Can I move half of my iphoto library to an external drive?

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Level 2

372 points

Can I move half of my iphoto library to an external drive?

I have a macbook with an 80gb drive, and there is now less than 2gb free on it.

I'd like to split my 20gb iphoto library up, and move half of it to an external drive (maybe even more than half-- I was thinking of only keeping the current year's pictures on there).

Is there a way to do this?

I have multiple external HDs so I'll back the entire library up first, of course.

I'm running the most recent version of iphoto 9 and 10.5.8.

17" imac G5 and macbook, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Aug 16, 2009 9:24 AM

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Answer 1

Niel

Community+ 2026

Level 10

743,543 points

Aug 16, 2009 9:25 AM in response to geek girl

Use iPhoto Library Manager to split the library up.

(46486)

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Answer 2

geek girl Author

Level 2

372 points

Aug 16, 2009 9:28 AM in response to Niel

I don't know that I trust my photos with third party software... and it's 20 bucks, which I don't really have right now.

Isn't there a way within iphoto and apple OS to do it?

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

166,098 points

Aug 16, 2009 9:28 AM in response to geek girl

Here’s the easy way to do it:

Copy the Library to the external

Now you have two full libraries.

On the Library on your Internal - Remove the pics you don’t want to keep from it. (Put them in the iPhoto trash and empty it. Tip: Do this in batches of 100 or so, it won’t trash too many at one go.)

Now you have One full Library on your external, and a smaller subset on your internal.

Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' to select between Libraries.

Managing Multiple Libraries - including moving pics/albums/rolls and metadata between them - is greatly facilitated by using iPhoto Library Manager

Regards

TD

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