My iPhoto put some photos in backup and some in desktop

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cyrano7 Author

Level 1

15 points

My iPhoto put some photos in backup and some in desktop

About a year ago, the iPhoto from my backup external drive would open up when I connected my camera.

I did not notice this, and for 6 months or so, all my new photo went into the iPhoto on the external drive.

Then, for some reason, the iPhoto on my Mac started opening up (like it is supposed to). And all new photos went there.

1. I do not think I can open both iPhotos at the same time, so dropping and dragging is not an option. Or is it?

2. How do I get the 6 months of photos from my backup drive, to my desktop?

3. I presume there is a way, but I dread that in attempting to combine the two iPhotos, I end up losing photos.

Thanks.

iMac (27-inch Late 2009), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Feb 17, 2013 12:57 AM

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Answer 1

Paul_31

Level 6

14,160 points

Feb 17, 2013 1:16 AM in response to cyrano7

So, when you launch iPhoto on your Mac does it look at the library on your Mac and not the external?

If so, to get the pics from the external to your Mac you could point iPhoto at the library on the external, launch iPhoto and export all the photos you want to a folder on the Mac and then quit iPhoto. Now point iPhoto to the photo llibrary on the Mac. Launch iPhoto and import the photos you exported from the external.

To change which library iPhoto is pointed at, launch iPhoto whilst holding down the Option (Alt) key and you get the opportunity to select a different library.

There may be other ways of doing this, but you could try this. I assume you keep a backup of all your important data, just in case.

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Answer 2

cyrano7 Author

Level 1

15 points

Feb 17, 2013 1:34 AM in response to Paul_31

Got it, thanks.

Will I have to import the whole 60GB library or can I select only certain albums or folders or photos?

And to be clear, I:

1. Open the external library, select folders, and click export.

2. Hold down option, open Mac library and just click import?

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Answer 3

Paul_31

Level 6

14,160 points

Feb 17, 2013 1:45 AM in response to cyrano7

You can just select the folders you want - I use 'Events' rather than folders and it works for me if I just click on the Event I want and go to File>Export. I'm guessing it'll be the same for folders.

When you hold down the Option key you will see the window in the image below. Click where indicated and navigate your way to the external library.

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Answer 4

cyrano7 Author

Level 1

15 points

Feb 17, 2013 2:46 AM in response to Paul_31

Yes, events is the term I should have used instead of folder. I guess I can import albums in the same way.

My plan is to try to export an unimportant event, or one that is already on the Mac. If that works, I can export more and then all.

Quick question. I have only one iPhoto, for about 3 years of photos. Is that common, or do many people have several iPhotos, one for every year, or different facets of their life? I realize that is not a tech question.

I am thinking of starting a new iPhoto for 2013, instead of continuing the old, big one.

Thanks.

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Answer 5

Paul_31

Level 6

14,160 points

Feb 17, 2013 3:06 AM in response to cyrano7

Quick question. I have only one iPhoto, for about 3 years of photos. Is that common, or do many people have several iPhotos, one for every year, or different facets of their life? I realize that is not a tech question.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by this. iPhoto is the application and I only have one copy of the application on my system I would imagine that is the case for most users.

I don't have a huge photo collection and all of them are contained in the iPhoto library on my internal drive. I then organise them into Events (my preference over albums), with the events being given obvious titles, e.g. Summer Holiday 2012, Golf Trip 2009, etc. Is this what you mean?

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Answer 6

Klaus1

Level 9

52,749 points

Feb 17, 2013 3:07 AM in response to cyrano7

Bad idea to have more than one iPhoto library running. iPhoto is good for up to 1,000,000 photos, so just keep the current one running!

But yes, sort the photos into albums, one for each year, and one for each session, as you like. I have 16,000+ photos from 1850 onwards organised by year!

(And keep backups on two separete external hard drives)

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Answer 7

cyrano7 Author

Level 1

15 points

Feb 17, 2013 1:31 PM in response to Klaus1

Sorry for this simple question.

How do I find the iphoto library on one of my external discs?

I backed up the drive as a Time Machine and then now I use it as a drop and drag external drive.

I opened the:

Macintosh HD folder

and found folders called

LIBRARY

SYSTEM and one in there called LIBRARY

However, I find no folder called PICTURES or IPHOTO.

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Answer 8

Paul_31

Level 6

14,160 points

Feb 17, 2013 1:37 PM in response to cyrano7

It's not the route you're taking. Best not to mess with any of that.

On the external (if it is a full backup of your internal Macintosh HD) the route should be:

Macintosh HD>Users>Your Username Folder>Pictures.

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Answer 9

cyrano7 Author

Level 1

15 points

Feb 17, 2013 1:46 PM in response to Paul_31

You are the man!

Thank you so much.

Also, because I am paranoid of losing photos, whenever I import photos into iPhoto, I also drop and drag them onto a folder on the desktop. That way I have two separate sets (perhaps in case the iPhoto program melts or something.)

Good idea? Commonly done?

Also, not to be slow. You recommended that I have only one iPhoto library. I'm a professor and I thought it might be an idea to create a new iPhoto and have two, one for personal, one for school. The downside would be having to manually select which library to open.

Thanks.

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Answer 10

Paul_31

Level 6

14,160 points

Feb 17, 2013 9:56 PM in response to cyrano7

I've only ever used one library so that's the limit of my experience. I just organize everything within that one library, which works for me.

However, there is a program called iPhoto Library Manager which may work well for what you want to do:

http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/

I've never used it and you may want to do some research on it, but I see it is available in trial mode before commiting to purchase.

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