iPhoto Catalog - Surviving Leopard to Mountain Lion

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iPhoto Catalog - Surviving Leopard to Mountain Lion

My sister has a 2008 8,1 model iMac running Leopard and wants to make the jump to ML, and I get to do tech support for her.

The machine is qualified to do this, however, lots of things happend to iPhoto in between and I want to ensure that her photos don't get messed with. I've got her at least finally buying an external HDD and making a backup (albeit Time Machine) first.

I think that box has a 250GB internal, so I will probably talk her through partitioning a 500GB secotor for TM on a 1-2TB external. OK, backup done.

On the remaining space, can she export everything out of Leopard's iPhoto in one action? (To be imported back in later)

This may or may not be really necessary - just good caution.

Pretty much most all her other files to backup redudantly can be drag copied over onto the extra blank HDD space on the non-TM partition. It's the "hidden" nature of iPhoto files that's of most concern.

I'll be doing the step by step MacOS upgrade path for her. Leopard -> Snow -> Lion -> Mountain - Does she need to launch iPhoto in between each step so it can process the upgrade steps one by one?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3), i7 - 27" 2.93GHz

Posted on Nov 5, 2012 1:52 AM

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Answer 1

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Yer_Man

Level 10

162,308 points

Nov 5, 2012 2:27 AM in response to igirl1

Upgrading the OS does not upgrade iPhoto. So, make a back up and upgrade your OS.

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

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Answer 2

igirl1 Author

Level 1

89 points

Nov 5, 2012 3:06 AM in response to Yer_Man

Thanks Terence, I wasn't sure if iPhoto upgraded itself in that path - it feels like 10 years since I was on Leopard - but forgot to mention that I'll have her upgrade iPhoto as well (to iLife '11) in this process.

I was going to just have her do a TM volume backup, then also drag copy her Home folder to the other new volume. That would also pick up all her other files as well as the iPhoto library, no?

I use Carbon Copy Cloner myself, and also Chronosync occasionally (different reasons). Super Duper is another good one.

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,308 points

Nov 5, 2012 3:13 AM in response to igirl1

Make your back ups.

Upgrade the OS first, then when that's all done purchase iPhoto on the App Store. It will upgrade the Library when you run it first. There's no need to do anything at all until the OS work is done.

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Answer 4

igirl1 Author

Level 1

89 points

Nov 5, 2012 3:28 AM in response to Yer_Man

Yes - thanks again!

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