Thousands of photos w/ iPhoto

So admittedly, I have an old version of iPhoto (2.0.1) and at this point I also have nearly 5,0000 photos in my library. At this point, iPhoto has become unbelievably slow in performing nearly any operation. I was wondering if there was anyway to make iPhoto work better, whether it be by upgrading to iPhoto 5, or altering the way that I am organizing my photos.
Thanks for your help.

Here is Apple's advice for speeding things up. This holds for all versions
iphoto performance
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=165624
Also, when viewing the library keep the zoom slider near small, so iPhoto only has to load the little thumbnails and not the full size file
Peter

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Importing and Organizing Thousands of Photos into IPhoto

How can I import about 20 thousands photo into IPhotos and keep the logical organization?
I just buy a Mac Mini and I start trying to move my photos. These are organized in directories by dates with a customize description for the occasion ( …/YEAR/YEAR-MONTH-DAY + DESCRIPTION/)
I tried with few directories and I realized that in order to use IPhoto and keep the logical organization I will have to create and name about 500 albums manually and look for the photos for every album again one by one.
It sounds hard because the number of albums and photos.

There is a 3rd party application, iPhotoTool, that will let you select the top folder containing many subfolders and import all of them into iPhoto and create an album of each sub folder. That will save you a lot of manual work. Then all you need to do is create folders in the Source pane to organize your albums. Be sure to not allow duplicates each time it asks or you'll get duplicates in many of the folders. You'll be asked for each subfolder above the lowest but that's lot easier than manually finding and dragging each folder into iPhoto's Source pane.
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.

Managing thousands of photos in iPhoto

I have, to date, over 19,000 photos and 2000 videos in iTunes from the last ten years of doing life. I have a fairly new iMac that is awesome, but all the photos seem to be bogging it down. It's incredibly slow and doing anything on iPhoto takes forever. Is there a better way to arrange or store these items?

Assuming 09 or later... (You'd be suprised what people describe on here as the "most current version")
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 Repair Database. If that doesn't help, then try again, this time using Rebuild Database.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. (In early versions of Library Manager it's the File -> Rebuild command. In later versions it's under the Library menu.)
This will create an entirely new library. It will then copy (or try to) your photos and all the associated metadata and versions to this new Library, and arrange it as close as it can to what you had in the damaged Library. It does this based on information it finds in the iPhoto sharing mechanism - but that means that things not shared won't be there, so no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your events, albums and keywords, faces and places 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

Transferring photos in iphoto from a G4 to a MacBook Pro

I transferred thousands of photos in iphoto on my old G4 to a new July 2011 Macbook Pro. They all transferred but when I try to enlarge them I get an X, I can only view the photos in the smaller size. Is this fixable, any ideas?

To move an iPhoto Library to a new machine:
Link the two Macs together: there are several ways to do this: Wireless Network,Firewire Target Disk Mode, Ethernet, or even just copy the Library to an external HD and then on to the new machine...
But however you do choose to link the two machines...
Simply copy the iPhoto Library from the Pictures Folder on the old Machine to the Pictures Folder on the new Machine.
Then launch iPhoto. That's it.
This moves photos, events, albums, books, keywords, slideshows and everything else.

Can't import photos from iPhoto to Elements 9 Organizer

I am running Elements 9 Organizer on my MacBook Pro. When I perform the command File/Get photos and videos/from iPhoto, I get the error message, "There is no media to import from iPhoto." In fact I have thousands of photos in iPhoto that I would like to import to Organizer so that I can edit them in Elements 9.
I also cannot edit photos in Elements by setting it as the default editor in iPhoto. When I do this, it opens Elements but does not open the photo from iPhoto.

When I do this, it opens Elements but does not open the photo from iPhoto.
That usually means you have chosen the wrong file as your external editor. In PSE 9, you want this one. The other is an alias to the welcome screen and choosing that one causes the behavior you've described:

After several years of taking photos(thousands) I seem to have many duplicate photos in iPhoto. How do find them all without going through 10,000 photos? they are mostly scanned photos that I have reused over the years

after several years of taking photos(thousands) I seem to have many duplicate photos in iPhoto. How do find them all without going through 10,000 photos? they are mostly scanned photos that I have reused over the years not ones that I have recently uploaded from my camera.
Thanks whoever can help

Where are you seeing these duplicates? In the iPhoto window or in the Finder?
OT

I had thousands of photos in my iPhoto when i upgraded to Lion. I could not find them anywhere. Where am i not looking for my missing photos ?

Thousands of photos are missing ever since I upgraded to Lion. Please tell me they are hidden somewhere and not lost

There are 9 different versions of iPhoto and they run on seven different versions of the Operating System. The tricks and tips for dealing with issues vary from version to version and OS to OS. So before anyone can help, they need information to work with. Basic stuff:
- What version of iPhoto.
- What version of the Operating System.
- Details. What were you doing when the problem arose?
- Did it ever work properly?
- Are there error messages?
- What steps have you tried already to solve the issue.
Anything else you can think of that might allow someone else to understand your issue.
With this kind of information somebody can develop a starting point for troubleshooting the issue.
Posts that consist of "iPhoto doesn't work. Help" or "iPhoto won't print" or "Suddenly I have no photos!!!!!!!!!!" mean that any helper is simply guessing. More information means you get better assistance

HT5037 iphoto won't open: worried have lost thousands of photos:(

I was trying to organize some photos in iphoto and when I attempted to cut and paste 160 or so photos, it lost them. I went to my back-up service to try to download them. Didn't really know what I was doing. Now when I try to open iphoto it says, "To open your library with this version of iphoto it first needs to be prepared". THen when i click more info, it ways "use upgrader" which I then downloaded and opened. Then when I went to open iphoto it says something like, you don't need to use upgrader, you have latest version... Then when I try to open it again it goes back to original message. I'm going round in circles. I'm worried I have lost thousands of photos. I still have my icloud back up but where did they go and how do I get them back. I am really panicked!!!

. What cloud service would you suggest
As far as anyone here knows no cloud service is adaquate to backup the iPhoto library
It does backup your files - the issue is that the iPhoto library is a very complex database strcture that must be stored on a volume formatted Mac OS extended (jpournaled) - when it is not (like on all known cloud backups) the reults are unpredictible (not a good thing for a backup) - and then you have the size issue - iPhoto libraries tend to be very large and for that reason alone a cloud service is not a good solution since it may take days or weeks to restore the library even if it is is successful
Based on my limited experiance JustCloud does have a good backup of your photos but not of your library and if you had to use it you woul dstart over from scratch importing your unedited, unmodified photos - for me that is not an acceptable backup
If I have the Time Machine backup do I need cloud service?
The money is better spent on a local external hard drive - a 3 TB TimeCapsule is about $400 - so that is a couple of years of cloud backup - I run TM to one EHD and a daily bootable clone using Carbon Copy Cleaner to a second EHD
As to what is backedup - if you are backing up your iPhoto library everything is backedup - it is a complete package containing everything
What are the names of your iPhoto libraries? What version of iPhoto do you have? Will the one you restored form you backup work?
LN

I upgraded to OS X Yosemite and now need to upgrade iPhoto. I have an Airport Time Capsule that I have not employed yet to backup all my (thousands of) photos. I know, I am a fool. That aside, will I lose my photos in the upgrade?

I upgraded to OS X Yosemite and now need to upgrade iPhoto. I have an Airport Time Capsule sitting on my desk that I have not yet employed to backup all my (thousands of) photos. I know, I am a fool. That aside, will I lose my photos in the upgrade? I am desperate to backup my photos and now wonder if I should revert back to my previous operating system. Help!

iPhoto Library is essentially a large datafile in which your photos are stored. iPhoto is an application you use to do things with the photos stored in the datafile. If you backup iPhoto Library then you have backed up all the photos stored in the library. It's iPhoto that links you to all those photos stored in iPhoto Library. All you need do is to copy iPhoto Library to a backup drive. If you are doing regular backups, then you are already making a copy of the iPhoto Library on the backup drive.

I uploaded thousands of photos from my ipad to iphoto and now they are nowhere to be found. Where are they?

Hi! I just uploaded thousands of photos from my ipad to my iphoto on my macbook pro and when it notified me that it uploaded successfully and asked if I wanted to delete the photos on my ipad...I stupidly deleted them. But my main problem is that I cannot find these photos ANYWHERE! I searched every event and latest import and there was no luck. It's as if they were never imported in the first place. These photos are dear to me, please help!!!
Mahalo,
Payten

-This is iphoto '09 version 8.1.2
And what is your MacOS X version?
BUT! I used "Find Any File" demo software and it helped me find the "photos" but they weren't in iphoto, but on my mac(still not too sure where it was found.)
Do you have "Find Any File" still open?
If you click one of the found images, it will show you the path to the image files.Could you post what you are seeing then?
Does the path start with your Home folder or outside? Desrcibe exactly the the names of the nested folders.
Now my new problem is that the photos that were uploaded(or found) are tiny and pixelated. What i'm hoping is that I found a cheap version of the photos that were uploaded or something,
Perhaps you found the thumbnails folder - if you can give us the path there, we may be able to find the matching Masters or Originals folder.

IPhoto albums and events and thousands of photos not showing on iOS devices

I have 10,000 photos in iPhoto, and several albums.
I have noticed that for the last few weeks on my iPhone 6 plus the only albums that show are
Photos.... Years 2004, 2005 and 2014
Shared (nothing)
Albums All Photos (only 163 photos) Videos and Deleted
There is no photo stream or anything else. All there is is listed above.
Does anyone have any ideas?

Under the iCloud photo library beta (in settings > iCloud) it says that the following will happen if have it turned on
'automatically upload and store you entire library in iCloud to access photos and videos from all your devices...'
So why does it not do what it says it will do....?
iCloud Photo Library (Beta) is currently only available for your mobile devices with iOS 8. "store you entire library in iCloud " is referring to the "Photos" library on iPhone or iPad, not to the iPhoto Library on a Mac. On your Mac you can only access this library from the iCloud web interface.
Or will they be in the cloud in the spring.
Early next year a Photos.app for MacOS Yosemite will be released. Photos on the Mac will be able to access iCloud Photo Library (no longer Beta), and Apple announced, that you will be able to migrate your iPhoto Library to "Photos".
To see your iCloud Photo Library (Beta) use the Photos.app on the iCloud webpage.
https://www.icloud.com
or, if you want to upload to iCloud Photo Library (Beta) from your Mac, use
https://beta.icloud.com

I am recently retired and have thousands of photos I need to ? scan and put in iphoto. What is the quickest way to do this please?

Can anybody help me organise my photos efficiently?
I have thousands of photos which I need to scan & add to my library, any suggestions?

Scanner 100$ ( a guess)
Your time 20$ an hour
1 Thousand photos
1 scan =1 min (if you choose low res)
Time to figure out which resolution you want=?
Time to sort organize/agonize about keeping it?
does the scanner come with some great software that will make naming and sorting easy?
240$ / 20$ = 12 hours
1000 minutes / 60 = 16 hours now I know for me it would take longer than the 1 minute to scan all those photos and you have to factor in how long it takes the scanner to scan at your given resolution and the size of the photo.
I think scan time would be a major factor for me since I know I would want the photos at a really high res. I've hardly seen a scanner/printer that is a reasonable price and quick. But they may be out there this year.
I am still going with the scan service.

My iPhoto won't load my thousands of photos! Will an upgrade help? Do I need to uninstall then reinstall iPhoto?

It just keeps "thinking". It won't load anything. I cannot back up my iphone photos because iphoto will never open.
What do I do? I have a backup of my iphoto library but I am not very technology savy.
I went to the genius bar and the guy was so rude I had to leave after the hour and a half of waiting and listening to him cut off my questions.
Please help!!! I love my photos and my music more than anything on this computer!

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 do you see when iPhoto launches?
what fixes have you tried?
where is your library located?
did you apply any updates or upgrades just prior to the problem occurring?
are you running a "managed" or "referenced" library?
what type of Mac?
how much free space on your boot drive?
As a test launch iPhoto with the Option key held down and create a new, test library. Import some photos and test to see if the same problem persists. Does it?
OT

How to export photos from iPhoto Library to normal folders?

Hi,
I have been using iPhoto for a long time now, and I have many many thousands of photos well organised with albums and folders in my iPhoto library. However I find some things difficult and inefficient to do in iPhoto and I'm trying to move into other softwares like Photo Mechanics and Lightroom.
One of these things I find hard to do is to backup, I don't want to keep something like three libraries and import from camera into one library and do the same to the other two, switching external drives and computers. Nor do I want to copy a 250GB library once every couple of days, since it takes a while with non-SSD drives. Is there a more effective way to do this?
In the iPhoto "package contents" all my photos are organised by date, which is not really great since I have albums in my library filled with photos from all around my library organised in folders, if that made any sense. Is there a way to export my iPhoto library keeping all my folders and albums intact (also ratings)? Like folders containing photos within folders with the names that were used inside iPhoto? I've already tried using the normal export tool, it doesn't work since it goes by dates or "events".
I have tried the "iPhoto to Disk" software, but I'm curious if there is a better way? Will it be easier to do this in Aperture?
Thanks in advance

export using the option for "subfolder format" - Exporting From iPhoto
Backing up - simplest use TimeMachine - or software like Carbon Copy Cloner that can update only the new portions of the iPhoto library
As to "better than iPhoto to disk" - it is a rest program - what is it that you want to do "better"
And for Aperture questions you will get better answers in the Aperture forum as that is where Aperture uses hang out
And with regards to going into the iPhoto library package contents - don't - it is not supported and is very dangerous - a small mistake there can wipe out your library - there never is a reason to be in it unless instructed by an expert - there simply are no user serviceable parts in it
LN

How can I copy selected photos from iPhoto on my iMac to my iPhone 6?

I used to have many photos on my iPhone 6. I also have thousands of photos on my iMac. After iDrive became available I decided to try it, and uploaded my large photos library to my iPhone and iPad. After using it for awhile I decided against keeping all these photos on my other devices. I removed everything from iDrive and my IOS devices. Now I'd like to find a way to restore some of my photos to IOS devices.
I'd appreciate any suggestions on how to do that.
Thanks

Put the photos you want to upload to your iPhone in an album in iPhoto. Connect the iPhone to the Mac and launch iTunes.
Click on your iPhone icon
and then on Photos
Next check Sync Photos and Selected albums. Find the album with the photos you want to upload and select it.
Lastly click on the Sync button.

Thousands of photos w/ iPhoto

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