Single Referenced iPhoto Library or Multiple Managed Libraries

Finding photos

want every picture of my wife - one library - easy - ten libraries very difficult

want every picture in Italy - same, same

Bottom line is that having everything in a single database gives you very powerful search and retreival capabilities - having multiple smaller databases makes finding theing difficult to impoossible - much like an old fashined file based system losing much of the power associated with the database

As to corrupted photos - just as likely in muptiple libraries as in one - but generally photos do not get corrupted - the database structure does - and the repair tools gneerally quickly resolve corruption

LN

guess just dealing with a few thousand photos that can be corrupted

But no photos are corrupted. In 99.99% of cases all that's damaged is the database file. No photos are lost at all. In fact, in your case you even got some you had trashed back, right?

So, what's lost if a Library database is damaged:

Organisation

Editing decisions

both of which can be got back from a back up, or - in very many cases - rebuilding with Library Manager.

I've never had a damaged iPhoto Library. I'm prepared for one, but I'm not expecting one. So, if I have to restore from a back up, yes that will take time because the Library is quite large. But that's far outweighed by the convenience of having a single repository for all my images.

YMMV

Point well taken LN.

Here is my situation. I had 41K photos. Database got corrupted. Nothing, including ILM, could fix it.

I have pics from 2005-2012. The vast majority of the photos corrupted are from 2010.

And when I say corrupted I mean the photos don't show up or if they did, they were half colored solid images and half the real image. Meaning, I think, the actual jpg is corrupted too, not just database. I also couldn't export or extract them. Said they were unreadable. Weird stuff.

Anyway. The last time I looked at those 2010 pics, was well, in 2010 probably 😉.

So, while expert users like yourself have the knowledge to deal with this stuff, I'm betting 80% of users don't. They are the average joe like me.

Why carry around the extra luggage? (again, I'm beting most people don't add as much metadata as someone like you).

When you say that it is just as likely to get multiple libraries corrupted, why is that? If I never opened that 2010 library, except on occasion, then if the 2012 library gets corrupted (i.e. my active every day library), it shouldn't affect the 2010 library right?

I guess for me and some others, the other benifit is using the MBP for travel and keeping only current photo libraries on it. Save space too.

Finally, I have talked to three senior apple support advisors. They have all said independantly that it is best to have multiple libraries. And libraries over 50g are not recomendeed and certainly not over 100g. Is this just fluff they are saying? And why are they all saying it?

In anycase, I appreciate your help.

I wrote the above before seeing TD and DRU replies.

But Rebuilding and ILM didn't help me at all 😟

Your choice

You ask and you got answers - no need to follow the advice - do aht ever pleases you

As to why they say that - No idea - you would have to ask them

I will mention that many, many times on these forums users have reported that the advice here is much better than the Apple Genius advice

LN

Sorry to beat a dead horse. But another facet of my situation and what started it all. Was building a book for the year 2011 photos. Went to buy it. Said one of the pics wasn't available. So I went to the event, clicked the thumbnail and boom... black triangle of death. I was like ***? Come to find out that several other pictures in 2011 didn't work, but in just a few 2011 events.

But then I went into other events and started snooping around... from 2010. Click a few. Black triangle of death.

Here is my point. I was crusing along. Thinking the world of iphoto was roses and unicorns. Not knowing that my daily time machine backups were backing up junk. I now know I had a false sense of security.

So here is my question. If I never found this by accident... I wouldn't know it... maybe for another 10 years.

This begs the question.... how do you know the exact same thing isn't going on in your library?

There is no real way to tell unless you want to click through your 40K pictures, right?

Finally, I am certainly not trying to be confrontational. On the contrary, I am trying to ask thought provoking questions and gain from your knowledge and experience!

I will mention that many, many times on these forums users have reported that the advice here is much better than the Apple Genius advice.

I'll say!!! 😊

Thank you!

BTW... I am trying to go through my corrupted library and delete events one at a time. Par it down to just photos that I have in one book... then I'll try to keep this library on life support to get the book ordered and then trash it. I just got a warning box that said something like I am trying to delete Aperture photos that iphoto can't delete. I have never used Aperture. Don't know of any friends that use it either (so I don't have photos from them in my library).

RIP this iPhoto library. It is beyond gone. DNR. Giving it it's last rights.

Scary if you ask me.

This

And when I say corrupted I mean the photos don't show up or if they did, they were half colored solid images and half the real image. Meaning, I think, the actual jpg is corrupted too, not just database.

isn't actually an iPhoto problem. This is most likely caused by Hard Disk damage.

iPhoto does very litle with your actual photos. It catalogues them, principally, it records things about them - like metadata you add, edits decisions you make - but it rarely actually interacts with the actual file.

So, while iPhoto could, I imagine, create a damaged file like that on export, I find it hard to envisage a scenario where iPhoto could trash the original file in this way.

As for backing up: Note the last para:

My Library lives on my iMac. It’s Backed up to two external hard disks every day. These disks are permanently attached to the iMac. These back ups run automatically. One is done by Time Machine, one is a bootable back up done by SuperDuper

It’s also backed up to a portable hard disk when ever new photos are added. This hard disk lives in my car. For security, this disk is password protected.

I have a second off-site back up at a relative’s house across town. That’s updated every 3 or 4 months.

My Photos are backed up online. There are many options: Flickr, Picasa, SmugMug etc. However, check the terms of your account carefully. While most sites have free uploading, you will often find that these uploads are limited in terms of the file size or the bandwidth you can use per month. For access that allows you to upload full size pics with no restrictions you may need to pay.

Every couple of months I test the back ups to make sure they are working correctly. It’s very easy to mis-configure a back up application, and the only way to protect against that is to do a trial restore.

TD that is why you are a pro and most of us are not 😉

DRU... I do the exact same thing!! orgainze by big events or trips, but then make events called 2012 January Pics for example. All the other pics go into these events. So I might have an events called 2012 January Yosemite and 2012 January Pics.

I also keep a second time machine copy on portable drive and keep it at my work desk. I believe this is what saved me. As best I can tell my photos are on that back up from 6 motnhs ago. But I do that every 6 months. So now I am struggling to try and get those pictures and merge with all the other ones from the last 6 months.

But here is what I am going to do also, in addition to two separate time machine back ups. Sounds like you are contemplating it too.

I simply no longer trust the iphoto library.

I have 236 events. I am painstakingly going to export each one at a time to a separate hard drive.

Then I will have the raw photos organized by event in file folders.

I'll do this every 6 months.

This way I have the actual photos... and if worse comes to worse, I'll I would have to do is import each event into a new library. Which I am going to start doing now.

When you export events, it doesn't hold metadata does it??? But at this point, I don't care about metadata... I care about the photos.

Unfortuantly you simply do not know how to use iPhoto

I have 236 events. I am painstakingly going to export each one at a time to a separate hard drive.

No need - select them all and export checking the export setting the subfolder format to event name

Then I will have the raw photos organized by event in file folders.

Not unless you set kind as original in which case you lose all metadata changes and edits

When you export events, it doesn't hold metadata does it???

It does if you check the boxes to export it

LN

LN. Didn't know I can export more than one at a time. Thank you!

I'm not at my computer right now.

What settings do I use to export the highest quality pics (ie. the size if original pics).

I think there is a setting for maximum JPEG quality if I remember right?

There is also two boxes about retaining data or something that you can check? Maybe one said location or something?

I guess I am asking is there a way to export and save original pic file and metadata? Or are you forced to pick one or the other? For me, who enters some data but not a lot I want to have highest quality images before metadata. But of course both is a bonus.

While asking. When importing to new library can you do more than one import at a time too ?

Thanks again.

Kind = original for an exact copy of the original

For RAW of course the JPEG settings are not used

And for JPEG to get the highest quality you use the highest quality and actual size

Checking all three of the metadata boxes includes the metadata with the phjotos

LN