Viewing libraries on external drives

I have various older iphoto libraries that I've saved on external drives. When I open any of them, iphoto opens with my current library. How can I view these older libraries?

You're opening them by double clicking on them? In iPhoto 08 that opens the last opened library.
Try Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'...
Regards
TD

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Itunes 10.4 will not recognize libraries on external drives!

I made the mistake of updating to itunes 10.4 and now itunes does not recognize itunes libraries that I have stored on external harddrives, most concerning is my master library of Apple Lossless files. Is there a way to get the new version of itunes to recognize libraries on external drives?
Thanks so much for your advice!

Found my answer by sifting through all itunes questions. (I tried earlier, but apparently chose the wrong key words. In my successful search I just searched through everything itunes related.) There was a posting where someone indicated they could not open alternative libraries using the option key method, precisely my situation. They stated that they solved the problem by appending a ".itl" at the end of the library file. I tried this myself and sure enough, it worked. Hopefully it will also work for all others who are suffering from this scenario.

Multiple iPhoto libraries from external drive. How to work with them all

I'm not an expert user so forgive me. But I have tons of pictures and videos of family.
I've had to save 2 libraries on an external drive and going on my 3rd. I had to do it because the computer was running super slow and giving me warnings. Each library is about 115GB.
Now my question is: Whats the easiest way to work with all libraries a the same time? I create slide shows and videos and often need pictures and videos that are in the different libraries..... problem being, I have to close a library, open the next, import and export photos from one to the other.......
I think you get my point.....any suggestions are appreciated.

Thank you again Larry.
Unfortunately some horrible thing just happened . I was getting ready to put your advice to work and...........
I went to verify all my libraries were in the External drive (My passport for Mac) before I did anything else. I couldn't find the drive. I called the company and apparently the is a problem with the drive and my only option is to try recover the data from a recovery data service....
What did just happen???? I'm still hopeful I can recover it. and I may have a back up in another drive.
So this is semi-related question. How many back ups of your pictures should you have to be safe? and How do I know which devices are reliable? I thought these two Mt Passports from Western Digital were ok? Any advice?

Move iPhoto/iMovie libraries to external drive

I would like to move my iphoto library to an external drive and not have all the pictures on my iMac (drive is filling up).
I would like to do the same with iMovie if anyone knows how to do it.

iPhoto:
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.
It's also possible to do this with your iMovie projects, but best ask on the iMovie forum for specific help with that.
Regards
TD

Question on iTunes libraries on external drives

Back a few years ago I put my itunes music library lived in a NAS drive. If the drive was not mounted however when you launched iTunes the library would reset resulting in a blank iTunes.
This was such a deal breaker for me in the end I ditched the nas.
Now I have my itunes library on an external USB Harddrive. If for some reason the drive is not attached when launched, all that happens is you see your library of music but when you select anything a little alert icon goes next to it with a warning the music could not be found. When you attach the harddrive all is well again.
A friend has an extreme base station with his music folder on. And has just explined to me the self same issue as I used to have.
Can someone explain why iTunes will sometimes work fine, and sometimes reset depending on how it feels? Is there a way to predict this, and more importantly ensure that iTunes simply says it cannot find the tune, and not reset the whole library. Which is a most odd behaviour anyhow.

Your iTunes folder on your Startup Drive (in your USER>MUSIC>ITUNES folder) contains a file that is the roadmap to all of your songs, ratings, playlists, etc. Your iTunes application (in the applications folder on the startup drive) is, well, the application (like an engine) that runs iTunes.
By default, your iTunes Library (where all your actual MP3 files are stored) is in that iTunes folder (in your USER>MUSIC>ITUNES folder). However, when you store it on an external drive, you usually change it's location (in Preferences) so that iTunes knows where the Library is located.
So.....what's probably going on is that you have iTunes set up right for an external drive and it will run properly when that drive is plugged in. iTunes knows where everything is because all that info is contained in the file I mentioned. When you start iTunes and your external drive is not plugged in, iTunes will default to the iTunes Library in the folder on your Startup Drive (USER>MUSIC>ITUNES folder), which is probably empty. It knows where all your songs are on that external drive, but can't access them b/c the drive is off or disconnected.

Can't access libraries on external drives

I keep my archived images in a separate library backed up on 2 separate external drives. This system was working fine until recently. Now Aperture crashes when I try to access them. My laptop (the main work-horse) is pretty full and Ap has been running slowly, so I cleared some space. Now have about 20 gig free, but no change, so that doesn't seem to be the problem. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Hi General Confused
- I have also posted some enquiries about the subject of Aperture2 no longer accepting Vaults;
there are several other people enquiring too : I cant help but think there is (sadly) some bug in the newest updates???
No serious response as yet, I'm thinking that the only solution is to trash the (seperate) "vault" drive and start a fresh !!!!

Aperture not seeing iPhoto Libraries on external drive when trying to do a REFERENCED import.

I am trying to bring all my iPhoto libraries (one for each year) together into one REFERENCED Aperture library. I have the iPhoto libraries on an external hard drive and want the Aperture Library on my main drive. Whe I go to the Import window I do see my external hard drive on the list of drives, but the files do not show up. It shows folders and any readable files in the folders, but not the iPhoto Libraries, which are not in any folders. I am running out of space on my hard drive, so want to do a referenced import, not a managed one, but I can't seem to get it to work. I have tried doing the copy drag and drop method (holding command+option and dragging and dropping from finder to Aperture, but it still copies the whole library to the main drive, it does not reference it). Help, please!

Whe I go to the Import window I do see my external hard drive on the list of drives, but the files do not show up.
Aperture will not show you files in libraries in the import panel. iPhoto libraries are not imported using the import panel. Importing the files using the import panel would result in importing a mess of thumbnails, previews, and originals, and you would lose your organisation in events and albums and probably most of your metadata tags.
You import iPhoto Libraries as library:
File > Import > Library
If the library you are importing is referenced, it will be imported referenced, if it is managed, the images will be imported managed. You can relocate the managed originals to your external volume directly after import using the command "File > Relocate originals"
See: Aperture 3.3: How to use Aperture to merge iPhoto libraries
Regards
Léonie

Fixing iPhoto Libraries on external drive

I have a lot of pictures, so I use an external USB hdd for my iPhoto library.
The other day, I didn't have my USB hdd with me, but temporarily needed to use iPhoto. So I created a new one on my MacBook.
After the use of iPhoto, I deleted the local iPhoto gallery again and tried to hook back to the one on the USB hdd.
But somehow, my gallery/db/archive is messed up. It doesn't show my pictures anymore not to mention the albums.
All the files still seem to be there:
2006
AlbumData.xml
Data
Dir.data
Import
Library.data
Library.iPhoto
Library6.iPhoto
Modified
Originals
Thumb32Segment.data
Thumb64Segment.data
ThumbJPGSegment.data
disabled
iPhoto.ipspot
iPhotoLock.data
iPod Photo Cache
but for some reason it doesn't load the data. Instead, there are "empty" images in my overview. 32 of them. just exactly the amount of images I used to have when using iPhoto locally temporairly. If I click on it, it sais something like: photo not found.
Does anybody have an idea how I can restore the images AND the meta data/albums from my USB hdd? ... I know, I can just import again, but this would lose all my ratings, meta data and albums
thanks for any advice!

What happened when you launched iPhoto with the Option key depressed like Terence suggested and selected the library folder on the external HD?
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.

Import iPhoto libraries on external drives to Apple TV?

Can this be done?

AppleTV should simply get the feed or selected events from the current iPhoto library (which you can change by holding option key on startup of iPhoto). You can't have more than 1 iphoto library active for AppleTV at the same time.

Create shared library on external drive from scratch

I have seen many posts about creating shared iTunes libraries on external drives with many different configurations, but mostly with pre-existing libraries. My question is creating the library from scratch. The purpose is obviously to share songs among several computers AND only have one copy of a song as to not take up unnecessary disk space on several computers.
All of our songs are on an external USB hard-drive attached to Airport Xtreme. Every song is in album folder, and every album folder is in an artist folder (very organized). All the artist folders (with their album and then song contents) are in a root folder called "Songs" on the external hard-drive.
We have upgraded our three Macs (iMac, MBP and MacMini) to Leopard and deleted all iTunes folders on each local hard drive (there was nothing in them anyway). We now want to create ONE iTunes folder on the hard drive so that each computer can access it. What are the steps? Here is what I "think" I've learned here on the postings with my questions:
1) First I opened iTunes on my first, main computer (iMac) and went into "Preferences" to change the iTunes music folder to [Ext HD]:iTunes:iTunes Music. The option, "Copy to music folder..." is deselected. (This will also be done on the other computers).
2) Now what to do? I could just move all of my song artist folders with their album subfolders and music files inside them, into the "iTunes Music" folder. But then what do I click to get iTunes to see all the songs and put them in its database? The other option is click "Add to Library" - but then don't I have to select all the individual songs? (I actually tried the latter method and it kept crashing). Can I just move all the folders into [Ext HD}:iTunes:iTunes Music folder and click something to get it to create its database based on all the music files that are now in its subfolders?
3) Next step. I have seen many people write that they then create an "Alias" and put the Alias in their "Music" folder on their LOCAL, computer's hard drive. Could someone now explicitly, step-by-step, describe how this is done? I assume I go to the external hard drive. Am I creating an alias of the entire "iTunes" folder, or of the "iTunes Music" subfolder, or of the library file??? Please answer this specifically.
So now I have "XXX alias" that I copy to my local, computer's hard drive and put it on my desktop. I take out the "....alias" word, and drag it to my local "Music" folder. It asks me to replace the existing folder/file, and I say yes. Correct? And then I do this on all three computers, correct?
4) Finally, after I've done all of this, I still have the following functionality questions -
4a) When we now add to the library, either from a CD or online purchase, ONE copy of the music should go in the "iTunes Music" folder on the external drive, correct?
4b) This system means that all three computers MUST have the same iTunes library, playlists, etc, correct? The downside of this system is that you cannot personalize libraries for each computer and just share the actual music files, correct? (If so, is there another process [steps 1-4 above] that results in a more customizable system where *ONLY ONE COPY* of the actual song file is shared?)
Sorry for the length of the message, and the questions. Truly I have read all the postings but was unable to map out my plan before I go and creating, finally, this one set of music that we can share. In advance, thank you all for your help.

I was afraid you'd say that, because I'm a long time Mac guy and I don't have the perfect answer. Have you ever messed with remote desktop? That'd seem to give her full access and control, something I personally wouldn't do, although it may work for you.
Another thought came to me that might work: copy over the complete library to her machine, and then when you do another major shoot, create a new catalog, edit, etc.and then import as catalog to you main one while sending her the new one.
I am sure there are more elegant solutions, but these are a couple of ways.

Can't import a library from external drive

Hi,
I have always exported projects as new libraries to external drives and then import them when I need to work on or update. I am trying to import a library from my external drive and it says merging libraries but the library is not showing up as a project or importing. Nothing is happening. I don't want to work on it as a stand alone library because I have several projects I need to swap images between. Does anyone know why I can no longer import a library?
Thank you.

To check the format of your drive - just to be sure about it - select your drive in the Finder and use "File > Get Info" or press "⌘I". You'll see the formatting in the Info panel that opens, in the "General" tab of the panel.

Faster 2 TB external drive throughput?

Hi. I'm a heavy user of Aperture, and am looking for ways to overcome system waits (spinning pinwheel) when using very large Libraries. The system waits happen when making adjustments, loading containers, and always when emptying the Aperture Trash.
The Library in question is all up-to-date and has been recently repaired (I run "Repair Database" on all Libraries as part of regular maintenance).
My System:
MacBook Pro
Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013
Processor 2.7 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB
System Drive APPLE SSD SD512E
For this discussion, let's say "very large" for Libraries means >500 GB and/or >250,000 Originals. These large Libraries can have millions of files in them. (I've seen Libraries with almost 9 M files.)
Because of their size, I keep these Libraries on external drives. Due to cost, I put these on USB-3 drives. (I do have two powered USB-3 hubs. I have tested using no hubs, and found no difference.)
I am running Aperture 3.5.1 on 10.9.3. Smaller Libraries, whether stored locally or on external drives, work flawlessly.
Blackmagic Disc Speed Test gives me a rating of 370 MB/s for my SSD system drive. The ratings for my several external USB-3 drives range from 50 - 70 MB/s.
Watching Activity Monitor (sad to report, I don't know how to use it under Mavericks to trouble-shoot performance issues) with Aperture loaded, I notice that it reads "Aperture not responding" when I get the spinning pinwheel. ("Aperture not responding" has been common since 3.3 or so, and never, IME, indicates a hang or crash.) Afaict, the problem comes from disk i/o. Memory, however, is maxed out (typically, e.g.: 15.60 - 15.99 GB used). CPU for Aperture sometimes get to c. 110%, but many times is at c. 10% or less when the spinner appears.
The Library that is giving me the most problems is c. 900 GB on a 2 TB drive. The Originals occupy 1.75 TB on a second 2 TB drive.
Apple Store employees tell me a Thunderbolt drive will give me hundreds of of MB/s throughput. I am skeptical because, afaik, USB-3 should give me up to 500 MB/s and I'm not getting anywhere near that (assuming -- perhaps ignorantly -- the the Blackmagic test is comparable to others). A large TBolt magnetic drive has been recommended. Will it make a big difference?
What can I do to eliminate the system waits?
How can I better trouble-shoot what is causing them?
Will Thunderbolt be faster in practice?
Is there any way to get, say, >250 MB/s performance from an external drive holding a very large Aperture Library with millions of files?
Is this the best forum for this?
Thanks.

First problem most hard drives (Besides SAS 15k) have a throughput less than 100MB/sec.
Thunderbolt won't really help in throughput becuase the drives are already maxed out.
Three options for moving forward:
1. Making smaller libraries is going to really help fix this issue.
For reference, your large photo library is like reading the entire encyclopedia to the computer, it takes a long time to look through the entire database (book) to access the files Aperature wants.
When you make said libraries smaller, your computer can read the cliffnotes version in no time at all.
2. Get a Server or NAS that can do RAID 5 and with the right drives you could reach 300MB/sec.
But that's expensive. I've been able to max out a 1gbps(125MB/sec) link with my photo server while copying assorted photos between drives, but I have zero wait times when working with my images.
3. Switch to Photoshop or work with files natively on the disk, not inside a database.
Lightroom works on the same photo database principle as Aperature so I cannot recommend it for your case as you won't see any performance improvement.

Save film in editing mode on external drive?

I've been making informational videos using iMovie. I save all the raw footage so I can remake it later if needed.
But, is there a way to save the project in it's editing mode and still remove it from iMovie (to an external drive)? That way I could get if off my computer and still be able to bring it back into iMove, make a few changes, and "share" it again without having to rebuild the whole thing from the raw footage.
Yes, this is a weird question and I guess the answer is NO! I ask because these projects take up so much of my hard drive that I need to get them off as soon as I complete them.
I suppose the other question would be whether it was possible to work in iMove off an external drive, like one does when storing iTunes off the main drive in a computer.
Probably should have got the 1T drive on the iMac, but I fear that even that would fill up too quickly with these projects.
Thanks so much for any input.

Are you using the latest version of iMovie (version 10)?
It supports multiple libraries and external drives so what you describe is entirely possible.
More information here:
http://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/10.0/#mov3fa25bae7
Matt

Partition an already formatted external drive

The best way to partition an external drive already MAC formatted??? I want to plug my Mac formatted drive into my WD for use on my PS3 for viewing movies.

"external drive already MAC formatted."

New external drive choices -- what's best for Aperture?

Hi. Hardware, I'm sorry to say, generally makes my head hurt.
Today Apple's delayed Thunderbolt-to-FW800 adapter made it appearance in Apple Stores.
Purchasers of the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display (rMBP) now have a nearly full set of options for using external drives with Aperture. I had been using a stable of FW800 drives (with my MBP 5,5). I'm looking for recommendations on what to upgrade to.
(Aside: I've been too busy to post a comment recommending the rMPB. It's my main Aperture machine (I use Aperture every day, but work in two different locations) -- I'm _very_ happy with it. Highly recommended. My machine is 16 GB RAM and 500 GB SSD. But there's still this ports problem ... .)
The options I know of:
- use the new adapter and use the old FW drives. These can be daisy-chained, as before. Afaik, the total throughput is limited by what TBolt allows (which may be more than enough).
- move drives to USB3 enclosures. I did this as a stop-gap measure while waiting for the adapters. I got my enclosures from OWC. The drives are not daisy-chainable. The rMBA has two USB3 ports.
- buy eSATA hubs and use the eSATA ports on the drives. This one just became available. Expensive, imho. Not sure how the Mac will handle it (I always have Originals referenced to external drives; I sometimes have Libraries on external drives).
- move drives to TBolt enclosures. These are slowly coming on the market. They are very expensive (imho).
- replace the drives with TBolt drives. Also very expensive.
- replace the drives with USB3 drives
I'm looking for a reasonable middle-term (3-5 years) solution. Fwiw, I'm not convinced that external drive throughput is even an issue with running Aperture. It seem to run well on my rMBA even when a large library is connected via USB2. (I assume Aperture is good at taking advantage of the 16 MB RAM and the SSD "scratch drive".) I need to have one USB2 port, and one TBolt port, available at all times (various peripherals; the TBolt is for external monitors).
Thanks!

Good stuff. Thanks. Agree in principle re: "TBolt for displays; USB3 for storage".
I did get a USB 3 hub. (Amazon link. There is a 7-port hub as well.) Highly recommended (at least for rMBP users). This works well with how I use Aperture: I have several external drives with mostly Referenced Originals and some Libraries. Since I rarely use more than one of these at a time, it doesn't matter that the hub throughput is limited to a single USB 3 channel. The USB 3 hub, for me, functions as a quasi-data-server for Aperture, and takes up only one of the two USB 3 ports on the rMBP. (Fwiw, with the rMBA I don't think there's much reason for storing Referenced Originals on a fast drive; because of the efficiency of the way Aperture caches, USB 2 may be fast enough. I haven't measured this yet.)
I mentioned eSATA only because almost all my external drives came with eSATA ports and cables. I have never used eSATA. At this point, I don't plan to.
I have moved a few drives into USB 3 enclosures (purchased from OWC). With the USB 3 hub, and the newly-available Apple TBolt-FW800 adapter (which supports daisy-chained FW devices), I am no longer in any practical way limited by the four ports on the rMBP (2x TBolt, 2x USB 3). Whew.
I backup my system drive wirelessly to a Time Capsule every night (by design, the machine doesn't have access to the TC during the day when I'm working), and use SuperDuper to backup all Libraries and Referenced Originals to specific sparse bundles kept on leap-frogging external drives, with one always off-site. At this point I make no practical distinction between FW800 and USB 3 drives for back-up, as they are all fast enough and the back-ups run unattended. (But USB 3 seems to be much faster.)

Viewing libraries on external drives

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