Moving photos to an external drive from iPhoto

I'm exporting from macback pro iphoto library to an external drive (passport for mac) and getting message unable to create/volumes/My Passport for Mac.  I use this drive as my back up drive for the macbook.  Does this mean I need to get a new drive or just that the passport is too full (1Tetrabyte)

to move the iPhoto library you need to move it as a single entity -
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

  • Moving photo library to external drive

    Hi,  
    My Mac hard drive is really getting full, i've only got 10GB left!
    I've bought myself a 1TB external USB hard drive, and would like to move my large iPhoto Library onto it.   
    If I move it across, and then create a fresh new iPhoto Library on my Mac Hard drive will I still be able to access my old photos on my external drive?
    Also will it affect syncing through iTunes, and/or syncing with my iCloud photo stream?
    Lastly, can you think of any other things that are generally ok to dump on an external drive and start afresh? I'd like to move my Steam Games, but still access them through the external drive,   what do you think?
    Thanks for all your help!

    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.
    Why would you create a second library on the internal idk? Just use the one on the external.
    It makes no difference to syncing.
    Regards
    TD

  • How do I view photos in an external drive using iphoto

    I want to view my photos stored on an external drive using iphoto. How do I do that?

    iPhoto is not a photo viewer, it's a photo manager with non-destructive processing. If you want a photo viewer, check put Preview.

  • Moving photos to an external drive

    So as to move my photos to a WD My Book for Mac, do I drag just the photos, or the Adobe Photo Elements program as well to the external drive? Then I delete from the computer, correct?

    If you had a  Mac Pro 65lb tower I would advise moving them to an SSD where makes a big difference.
    Having iPhoto library or Aperture/Lightroom on separate SSD drive, and separate from Photo folder, really helps. So on Mac Pro you can put a couple SSDs on PCIe card. And put your system on an SSD for sure. Feel like totally new faster computer.

  • How do you export video to an external drive from iPhoto?

    Hi, I have been trying to export video footage from iphoto onto an external hard drive only to find it no longer plays and is only a single image. What am I doing wrong...
    Karen

    Unless you exported the files using the Kind = Original option all you'll get for each item, photo or video, will be a jpeg file. 
    If you want to export only the videos do a search in the library for keyword = movie as iPhoto adds that keyword to all movies/videos imported.  Then you can export them to a folder on the Destkop as Originals.
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  • HT1751 how do you get Itune to recognize the library if you have moved it to a external drive from your computer due to its size?

    I have moved my Itunes libray to a external drive due to it's size. How do I get Itunes to see the new location and referance it when downloading and uploading media?

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1202

  • How can I create an iPhoto Library from photos on an external drive?

    Here's my issue:
    I have a MacBook Pro running OS X Mavericks, and I am just about out of hard drive space.
    I also have about 20 GB worth of photos on an external drive. The photos are not organized at all, just got dumped into a folder there during a hasty backup a couple years ago.
    I'd like to use iPhoto to get these photos organized, but don't have the space to import them into the library on my laptop.
    How can I create and manage an iPhoto library with these photos while keeping them on the external drive? They are on a terabyte drive, so I have a feeling I'd like to make that my main library moving forward.

    Check that the drive's formatted as Mac OS Extended, drag the iPhoto library to it, launch iPhoto with the Option key held down, and choose that library.
    (114618)

  • I have just installed Photoshop Elements for a MAC. MY photos were in iPhoto, I have 47,000 pictures and my drive on my Mac laptop is not large enough. I store my photos in iPhoto on an external drive. Can I store all my photos on an external drive when u

    I have just installed Photoshop Elements for a MAC. MY photos were in iPhoto, I have 47,000 pictures and my drive on my Mac laptop is not large enough. I store my photos in iPhoto on an external drive. Can I store all my photos on an external drive when using Photoshop Elements? If so, in what format should they be stored in? I do I move them from iPhoto to the new storage location? How do I call them up in organizer? And how do I call them up to Edit? I do not want to store any pictures on my Apple Mac laptop. I want to store pictures on several external devices.

    Yes you can store images on an external hard dive and have them referenced in Organizer. It’s best to export copies to separate folders/subfolders and that will ensure iPhoto does not get corrupted.
    Alternatively you could continue to use iPhoto with the Elements Editor set up in the iPhoto prefs as your external editing app. Then there is no need to use Organizer and no need to duplicate your images.
    You can then call up photos directly from iPhoto as normal with the additional option e.g.
    Double-click on a thumbnail to edit in iPhoto editor.
    Control (right) - click on a thumbnail to edit in the elements app.
    http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/kb/photoshop-elements-iphoto-mac-os.html

  • How can I make a backup to an external hard drive from iPhoto if it won't open?

    how can I make a backup to an external hard drive from iPhoto if it won't open? I just wan't to make a backup to my pictures not my entire computer so how does Time Machine work on that?

      you could also clone the drive or volume, or just some of the user folders. look for carbon copy cloner, then enable the "use checksum to insure file integrity."
      you can have multiple iPhoto Library catalogues in different locations.
    Continue to use TimeMachine and make sure it has 350% or more capacity than your system and data.

  • The memory on my MAC is full. It holds 4GB of RAM of which 79GB are photos. I would like to back up my photos to an external drive but just don not know how. I do not wish to use time machine. How do I back up my photo library, then delete the them t

    The memory on my MAC is full. It holds 4GB of RAM of which 79GB are photos. I would like to back up my photos to an external drive but just do not know how. I do not wish to use time machine. How do I back up my photo library, then delete them from my MAC to free up that 79GB? Thank you.

    Hi
    Just to clarify a couple of points in your post.
    RAM (memory) is different from hard drive space. You have 4GB of RAM, but that has no bearing on the amount of drive space you have, of which we know that 79GB are photos.
    If those photos are in iPhoto, you should be able to move the entire iPhoto Library, from the Pictures folder, to your external hard drive. You can just drag and drop. Do not have iPhoto open while you're doing this. Once it's done, you can double-click on the moved iPhoto Library file to associate it with iPhoto, so that the app remembers where the library is for next time.
    One more thing. When you move a file to a different location, and then delete the original, you don't have a backup. You still only have one copy. So if that external drive dies, you will lose all your photos. Time Machine is a very good way to prevent this from happening. You should dedicate a different drive for Time Machine backups.
    Matt

  • Can't save multiple folders to external drive. Get: "The operation can't be completed because you don't have permission to access some of the items." when dragging large folders to mac os extended journalled external drive from OS 10.6.8

    Hi
    I am feeling  VERY desperate!
    After losing an external drive [dont ask....]  -   I got  another one :  2TB WD formatted properly [ OS extended journalled for mac ] ready for action to move  my thousands of files and images and ppts in hundreds of folders across from the laptop to this drive because I travel a bit with the laptop and this is too risky not to back up at home.
    But this message came up after starting on moving folders across [** and not straight away, sometimes after moving  a folder  when  4 of 6 gb of files across  then the message comes up  = very frustrating]:
    "The operation can’t be completed because you don't have permission to access some of the items."
    I am  dragging mixed sometimes large complex folders to this  os extended journalled external drive from my mac book pro OS 10.6.8  - it would take decades to move items one by one or even folder by folder and really confusing. 
    I have  dragged-copied  various small folders and files across successfully, but it is only working 50:50 and I can't leave machine with the idea of things copying eg: overnight - it just won't work....
    I have been browsing google and find some people describing in CODE how they overcome this 'message'   .... but  I  [and I guess some other viewers of this in future & also in desperation]  would need  instructions for beginners....  to try this type of thing.  I don't know any code.
    How can this be happening - I feel ANGRY at APPLE !!!!  for not posting easy fix instructions yet re; this, or better still  updating software so it doesn't happen [ that I can find at least  !!! ] .   There seem to be hundreds of people stuck with this stupid message and inability to back up their projects etc.
    Can anyone help ?
    Many thanks
    Julie
    15 August 2011

    hi Samberl
    thanks a lot for the fast reply.
    I was dragging folders from main folders on the laptop-desktop  onto the external drive icon - to copy them across....
    Your suggestion sounds very promising -  I didn't know about 'cloning'.
    Yes the idea is to backup the laptop -    I thought I would just move it all now, new - and then keep saving/dragging physically   across to the new drive myself each day or two...
    Would this be the sizeof the internal hard drive = c.500 gb  ?   =   under the HD icon on desktop is written  : 
    " 499.76gb , 311.5 gb free  " 
    I can erase and start agin on the new external drive - so this plan is to make two partititions, rather than the one at present, and make one of them 500 gb ?
    I have found CCC [carbon copy cloner] googling - looks good.
    When CCC site says it backs up  the hard drive - would this  mean all my files  [over 100 gb] that are mostly  in folders on the desktop, plus the others in itunes, iphotos etc found in the HD icon,  would all copy across successfully [wherever they are in the computer ]  ?
    thanks again, hope you can clarify these things and then I will go for it. 
    It would be great and amazing if this 'lack of permission' message doesn't show up in the process of doing this ccc transfer - hopeful!
    Julie

  • Want to move photo library to external drive

    I want to move the '08 iphoto library to an external drive, as I am running out of space on the iMac. However I have numerous picture folders (2007, 2006, etc) within my 'pictures' folder in addition to the iphoto library. The photos from these folders all appear in iphoto.
    My question: Do I have to copy/move these folders as well as the iphoto library?
    Thanks for the help.

    Dimitri
    Welcome to the Apple user to user assistance forums
    No - iPhoto is only concerned with the iPhoto library - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library as a single entity to the external drive - launch iPhoto while depressing the option (alt) key an use the select library option to point to the new library location.
    LN

  • Is it possible to store all photos in an external drive? How do I do it?

    I have too many photos to store in my MacBook. Is it possible to store all photos in an external drive and still use iPhoto (or Aperture) to view them all?

    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

  • External drive and iPhoto

    I have run out of space on my powerbook's internal hard drive. So i have been forced to copy all of my photo's over to my new Lacie External Hard drive. I then deleted the photo's out of my Photos Folder in the users folder. Now when i drag the photo's from the external drive into iPhoto they are automatically copied back into the Photos folder and thus fill up my internal powerbook hard drive. So i now am back to having 1.6MB of space on my drive. Does iPhoto have an option like in iTunes where you can select the folder where your data will be stored?

    No, you will lose your keywords, comments, labels, etc. I don't know of any way you can convert to an alias based library and retain the metadata from the old iPhoto library. The only organizational information you will retain is the original roll information/grouping.
    There is possibly a way you can retain the keywords. It involves using the demo version of iView MediaPro and then an apple script designed to import the metadata from the files back into iPhoto. If you're interested in that process post back and I'll spell it out.
    I've posted what I hope is a more comprehensive workflow here describing one way of accomplishing the change over to an alias based library.
    G4 DP-1G, 1.5G RAM, 22 Display, 2-80G HD, QT 7.0.4P   Mac OS X (10.4.4)   Canon S400, i850 & LIDE 50, Epson R200, 2G Nano

  • How do I have itunes use/detect my external hard drive and place music on the external drive from the itunes store? There are no music files on my pc yet.  I will like to do this after installing itunes 11 on my pc for the first time. I am using windows 7

    How do I have itunes use/detect my external hard drive and place music on the external drive from the itunes store? There are no music files on my pc yet.  I will like to do this after installing itunes 11 on my pc for the first time. I am using windows 7.  HP computer intel Dual Core.  Thanks for any help!

    Hey idw3,
    Welcome to Apple Support Communities, and thanks for the question. Follow the instructions on this article to move your iTunes Media folder to an external hard drive:
    iTunes for Windows: Moving your iTunes Media folder
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
    Regards,
    David

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