kiphoto: Moving the iPhoto Library folder from the Startup Drive

There are a number of reasons you might want to move your iPhoto collection from its default location on the startup drive (or startup partition). In my case, I have an older iMac (Bondi, rev.B), whose architecture limits the operating system to the first 8 GB of hard drive space. That doesn't leave much space for growing picture and/or music collections.

The following is just a combination of two existing iPhoto Help topics: "Moving the iPhoto Library folder to a new location" and "Switching between photo libraries"

Important: The external drive must be formatted as "Mac OS Extended" (or a related variant) before the iPhoto Library folder can be transferred.

To move iPhoto to an external drive (or to a partition that is not the boot partition)...

• 1. Quit iPhoto

• 2. Locate your iPhoto Library folder in your Home >Pictures folder

• 3. Drag your iPhoto Library folder to the new location outside the boot partition (this leaves the original iPhoto Library folder in place and makes an exact duplicate at the destination)

• 4. Rename your original iPhoto Library folder to something like "iPhoto Library-00"

• 5. Launch iPhoto and click the "Find Library..." button

• 6. In the resulting Finder-like dialog, navigate to the iPhoto Library folder you copied to your external drive in step 3, select it, and press the "Open" button

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When you are satisfied that the move has resulted in a fully functioning copy of your original iPhoto Library, you may drag the old iPhoto Library folder from your Home >Pictures folder on your boot drive (or boot partition), to the trash.

To use this external photo library, the external drive (or partition) needs to have been mounted prior to launching the iPhoto application. If you are prompted to locate (find) your iPhoto Library when you launch iPhoto, make sure the external drive has been mounted first. If necessary, consult the iPhoto Help topic, "Switching between photo libraries"

You might also want to write yourself a little reminder, because should you ever have occasion to trash the iPhoto preferences, iPhoto will revert to its default habits and look for the iPhoto Library folder in your Pictures folder again. When it doesn't find it, iPhoto will (by default, and unceremoniously) create an empty new one there, and you are going to think you've lost your collection. If that happens, just follow the iPhoto Help instructions for "Switching between photo libraries" to get back to your external iPhoto library.