Where does iPhoto store imported photos?

chipperton wrote:

Thank you all for your help! Can I make a suggestion which will be seen by apple developers? Some people need to access the original files without jumping through hoops to do so. iPhoto should store photos in a way similar to the way itunes stores its media, in a folder accessible by programs such as photoshop fcp, etc... Until then, I think I will be using bridge.

With respect, Chipperton, the OP, opened up the debate for discussion with this statement which is his perogative.

There are several "answers" to that.

A menu option is "supported" by definition. Referenced operation is available in iphoto and Aperture, just that iphoto hides it under advanced settings, not unsupported settings.

Just stumbled upon this discussion. Very interesting....lots of good points and information. While I personally prefer the Windows approach to photo management (eg, create and manage my own filing system...easier to get my head around), I appreciate Terence Devlin's comments. I learned good information from his responses. In fact, I am taking a closer look at iPhoto now. If I can't get my head around the program after 2-3 hours of concerted effort I will use something else.

But I did find Terence's input extremely valuable.

Follow up to my previous post - I spent time with iPhoto today. I'm impressed. I'm coming from a Windows environment where I've managed my own photo file hierarchy for the last 10+ years. I was really worried I would lose the flexibility to arrange my filing system the way I wanted. I was wrong.

Filing Hierarchy:

1) Yes, you can nest folders and albums and consolidate events in ways that make sense. In my case, I like to nest folders as follows: Year-->Month-->Album.

2) I consolidated Events by months (eg, January 2012 or February 2012) to add some structure to the Events that were created when I imported my library. Merging Events is quite easy. But Events are not where the action is. The filing flexibility is in the Albums section (see next point).

3) I like how I can then nest folders within folders and albums within folders (can't nest an album in an album) to create a more detailed hierarchy that works for me. For example, in the Albums bar on the left I have 2012 (a Folder)-->Jan '12 (a Folder) --> Album #1 (an Album filled with photos) (I actually have several Albums per month).

4) I don't care that iPhoto's Folder/Album hierarchy is just a simple mirror and my actual files are stored in a place I shouldn't touch. I can still edit in Photoshop, email photos, upload photos, delete photos, etc. Will I miss knowing exactly where the file is stored and how to get it? I don't think so, but time will tell. I can even print via the iPhoto GUI right to my Canon MP530 printer. I do miss some of the more customizable features found in my Canon print software (eg, filmstrip layout), but for those occasions I can simply fire up the Canon software, export those photos to the desktop where my Canon interface can see them. Since I rarely do special printing this won't be a big hassle.

5) If this system bites and I end up not liking it, my original files are there and I can move them to a more traditional Finder filing system.

6) One more thing...I really like the Keyword system...neat for easy creation of custom Albums (eg, create Album for all pictures containing the keyword "ducks"). I won't tag every photo now uploaded...would be impossible. But adding keywords to select photos going forward is a piece of cake.

Long story short, Terence Devlin's comments earlier in this string made me take a second look at iPhoto and I like what I see. Sure I can make do without this program, but for integration with all the family iDevices over a central NAS I think this will work quite nicely.

Cheers.

Terence - thanks for the heads up. Fortunately we're an all-Apple household and the drives will indeed be formatted for Mac OS Extended (Journaled). The NAS approach is new to me and I'm walking before I run. We have too many iDevices and media on too many different machines. I'm trying to consolidate our files with an always-on approach so all family members can access/sync to our shared iTunes account on the wireless network. If you have any pearls of wisdom here I'm all ears.

Row

Hi TD,

Wrt to your point 5 on 24 March, I found accessing the Master quite useful when wanting to do an on-line backup of the originals of all my photos.

(I do back-up my mac with Time Machine on an external hard drive, but that is not sufficient, for example if both are stollen or my house burns down).

When you do on-line back-ups, you want to limit the space used so to limit the impact on the bandwidth used. Therefore the absolute need is to only back-up the original photos. In Master, there were 10 times less files than in the whole iPhoto Library directory, and at least half the size.

What alternative would you advise for the above?

I do not think iCloud allows to backup photos?

Cheers, Nico

Since you did not give an answer, which most of us in the google,yahoo,wikipedia search world try to find answers to what we want. It makes your answer extremely non informative and more politico.. If I wanted politics I'd of asked the question in my micormanaged office and gotten more than one answer still leaving said issue probably un-answered. Props to user:photosearcher for giving the youtube on PRECISELEY and DIRECTLY how to find with a specific answer to the question. As a Windows convert myself I am finding that the MAC life is more one of buying stuff new (heaven forbid I'm using a 5th Gen 30GB Ipod), staying within the lines of apple products (heaven forbid i am using a Blackberry and not an Iphone, yes Ical,Mail Notes & Contacts sync both ways!! I too found an answer on how to fix that) and secret innuendo like this illusive location of the Iphoto directory. Thanks Guys for the informative answer!! and the laugh on politics even here on apple.com..

Peace...

Terence Devlin,

Maybe you can help with this question. I have been slowly importing my photos into iPhoto 11. I made sure to import the files into the iPhoto library. However, I'm now randomly finding that the source file for many of my imported photos is missing when I click to open the image within iPhoto (error message says original item cannot be found). Many photos are there, but many are not. Thankfully I still have the source image/location intact. But I spent hours importing and creating events and albums. My favorable opinion of iPhoto is about to go out the window if I can't figure out why this is happening. The thumbnails are there...just not the file in the library. I have not changed folder names or changed the file path.

Any help appreciated.

Row

when I click to open the image within iPhoto (error message says original item cannot be found).

That is a characterstic message of a Referenced Library, one where images are not copied to the Library on import.

Regards

TD

Terence - that's the crux of the issue. It's not a referenced Library. I properly imported/copied the images into the iPhoto managed master library folder. I have photos from the same event, imported at the same time, that can be found and others that cannot. It makes no sense. A quick Google search has turned up this issue and I wondered if you knew what was going on.

LarryHN and Terence,

Don't waste your time with this one. Not sure what happened, but I went back to my original files on an external drive and rebuilt the Events in question (deleted then imported again). All seems to be working fine now. It ended up being only a couple hundred images...just took a while to figure out which ones.

Row

Hi Terence

I have tried to read through the entire discussion hoping to find an answer to my question. I don't think it's there, but i did get a good impression of your knowledge and professionalism. Anyway, to the point:

I started using iPhoto by importing pictures from my old windows folders. I then spent quite a while arranging them within iPhoto - sorting out alboms, faces and places. When I did this, I used the default setting of copying the file to iPhoto. Enebtually, the amount of pictures and videos became too large for my Mac Mini, and I decided to move all my pictures and videos to an external (OS formatted) harddrive. Now here is the dillema: I want to keep the original pictures in the external drive, and use iPhoto in reference mode. However, about 80GB of pictures are already stored within iPhoto. Is there any way of extracting the picture files out to the external drive, but keeping all the other iPhoto settings? I can of course move the iPhoto libarry out to the external drive, but then I will still have duplicate pictures there - thus "wasting" 80GB of space.

I hope this was clear enough. Any ideas would be welcome.

LarryHN

I guess my problems starts from my old Windoes habit of keeping my pictures in folders. I seem to think that i may one day need them in that format, and if i move to iPhoto i may not be able to go back...

I don't think it makes sense to keep two sets of files - one in folders and one copied in iPhoto - as this will double my storage needs. If I import all the pictures to iPhoto, and then delete the original folders, is there any way in the future of "going back" and exporting the pictures back into folders? I can't think of a reason to do so other than if I want to go back to a Windows OS...

What do you think?

iPhoto also keeps your pictures in folders after it import all the picture to iPhoto library, you have to keep that setting enabled. You can copy Originals folders to anywhere you want if you decide not to use iPhoto. I am a newbie so wait for experts to confirm.

If I import all the pictures to iPhoto, and then delete the original folders, is there any way in the future of "going back" and exporting the pictures back into folders?

File -> Export... that's exactly what that will do for you.

Regards

TD

By process, user is not supposed to play with Originals folder, if you delete originals folder and you don't have back up of pictures anywhere else too, then you lost all your pictures. I don't think export feature will work in that case as it looks for Originals folder.