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chewsa Author

Level 1

0 points

iPhoto onto External Hard drive

I am trying to be able to completely remove iPhoto from my internal hard drive and move it to my external hard drive. I have over 8000 and have no plan on stopping soon 😉

I want to be able to open iPhoto from my external hard drive and see my sorted folders I have already created while it was in my internal hard drive.

I have backed up my iPhotos by copying my iPhoto library to the hard drive, but this does not allow me to actually use iPhoto once it is on the hard drive and/or see the photos as they are saved as a mass amount of unnamed .jpg files and I can never find what I need.

I have read that you copy pictures file to external hard drive then hold options key to select iPhoto to use, but I do not have the iPhoto logo anywhere but in my applicatons folder and not in my pictures file. Am I doing this wrong?

Please help, computer is really starting to run slow!

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Oct 10, 2010 8:50 PM

77 replies

Aug 24, 2012 7:05 PM in response to Yer_Man

Terence, I purchased the WD My studio 2TB, which is formatted for MAC. The firewire made backup much faster the the USB option of my older G Drive that I am replacing.

Also the IPhoto move to the WD went very smooth following the direction given above.

Thank you very much.

JGB_CC

Level 1

0 points

Sep 16, 2012 1:34 PM in response to LarryHN

I'm a new Mac user and trying to drag my iphoto library to my external hard drive. Please -- it must be a simple thing to do, but I cannot figure out how to do it. I'm in Finder, dragging the library to where it shows the external hard drive, but it doesn't work that way, evidently. Can you help? Thanks -- sorry, I know it must be a stupid question to you, but I appreciate your consideration for an old PC user who is a frustrated MAC newbie.

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,414 points

Sep 16, 2012 1:47 PM in response to JGB_CC

Where in the Finder? What happens when you try?

Nov 5, 2012 4:49 PM in response to JGB_CC

JGB_CC

I followed the instruction from the following post:

LarryHN

Re: iPhoto onto External Hard drive

Oct 10, 2010 10:06 PM (in response to chewsa)

You simply quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive (I think you have done this) and then depress the option key and launch iPhoto use the select library option to select the new location - fully test your library and then delete the old one from the internal drive (i suggest testing one more time before emptying the trash)

3.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 27" iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.2), iPhoto 8.0.2, 750 GB OWC EHD, Sony DSC-W150 camera, ATP PhotoFinder Mini GPS

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LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Nov 5, 2012 6:26 PM in response to JGB_CC

@JGB_CC --

Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)

And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto

And backup soon and often - having your iPhoto library on an external drive is not a backup and if you are using Time Machine you need to check and be sure that TM is backing up your external drive

Mar 16, 2013 4:43 AM in response to LarryHN

Thank you for your help

Mrs Shea

Level 1

0 points

May 18, 2013 8:42 PM in response to LarryHN

I followed the directions- I dropped my iphoto into My Passport- I tried to open them and it says I can't because they are in my Time Machine. I am so confused.... How do I fix this?

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

May 18, 2013 8:53 PM in response to Mrs Shea

What exactly did you do? What format is your "My Passport"? are you running Time Machine? What drive is it backing upt to?

Jul 11, 2013 4:19 AM in response to Yer_Man

Hello Terence,

I hope you can help me. I have successfully copied my entire library to an EHD. How do I now ensure that when I sync new photos, they sync to the EHD and that becomes the default, is that possible?

What are your suggestions about backing up to iCloud instead of an EHD?

Cheers 🙂

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,414 points

Jul 11, 2013 4:46 AM in response to Priscilla Tonkin

Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and open the Library on the external. That's now your default Library. All imports will go here.

There is no way to back up an iPhoto Library to iCloud. There is no good way to back one up online. You can share your photos to sites like Flickr or Smugmug, but that's just your photos, not your library.

Jul 11, 2013 7:55 AM in response to Yer_Man

Thank you :)

piano212

Level 1

0 points

Aug 24, 2013 9:19 AM in response to chewsa

Don't know if this has already been addressed but I moved my iphoto library to an EHD and now my screensaver photo disappears whenever I restart my computer. How can I save that photo as a screensaver?

Rescue51

Level 1

0 points

Oct 11, 2013 10:42 AM in response to LarryHN

Hello

I wonder if you can help?

When I try to move my iphoto library, it gives me the message that it "cant be moved because one item is being modified"

How can I find out which item is stopping this?

Thanks

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Oct 11, 2013 10:46 AM in response to Rescue51

reboot your Mac and try again

Oct 30, 2013 7:44 PM in response to Yer_Man

Hi Terence,

I had my iPhoto library on an external hard drive called Drobo, for some reason the external drive will not mount in finder under devices, even though the drive seems healthy.

I have tried talking with Drobo support and they have suggested several steps to try, like changing cables and ports, Disk Warrior etc, none of which helped.

Is there a way to salvage and migrate the iPhoto library back to my main computer?

Kind regards

Ray

iPhoto onto External Hard drive