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Level 1

8 points

backing up photos to external hard drive,and exporting back to CF card on camera

iPhoto 5 on Mac Power PC G4, OS 10.4.11

backing up photos to external hard drive (LaCie) My iPhoto Library contains a number of files (such as 'Library.iPhoto' 'iPhoto.db' 'ThumbJPG.data' etc) and a number of folders with dates such as 2005 etc, containing folders within folders, none of which with any contents.

Is there a way I can organise just the photos on their own so that I can select just those to be backed up on my LaCie hard drive, without all those distracting and (apparently) unnecessary extra files and folders ?

exporting edited photos back to CF card on camera I have tried everything I can think of to export photos from iPhoto back to the CF card on the camera, without success. It must be possible to do ?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Aug 3, 2012 7:52 AM

Best reply

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,396 points

Posted on Aug 3, 2012 8:32 AM

Edit: Note: It's been a while but the Export command may be in the Share menu on older versions...

1. To back up an iPhoto Library

Most Simple Back Up

Drag the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to another Disk. This will make a copy on that disk.

Slightly more complex:

Use an app that will do incremental back ups. This is a very good way to work. The first time you run the back up the app will make a complete copy of the Library. Thereafter it will update the back up with the changes you have made. That makes subsequent back ups much faster. Many of these apps also have scheduling capabilities: So set it up and it will do the back up automatically. Examples of such apps: Chronosync or DejaVu . But are many others. Search on MacUpdate

2. To Back up Just the Photos

Use the File -> Export command to export the images to where you want them.

BTW: there are no user-serviceable parts in the iPhoto Library Folder. Rooting around in there can cause damage.

3. Edited Photos to CF Card is a two part process:

Exporting is just File -> Export. Choosing any setting except 'Original' and you'll get the Edited version.

The CF Card? Just drag and drop there.

But a couple of possible problems: Canon Cameras don't show up in the Finder. So you'll need to stick the card into a USB Card Reader for get them on there

Camera Cards are all formatted FAT. That means there's a limit to the number of items on the top level of the card: Workaround: Export the shots to a folder and drag that over

And, of course, if you want to see the shots in the camera, you'll need to put them in whatever specific folder it uses for the photos.

Regards

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19 replies

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,396 points

Dec 4, 2012 10:38 AM in response to djfrankieflowers

An iPhone doesn’t make iPhoto obligatory. You can use Image Capture (in your Applications Folder) to get images and video off the phone. iTunes can sync with any folder of images to get photos onto the phone. You simply don't have to use iPhoto if you don't want to.

You can leave iPhoto at any time, and yes File -> Export is the way to go. You say that it stops after 60 pictures. What export setting are you using?

If you want to leave iPhoto entirely, then you can recover your photos from the iPhoto Library manually:

Go to your Pictures Folder and find the iPhoto Library there. Right (or Control-) Click on the icon and select 'Show Package Contents'. A finder window will open with the Library exposed. Your photos are in the Masters folder.

Dec 4, 2012 1:07 PM in response to Yer_Man

Thanks for the suggestions!

What if I copy the iPhoto folder on my ext HD and erase the original from my Mac? I would open iPhoto only when the ext HD would be connected to the computer would iPhone accept it and work fine or would iPhoto just create a new iPhoto folder as soon as it wouldn't find the native one in place?

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Dec 4, 2012 1:13 PM in response to djfrankieflowers

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

Dec 4, 2012 3:51 PM in response to LarryHN

Thank you for the clear description. I will try the moving folder option and make sure that TM will see and backup the iPhoto folder relocated on the ext HD.

backing up photos to external hard drive,and exporting back to CF card on camera