Organizing photos by events

I am new to mac and iphoto. When I watched the online tutorial on iphoto, it said I could organize my photos by events, but I do not have and events option in my iphoto program under my library icon. How do I get that icon?

cindybrown
You're using iPhoto 6, Events are a feature of iPhoto 7.
Rolls in iPhoto6 are very similar to Events, just not automatic.
Rolls in the iPhoto Window (View -> Film Rolls) correspond exactly with the Roll Folders in the Originals Folder in the iPhoto Library Folder. You can move photos between Rolls, you can rename rolls, edit them, create them, as long as you do it via the iPhoto Window. Check out the Info Pane (wee 'i', lower left) the name and date fields are editable. Edit a Roll Name using the Info Pane, the Roll Folder in iPhoto Library Folder/Originals will also have the new name.
Regards
TD

Similar Messages

Organizing photos in events that match originals

I cleaned up(crop, delete bad ones, rename files) my photos in "events" but it didn't change in "originals". how do i get that to match?

Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
Do you mean the Originals folder in the Finder?
The strict relationship between the structure of the folders in the Finder and the Rolls/Events in the iPhoto Window changed in iPhoto 09 and no one outside of Apple knows why.
But it's really just another example of how iPhoto does not support you accessing the files via the Finder. Never has.
You can achieve more by accessing the files in the supported ways: Select the Event in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export.
You then can select among the options under Kind:
Originals will get you exactly that: the original files. These will be the contents of the Event as per the iPhoto Window regardless of the arrangement of files in the underlying file structure.
Current will get you the most recent versions of the files: a mix of edited and unedited pics. Again, the contents as per the iPhoto Window. There is simply no way to get this by accessing the files in the Finder.
All the other versions allow you to write the metadata - tiles, keywords, descriptions and locations - to the files on export - again, something not possible with accessing the files via the Finder.
Some notes:
Deleting: Did you empty the iPhoto trash?
Renaming: In the iPhoto Window you +add a title+ to a Photo. There is no way to rename a file in iPhoto, the nearest you can do is use the title as filename when exporting.
Some FYI:
There are many, many ways to access your files in iPhoto:
*For Users of 10.5 and later*
You can use any Open / Attach / Browse dialogue. On the left there's a Media heading, your pics can be accessed there. Command-Click for selecting multiple pics.
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!
(Note the above illustration is not a Finder Window. It's the dialogue you get when you go File -> Open)
You can access the Library from the New Message Window in Mail:
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!
*For users of 10.4 and later* ...
Many internet sites such as Flickr and SmugMug have plug-ins for accessing the iPhoto Library. If the site you want to use doesn’t then some, one or any of these will also work:
To upload to a site that does not have an iPhoto Export Plug-in the recommended way is to Select the Pic in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export and export the pic to the desktop, then upload from there. After the upload you can trash the pic on the desktop. It's only a copy and your original is safe in iPhoto.
This is also true for emailing with Web-based services. However, if you're using Gmail you can use iPhoto2GMail
If you use Apple's Mail, Entourage, AOL or Eudora you can email from within iPhoto.
If you use a Cocoa-based Browser such as Safari, you can drag the pics from the iPhoto Window to the Attach window in the browser.
*If you want to access the files with iPhoto not running*:
For users of 10.6 and later:
You can download a free Services component from MacOSXAutomation which will give you access to the iPhoto Library from your Services Menu. Using the Services Preference Pane you can even create a keyboard shortcut for it.
For Users of 10.4 and later:
Create a Media Browser using Automator (takes about 10 seconds) or use this free utility Karelia iMedia Browser
Other options include:
1. *Drag and Drop*: Drag a photo from the iPhoto Window to the desktop, there iPhoto will make a full-sized copy of the pic.
2. *File -> Export*: Select the files in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export. The dialogue will give you various options, including altering the format, naming the files and changing the size. Again, producing a copy.
3. *Show File*: Right- (or Control-) Click on a pic and in the resulting dialogue choose 'Show File'. A Finder window will pop open with the file already selected.
Regards
TD

HT5129 I had photos from MobileMe organized into different events. When iPhoto made a MobileMe event, it took all of those photos out of the other events and put them all together in the new "from MobileMe" event. Is there any way to reverse this?

I had photos from MobileMe organized into different events. When iPhoto made a MobileMe event (when MobileMe ended), it took all of those photos out of the other events and put them all together in the new "from MobileMe" event. Is there any way to reverse this?

Only to load your backup from before downloading the MM photos
LN

I have an old MacBook (Mac OSX 10.5.8) with iPhoto '08. Is there any way to back up not only the photos, but the way I have organized them into events and labeled them?

I have an old MacBook (Mac OSX 10.5.8) with iPhoto '08. Is there any way to back up not only the photos, but the way I have organized them into events and labeled them?

Yes. Back up the Library.
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.
Example of such apps: Chronosync - but there are many others. Search on MacUpdate or the App Store

I have photos organized into named events in Dropbox, can I import these events directly into iPhoto?

Hi all!
So, my photos are currently in Dropbox, organized into named events that are not time-specific. When I imported them into iPhoto, my photos (all 10,000 of them!!) got placed in time specific albums! Ack! Is there a way to import them with my events still intact? Thanks!

Copy one the folders to the Desktop first and then drag the folder into the open iPhoto window. That should create an Event with the folder name. The folder will be placed in the Event window according to the photo with the latest date.
If that works try dragging a folder directly from Dropbox into the open iPhoto window. If that produces an Event with the same title as the folder continue from Dropbox.
OT

How can I view my photos in "Events" like in iPhoto? How can I create events? I have 55,000 photos and 1700 events so the only way I can possibly manage my photos is using events that are one slide in size.

I have 55,000 images organized into about 1700 events. The only reasonable way to view my library is using events in iPhoto where each event has one image That still leaves 1700 images to sort through but that is a lot easier than 55,000 images. In the side bar is a folder with "iPhoto Events" but those views still show all of the slides. How can I create events and view my photos as events as in iPhoto? Events are critical for large libraries and has been my primary way to sort images.
Thanks!

I had a problem a couple of months ago when iPhotos suddenly rearranged the order of my Events (Why won't iPhoto let me arrange my photos?) . I was told "Use albums not events - events are not a good way to organize - albums and folder are designed for organisation and are very flexible".
Haha! I should have paid attention and read between the lines! My iPhotos were highly organised groupings - not according to date but the way I wanted them - and it was so easy to do! I see now that if I had them all in albums, as per the Apple Apologist suggestion, I wouldn't have this unholy mess I have been left with just to make iPhone & iCloud users happy. I am now going through Photos and making Albums (of what used to be in my Events) ... maybe I'll get this finished before they do another non user friendly update!

Organizing photos in Iphoto is a big pain and

Does anyone have issues with getting IPHOTO organized? I upgraded to the version 11 from the 08 because I thought that there would be some additional features related to the way that photos and events could be handled. I was very dissappointed to find out that there is absolutely no improvements or changes to the way that photos and events could be organized. First of all, who in the heck has time to name, rate, assign keywords etc.. to their photos upon import from camera. It is very difficut to find photos with Iphoto. I have a huge amount of photos. If I view photos instead of view events, how in the heck am I to drag photos from one event to another? I have so many photos that if I leave all of the photos expanded then you have to scroll to much up or down while trying to hang on to the photo long enough to get it where you want it. If you collapse the photos, then you cannot see them.
If you create albums and try to drag photos from existing events to the new albums, it makes no sense to have to go back and delete the photo from the place that you dragged it from. At least I think this is how it is. I may have thought it was like this and the found out that when i did go back to delete the orginal destination location, that it also deleted it in the new album.
I see where a couple of features were added to the photo editing features between the two versions, but not worth upgrading and paying the extra cost.
If it is easier than what I seem to be making it, it is because the Iphoto help has not improved either. It is still very basic and very vague as before.
Any suggestions?
Thank you.

If you create albums and try to drag photos from existing events to the new albums, it makes no sense to have to go back and delete the photo from the place that you dragged it from. At least I think this is how it is.
You'd be wrong. There's only one real imge file in iPhoto and that's located in the Event. All other occurances of that photo, albums, books, calendars, etc. are only virtual links to the actual file in the Event.
Albums let you group photos togeher regardless of when they were taken and what event they are in. Keywords can be applied all photos in an event by bringing fierst opening the event, bringing up the Keyword pane
Click to view full size
selecting the first photo, clicking on the keyword you want to assign, move to the next photo with the right arrow key on the keyboard, clicking on the next keyword, etc. Takes only a minute or so. You first have to create the keywords you want to use, people's names, places, etc.
Then you can just search by keyword, create a Smart album to look for one or more keywords, etc.
iPhoto is a database driven DAM (digital asset management) application so you should learn to use it properly. A little upfront effort can save a lot of time later on. And this is how it's been for most of the version of iPhoto.
OT

Newbie Question: Importing (from PC) and Organizing Photos in iPhoto

Hi everyone,
I am currently a PC user and am contemplating buying an iMac, and I'm trying to determine if iPhoto will meet my needs for photo importing and organization.
I currently have around 20-30 gigs of digital photos and am using Windows Photo Gallery (for Windows Vista) to view/organize/import them.
The directories are organized by the photo date taken in the format "yyyy-mm-dd" .
Some of these directories are appended with an event name if applicable, i.e. "2011-12-25_Christmas Party" while others will only have the date, i.e. "2011-12-20"
My photos are named according to date/time taken so that a file listing will display the photos in chronologic order. Again, some of these will be appended with an event name or other descriptive label. So, many photos will look like this: "yyyy-mm-dd_hh-mm-ss" while others will look like this: "yyyy-mm-dd_hh-mm-ss_event name"
A possible complicating factor in all of this is that some of the photos were taken with a camera where the time/date was not set properly, or with cameras whose date/times were set for a different time zone. I adjusted this within Windows Photo Gallery, but I am not sure if it permanently changed the date/time in the photo file's properties... I've seen some evidence that it may not have. I did make sure that the file name was named according to the correct date/time in every case, however.
Now, here are my questions about using iPhoto:
1) When I initially import my photos into iPhoto, will iPhoto recognize (or is there a way to make it recognize) each separate directory as a separate event based on the directory in which it is found?
2) If I copy photos into iPhoto library, will it respect and preserve my directory structure wherein photos are separated by date taken? If not, then is it practical to still use iPhoto without copying the files into its library (by keeping them organized as subdirectories in a directory elsewhere and having iPhoto setup to automatically display photos in that directory)?
3) If I use iPhoto to import pictures from a digital camera, can I control how it sorts those pictures into directories by making it name the directories in yyyy-mm-dd format? This is what Windows does and I find that format very convenient for organizing and viewing photo files, especially those that I have not yet tagged.
4) Again, if I use iPhoto to import pictures from a digital camera, can I control the naming convention so that photos are named according to date&time taken (i.e. yyyy-mm-dd_hh-mm-ss ), or at least according to just date taken (i.e. yyyy-mm-dd) as well as appended with event names?
5) Will I be able to edit photo properties, such as date taken, within iPhoto if I discover that a photo is incorrectly organized?
Thanks in advance,
JB

Here's the thing: You've put a lot of time developing a system of managing files. iPhoto is all about Photos. So, frankly. forget your current system and use iPhoto. it has more powerful and more varied tools for managing your snaps.
There's a conceptual leap to be made with apps like iPhoto. The illustration I use is as follows: In my iTunes Library I have a file called 'Let_it_Be_The_Beatles.mp3'. So what is that, exactly? It's not the song. The Beatles never wrote an mp3. They wrote a tune and lyrics. They recorded it and a copy of that recording is stored in the mp3 file. So the file is just a container for the recording. That container is designed in a specific way attuned to the characteristics and requirements of the data. Hence, mp3.
Similarly, that Jpeg is not your photo, it's a container designed to hold that kind of data. iPhoto is all about the data and not about the container. So, regardless of where you choose to store the file, iPhoto will manage the photo, edit the photo, add metadata to the Photo but never touch the file. If you choose to export - unless you specifically choose to export the original - iPhoto will export the Photo into a new container - a new file containing the photo.
All of your queries are about files and filenames and file storage. They're all pretty much moot if you use iPhoto. If you use iPhoto it becomes the "go-to" app for all your photos. Everything you need to do with the photos can be done via iPhoto or with iPhoto.
When I initially import my photos into iPhoto, will iPhoto recognize (or is there a way to make it recognize) each separate directory as a separate event based on the directory in which it is found?
Yes, but... Events are organisation for those who can't really be bothered. They are automatic - based entirely on Date and Time the camera records the photos as taken. You can move photos between Events, you can Merge Events, you can Rename them and sort them in various ways except one: You cannot manually sort in an Event as Events are all automated.
Albums are a much more varied and powerful organising tool.
2) If I copy photos into iPhoto library, will it respect and preserve my directory structure wherein photos are separated by date taken?
Well forget about "directories", you're talking Events, Album and Folders now. But yes, you can define Events (or Albums) based on date. However, given that iPhoto can sort on date, can search on date and date ranges and can generate Smart Albums based on date (say, All the Photos from 2010, only the photos from June 2010 or just the photos fron June 10, 2010, or even the photos from May 12 2009 to July 11 2010) how the fies are organised on the disk is of little concern. You never access them via the HD anyway.
If not, then is it practical to still use iPhoto without copying the files into its library (by keeping them organized as subdirectories in a directory elsewhere and having iPhoto setup to automatically display photos in that directory)?
Yes you can do this. It's called a Referenced Library. I don't recommend it - especially for a new Mac user - and it adds nothing except complexity to the process. It has no extra capability. It's just dumb file storage. For more on this:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3062728?tstart=0
3) If I use iPhoto to import pictures from a digital camera, can I control how it sorts those pictures into directories by making it name the directories in yyyy-mm-dd format?
No.
This is what Windows does and I find that format very convenient for organizing and viewing photo files, especially those that I have not yet tagged.
There are various tools in iPhoto that will allow you to find photos that you have not yet tagged or organised.
Again, if I use iPhoto to import pictures from a digital camera, can I control the naming convention so that photos are named according to date&time taken (i.e. yyyy-mm-dd_hh-mm-ss ), or at least according to just date taken (i.e. yyyy-mm-dd) as well as appended with event names?
You can add titles to photos, yes. But as the date and time of the photo are already in the Exif, using those in the name of the photo is a bit redundant.
Will I be able to edit photo properties, such as date taken, within iPhoto if I discover that a photo is incorrectly organized?
Yes.
It's a bit to take in I know, and I always suggest to people that the best thing is to create a library on their Mac, import a couple of hndred pics and explore what it does (and doesn't), and see if it works for you.
iPhoto uses a lot of virtualisation. Photos are stored in the Library. (Events are just one of two possible views of the Library). Albums reference photos in the Library. So a shot can be in any number of albums and use no extra disk space. Keywording is also very powerful. Here’s a stock answer I use for folks when wondering what iPhoto can do:
I use Events simply as big buckets of Photos: Spring 08, July - Nov 06 are typical Events in my Library. I use keywords and Smart Albums extensively. I title the pics broadly.
I keyword on a
Who
What
Where basis (The When is in the photos's Exif metadata). I also rate the pics on a 1 - 5 star basis.
Using this system I can find pretty much find any pic in my 40k library in a couple of seconds.
So, for example, I have a batch of pics titled 'Seattle 08' and a typical keywording might include: John, Anne, Landscape, mountain, trees, snow. With a rating included it's so very easy to find the best pics we took at Mount Rainier.
File -> New Smart Album
set it to 'All"
title contains Seattle
keyword is mountain
keyword is snow
rating is 5 stars
Or, want a chronological album of John from birth to today?
New Smart Album
Keyword is John
Set the View options to Sort By Date Ascending
Want only the best pics?
add Rating is greater than 4 stars
The best thing about this system is that it's dynamic. If I add 50 more pics of John to the Library tomorrow, as I keyword and rate them they are added to the Smart Album.
In the end, organisation is about finding the pics. The point is to make locating that pic or batch of pics findable fast. This system works for me.
Finally, all of this can be exported from iPhoto should you decide to migrate to a different app or different OS in a year or two.
Regards
TD

Organizing Photos By Folder In the Library

Hello,
I am a little obbsessed with orgazanizing photos. I have organized all my pictures into year>season (winter, spring etc)>event. I have been using photoshop to edit and output my pictures and then taking the edited ones and loading them into iphoto which makes them as "events" I have liked this a lot. As I switch to Lightroom (something I am very ready to do), I don't see a similar grouping feature. It seems you can make key words or collections, but I don't see an automatic grouping system that would nest photos from events (ie taken on the same day). This may be a deal breaker for me. Any help here?
Johnny

By all means, builds a very robust folder structure (I do), then LR will import all that and show you this in Library just as you'd see in the Finder or Explorer. I think an approach that doesn't depend solely on LR to find photo's is an excellent idea. LR will mimic whatever structure you build outside of it (within reason). The key after that is never moving, renaming, deleting files OUTSIDE of Lightroom! It doesn't know what you did. But in LR, you can name, delete, move, add folders, etc.

Can I drag and drop single photos into Events?

Hi guys. I've very recently ordered a new Mac that will have iLife 08 on it. Before I get started with it I've got a question about Events. I've been using iPhoto for the last several years, organizing my photos into albums. I've cleaned up my images to around 1,000 photos, and I plan to only use events for organization. (I don't want to use Events AND albums, don't see the point, I'm going to try using ONLY Events.) But I've got a few scenerios that I'd like to throw by you all, to see if they would work, as I'm hoping that they will...
I don't shoot photos into pre-defined "Events", I shoot photos by what I feel like shooting. "Hey, my dog is doing something funny" - There's 3 pictures, or "Wow that's a big spider!" - 1 picture, or "My little neice is doing something cute" - There's 4 pictures. I do not want 450 events, each containing 1 - 5 pictures.
Can I drag and drop single pictures into different events? For example, have an Event called "Friends" with pictures of my friends in it, that I put there? Or an event called "Concerts" with photos taken throughout the years?
I hope I've made it clear what I'm looking to get out of Events!
Thanks in advance for any help.

Exactly - I think he will want to matain his existing structure -- people are making too much of the name change from rolls to events.
I have events with one photo and events with as many as 2000 photos -- I like this better than rolls but albums, folders and keywords are still the key to granular organization - events are ust the library to hold my photos
To me it is a small step forward that makes organization much easier (and it was not that hard before)
Larry Nebel
PS - now if I could just get all of my edits to save - where are TD and OT to solve that one for me?

Cannot place photos in events anymore

I don't have that many photos or events (7,000, ok, a lot) but I now have discovered that I cannot place photos into events anymore, and I cannot create new events. Previously I had photos organized into both events (by country) and into photo albums (by occasion). Now I can no longer add/combine photos into events (after the upgrade to Photos). So my Japan photos can't be placed into my old Japan (event), only into my photo albums (for occasion). This really is irritating. I hope there is a way to fix it. Of course Herblock's Law seems to be Apple's new motto: If it's good, they'll stop making it.
I hope there is a fix soon.

I agree. Kind of ***** that Apple would remove that. I am still using iPhoto for now, since the upgrade did not remove it. I will be forced to look for alternatives as well. I'll add whatever I find to my current list for Apple fixes:
TotalFinder to fix annoying wide tabs in Finder windows.
TotalSpaces to bring back the old Expose.
Ejector to allow me to actually eject drives without being annoyed by pop-up windows. It's like Regis lives in my Mac. ARE YOU SURE???
Dropbox because iCloud is being blocked by my proxy at work.
Tuxera NTFS because NTFS is not supported on the Mac.
Hosts because it is easier to perform brain surgery on a cockroach than navigate the Terminal to make hosts file entries.
calibre because iBooks only provides one type of view. calibre provides a nice list view, easier to navigate than squinting, trying to read book covers when you have 300+ epubs.
cdock so I can get my 3D dock back.
1Password because there is no easy way to edit/change entries for passwords in Keychain Access. Oh, and 1Password also stores software licenses. Oh, and 1Password also works with Dropbox (see above).
Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion because they still support Windows OSs that Boot Camp won't.
OpenOffice because Pages, Numbers, and Keynote are....well, they are what they are.
And I miss Glims. Used to get rid of those annoying wide tabs in Safari, not anymore. Oh wait...now I use Firefox.
I also wish someone would develop a plugin for Safari that would bring the Snow Leopard RSS reader back, not the eye-squint that exists now.

Organizing Photo's

I have over 10,000 photo's I jsut imported into Iphoto. Iphoto Proceeded to organize them by year which is great. But is there a way I can tell Iphoto to automatically organize them by Month / Year? I know of course I could do smart folders but this would be a time consuming process. Is there a easier way or organizing these photos.
Help Please

everts should be organized chronologically by date - depending on your preference settings and how you imported them you will have one or more (many more) events
In Events view how many events do you have? are they all titled "untitled event"?
Assuming that you don't have a lot of events but a few large ones, it is easy to split them (and I found it fun because I re-visited a lot of old photos I have not seen for a long time) by opening the bottom event (double click on it) and going to the bottom of it and working up until you find a natural break (new day/week/month/etc OR new "event) click on the top photo of that division and click on the split button in the toolbar at the bottom of the iPhoto window and continue up the event until you have broker it down as you want
Then you can go back to viewing all events and select each event and edit the information for it (lower left hand pane - you may have to click on the Blue "i" o display it)
Once you have this basic time based organization you may want to set up albums (and possibly folders - a folder holds one or more albums) to provide easier access to certain photos - create the album and drag photos from events to the album - this creates a link NOT a copy of the photo so there is no space penalty to having a photo in many albums
Hopefully this helps
Larry Nebel

Double clicking on a photo or event does not work

I have to click quickly 3-6 times a photo or event to successfully open it.
I rebuilt the database and I also deleted the iPhoto preferences file without success.
I have no problem with the double click in my other app.
The problem is the same with the trackpad or mouse.
I use iPhoto 9.6 and OSX 10.10.1 on a MacBook Pro.
Thanks

Check your trackpad settings and possibly slow down the click speed (or speed it up). Another user had the same problem and solved it thru the click speed settings.

Tried to reinstall iPhoto library from external hard drive, it shows that the photos and events are there but there are no thumbnails and if you click on an image or video nothing comes up.

My hard drive crashed recently and we took it to apple to get repaired. The apple employees said that they would have to replace the hard drive but they didn't have the equipment to get the data off my hard drive. So I took it to a computer store who had the right equipment after a month and a half of waiting they finally got all the data off my hard drive and put it on an external hard drive (Seagate Expansion Portable Drive). I then took it back to apple who replaced the hard drive. Now I'm in the process of reinstalling everything. I have never done a Time Machine back up or backed my laptop up to . Which I now will do very often once I've reinstalled everything. I have reinstalled all of my desktop images and folders as well as my iTunes library with no issues. However when i went to reinstall my iPhoto library it came up blank. I then Rebuilt the library several times and this was the result.
It shows that the photos and events are there but there are no thumbnails and if you click on an image or video nothing comes up.
Please help i have three years worth of images from holidays on here and would be devastated if i lost them.

iPhoto cannot find the thumbnails or the original pictures.
Go to your iPhoto Library in the Pictures Folder.
Right-click on it and from the resulting menu, choose 'Show Package Contents'.
This will bring you inside the iPhoto Library package. There you should see a Folder called Masters. Within that, there should be folder containing your actual photos.
Are they there?

My imports are not showing up in Photos or Events

My imports are not showing up in Photos or Events. The only place I can see them is in the "Last Import" folder. When I try to re-import them it pops up the Duplicate warning which means they are in the library but not showing up. Any ideas?

If they are in last import then they should be there - check the date on one of the photos in last import and look for that date in your library - last import, photos and events are simply different ways of viewing the same photos - if they are there in one view they are there in all views - somewhere
Select a pic in Last Import and Right-Click on it. Choose 'Show Event' from the menu. This will bring you to the Event containing the photo.
If the photo is in Last Import, then the photo is in the Library somewhere, just not where you expect it to be. Usual causes: the date on your camera is wrong, and so the date on the photo is wrong, or the sorting of the Events has changed (View Menu -> Sort Events)
LN

Organizing photos by events

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