mauigumdoc

Q: move iphoto library to external hard drive

Is it possible to move the iPhoto library to an external hard drive?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.1.x)

Posted on Apr 22, 2011 9:51 AM

Close

Q: move iphoto library to external hard drive

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

Previous Page 2 of 7 last Next
  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Dec 17, 2011 8:37 AM in response to Hardcyber
    Level 10 (85,624 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Dec 17, 2011 8:37 AM in response to Hardcyber

    in teh Time Machine preferences verify that the EHD is being backed up

     

    LN

  • by a1asdfcd,

    a1asdfcd a1asdfcd Jan 18, 2012 9:29 PM in response to mauigumdoc
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 18, 2012 9:29 PM in response to mauigumdoc

    This has been very helpful.

     

    Anyone have any insights as to speed? Are all external drives created equal? I imagine not.

     

    I can do the research, but if you've found a helpful thread on the subject, I'd love a link.

     

    THanks!

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Jan 18, 2012 11:11 PM in response to a1asdfcd
    Level 10 (139,597 points)
    iLife
    Jan 18, 2012 11:11 PM in response to a1asdfcd

    I have found no discernable difference in performance with any USB 2 or Firewire drives.

     

    Regards

     

     

    TD

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Jan 19, 2012 9:24 AM in response to a1asdfcd
    Level 10 (141,617 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 19, 2012 9:24 AM in response to a1asdfcd

    FWIW I use Other World Computing FW drives: OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro FireWire 800/400, eSATA + USB2 external Solutions up to 2.0TB - Plug & Play Quad Interface.

     

    I've had very good results with them.

  • by yarrawonga,

    yarrawonga yarrawonga Feb 9, 2012 2:27 PM in response to mauigumdoc
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 9, 2012 2:27 PM in response to mauigumdoc

    Hi, I have read your thread and had previously used an EHD to operate my iphoto library - all went well until the EHD crashed. Now I am a bit hesitant to do it again as there dont seem to be a way to back up the iphoto library FROM the external hard drive? Does anyone know how to do that?

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Feb 9, 2012 2:35 PM in response to yarrawonga
    Level 10 (141,617 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 9, 2012 2:35 PM in response to yarrawonga

    there dont seem to be a way to back up the iphoto library FROM the external hard drive?

     

    Yes, you can backup an iPhoto Library that's on a EHD.  All you need is a second EHD to save the backups to. Hard drives do crash on occasion so that's why you want to have more than one location where you save your backups to whether those two locations are the boot drive and an EHD or two EHDs.

  • by yarrawonga,

    yarrawonga yarrawonga Feb 10, 2012 5:38 AM in response to mauigumdoc
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 10, 2012 5:38 AM in response to mauigumdoc

    Hi, thanks! I thought so too, seemed an easy thing but I ve taken everything to an apple store and they told me it ALWAYS has to go via the laptop or computer. Problem is if 1 EHD is baking up the computer I need another one to transfer the library to and a third one to back up the second one right? But it only seems possible to tell my EHD to back up a computer not another EHD....sorry I am not the most experienced apple user ever...

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Feb 10, 2012 9:29 AM in response to yarrawonga
    Level 10 (141,617 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 10, 2012 9:29 AM in response to yarrawonga

    That's not so.  Time Machine will backup not only your boot drive but any EHD connected to it.  In fact it's up to the user to specify if they don't want a specific EHD to be backed up by TM:

    System Preferences001.jpg

     

    Therefore put your library on EHD1 and run it form there.  Then have Time Machine on EHD2 make backups of both your laptop and EHD1.

  • by sandman_gr,

    sandman_gr sandman_gr Feb 16, 2012 7:59 AM in response to mauigumdoc
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 16, 2012 7:59 AM in response to mauigumdoc

    I have a similar problem - moved the iPhoto library from the drive of my iMac to an external one, formatted as needed in MacOS extended. But the iPhoto sees only some of the photos, it has the original folder structure but without most of the photos in the folders. The original photos are all inside the library (checked the folders). I tried all available options given by iPhoto with the cmd+opt start but still no solution. Any ideas?

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Feb 16, 2012 8:20 AM in response to sandman_gr
    Level 10 (139,597 points)
    iLife
    Feb 16, 2012 8:20 AM in response to sandman_gr

    Sounds like you need to redo that copy, no?

     

    If that's not possible:

     

    Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.

     

    Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one. 

  • by 1975AUTiger,

    1975AUTiger 1975AUTiger Feb 19, 2012 5:07 AM in response to mauigumdoc
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 19, 2012 5:07 AM in response to mauigumdoc

    I am trying to move my iPhoto library to an EHD. I have about 30K photos and 100 videos in the iPhoto library. When iPhoto is running my Mac really slows down. I was able to move all the videos I had in my iMovie library to a hard drive and access them with no problem. I would like to do the same with the iPhot library. I copied the iPhoto Library to the drive. When I launch iPhoto, holding down the "option" key I get a menu that only shows the iPhoto Library on my internal drive. I tried choosing the "Other Library" option, but when I try to select the iPhoto Library on the EHD there is no response. I am using iPhoto '11 and a the EHD is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) and is connected using a USB cable.

     

    Any advice would be appreciated.

     

    Thanks

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Feb 19, 2012 7:39 AM in response to 1975AUTiger
    Level 10 (139,597 points)
    iLife
    Feb 19, 2012 7:39 AM in response to 1975AUTiger

    As iPhoto is not seeing a valid library there I would guess the copy over  didn’t work. Try again.

  • by 1975AUTiger,

    1975AUTiger 1975AUTiger Feb 20, 2012 10:52 AM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 20, 2012 10:52 AM in response to Terence Devlin

    I am not sure what I might be doing wrong. I have tried again, I have selected the iPhoto Library folder from directory, selected "copy "iPhoto Library"", I then went to the My Book EHD and pasted the iPhoto Library. It shows up when I go to that drive, but it still does not show up when I open iPhoto holding down the option key. I check the info on both files and they are the same.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Feb 20, 2012 10:53 AM in response to 1975AUTiger
    Level 10 (85,624 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Feb 20, 2012 10:53 AM in response to 1975AUTiger

    Rather than copy and paste try just dragging the iPhoto library over -

    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

     

     

    LN

  • by 1975AUTiger,

    1975AUTiger 1975AUTiger Feb 20, 2012 1:42 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 20, 2012 1:42 PM in response to LarryHN

    I think I figured this out. For some reason there are four folders on my Mac labeled "iPhoto Library" but all but one are virtually empty,or have a small amount of data in them. Two have a photo or two and some other data, but are not the "real" library which has about 110 GB of data in it. I should have realized this, earlier, but I was misreading the size to be GB's when it actually was MB's. Unfortunately I can't move the library right now due to other tech problems that developed this afternoon, the EHD I use for TM just spontaneously shut down. It may have overheated. I have to work through this, possibly using my working EHD for backup until I resolve what is happening with the one I use for TM. Thanks for the help.

Previous Page 2 of 7 last Next