Changing photo storage location

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Level 1

10 points

Changing photo storage location

I have an external hard drive that has 20GB of pictures on it. I also have the pictures that are already stored in my macbook and used by iPhoto. I would like to move all the pictures to my external hard drive, which is always connected, and have iPhoto import all of them. Is there an easy way to move those pictures over to the external hard drive and use that space to save pictures from this point forward?

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Dec 14, 2007 6:09 AM

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Answer 1

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Dec 14, 2007 8:40 AM in response to stevem902

Quit iPhoto, Drag the iPhoto library from the pictures folder to your external drive (or for safety copy it and delete it later after you have changed iphoto to use the library on the external) and restart iPhoto holding down the option key - select the choose library option and navigate to your library on the external drive - iPhoto will use that as your library until you change it again

LN

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Answer 2

stevem902 Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 18, 2007 4:49 PM in response to LarryHN

Thank you for that help. I have one more question. When my hard drive first filled up, I exported my photo library to my external hard drive before I updated to iPhoto 08. Since that iPhoto library is now in that same external hard drive, should I make any other changes as well before trying to import the library from my current iPhoto? There will be two photo libraries with the same name.

Another possibility would be that I could just let the iPhoto library import all of the photos on the external hard drive and place them where it does.... Any suggestions?

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

207,439 points

Dec 18, 2007 5:37 PM in response to stevem902

Are both libraries the same version and contain different photos? If you want to preserve your keywords, comments and titles you should use the paid version of iPhoto Library Manager to merge the old library into the new one.

If you just import the old library into the new one you'll get a number of duplicates that are the modified files from the old library. I've also found that sometimes I'll get 2 or 3 duplicates of the modified version imported which is a pain to cull out.

Happy Holidays

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.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 08 libraries and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

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