Possible to merge 2 libraries in iPhoto 8?

I accidentally crated a new library in iPhoto that has 2 months pictures in it. Those 2 months are between the dates of the photos in my main library. Any way to merge them or otherwise get the pics from the smaller library into the larger one as Originals, not aliases?

Just read some of the documentation on iPLM. It specifically mentions iPhoto v.7 and has an update note on an upgrade when v.9 comes out, but doesn't mention v.8, which is what I'm using. I assume iPLM works fine w/v.8, but just wanted to make sure. Do you, Terrence, or anyone else know?
Thanks much.
JG

Similar Messages

Merging libraries in iphoto?

How do you merge libraries in iphoto 11?

Open library 1, then file > show in finder > original foto.
Open the other library and drag&drop the photo's from the finder (=other library).
does not mention using the iPhoto application
And even if you do drag the original photos fom one iPhoto library into iPhoto and import them into another library - you are NOT merging libraries - you are import pphotos to a library - none of the version, metadata, albums, etc, etc come over - just the photos which is not the same as merging libraries
The only current solution to merging libraries is the paid version of iPhoto Library Manager - http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/ -
LN

Is it possible to merge libraries?

hi
id like to know if its possible to merge my iPhoto library from my ibook (tiger) to my iPhoto library in my MacMini (panther).
whats the best way i can have all my pics transferred from ibook to macmini (preferably by album).
thanks for any info.
-a

Hi Artemis,
Do the two libraries share some of the same images?
Are you running the same version of iPhoto?
Do you want to keep keywords, albums, comments intact on the merge?
Depending on how you answer the questions there is a different route you can follow.
If you just want albums from the PB to import into the mini and don't care about keywords,etc.:
Highlight the album in the source column and select all
hit Share/export
Export to a newly created folder on the desktop
Once all albums are exported copy them over to the mini desktop or burn them to a DVD.
Open iPhoto on the mini
drag the album folders into an open iPhoto viewing window.
If you have any images that are the same in both of the libraries, you might get duplicates imported, so you will have to wade through them to delete the dups.
To merge the libraries:
Copy the Entire iPhoto Library folder to the mini
Download and pay for iPhoto Library Manager
Follow directions in the documentation to merge libraries.
iPhoto Library Manager
iPhoto Library Manager documentation
this page will show you everything you can do with iPhoto Library Manager.
Are you using the same username on both computers?
Lori

Errors when merging libraries w/ iPhoto Library Manager

Using the most recent version of iPhoto Library Manager, I just merged two iPhoto 11 libraries. When it was done, I received this message:
    460 errors occurred during the process. Click the "View Log" button for more details.
    13-03-16 14:43:55.603 Search for the word "error" to find any errors that occurred during the operation
When I did, I found variations of these two messages:
    13-03-16 14:42:57.540 *** Error: iPhoto failed to successfully import the photo at /Users/Jim/Pictures/iPhoto Libraries/iPhoto Library/Masters/2008/Parrot Tulip/P1060390.JPG
    13-03-16 14:43:00.822 *** Error: Missing photo: no valid path found for the photo 3173
The odd thing is, when I searched iPhoto for the photos it says it failed to successfully import (e.g., P1060390.JPG), they're there.
I also can't figure out to what the other photo numbers (e.g., 3173) refer.
Is this error message something I can just ignore, considering the photos seem to be there?

The best place to ask that question is from the developers of Library Manager, but this does sound like one of the databases is corrupted. The 3173 is likely a unique identifier used in the iPhoto Database.
I would not ignore the messages.

HT1229 How do I merge Libraries

Does anyone know if it is possible to merge libraries or must you extract the photos from one Library and import to another Library

Sure - with APerture or the paid version of iPhoto Library Manager - http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/ - - it is not a feature of iPhoto
LN

Is Therea Way to merge all my iPhoto/Aperture Libraries"

After many years and thousands of photos, I have found myself with many photo libraries, Is there a way to merge them all? this would be very, very helpful if it was possible.

The only way to merge iPhoto Libraries is with the paid ($20) version of iPhoto Library Manager
You can't merge Aperture and iPhoto Libraries, you can import iPhoto Libraries to Aperture. There are ways to merge Aperture Libraries if you're running Aperture 3 or later.
Regards
TD

Should I merge my multiple iPhoto libraries into one?

I have used iPhoto to organize my photos since I started using a Mac in 2004. Back then, when iPhoto was at number "5" or perhaps even less, I found it more convenient to divide my library into several libraries, one for each calendar year, since, as I recall, iPhoto didn't yet have nearly as many ways of searching for photos as it does today, with iPhoto 11. Today iPhoto is much more sophisticated, and offers many options for organizing and finding photos, by date, faces, location, events, etc. I am wondering if it no longer makes sense to keep my libraries separate by year, and would it be easier to re-merge them all back into one library in iPhoto 11. It is kind of a pain to have to open and close different libraries each time I am looking for an old photo because I can no longer remember what year the event occurred in. Yet I am also afraid that merging my libraries (one for each year since 2002, when I went digital with my photography) might open the proverbial "can of worms" and create more problems than it solves. I'd love to hear from any who have had similar experience.

iPhoto does not have yet the option to merge libraries, unlike Aperture. You would have to use the paid utility "iPhoto Library Manager" to do this.
But iPhoto certainly can cope with larger libraries than before, and it is very useful to have the ability to search all photos at once or to use photos from many years in albums and books. For example, if you want to make a book for an anniversary with pictures from different years, it would be more involved, if you have the photos in different libraries.
Regards
Léonie

Merge Two Macbook iPhoto libraries Onto 1 External HD

Hi. I have backed up my iPhoto library from what I'll call MacBook "a" onto a 1tb external hard drive. I did this buy dragging the iPhoto icon over. It worked.
I also have a very small iPhoto library on Macbook "b." I would like to merge this Macbook "b" library onto the same external hard drive. When I have tried exporting the files from macbook b, however, they photos are copying to the hard drive, but not to the iPhoto library.
Is there a way to merge two distinct iPhoto libraries, from two distinct computers onto 1 external hard drive?
Thanks.
John.

If you have Aperture 3.3 or later and iPhoto 9.3 or later you can merge libraries with Aperture.
Otherwise the only way to merge Libraries is with the paid ($30) version of iPhoto Library Manager

Merging iPhoto 6 libraries with iPhoto 11

I have a MacbookPro running OS10.4.11 with iPhoto 6 and just bought a new iMac with OS10.7.3 with iPhoto 11.
I currently have iPhoto Library Manger v3.73 on both machines. I also have three iPhoto Libraries set up - two libraries are on an external hard drive - "2006-2007" and "2008-2010", and the 3rd library, "2011-2012", is on my laptop.
When I bought the new iMac, the Apple Store geniuses were able to move my 2011-2012 library from my laptop to my iMac. Unfortunately, they refused to merge/move my other two libraries that I have on my external drive.
What I'd like to do is merge all three iPhoto libraries together into one library on my iMac. What is the best way to do this? Please give me step-by-step instructions, I'm a duffus when it comes to 'puters! :)
thank you very much in advance!

your need to have good backujp of all of your iPhoto libraries and then convert each one to the latest version - depress the option key and launch iPhoto and use the select library option to select, convert and open each library
Then use the paid version of iPhoto Library Manager - http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/ - to merge the libraries
LN

I just purchased Aperture and have 20,000 photos in my iPhoto Library. Can I import only certain events from iPhoto into Aperture or do I have to merge the whole iPhoto library?

I just purchased Aperture and have 20,000 + photos in my iPhoto Library. I see that I can create a unified library between the two. I am wondering if I can import only certain events from iPhoto (like only 2014 events) into Aperture or do I have to merge the whole iPhoto library? Are there any benefits to bringing the whole iPhoto library over to Aperture (iPhoto is SO SLOW for me, I wonder if it is because I have so many photos). Or, any detriment to only bring a few events over?
And, if I don't merge the two libraries, I assume that means I cannot do it at a later date?
Help. My local Apple store has had very few Aperture workshops, and the next one is like 2 months away.

Thank you so much for this information. Here are some responses/comments:
Disk space - it says 114.43 GB out of 499.25 GB free. I have no idea if that is enough.
iPhoto version is 9.5.1
Again, I am not sure how to know if I have 3rd party software...but I don't think I do. Is 3rd party software anything non-apple?
I will try rebuilding the library. if that doesn't help, maybe I need more memory...? That is what Apple suggested, but that, of course, means buying something else. I've already bought APERTURE, on their recommendation...
It wasn't, and they told me it was slow because I had too many photos for iPhoto to handle and that I should buy Aperture. Which I did.
What is your iPhoto version? Are you using the most recent version 9.5.1?
iPhoto can handle 20000 photos, no problem. Your computer can be slow for several reasons:
The most common problem for slowness - insufficient disk space. Don't let your free disk space drop below 20 GB of free space, better more. If the operating system does not have enough working space and the applications you are using, you will notice a very lagging behaviour.
Older or incompatible softweare can cripple your mac. Do you have any older third-party software installed, that might have installed incompatible kernel extensions?
Aperture might be slow or keep crashing, if you imported a corrupted image or incompatible video, that cannot be processed. Then Aperture will try over and over again to create previews and never succeed. You could test for this situation, by launching Aperture with the Shift-key held down. This will defer the generation of previews. If Aperture will launch and work better this way, you probably have some bad media in your photo library.
Another problem to check for is a corruption of your Aperture/iPhoto library. You have run the First Aid Tools to repair the iPhoto Library, but have you ever tried to rebuild the library? See this post by Old Toad: Rebuild iPhoto Version 11

Merging Libraries with iPLM - Untitled Events?

I must be missing something. (argh)
When I attempt to MERGE two libraries in iPhoto Library Manager into a New Library - I'm watching the Import and it's bringing everything in as "Untitled" - all the Photos seem to be separating out into their specific Events, but the Events are Untitled.
Is this something that will correct itself later on in the Merge when other data is brought over or is there something I need to do differently to retain the Event Titles? (doh!)
Thank you in advance!

This would be much easier if you have access to an external drive. The drive can be either Firewire or USB, but it must be formatted as MacOS Extended (journaled) - not FAT32.
Open iMovie. Click VIEW/EVENTS BY DISK.
In the iMovie Project Library List, hold down the Command Key and drag the Project to the icon for the external disk.
File the Project selected, select FILE/CONSOLIDATE MEDIA. with this command you can move all EVENTS used in the project, as well as all music files used in the project to the external drive.
See iMovie Help for details.
Once every project and associated events are all on the external drive, you can reverse the process and move them to your oght account on the internal drive. Or, if you prefer, you can keep them on the external drive, where both accounts will be able to see them.

Opening iPhoto 5 libraries in iPhoto 6

Hi--I just got iPhoto 6 to solve some problems merging libraries. When I open iPhoto 6, it says I need to convert libraries to the 6 format. When I select the continue button, it goes for a while then up comes a dialogue box saying I don't have the permissions for the content of that library. so I went into the library with Get Info, and applied read and write permissions to all the enclosed items, but it still says I don't have permission for all of them so it won't open. It opend in 5, what's wrong??
Thanks so mcuh

Markie:
Try this: download and run BatChmod on the iPhoto Library folder with the settings shown here, substituting your account name for mine. You can either type in the path to the folder or just drag the folder into that field. It also unlocks files. Now try updating the V5 library.

Two Libraries In iPhoto?

I would like to have 2 completely separate Libraries in iPhoto, one for personal pictures and the other for work related.
If this is possible:
(1) How do I set up and name my 2nd. Library?
(2) How do I transfer images from my existing Library to the new Library without having them remain in the original Library?

Julian:
As Terence suggested iPLM can move rolls between libraries while preserving the comments and keywords. I use it to manage 10+ libraries.
iPLM really makes using two or more libraries very easy and quick.
Do you Twango?
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 written 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. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

Merge libraries

I have iphoto libraries on several harddrives and want to merge them into one. Can't find a solution. Anyone who knows?

iPhoto does not support the merging of libraries, but the utility iPhoto Library Manager can merge libraries -
download here: iPhoto Library Manager
Unfortunately, the basic free version will not suffice, you need the paid version.
If you have access to Aperture, you can also use it to merge your libraries (see: Aperture 3.3: How to use Aperture to merge iPhoto libraries), but if you need to buy a tool, iPhoto Library Manager would be the more economic solution, and it is a must-have with iPhoto anyway.

Is it possible to merge to itunes accounts?

My husband has an ipod touch and an iphone4S. Is it possible to merge the two itunes accounts into one?
Thanks.

It's possible to merge iTunes libraries, but not iTunes Store accounts.
(71897)

DeDup merged Libraries

I'm looking for workflow advice or tips to use iPhoto as the application of choice to manage my photos (20,000+ counting duplicates). I've read though or listened to tutorials on iPhoto and have a fair working knowledge of computers and shared applications.
I switched over to apple a couple of years ago. This switch left windows folders of photos on my work computers, home computers, laptops and phones. There are more than one because as our kids grew up and left home they left many photos on our file servers scattered all over. At work and home, many times our kids would just hand me a thumb drive/cd with photos which I promptly dumped into a folder and imported into iPhoto later on the nearest computer.
Now, I'd like to reclaim wasted space by deleting these scattered folders once I know they have been imported to iPhoto.
I'm using Drop Box as the place for the "default merged library" so I can access the same library or libraries from multiple locations. I will be the only person to use the Drop Box so I'm not concerned about multiple users of the same database.
I've used "Library Manager" to merge libraries from different computers and preserve the meta data, tags, edited versions, etc.
One main issue, is the vast number of duplicates I'm discovering and how to trim these from the main library. I have started using additional libraries to help break apart the huge single mass into smaller more manageable bites but this just helped uncover more duplicates.
Are there any shortcuts to help discover and remove duplicates? Automated tools or scripts? Can I safely remove all the old folders once I see the photo in iPhoto? If I import the same folder twice from two different computers it does not always obey the "do not import duplicates" check box as the clocks may not have been the same when the photos were loaded on the computer originally. Any ideas about how to compensate for these duplicates and save time is appreciated. Recommendations about sensible ways to use multiple libraries would help too.
End goal is to have a single set of iPhoto libraries, without duplicates, stored on Drop Box from which I can export albums/events to family and friends via a web link. I would only like the photo image stored and taking up space without the worry about files, file folders and sub structures.
Thanks,
pblpup

Couple of comments:
I'm using Drop Box as the place for the "default merged library" so I can access the same library or libraries from multiple locations. I will be the only person to use the Drop Box so I'm not concerned about multiple users of the same database.
We ran some experiments here a while back to see if we could sync Libraries back and forth with Drop Box and they were corrupted in the process.
iPhoto needs to have the Library sitting on disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). While the DropBox folder on your machine is on a Disk with the correct format, the one on the DropBox server isn't. And to get to the other machine the Library spends time there.
Are you running a Managed or a Referenced Library?
A Managed Library, is the default setting, and iPhoto copies files into the iPhoto Library when Importing. The files are then stored in the Library package
A Referenced Library is when iPhoto is NOT copying the files into the iPhoto Library when importing because you made a change at iPhoto -> Preferences -> Advanced. (You unchecked the option to copy files into the Library on import) The files are then stored where ever you put them and not in the Library package. In this scenario you are responsible for the File Management.
If you're running a Managed Library then yes, you can delete the files from the Finder after importing.
For dealing with duplicates in iPhoto check out Duplicate Annihilator
Regards
TD

Possible to merge 2 libraries in iPhoto 8?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for