How Do I Syncronize Iphoto (6) ith other Macs I have?

Hi Rubber Pants,
There is no easier way. iPhoto Libraries cannot be synced.
The way I do it is the way you have done it. It's the best way I found to keep the libraries the same on my two computers.
The fastest way is using my iPod to transfer the library between computers.

The only other way that might work for you is to put the library on an external drive formated for Macs and have the drive "ignore permissions"

Are you using iphoto 6 on both machines?

Use Chronosync. Works perfectly everytime. here is the link

http://www.econtechnologies.com/site/Pages/About_Us/products.html

ChronoSync brings power and simplicity to the old hassles of keeping your laptop and desktop computers in sync.
ChronoSync is an easy to use data management tool that allows you to efficiently synchronize files and folders from one disk location to another. Using the document-based interface, you can easily identify a group of files, specify a destination, then schedule the action to occur as often as necessary. Perform trial syncs and compare files so you always know the status of every file. Filter out specific files and folders using rules and exclusions. Archive deleted files in case you need to restore an older version. ChronoSync monitors the state of all your files so it only copies files that have been changed, keeping your synchronization time to a minimum. Whether you are doing a simple backup or complex synchronization, ChronoSync is flexible enough to handle it.
Best of all it works great for iphoto!

let me know how it works for you. what a great software

Jan

Questions:

(1) Are your two Macs connected to a network or is one of them a notebook that is periodically disconected from the network?

(2) Would it be acceptable if all but one Mac had only read access to the library? Does each machine need to ability to make changes to the photos or import more of them

I can think of a few ways you could use a common library with more then one Mac but it depends on your goals and usage. Can you tell us in details what you want to do? You say you want to synchronize libraries but that sounds like a solution to some problem

I think what you may really want is what people with UNIX machines have had for 20 years now: You walk up to any screen/keyboard in the building, sign on with a password and the same screen and all your fliles appears there. Basically your login session follows you. You can make this work if you have a fast network

But if "syncronize" is truely what you want then bring up a terminal window and type "man rsync". This will print the rsyn manual page to the terminal. "man -t rsync" will make a printed copy. Read it. "rsync" does exactly what you ask for, syncronizing two directories while using to minimum about of data movement possable.

If the Macs are conected full time to a network it's best NOT to duplicate the data, leave it in one place.

RP:

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. The full paid version of iPhoto Library Manager will let you copy photos between libraries and maintain the keywords, comments, etc. You can also merge libraries.

If you use a synchronization application like Synk you can fairly easily bring the the other libraries up to the same as your primary libraries, i.e a backup from A to B, A to C, (depending on how many Macs with libraries you have). But that means that they all will be just like A. No changes to the others can be made.

If they are always linked together there is a way you can have them all essentially the same as far as having the same source files. Each library can have different albums, books, etc.

This requires you to convert your primary library over to an alias based system ( Tutorials 1 & 2). Then place the source files in your Shared folder where other Macs can have easy, unrestricted access. Then each other Mac create an "alias" based library based on the source files on the primary Mac. Any edits made in any of the libraries will only be recognized by the library that made them. An important caveat of this system is that any new photos be placed in a new folder in the Shared folder on the primary Mac so that other users can compare their rolls to the folders in the Shared folder to determine which to import. Another caveat is that if a Mac become detached from the primary Mac the library will be useable only in a limited fashion. Thumbnails can be viewed, albums created or deleted and keywords, with some aggravation, applied. Any operation that required the full file, i.e. books, slideshows, editing, etc. cannot be performed until the Macs are connected again. This has it's advantages and disadvantages. If a Mac has limited disk space the source files can be placed on the Mac with the most space or an external HD. My 27G of source files are represented in a library of only 1.7G. A big savings.