Time Machine Backup and iPhoto

Question

Time Machine Backup and iPhoto

I have backed up my iMac onto an external hard drive via time machine. I want to transfer my photos from iphoto onto my macbook pro. I already transfered my music by plugging the hard drive into my macbook, opening the hard drive folder, opening the itunes folder and then dragging and dropping music onto my computer. I wanted to do this with my photos from iphoto...but I can't find them in any folders! Did they backup at all?? I'm kind of freaked out because my iMac isn't turning on and its going to be a while before I can get it fixed. I have heard about using the migrant assistant but I'm afraid it will transfer everything from my iMac. All I want are my photos! Is there a way to use migrant assistant and select what I want??

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Sep 13, 2012 3:51 PM

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Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,562 points

Sep 13, 2012 4:03 PM in response to porcelainebirds

You need to locate your iPhoto library. The path it's stored in is located in Preferences for iPhoto.

However you are doing things the hard way, I would recommend starting over and using Setup Assistant which will move data, apps, and settings from an old machine to a new one while leaving the old one alone. Pondini has written an excellent guide to this, I'd recommend beginning where he talks about Second Chance....

http://pondini.org/OSX/SetupLion.html

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Answer 2

Sep 18, 2012 6:00 PM in response to rkaufmann87

If I use migration assistant it won't allow me to choose exactly what stuff I want to be transferred. The ONLY thing I want are my photos. How do I do this? Because I can't locate them. I'm not really that computer savvy to know what "paths" are and whatnot.

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Answer 3

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,562 points

Sep 18, 2012 8:18 PM in response to porcelainebirds

Time Machine won't do this, I provided the answer in the first paragraph of my last post. If you can't locate the path then please click iPhoto: How to move the Library to an EHD and move the library to an external HD (NOT YOUR TM BACKUP DRIVE) then locate where the iPhoto library is on your MBP and copy from the EHD to the MBP. If you are running different versions of iPhoto on the two machines this may not work.

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Answer 4

ricea

Level 1

0 points

Oct 12, 2012 6:30 PM in response to porcelainebirds

Porcelainebirds,

Did you ever figure this out? I want to know whether time machine is backing up my photo's correctly on my EHD so i can cull some photo's from my mac. I have read a lot of these forums and I'm not computer savvy enough to understand all of the answers. I'm also relatively new to Mac and am probably trying to approach this from a PC background. I just want to know whether my photo's are backed up and how to access them if required.

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Answer 5

Oct 12, 2012 6:41 PM in response to ricea

Yes I did. I just buckled and used migration asisstant to transfer everything, yes. everything from my old mac to my new mac. So, it kinda sucked because there was some stuff I didn't want/need on here but well, that's life. You might be able to do it differently using this tutorial http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1229?viewlocale=en_US

So...good luck!

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Answer 6

ricea

Level 1

0 points

Oct 12, 2012 7:00 PM in response to porcelainebirds

thanks. I think i'm slowly coming round to how time machine works

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Answer 7

azartguy

Level 1

19 points

Oct 27, 2012 2:14 PM in response to rkaufmann87

I finally found the iPhoto Library path,/Users/name/Pictures/iPhoto Library but all that does is take me back to the iPhoto application. If I don't want to/for for some reason can't use iPhoto, how do I get to the images?

If TM is working and backing up the Pictures folder, then should I assume it's backing up iPhoto as well? And if so, is it in the .backupdb folder with everything else? Then why can't I see/open those individual images? Adding iCloud just makes more confusing.

I still hold to the old fashioned idea that the data I create is mine and that I should be able to find it (easily) and control where it goes and what is done with it.

Message was edited by: azartguy

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Answer 8

Debby C

Level 1

10 points

Nov 21, 2012 10:40 PM in response to azartguy

In either your current pictures folder or in a time machine version of your pictures folder (which you can view by entering the time machine) do the following:

Right click (control click) on the iphoto library file (it's called iPhoto Library.photolibrary). Select "show package contents". Navigate to the "masters" folder. Take a look at your folders and files. They're arranged by date.

The information is all found in the Apple support page, just search for iphoto masters folder.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3155163

It's not recommended that you alter the masters folder in any way.

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