Moving iPhoto from internal hard drive to external hard drive

The most common issue is on iPhoto '08 adn earlier that double clicking on an iPhoto library does not open tha tlibrary but opens the default library - but with no information that is just a wild guess

As Larry pointed out it can be difficult to know which library you're working in. If you use iPhoto Library Manager to select and open your iPhoto library each time it will put the library title in iPhoto's top frame:

I have now read all the discussion on this topic and have learned that the only way to find out how to move my iPhoto Library to my external hard drive is pay $50 to Apple Support. I understand that the "experts" want to keep their pictures safe on their internal hard drive. I want to make room on my internal hard drive for my future pictures, while not tossing away the old pictures. Right now I'm really regretting leaving Windows for Apple.

Maybe I should just wait another few months for the new Photos software and see if I can move the library to iCloud, or back it up to iCloud.

Your post is not at all clear

And having the iphoto library on an external drive works perfectly - If you do it right

For free -

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

I have no idea what your problem is but no need to pay anything for an answer

But if you are not happy simply go back to WinDoze - none of the users here will miss you

BTW - for help you need to provide details and context - see Writing an effective Apple Support Communities question

LN

My iMac has OS X Yosemite and Windows 7 with Parallels Desktop. Because I use both operating systems, my external hard drive was formatted FAT32. All my picture files from my old PC had been copied into iPhoto.

I quickly realized that iPhoto would not do enough for me, so I read about Aperture. I even downloaded and printed the entire Aperture 3.5 User Guide and read it for a week. Then, after I installed Aperture, I learned that the external drive had to be formatted MacOS Extended (Journaled). It doesn't say that in the User Guide. I spent another week or two studying Disk Utility and formatted the external HD to work with Aperture. Then I searched for a way to move 2/3 of my iPhoto Library to an Aperture Library. Everything I tried didn't work. I found this discussion and read everything, and no where did I see: "quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive"

I discovered that Disk Utility calls the external hard drive for Aperture "disk 1s2". Using Aperture, I created a library on that disk called "Aperture One". If I drag the iPhoto Library to the external drive probably the contents will not be moved into "Aperture One", but maybe Aperture will be able to recognize it as an unnamed Library. Then I'll have to delete "Aperture One" and rename the unnamed Library "Aperture One". Then I will create a new Library on the internal drive for my future pictures and videos. After that I will use iCloud or another competitor to back up the two Libraries.

Does that sound right?

I was a MSDOS and Windows user for about 25 years. It seems that long-time Apple users don't understand we foreigners who don't speak Apple.

Thanks for your finding the right words and for your confirmation that I do understand it now.

Bill

After that I will use iCloud or another competitor to back up the two Libraries.

no

1 - you can not backup up an iphoto (or Aperture) library to iCloud - there is no such capability and so far no cloud based backup has been shown to work for an iphoto library - you need a local hard drive formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) to backup to

2 - Aperture and iphoto use the same library structure and either can open any library made by either

3 - The library must be on a volume formatted Mac OS extended (journaled)

and I'm not at all sure yet what you are asking - or if you even have a question

LN