Where does iPhoto store imported photos?

I'm not speaking from a hypothetical. I had to do this exact operation yesterday for my girlfriend.

Her old computer failed and had been thrown away six months ago. She thought she had lost all her photos and other data.

She had made a time machine backup, but didn't want to restore everything to her new computer. She didn't even realize she had done the backup until long after she had purchased a new system.

I found the time machine files on her external hard drive. Everything was there and easily restorable by dragging the files to her new HD, as the latest time machine backup has all of the latest versions of the current files (older versions will be in older backups)

However, her iphoto library showed no files when it was opened.

So I opened the package and navigated to find all of her old photo masters.

Now they're safely on her new computer and everything works fine, as she reimported them into her new iphoto. She was beyond elated.

While your defense of iphoto is admirable, I think you severely undervalue the simplicity of "just getting the files" and moving them to whatever new purpose they might serve, especially in the case that the iphoto library has become corrupt or seemingly "lost." You guys are having separate debates.

Its simple... use the Media Browser if you want to goto the individual files. Its the same as using My Pictures in a Windows world.

No you don't. You just need to learn how to use iPhoto.

Photoshop: You can set Photoshop (or any image editor) as an external editor in iPhoto. (Preferences -> General -> Edit Photo: Choose from the Drop Down Menu.) This way, when you double click a pic to edit in iPhoto it will open automatically in Photoshop or your Image Editor, and when you save it it's sent back to iPhoto automatically. This is the only way that edits made in another application will be displayed in iPhoto.

And FCP can use the methods above

Regards

TD

Best way is to not back you your photos but backup up your entire disk - Time Machine is one good choice - I use it for hourly backups and a daily clone for a daily bootable backkup

If you just want the iPhoto library you can drag it to the extrenal drive our set up an incremental backup fo rit

Or you can select the desired photos and export them from iPhoto to a folder on the external drive

LN

I've been on the web for an hour trying to search for a workaround on how to easily access my photo files out of the massive iPhoto library. It's comical reading some of the great "defenders" of iPhoto up here. I love my Mac, but it is nothing short of mind numbing how Apple chose to disallow easy access to files.

This is purely an issue of Apple's philosophy, which is well-documented. Apple wants to control precisely how you perform a certain function, in this case, accessing your photos. They want you to do everything through iPhoto. Some may like it this way, I personally find it ridiculous. Neither opinion is invalid.

Anyway as soon as I figure out this workaround, which no doubt will include a different import methodology from my iPhone & iPad, I will likely be using Picasa.

Hi Terance,

Thank you for your reply. You make some interesting points, but you are incorrect on one key area: I DO need access to my "files".

Or at least I believe I do. When I try to use Snapfish or one of the other online photo sites, where I want to select specific photos for print purchases, or sharing an uploaded album, when I try to point the site to the upload directory, the only thing it sees through that dialogue box is "iPhoto Album". I cannot drill down and and point to a specific directory. This, to me, is asinine. And if these discussion forums, Macworld articles, etc are any indication, there are thousands more who feel the same as I do.

iPhoto may very well offer a way to do this, but if it does it is not transparent. And frankly, I don't want to have to become an expert in iPhoto, or go "all in" with their methodology, simply to be able to move some files around.

Apple does many things well, but this to me is not one of them.

Terrance, thank you do much for the detailed response, it is very helpful. It is clear that you have an excellent understanding of iPhoto and the Mac OS in general.

I'm afraid that you may have missed my fundamental point though, which is that is should not require such instructions, (or searching a user forum, etc) to learn how to perform such a basic function as locating photo files.

I never claimed that iPhoto does not allow this or that, but only that Apple makes a deliberate attempt to "encourage" all users to manage their photos through iPhoto. Which obviously requires one to learn iPhoto.

Again I love Apple and the Mac OS in general. But my experience with this one issue related to iPhoto has been very frustrating, and again my point is simply that it shouldn't require such lengths to learn how to perform such a basic function.

This said, I do sincerely appreciate your expertise and insight on this subject, it was very helpful.

because I am trying to retrieve my iPhoto photos from a time machine backup without doing a complete reinstall of my machine through time machine. This is because there is a possibly corrupt file in my old computer which was backed up with time machine, so I did a fresh reinstall and I am manually transferring over what is important from my old time machine backup. This is a totally valid reason for trying to access my photos from iPhoto by file only.

Sorry but I don't think so. Again misunderstanding and a lack of knowledge play their part:

No, because, with respect, you're not trying to access the individual files from iPhoto, you're trying to recover them from Time Machine - an entirely different application.

I would also counsel you to be very careful in what you are recovering. TM stores things in increments and there can be files all over the place within a back up. Your chosen method of "recovery" is not supported because it's likely to miss significant amounts data.

Secondly, you realise that you can just recover the Library only, and not do "a complete reinstall od the whole machine", right? You might like check out the Help on Time Machine for more.

Lastly, as I said above, if you really want to manage the files yourself - and there are solid reasons not to - then just run a referenced Library. I mean, you do realise that it is actually possible to store the files whereever you want? Right? That what you want to do is perfectly possible. It's a simple setting. Uncheck one box.

And, of course, if you were running a Referenced Library, it would not help with your Time Machine issue because TM stores things in increments.

Regards

TD

What you possibility need is a DAM (digital asset management) application like Media Pro 1 which lets you manage your photos via folders but will also let you move photos between folders from within the application, assign ITPC metadat to the files, etc.. It's a muti platform DAM app for professional photographers like Aperture, and others.

Visit The DAM Forum and read about the various apps and their pros and cons. I use Media Pro as my primary DAM and iPhoto for special projects like books, calendars, etc.

OT

Really the key thing is if you want direct access to your photos don't use iphoto because of the way it catalogs you images. I would look into other packages or just save your photos in the picture folder.

The first point is that iphoto is behaving badly (IMHO) creating another event of the same name but with a date qualifier so it makes sense for ME to merge them. If you want iphoto to control your life events as it chooses then ignore the method.

iPhoto creates a new Event for each import. You perhaps might like to investigate the other options for organising in iPhoto. Events are organisation for those who can't really be bothered. They are automatic - based entirely on Date and Time the camera records the photos as taken.

If you're going to use iPhoto - and you shouldn't, really - then you should investigate the other more powerful options it presents: Albums, Smart Albums keywording and so on.

Second point is that my serious edits would be done in RAW and resultant jpgs can be imported after editing. Again this allows me to keep my separate RAW 'negative' files separately. The 'Edit in external editor' option is very slow and has hung my mac several times with the wheel of death.

iPhoto preserves the Original file untouched in every operation. You can always revert to the original file.

Final point is, as you will see from many previous posts, when these databases screw up their index they tend to trash your photos.

Well, if you actually read the posts and not the alarming titles you'll see that no, when the database goes west they don't trash your Photos. The catalogue is damaged but the files are perfectly fine. You do realise they are just stored in folders in the Finder, right?

Plus, like any data on any computer, the simple and surefire protection against this is an up-to-date back up. Your actual photos are at much greater risk from a HD failure than an iPhoto database one.

Yes of course editing any jpeg will lose some metadata every time it is saved. It's a flaw in the jpeg compression The 'current version' held in iphoto has already lost its metadata (it is saved as a jpg in iphoto library) and exporting it does not make it any worse. Also if exported with a suffix a,b,c all versions are available in the mac fielsystem. Exif data is preserved.

No, when editing a Jpeg no metadata is lost. Data will be due to the compressions system, but no, exporting as current does not preserve all the Exif metadata.

iPhoto is about lossless editing of Photos.

I regularly sit down at Windows machines and I find then confusing and difficult to use. But I don't assume that the problem is with Windows. If I'm going to use this machine for a task then I need to learn how the designers intended that task to be accomplished. I invariably find that when I do, then their workflow makes a lot of sense. I don't assume that the designers are wrong. I assume that they are quite bright people. If the app suggested to me for a job doesn't suit, I go look for one that does the job that I want done.

You choose to work the way you want. You're a grown up. But your system is pointlessly complex, lossy and based on a misunderstanding of what iPhoto is, how it works and what it's for. If you took a few moments to explore the app you might find that it can actually do what you are trying to achieve and do it more easily than you're doing right now.

Regards

TD

Thanks for you kind comments but...

but for integration with all the family iDevices over a central NAS

About that NAS... iPhoto needs to have the Library sitting on disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Users with the Library sitting on disks otherwise formatted regularly report issues including, but not limited to, importing, saving edits and sharing the photos. Later versions won't allow running from a NAS and early ones have problems.

Regards

TD

LarryHN,

I imported my first batch of photos incorrectly the first time around. The "import box" was unchecked, and I ended up with a referenced library. I caught that error early, deleted those references, and redid all my work with the box checked (meaning I imported an original file to the iPhoto managed library folder).

So I now have lots of photos working properly with the original file where it should be. But I also have lots of photos that I cannot "Reveal in Finder" because it can't find the source image on my local drive in the Library folder.

Weird.

Thoughts?

Row

Never mind - found them! Under Masters.

Just select them, and drag and drop them into a folder.... I cant find them on the hard drive any other way