to work still. I have tried holding down the option key while opening iphoto so that I can direct it from my old hard drive to the new drive location. So, I select the new drive from the list, but then the iphoto library within that new drive is not highlighted in order for me to select it. So, I'm unable to change the location for iphoto. Please help.

Just a thought but try going thru Finder and double-click on the new location to have it open.
This ides not work with iPhoto 08. With iPhoto 08 (unlike earlier and later versions) double clicking on a library does not open that library, it simple launches iPhoto at the last used Library. Hence my suggestion: Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'
Regards
TD

I have moved my iPhoto to an external hard drive. so now I have to have the external hard drive connected to my laptop to view the photos. Now when I want to import photos into iPhoto from my media card, I don't have room to connect both devices.

I have moved my iPhoto to an external hard drive. so now I have to have the external hard drive connected to my laptop to view the photos. Now when I want to import photos into iPhoto from my media card, I don't have room to connect both devices at the same time as the usb ports are side by side. How do I import my photos from the media card to the external hard drive now?

First transfer the photos to a folder on your MacBook using Image Capture in your Utilities folder. Then move them to iPhoto.
BTW, you might want to invest in a cheap USB hub.

IPhoto Transfer to External Hard Drive

I'm trying to export about 10000 pics and vids from iphoto to an external hard drive. Each time I try about 500 files won't copy and I get an error message for each. Short of copy down each file and moving them over separately, is there something else I can do ?

With the amount of information you've provided it's impossible to offer a potential solution. We can't see your computer so we need to know the details of your problem and setup, i.e.:
what version of iPhoto are you using?
what system version are you running?
what format is the external hard drive?
have you tried exporting in smaller batches to folders on the Desktop and moving those folders to the EHD? With iPhoto 9 and later you can automatically export the photos to folders representing the Events they are in via the menu option File ➙ Export ➙ File Export:
what fixes have you tried?
where is your library located on the boot drive?
did you apply any updates or upgrades just prior to the problem occurring?
are you running a "managed" or "referenced" library?
how much free space on your boot drive?
OT

Moving iPhoto files to external hard-drive

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for