Tips to archive, organize and backup photos

Does anyone have any suggestions on best practices for
organizing photo library
archiving photos
backing up photos
I welcome any input as my photo library is too large for computer hard drive to manage
Thanks.

Does a Library move the original album or create a second copy of photo file to help categorize?
Not sure in what context you're referring to here. One a photo has been copied into a managed iPhoto library it can be placed in multiople albums, books, etc. without having to make another copy of the file. The photo in those items are just links to the original file.
How would iPhoto library Manager assist in cataloging or organizing the photos?
If you have two libraries iPLM can copy Events or albums of photos between libraries which will include keywords, edited versions, descriptions, titles and locations as needed.

Similar Messages

How to organize and backup iPhoto library

I'm a slob anyway, and then there were the hard drive troubles, and now I have an iPhoto library on my internal HD, and an external drive (not the same libraries) and loose photos here and there on the internal HD and both externals.
How can I clean up this mess? I want the main library on one extHD and a backup on the other extHD and to not have a library on the intHD at all, and of course, I don't want to loose a single frame!

I did download and pay for iPhoto Library Manager and started to merge libraries as you suggested. But iPLM listed the current Library as "iPhoto Library_2." So, I wondered where was _1, and did a Find file search. There are three iPhoto libraries in my internal HD in my user folder in the "Pictures" folder, and there is a smaller Library on an external HD with only one annual folder in it.
On the internal HD, "iPhoto Library" has folders marked 2000, 2001,...2004, a folder marked "Albums," and 4 documents: Dir.data, Library.cache, Library.data, and AlbumData.xml which seems to be some Real Basic thing. Within the folders marked as years are folders for months and days and then the .JPG photos. The folder Albums contains a bunch of Album folders (with a data doc for each) and in each a bunch of docs that look like JPG photos with an arrow in the lower left corner. These albums don't appear in iPhoto Library_2
In iPhoto Library_1 are folders for 2005 and 2006, a folder marked "Albums," and 3 documents: Dir.data, Library.data, and AlbumData.xml. The month and day folders contain only 1 to a few photo JPGs.
In iPhoto Library_2 are folders for 2003...2006, and foldera marked "Albums", "Data", "Modified", and "Originals", as well as documents: Dir.data, iPhoto.ipspot, Library.data,Library.iPhoto,Library6.iPhoto,Thumb32Segment.data,
Thumb64Segment.data, ThumbJPGSegment.data, and AlbumData.xml. The year folders that overlap with those in "iPhoto Library" above, have different month and day folders, and contain only "data" folders containing numbered documents in pairs, one with a number and one with same number and the suffix .attr, but no photo JPGs.
So, what is all this, what should be preserved, and what can be thrown away?
733 G4 Mac OS X (10.2.x)

Looking for the perfect workflow on two computers and backup photo's and synchronize LR 5

I work on two computers. A workstation in the studio and a laptop. I have a harddisk inside the computer containing all photo's. I have a external disk to backup these photo's.
On the worksation LR catalog sits on a second internal disk. LR runs from another disk. (On the laptop LR runs and contains the catalog on the same disk)
When working on location I download my photo's to this external harddisk. I also use this external disk to work on my photo's on location (home) with my laptop. Back in the studio I sync the internal and external harddisks.
I work with LR5 on both the computer and the laptop. After synchronizing the harddisks I open LR and synchronize the folder(s) using " Synchronize Folder ".
The adjustments I made to the photo's are still there because LR stores these in the RAW files and I use " Include Develop settings in metadata inside JPEG, TIFF, PNG and PSD files "
But the Virtual copies are not there. I understand why this is happening. I read all about exporting and importing Catalogs.
How can I synchronize the LR catalog?
For example. I worked on location. I imported the photo's to the external disk attached to the laptop. I worked on the photo's using LR on the laptop. The next day I want to work on them in the studio using my computer.
In order not to lose any adjustments and virtual copies I have te export the folder containing the new photo's and import them with LR on my studio computer. I have to include the RAW files in this export: " Export negative files "
What is the problem?
So I will need another harddisk. Next the export takes forever. Then I have to import it again. Takes forever too. When I synchronize the harddisk (using synchronizing software) it goes very quickly. But I lose the virtual copies because the LR catalog cannot be synchronized .
I tried to export the new files as a catalog without "Export negative files" and then after synchronizing the harddisks import this catalog on the second computer.
This is what happens:
LR does not see the photo's are already there. The option to import only the metadata is grayed out. It is not possible to tell LR where it should import the photo's. Then LR could see the files are already there and it only has to import the metadata changes.
Because I need to work on my photo's in the studio and on location this is realy a big problem.
I know I can work from a external disk on both computers. But that will slow down the workflow extremely because the catalog and the photo's are on the same disk. There are 261.216 photo's in this catalog. So export as a catalog back and forth is not a option.
Using Export As A Catalog also is a problem.
When I import new photo's from my camera (card) it is possible to tell LR where to store the files using a Date Format.
I use YYYY / YYYY-MM / YYYY-MM-DD:
But when I want to Import From A Other Catalog and tell LR where to store the files it does not see the folder structure already exciting. This a root problem. So it will put the folders where I direct it to and then I have to move the new photo's manually to the correct folders.
If the folder already excists it cannot merge them. In that case I have to move the new photo's from each day into the appropriate folder for each day !
This folder structure is important for me because many older photo's are not taged, but are easy to be found by date.
I probably are overlooking something and the solution is very simple. But I cannot find it ...
QUESTION : can anyone tell me what would be the best workflow in my case ? And still have a fast system ?

Here's what I do with the laptop/desktop workflow. Dedicate an big, fast external drive and place ALL Photo's, LR's catalog and presets (set preferences to Store Preset's with Catalog). You have one drive that has all the data you need to access your images and database on any number of computers. All the computer needs is a working copy of Lightroom. Clone that external drive to the backup drive, a 2nd external. Make as many clone's as you wish (one offsite, one in a fire proof safe, one to take on location etc). When one drive has newer data, just clone that to the others, they are all now in sync. One catalog. One master drive. The drive has all images and necessary associated files LR needs to work with (the expectation is lens and DNG camera profiles, the later can be embedded into a DNG and is thus on the drive too).

Organize and browse photos Chronologically

I recently moved from PSE 5 through PSE 7 (2 months using version that came with my Epson Scanner), and then to PSE9. Now I'm coming accross some of fhe idosyncronisities of the Organizer that are discussed in other threads. I'm also seeing where many posters are saying that Folder Location View is very broken and that PSE9 is not intended to be a folder view organizer. There are so many quirks in this version I wish I wasn't so invested in PSE.
Since I like to keep my photos mainly organized by Chronological order and by event or location, I would like to hear how others out there are doing it. I'm finding that the views other than Folder View are no better, and in many ways worse. For example, There are only two ways to view the files in Thumbnail view, Olderst first and Newest First..Well, the photo are all jumbled together without a delineation on date or event. Even if I had the witherall to go through my entire collection and tag them, I don't think the display would seperate them. And the tag isn't readily readable in the display like a folder path would be. Maybe I'm wrong, so if other have accomplished this, I'd love to hear about it.
Another problem in Thumbnail View is the ways that PSE decides the order. I'm gessing here but... If a photo was from a camera, I then it picks up the Metadata in the file, but if it was scanned in, it uses the scan date or the date the file was created. I'm in the process of scanning a huge number of slides and negatives from times past so these are classified as 'Newer' when in fact I want them to be 'Older'. I think I saw ways to alter the dates, but that means more steps in the process and I still don't get the event organization.
Even if I tagged everything (which is a big effort) I'd still need a similar organization of the tags. It would be impossible to find things in Explorer or say another photo browser if I were to use that to publish my photos online say in Picasa albums.
And the import batch view is totally useless. Who really cares about that? And there seems to be othe quirks there, like the way TimeLine window works.
Well, unless I get an inspiration from some place, I'll continue to limp along with Folder View where I create the folder structure which does give me control of how the files are ordered.
FYI: My main scheme is:
My Pictures
<year>
<Year-month Event>
<Sets, if this was created from sets of slides or film.>
Also sometimes I have other Folders under this because I have a camera that creates subfolders that I maintain when I use the Panarama assist mode where I can stitch together multiple images into a panarama.
Anyway, I'd like to hear how others are dealing with these issues.
Thanks,
DoctorBrown

>I'm not sure I see any benefit to a tag that says Set-01 and Set-02 as I think I will forget what these mean as the years go by. I would use a descriptive tag, such as "Cruise", "Mountains", "Anchorage" etc.
Again, I am creating my primary order to be by Year-Month and order they were taken. Captions, Tags and Albums will be used to fill in the description, location and make groupings for selected shots. Or if useful, Tags can help with this primary order.
These Sets are older rolls of film or slides (I could call it Roll-001, etc, But the slides are no longer in a roll. ) that I've scanned in and have physically labeled as such (with detailed location) and organized in the order they were taken and grouped by the trip I was on. Therefore I can know exactly where to find the slide if I want to go to it. All the rolls from a given trip are located in a folder that is labled with the trip identifier, with each roll in a subfolder. When I went on these trips I'd use like 25 rolls of film. As like many photographers, I take many more shots than I will ever present in a slide show, print,etc. I probably should delete many more than I do, but I keep them. I do plan to further caption them to add this location info.
I am very aware of ability for multiple heirachial tags. I'm also aware that you can attach multiple tags to each image. I'm spending a lot of time getting these onto my system and debating how much time to spend tagging all these older shots. I'm trying to work with the capabilities of PSE so I can use them the way I want.
> I'm not 100% sure I understand what you mean, but if I understand you properly, tags give you this capability.
In the past, you could set the option so that you see the photos in all the folders and then you could scroll through all your photos. The full path of each folder was displayed in a banner line that separated the folders. Similar to how the Batch View does now. I would click on a folder to get quickly to the starting point and then page up/down review what's near that point to select ones for further use. I found that very useful. Also, I really like keyboard operations (Page up, page down, etc) and want a way to page through multiple tags (or folders as used to be the case). The current implimentation of PSE does neither in a way that's useful. If I could do the same with the Tag heirachy then the tags would be much more useful.
The Batch view has scroll/page capability but the order is nothing like I want to see them. Thumbnail View displays strictly by date and has no concept of the groupings that I want and I can't configure it to do so. In addition, these scanned images are getting dated as of the scan date but I want them to be in the order by the year-month and order they were taken. If I have a specific tag on images in multiple folders, I can only see all the photo with that tag in Thumbnail or Batch View.
I also have a whole host of reasons why the TimeLine window doesn't work for me. (but that's for another thread.)
I do realize that not everyone wants to see their photos these ways. But the product should have sufficient flexibility to accomodate a wide range of preferences. I've spent a great deal of time in earlier PSE versions getting things the way I want and changing to a new organizer would entail huge amount of time. So I'm really not relishing the thought of changing organizers. And I still think the editor is one of the best, if not the best, around.

How to organize and copy photos in an album?

I have created an album and organized the photos in the order that I wish to copy them to a flash drive or disk but when I try to do this the photos are in order by time and not my order. Can this be changed?

I have one album of several that are synced from my computer that I needed to have in a specific order. I finally accomplished that by naming the photos alphabetically in the order I wanted them (I didn't have many and simply placed an "a" in front of the first, "b" in the second etc). I did this on the computer and then synced them again. Note that each time you sync via iTunes, the non-Camera Roll photos on the phone will be set to match the current iTunes selection/settings so you can repeat several times if needed before you get it right.

How to Automatically Backup Photos to Windows PC HDD from Photostream

I have iCloud and Photo Stream up and running on my Windows 8 PC. I want to save space on my iPhone and iPad SSDs and backup photos from my PhotoStream to my Windows PCs hard drive for archiving and then delete the photos from my camera roll on iPhone & iPad. Apple states that it automatically imports every PhotoStream photo to your PC if you have it set up. I have found a ton of confusion about this issue searching the forum and Google about this issue and do not know what to believe. Apple states that it automatically backs up photos to a PC HDD here: http://www.apple.com/icloud/features/photo-stream.html under the Master Photo Library section.
1) Are the pictures under the Pictures > My Pictures > Photostream > My Photo Stream saved there permenatly? Or are they removed after the 30 day/1000 photo limit? The file path says they are on the hard drive and not on the web.
2) If they are not saved there permently, are they saved permenatly somewhere else?
3) If this is just how the Photostream works, then how can I have these photos automatically backed up to my Windows PC hard drive so I can delete them from my iOS devices. If this is not included in the Photostream on PC service, what other software can I use to do this automatically once a picture is on PhotoStream? Am I reading the apple.com/icloud web site incorrectly?
HELP! lol Thanks in advance!

The 30 day limit is how long they remain in iCloud, not on your devices. After 30 days, photo stream photos are removed from iCloud and are no longer available to download to any new device connecting to your photo stream.
A rolling collection of up to 1000 photos will stay on your iOS devices until your delete them. When you delete them from photo stream on any of your devices, they are deleted everywhere. If you plan to do this, copy the photos from your photo stream folder on your computer to another location first.
Apple's documentation is a bit unclear about whether or not the 1000 photo limit applies to a PC (they can be set to automatically import to an iPhoto library on a Mac where they are not deleted).* As you device approaches 1000 photos, you might want to take some test photos to cross this limit to see if the earliest photos are deleted from your computer.
*From (http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4486):
"Since your Mac and PC have more storage than your iOS devices, you can choose to have all of your My Photo Stream photos automatically downloaded. In iPhoto or Aperture preferences on your Mac, be sure to select Photo Stream > My Photo Stream > Automatic Import. All of your photo stream photos will be imported into your Events, Projects, Photos, Faces, and Places folders in iPhoto or Aperture. On your PC with Photo Stream enabled in the Control Panel, all of your photos will be imported into C:\Users\<user name>\Pictures\Photo Stream\My Photo Stream."

How to sync iPhone photos with iPad and Mac without duplicates and deleted photos?

I have a MacBook Pro (OS X 10.8.5, iPhoto 9.4.3), an iPad2 (ios 6.1.3) and iPhone (ios 7.0.4). I take my pictures on the iPhone and use the iPad for viewing. I use the MBP for storage and backup. ios 7 seems to organize the photos nicely, so I no longer need iPhoto for organizing.
What is the best, easiest and most efficient way to share, save and backup photos (iCloud prefered versus plugging devices into the MBP) between the 3 devices without duplicates and deleted photos? With Photo Streaming turned on, I get duplicates and it retains photos that I have deleted.
On all three devices, I turned on Photos & Camera > My Photo Stream and Shared Photo Streams and iCloud > Photo Stream.
On the MBP, I have everything under Photo Stream EXCEPT Automatic Import (I took off recently hoping to eliminate duplicates).
If someone else already asked this question, I apologize. This is very confusing.

While waiting for a reply, you can read the documentation that was in the box your iPad came in. It's a book about a Spanish guy called Manual.
The answer is iTunes. Download it. Install it. Read the instructions. Use it.

Can I back up the organizer, move my photos and still access them in PSE?

I backed up my catalog to an external HD last night and there were about 20 disconnected files. I was not able to locate them so I allowed the back up to continue without them. Do you know what the consequences are for that?
Also, several of my photos are on my C drive and several are on the external HD. My catalog included photos from both places. When I move the rest of my photos from the C drive of my computer to the external HD will the catalog still be able to access them or will I need to back everything up again?
My goal is to free up space on my computer so PSE will stop freezing up. All I'm intersted in doing right now is getting all of my photos into the organizer and tagged. I'll edit them later as I begin to create digital scrapbook pages.
Can someone tell me if the way I'm going about this is correct?
Thank you,

Thank you Ken. I backed up everything to my external HD, but now I think I'd rather just move everything there and recall my photos from the ext HD to free up space on my C drive. Is that possible?
Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:55:14 -0700
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Can I back up the organizer, move my photos and still access them in PSE?
    Re: Can I back up the organizer, move my photos and still access them in PSE?
    created by photodrawken in Photoshop Elements - View the full discussion
When you use PSE to back up your catalog, the actual photos as well as the catalog (database) are backed up. When you restore from a backup, you can specify where the incoming photos will be placed. Ken
     Replies to this message go to everyone subscribed to this thread, not directly to the person who posted the message. To post a reply, either reply to this email or visit the message page: http://forums.adobe.com/message/4223403#4223403
     To unsubscribe from this thread, please visit the message page at http://forums.adobe.com/message/4223403#4223403. In the Actions box on the right, click the Stop Email Notifications link.
     Start a new discussion in Photoshop Elements by email or at Adobe Forums
For more information about maintaining your forum email notifications please go to http://forums.adobe.com/message/2936746#2936746.

HT4859 i have reset my password and i dont have wifi to connect to my ipod and activate the steps in the i cloud process, now i want to know that will all my videos , photos and music will lost if i connect to my computer if storage and backup is in off m

i have reset my password and i dont have wifi to connect to my ipod and activate the steps in the i cloud process, now i want to know that will all my videos , photos and music will lost if i connect to my computer if storage and backup is in off mode

If iCloud Backup is set to Off in Settings>iCloud>Storage & Backup, it means that your iPod will not automatically back up to iCloud, but will automatically back up to your computer when you sync. The only way you would risk losing data is if you have never synced with iTunes before. If that's the case, you have to take special precautions to avoid losing data, as outlined in this user tip: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3141.

Can I store my photos, music and films on external harddrive and backup everything to time capsule?

Hi
I have just bought my very first mac this week. I have the iphone 4 already but have been used to using windows my whole life.
I have purchased:
21.5inch iMac 2011
2.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i5
4GB RAM
500GB Harddrive
Latest version of Lion OS
Its only been a couple of days and already I dont know how I ever lived without it.
The predicament Im in is this: I want to use apple Tv to stream my music, photos and films to my TV in the living room. But I would also like to store all of this on an external harddrive, rather than filling up my internals with it then not having enough room for anything else.
Can I store my films, music, photo's etc on an external harddrive and still stream to apple tv? Does it need to be a specific external harddrive? And whats the best way to back everything up? Would a 2TB Time Capsule backup my mac and everything on my external harddrive?
Sorry for all the questions, Im very new to this and dont know much about harddrives.
Thanks in advance..
Gem

Yes. However, it gets more complicated. Time Machine is better for archival backup, and typically requires twice the space for the data as the original. Streaming from external drives while possible can get laggy on video unless you use Firewire or Thunderbolt. If you have any old 802.11b or 802.11g devices, you'll want to keep them on a separate network. A better investment is a couple external hard drives for backup and one for any excess stuff that won't fit on your main 500 GB drive, and to use cloning software instead. When you need archival backup, burn to CD or DVD that is prepackaged in jewelcases. See my FAQ* on good media and backup http://www.macmaps.com/cdrfailure.html
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
When backing up make sure nothing else is happening on the machine from your end.

PSE12 Organizer - can you copy photo from one folder to another and import copy into Organizer and still have original in other folder

I have been using folders to organize all my pictures and I will copy photos from folder to folder, often having them in 2 or 3 folders based on use. I tried to copy a photo in Organizer PSE12 from one folder to another and you can only move it, that means I can only have one copy of the photo. That is fine if I am using tags and want to search for it, but I want to have mult copies in mult folders. Organizer will recognize that it is there but it won't import it into the new folder. Until I move it, it stays in the original folder. I can drag it out of Organizer and drop (copy) it into a new folder fine, but it won't show in organizer in the new folder. Is there any way to copy and have multiple copies show up in multiple folders?

Hi,
The organizer works on the principle of not having multiple copies of the same photo.
If you have multiple copies spread in different folders, then making changes to one doesn't affect the others. The use of tags and albums are there to give different views of your photos.
You can't have multiple copies with exactly the same name even if they are in different folders. You could select a photo and duplicate it (File -> Duplicate) and then move the copy into a different folder but the name will be different.
If you want different folders for a specific reason, it is possible to use albums to collect the group of photos and then export them to a new folder outside of the organizer. You can also rename on export which is useful if you want to arrange the photos in a specific order.
Hope that helps a bit.
Brian

How many photos can you load into Organizer and Editor

How many photos can you load into Organizer and Editor at one time. I receive the error message, "Unable to Import Files", which says "You exceeded number of files that can be selecteed and imported at once...." What is the number? Secondly is there a way around this for either the Organizer or Editor to work on thousands of photos at the same time?
Thanks

I have never heard of this particular limit before.
Please understand, this appears to be the limit you can import into the Organizer at one time -- you can have as many photos as you want in the Organizer; but apparently you have to import in batches rather than all at once.
I don't think it applies to the editor; and I can't imagine wanting to have more then a few files in the editor at any one time ... even if you could open 2000 photos in the editor at once, what sense would that make?

Need to backup and remove photo library form my iphone. This library was previously backup on a hard drive that crashed. So these photos are only in the photo library and not in the camera roll. If I do a full backup, it only takes the camera roll.

Need to backup and remove photo library from my iphone. This library was previously backup on a hard drive that crashed. So these photos are only in the photo library and not in the camera roll. If I do a full backup, it only takes the camera roll.
So this is a 2 part question:
1) how to I backup the Photo Library to my new hard drive (as the last one was unrecoverable but previously backed up)
2) how do I remove the Photo Library form my phone (preferably after backup in item 1)
Thanks, Janis

Since it has always been very basic to backup your computer and all it's data, Apple provides no way for you to transfer music from your iPhone back to your computer. As you know, you can re-download all iTunes purchases, but music that you ripped yourself you'll have to just re-rip again.
You can try and find 3rd party applications that might help you. I'm sure you'll pay, however.
Let this be a very important lesson learned.
Best.

Why is "Photos" so awful? iPhoto was simple, intuitive, easy to organize and use. Photos is the opposite of that.

Why is "Photos" so awful? iPhoto was simple, intuitive, easy to organize and use. Photos is the opposite of that.

pjonesCET1 wrote:
You can't once installed you can't use iPhoto, anymore in fact I think it is physically removed when you install the 10.10.3 Update.
Incorrect. iPhotos is not removed at all. It can still be used as long as you have kept your Software up to date. Otherwise
Is Iphoto gone ? i want it back!
Pete

I downloaded and installed Photoshop Elements & Premiere Elements. I then launched Photoshop Elements Organizer and imported approx. 28,000 photos (including some videos). A window opened indicating that many of the photos had tags, and asking if I want

I downloaded and installed Photoshop Elements & Premiere Elements. I then launched Photoshop Elements Organizer and imported approx. 28,000 photos (including some videos). A window opened indicating that many of the photos had tags, and asking if I wanted to add the tags. I said yes, and the process began. When it reached 60% a window opened indicating that "Elements 13 Organizer has stopped working", with the only option being to "Close program."
I've since tried to open organizer several times, but it goes immediately to "Elements 13 Organizer has stopped working". I was able to open Editor, and tried opening Organizer from Editor, but encountered the same problem.
FYI, I have an open case (#0214505556), but have not received the help I need.

This issue is with respect to Elements 13.

Tips to archive, organize and backup photos

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for