Unable to drag/copy photos out of iPhoto

I'm unable to drag many photos at a time out of iPhoto and into a new folder on my desktop. I used to be able to, but in the recent months this hasn't been working. Also, when I select all photos and copy them, not all of them seem to be copied. When pasting them into a new folder on my desktop, only about 90% of the photos actually appear, and I have to hunt down the ones that weren't copied and manually drag them in one by one.

There have been several reports of this issue over the lasy while, and we dont know if it's an OS or an iPhoto problem. There is no fix we know about at this time. The workaround is to use the File -> Export command.
and makes the file size 5 times larger
Set the Kind to Current and you'll get exactly the same image you would with drag and drop - a preview of limited quality missing most of the metadata.
This User Tip
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4921
has details of the options in the Export dialogue.

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I just got my first mac pro and I can't get the photos out of iPhotos moved on my hp external hard drive, I try export says unable, then I try to drag it from the desktop to the external hard drive but same problem. Thank you so much

I just got my first mac pro and I can't get the photos out of iPhotos and move them on my hp external hard drive, I try export says unable, then I try to drag it from the desktop to the external hard drive but same problem. what to do? Thank you so much

How is your external drive formatted? Use Disk Utility to check the volume format. If it is NTFS, you will need to reformat the HDD as exFAT in order to retain universal compatibility (RW to it on both Mac and Windows).

How to export photo out of iPhoto environment?

I want to upload some of the pictures in an album in the internet and I do not get the proper information for me to do it. It seems that Apple has closed it to keep it inside their environment in order to force people to print it with them, or not to be able to manage it out of this application what makes from this a Nazi app since it keeps you out of being able to do what you want with your own photos. Apple keeps users hostages of it. It is far from being at least a little fair. Come on Apple!

There are many, many ways to access your files in iPhoto: 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.
(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:
There's a similar option in Outlook and many, many other apps. 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 10.5 Create a Media Browser using Automator (takes about 10 seconds) or use this free utility Karelia iMedia Browser
Other options include:
Drag and Drop: Drag a photo from the iPhoto Window to the desktop, there iPhoto will make a full-sized copy of the pic.
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.
Show File: a. On iPhoto 09 and earlier: 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. 3.b.
b: On iPhoto 11 and later: Select one of the affected photos in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Reveal in Finder -> Original. A Finder window will pop open with the file already selected.
<Edited by Host>

Moving photos OUT of iPhoto and/or Aperture

I would like to move my photos OUT of the iPhoto library. I would prefer to house them on an external drive. I want them in a directory strucutre that looks something like this:
Photos/Year/Date_Event/picture.jpg
This is my structure on my PC
When I view the "contents" of the iPhoto Library package, I see a subdirectory called Originals, as well as another called Masters. Which directory actually contains the original files.
When I've tried to copy the photos from either of these locations, the copy action begins copying another iPhoto Library, and that's not what I'm after.
I hope this isn't too confusing.
In simpler terms, I'd like iPhoto and/or Aperture to work like iTunes can. The database has a pointer to the original that exists OUTSIDE of the actual library itself.
Is this possible?

This is trivial on Aperture, use the Relocate Masters command. Pay more for the app you get more options.
It's not possible on iPhoto unless you start over from scratch with a whole new Library - and even then, there really, really is no need. It's also very unwise, with iPhoto to have the Photos on one volume and the Library on another.
Finally, what you have on Windows is basic File Management. The problem with that is that as a system it sees no difference between a Photo and a Word file or mp3. Yet each of these has options specific to the type of data they contain, and the file system misses all of that. Hence iPhoto (and Aperture) are designed for people who want to organise their photos and not the files that contain them.
A Referenced Library is when iPhoto is NOT copying the files into the iPhoto Library when importing. 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.
This is an attractive option for some users at face value, but it contains a significant number of issues that you might want to consider before making the decision to run a Referenced Library
How to do it:
iPhoto -> Preferences -> Advanced and uncheck the box at 'Copy items to the iPhoto Library'
Now when you import iPhoto makes an alias in the Library Package that points to the stored file. Note: iPhoto still creates a thumbnail of the image and it makes a Preview of edited photos inside the Library Package.
Issues?
1. You are responsible for file management. That's more work:
You must first move the files from your camera to the storage location before importing.
If you want to delete files then you must first trash them from iPhoto and then afterwards find them in your storage and trash them.
Thereafter, you cannot move the files on early versions of iPhoto at all, on iPhoto 08 and later you may move them on the same Volume or Disk. If you move them to a new volume or disk the aliases my break. If they are on an different volume and you move them the aliases will break.
You cannot rename the files.
Migrating: moving to a new machine, moving the files to another disk are all a lot more complex.
2. You gain no extra functionality from running a Referenced Library. Nothing. This is just storage. You still manage the files via iPhoto. You edit them with iPhoto or via iPhoto's External Editor setting, otherwise you're changes will not be available in iPhoto. You don't save byte of storage space.
3. If you have the Library on one volume and the photos on another you if anything changes in the path to a file (Like if you upgrade your machine, move the files on the NAS or on to another one?) then the alias will break, and you'll have to repair it manually. For every photo in the Library. One at a time.
Why do you want to run a Referenced Library?
Because my photos won't fit on my HD?
You can run a Managed library from an external disk. Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
You're worried about accessing the files?
There are many, many ways to access your files in iPhoto: 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.
(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:
There's a similar option in Outlook and many, many other apps. 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 10.5 Create a Media Browser using Automator (takes about 10 seconds) or use this free utility Karelia iMedia Browser
Other options include:
Drag and Drop: Drag a photo from the iPhoto Window to the desktop, there iPhoto will make a full-sized copy of the pic.
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.
Show File: a. On iPhoto 09 and earlier: 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. 3.b.
b: On iPhoto 11 and later: Select one of the affected photos in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Reveal in Finder -> Original. A Finder window will pop open with the file already selected.

I want to remove all of my photos out of iPhoto there are approximately 35000 some imported from an old hard drive and a SD Card from my Nikon D500 how do I do this

I want to remove all of my photos out of iPhoto there are approximately 35000 some imported from an old hard drive and a SD Card from my Nikon D500 how do I do this?
I have iPhoto version 9.1.5 (615)
Mac OS X version 10.6.8
I want to do this because when I imported from my old hard drive there was an error message stating that 12 photos were not imported as the programm did not recognise the format even though they were jpegs like the other photos in that particular album. The dates of the photo folders are wrong I have multiple copies of photos and every time I start iPhoto I get the following message 12 photos have been found in the iPhoto library that were not imported would you like to import them No or Yes
if you press Yes the same message comes back again and if you press Yes again the program flicks to last import for 2 seconds and then opens events.
if you press No the message The photos have been placed in the folder/user/judith/pictures/iphoto Library recovered photos then if you press OK the original message 12 photos have been found.............
if you press No at this point the message The photos have been placed in the folder/user /judith/pictures/iphoto Library recovered photos_11 the end number goes up by 1 every time you go through this process
Any help would be greatly appreciated

Did you import an iPhoto Library from the old Hard Drive? Do you still have that old Library?
The way to clear out a Library is to Export the photos - Apps like iPhoto2Disk or PhotoShare will help you export to a Folder tree matching your Events.
For the annoying start-up message:
Go to your Pictures Folder and find the iPhoto Library there. Right (or Control-) Click on the icon and select 'Show Package Contents'. A finder window will open with the Library exposed.
Look there for a Folder called 'Import' or 'Importing'.
Drag it to the Desktop. *Make no other changes*.
Start iPhoto. Does that help?
If it does then look inside that folder on your desktop. Does it contain anything you want? If not you can trash the folder.

How can I copy photos from the iphoto to my flash memory

How can I copy photos from my iPhoto to the flash memory? I had tried to drag the photos from the iphoto libraty to the flash memory but failed.

Select the photo(s) and export (file menu ==> export) to a desktop folder and drag that folder to the flash memory
LN

After updating to IOS 6.0.1 I cannot copy photos from the iPhoto library to the iPhone. The events appear correctly but the photo count in all the Events is 0

After updating to IOS 6.0.1 I cannot copy photos from the iPhoto library to the iPhone. The events appear correctly but the photo count in all the Events is 0

Same problem here, and it's not isolated.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/20228281#20228281
I believe you will find you can again sync Photos if you delete the "iPod Photo Cache", but predict that any subsequent attempt will fail. In my case, the enxt sync removes all the photos again - I've seen other reports of error messages upon sync. Mine just fails silently. :-)

I used to be able to drag a photo out of say, a Facebook page or iPhoto and put it in a folder. this stopped working, what changed?

Running an iMac with OSX 10.9
The other day I was dragging photo's out of iPhoto into a specific folder that I was going to then upload to Shutterfly. It was working ok then it stopped, and I could no longer drag photo's into any folder I wasnted. I also used to be able to pull photo's from facebook to my desktop but this is no longer the case either. (Could be a FB setting) What changed on my iMac?
If you have the answer please post for me to make the proper changes in my settings.
Thank you .
Jim

I'm sure a setting got changed. It still does not work for me. So what I've resorted to was copy/paste. but that's not the ideal way to do it. If you know the proper settings let me know.
Thanks.

Unable to drag a photo into imovie 08 no photo settings available

Hi - any help appreciated - I'm unable for some reason to drag a photo into my project. It's the first time I've used iMovie 08 but am quite a proficient mac user. Photo Library is visible and I can select photos no problem. The photo settings dialog box doesn't appear and if I drag over to the editing window it doesn't appear (but there is a green plus).
Photos are on an external drive, don;t know if this is anything to do with it.
Thanks in advance
Hayley

My photos are on an external drive too and have no issues. That doesn't rule out the external drive as a problem for you but hopefully confirms for you that you should be able to get it to work.
What happens if you drag the photo or a photo from either your desktop or from the iphoto application itself.
Have you tried closing imovie and re-launching it.

How do I get all photos OUT of iPhoto?

I want to start over with iPhoto, Aperture, and various other programs, and thus I want to get all my photogrpahs out of iPhoto (and Aperture and Lightroom) to a "neutral corner, just a set of folders on the HD where they would be just the original photos without any additional organization or data. Is this possible, and if so, how?
Thanks.

Hi fbx:
1. Do you want to take the originals? or the edited versions?
2. If the edited versions, simply select all and drag them from the iPhoto window to the folder you want them in. You can do the entire library like this, or do it album by album.
3. If the Originals: Select the pics and choose Photos -> Revert to Original. and repeat the above.
4. Alternatively, you can go to home/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals and take the pics from there. However, THIS IS NOT RECOMMENDED as mucking about in the iPhoto Library will cause problems with iPhoto. I only mention it as you're talking about reverting to a 'green field' start.
Regards
TD

Can't get photos out of iphoto

arghhh... i'm super frustrated because all of a sudden i can not get my photos from iphoto to 1. go into photoshop 2. to even go on the desktop and 3. to burn to backup
I see them on my iphoto and in the folders they are supposed to be in but i feel like they are completly lost and don't know what to do about it. if anyone has suggestions i would GREATLY appreciate it! thanks
lindsey jane

Lindsey,
did you do organizing in the iPhoto Library folder in the finder? It seems that iPhoto cannot find the image so there for you cannot even drag it to the desktop or even view the image. Did you rename the files in the finder or rename folders or even deleted files in the iPhoto Library folder in the finder?
I am thinking you did and you may have to create a new library and import the images from the old library to see what images are left.
Depending on what you did there are different ways to recover your images.
If you deleted files and folders or renamed A LOT of images you need to start over.
Page 2 gives instructions. Follow the first paragraph and #2 for importing.
If you just renamed some images Old Toad has a solution for that.
"There is a way you can recover your library. Here's what I developed and it worked for me. But make a backup copy of your iPhoto Library folder beforehand just in case:
How to recover those photos lost due to renaming in the Finder
1 - do a search of just the iPhoto library folder with the following criteria:
File name contains ".jpg" (or .psd) and File size is less than 1 KB. (You can just do a search for File size less than 1 kb but do not delete the other zero sized files that are of a non image type).
That will find all of those zero sized files that were created when iPhoto couldn't fine the originals.
2 - move those zero sized image files to the trash.
3 - now delete those "bad" photos from the iPhoto library using the normal method within iPhoto (if you don't they will be recovered every time you do a library rebuild with the "recover orphaned photos" option selected).
4 - launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys depressed and when the rebuild menu comes up select the last option, "Recover orphaned photos in the iPhoto Library folder".
This will recover those renamed files and put then in a new roll. The only downside is that their titles in iPhoto will be "Roll xx-1, etc. You can do a Get Info on them, find the actual file name and change the title so they are the same.
So it can be done with a little work.
The only way to rename files that have already been imported into iPhoto is to export them to the desktop, rename them there and then reimport. Once imported you can delete the original set.
You shouldn't encounter problems when embedding the metadata into the files. But to be absolutely sure, pick one test photo and give it a go.
You do know that you can use Photoshop from within iPhoto as the editor of choice, right? Just go into iPhoto's preferences and in the General pane under "Double-Click Photo" select Photoshop as the editor to use when you double-click a photo. The only caveat is that when you go to save the edit you must use the same filename, extension and location that you found the file in. If you must create a layered or otherwise pdf file it must be saved to the desktop and then imported as a new file.
Hope this has been of some help. Good luck.
O.T."

Date changing when dragging/copying photos

Help! I am trying to organize my iPhoto library. I am essentially dragging my photos from my library to a folder or dragging them to an externa hard drive so I can then organize them into a new library. The dates and times are correct in iPhoto. Then, when I drag them into a new folder the dates will completely change. I had an event with 4 photos in it and the correct date for all photos was 4/19/05. When I drag this event to a folder in my pictures file or when I drag the event into dropbox, the date on 2 photos changed to 3/17/11 and the date on the other 2 photos changed to 9/30/09. Does anyone know why this is happening or how I can stop it????

Suggested by a friend, I realize may be controversial... but, I have run out of room on my hard drive and need to dump my photos onto an external hard drive. So, here is what I am doing:
1) I create a folder in my pictures folder in Finder (Home --> Pictures --> New folder) for photos from a particular year (let's say 2008, let's say the folder is named Photos 08)
2) I drag an event/events of pictures taken in 2008 from my main iPhoto library into the folder Photos 08. This is the step in which I see the date change.
3) I switch to a different iPhoto Library (let's say Photos_2008). I have so many photos that my friend and I thought it would be easier to break them down into smaller libraries.
4) I import the photos from the folder Photos 08 into the iPhoto library Photos_2008. When I import the photos into the new library they all come through but they are lumped into one event called Photos 08 and the dates are still wrong. At this step, I have been manually correcting the dates.
5) then, I move the Photos_2008 library onto the external hard drive (actually 2 different external hard drives to be safe)
6) I make sure the photos are there by opening iPhoto from the external hard drive, and then delete (all the while cringing) the events from 2008 that are in my main iPhoto library
Does that make sense? Do you have any better ideas on how to get these onto the external hard drive? I'd like to keep some of the photos and my more recent photos on my computer but need to get the other ones off.
Also, a little background info... in early Sept '12 my system crashed. I also back everything up with Time Machine so they ended up reformatting my hard drive and then I used Time Machine to get everything back on my computer. Since then, my computer has been a mess. Multiple users with the same photos, songs, documents, etc. duplicates, triplicates of photos, documents, songs, etc. on my computer. A real mess.
Thanks for any advice you can offer,
StephPH

What is the best way to move photos out of iPhoto to an external drive?

I'm running out of space on my MacBook and I need to make room for other work. Photos is what's taking up most space on my computer and I want to move them to an external drive or something...is there a best practice?

Out of iPhoto?
File -> Export
This User Tip
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4921
has details of the options in the Export dialogue.
But if you want to keep them in iPhoto you can move the Library to an external:
Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
Regards
TD

Does iPhoto copy photos into the iPhoto library or move them in?

I moved about 40GB of photos onto my Macbook when I bought it. It looks like iPhoto duplicated them because the iPhoto library is about the same size as the folder in my finder. Does it copy photos into the library rather than move everything?

Would there be anything in iPhoto that it may not have copied?
It will only have imported (and copied) only those things you told it to.
is there anything in iPhoto that won't be somewhere else on my hard drive?
Anything that was imported directly - from a camera, for instance.
Regards
TD

Deleting photos out of Iphoto 9.5 does not delete from HD

Hi.
I seem to be unable to delete photos from my hard drive using Iphoto. I've just migrated 2500 photos over to my new MBP 10.9. I want to clean the collection up and delete all the rubbish. However, after a deleting session, when I reboot and fire up Iphoto 9.5, it scans and picks up the photos and asks me if I want to import them.
When I go through the Iphoto db delete process, the images do not transfer to the Trash. From what I have been reading, this should be the case.
Can someone identify where the issue can be resolved or am I going to have to manage this by manually trawling through a seemingly endless number root folders in Finder to deal ? I have checked Preferences , and there doesn't seem to be an option to manage this.
Thanks

Deleting Photos from an iPhoto Library
1 - from an Event or the Photos mode: select the photo(s) and use the Delete key to move the photos to the trash bin. Then empty the iPhoto Trash bin as follows:
2 - from an album, smart album, book, slideshow, card, etc.: select the photo(s) and use the key combination of Command+Option+Delete to move the photos to the trash bin. Then empty the trash bin as above.
NOTE: deleting a photo from an album, slideshow, book, etc., with only the Delete key only deletes that photo from that item. Deleting a photo from an Event deletes ALL occurences of that photo in the library.

Unable to drag/copy photos out of iPhoto

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