iPhoto Library storage on external drive

Question

iPhoto Library storage on external drive

I recently moved my iPhoto Library to an external hard drive. While away from that drive, I dumped some pictures from my camera into iPhoto. Now I can't figure out where those new pictures as being stored. More importantly though, those new pictures are the only ones actually appearing in the iPhoto interface - the older pictures that are stored on my external drive are just empty boxes even though the external drive is plugged in. It used to ask me where the iPhoto Library was and I would point it to the external drive, now it doesn't ask so I can't tell!

First, how can I get all of my photos into one place again?

Second, how can I store my photos on my external drive, but still be able to dump my camera while away from that external drive?

Thank you in advance, dear community.

PowerBook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Aug 3, 2007 10:01 AM

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Answer 1

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Smtr

Level 5

5,450 points

Aug 3, 2007 1:04 PM in response to GeraldineFogbottom

Welcome to the Apple Discussions.

When you imported to your Mac without the external drive connected, a new iPhoto library was created on your boot drive. The default location is in the Pictures folder (of the User who was logged in while the library was created).

To switch between libraries, hold down the Option key as you launch iPhoto. That brings up the dialog where you can select "Choose library" (maybe "locate library" in your version) and navigate to the iPhoto library folder on your external hard drive.

Second question first: You can keep the library on your laptop for importing pictures without the external drive connected.

First question: You have a choice as to how to move the photos to your external drive's library. To move just the photos, export them from the laptop's library (to your Desktop or external drive but NOT inside an iPhoto Library folder.) Close iPhoto. Option-launch to open the external drive's library. Import the photos into that library.

A better option is to use iPhoto Library Manager (click here) to transfer the photos between libraries. It can preserve the iPhoto metadata: albums, titles, keywords, etc. It will also save you the extra steps of closing and relaunching iPhoto with its "quick switch"ing. You could import photos to your laptop, organize them a bit. At your leisure you can mount the external drive, move your new rolls over to its library, and remove those photos from the laptop if you want. I haven't used iPLM personally, but it is highly recommended by many members of this forum.

Regards.

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