How should I prepare my iphoto8 upgrade to iphoto9

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Level 1

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How should I prepare my iphoto8 upgrade to iphoto9

I have ilife 09 and have not loaded it yet until I know for sure that I am ready. I currently have over 5,500 photos in iphoto 08 and I do not want to lose them or come across any compatibility issues with the switch to iphoto09. Personally, I would like to move my iphoto08 library to an external harddisk and then start "another year" of photos on my macbook. I question is, if I need to access my iphoto08 library from the external will I be able to, once I have loaded iphoto09 on my macbook?

Thanks. TOM

macbook, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Jan 30, 2009 4:35 PM

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Answer 1

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LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Jan 30, 2009 5:20 PM in response to tommyok

Yes you can do any or all of that

To move the iPhoto library you must quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library as a single entity from the pictures folder to the external drive then launch iPhoto while depressing the option (alt) key and use the select library option to point to it and test it. Now you can quit iPhoto and drag the old iPhoto library from the pictures folder to the trash and empty it and while depressing the option key and use the create library option to create a new library in the pictures folder - quit iPhoto and upgrade to iPhoto '09 - it will convert the library as needed - to use your old library launch iPhoto with the option key and select the external drive (it will upgrade the library the first time) - or use iPhoto library Manager - http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/ - to switch between the libries on the fly

LN

Message was edited by: LarryHN

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Answer 2

tommyok Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 31, 2009 2:58 AM in response to tommyok

Thank you Larry! I have done this type of extracting and rebuilding before (usually once a year), but have never attempted to retrieve old libraries and actually use them. I was just trying to get an idea as to what is possible before i load iphoto09.

I might check out IPM. thanks for that tip!
tom

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