How do I get my iPhoto 4 images and albums into iPhoto5?

Question

How do I get my iPhoto 4 images and albums into iPhoto5?

Thought for sure I would find a FAQ listing for this but can't find it anywhere. I copied all my albums and images from CD back up into iPhoto5. But when I log out and log in and open iPhoto5 none of my old images and albums are there. I do see imported libraries for 2002, 2003, 2004 but they are empty. Sorry if this question is redundant (which I'm sure it is) but since I can't find a FAQ file anywhere…

Also, I have a G5 iMac at home and a dual G5 at work. Any way to specify which is which in profile

dual G5, Mac OS X (10.3.9), G5 iMac at home

Posted on Dec 26, 2005 10:11 AM

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Answer 1

casdvm

Level 2

320 points

Dec 26, 2005 11:23 AM in response to Richard Sohanchyk1

Richard:

How did you do the copy? If you accessed the Add to Library under the File menu, it should have worked perfectly.

Craig

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Answer 2

Dec 26, 2005 2:00 PM in response to casdvm

I dragged from iPhotos onto a blank CD and then burned.

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

215,346 points

Dec 26, 2005 2:15 PM in response to Richard Sohanchyk1

Richard:

So you only have jpg files on those CDs, right? There are no other data files, album folder, etc. in there.

I copied all my albums and images from CD back up into iPhoto5.

By that do you mean you dragged them from the CDs into the open iPhoto window? If you dragged them into the iPhoto Library folder then that's the wrong way to do it. You must import the image files into iPhoto from outside the iPhoto Library folder. Along those lines here are two Apple KB documents that you should be aware of, particularly the second one:

iPhoto Library Description
Don't tamper with files in the iPhoto Library folder from the Finder

What happened to your original iPhoto 4 library folder? Do you still have it intact? If you do then you can place it in your Pictures folder, launch iPhoto 5 and it will find it and tell you it needs to convert the library to version 5. Once done you should have your library converted you'll have everything back up and running, including the albums, rolls, keywords, etc.

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Answer 4

Dec 26, 2005 2:29 PM in response to Old Toad

Thanks for the quick response. I copies everything to CDs that was in the iPhoto4 folder including albums. I was able to reimport my images so they are now all in iPhoto5. Now I need to get all my albums back. Thanks in advance.

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Answer 5

Old Toad

Level 10

215,346 points

Dec 26, 2005 2:56 PM in response to Richard Sohanchyk1

Now I need to get all my albums back.

You'll either have to recreate them in the new library as just dragging the Albums folder, etc. into the new library folder will not do the job. Version 5 no longer uses that Albums folder and its contents for creating and maintaining albums.

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Answer 6

Dec 26, 2005 2:59 PM in response to Richard Sohanchyk1

Man, how come when I hit reply my post never goes into the correct location. Sometimes it doesn't even post at all. This is the 3rd time today I'm responding to a prior post.

Toad: I deleted my iPhotos library. Created a new one. Imported Xmas photos from camera. iPhoto 5 now has a library with one album. I copied all the iPhoto4 stuff to a folder on the desktop called "iphoto4 library". This folder has every single file and folder that was on my emac in iPhoto4. Several attempts to place into the picture folder and restarted iPhoto has not worked at all.

I am going to burn the iphoto4 library to DVD tomorrow after work. I will copy this to the desktop and then drag into picture folder. I will then boot up iPhoto. Thanks.

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Answer 7

Old Toad

Level 10

215,346 points

Dec 26, 2005 3:50 PM in response to Richard Sohanchyk1

Richard:

Unless you can burn the iPhoto 4 library to disk using iPhoto 4 it won't make any difference. What you'll need to do now is open iPhoto 5 and go to the File->Add to Library menu item. Then when asked, navigate to the desktop and select the iPhoto 4 library folder. This will import your photos from there into the library. Some of the roll information will be kept but none of the albums or keywords. Unless you have the intact iPhoto Library from Version 4 intact you're limited to the preceding method.

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Answer 8

Feb 22, 2010 10:02 AM in response to Richard Sohanchyk1

Thx

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