Masters vs Preview -- and older iPhoto Versions.

Question

Level 1

71 points

Masters vs Preview -- and older iPhoto Versions.

I'm trying to get a handle on my Photos. Seems like every time I get comfortable with how to manage photos in iPhoto, a newer version comes around and changes the game rules. I have new (Macbook Air) and Older (MacBook 2009) machines running different OS version.

MASTERS:

I believe this Folder is a replacement for what older versions of iPhoto called "Originals".

If I drag all of these to an external USB disk (copy, not move):

Will that USB disk contain all of my photos?
Will that USB disk contain ONLY one copy of each photo (e.g. no thumbs, no modified version, etc)?
If I later drag the files from the USB disk into a different or new iPhoto (even a different version of iPhoto on a machine running an older OS), will the photos still contain the original data (date/time/location) as originally included by the camera or phone?

PREVIEW:

I've heard different explanations, so I don't know what to believe. In other version of iPhoto, there were Originals and Modified. Those words seemed a bit more staight-forward to me. Original was what came from camera or import. Modified is what you did to some of the pictures (like red-eye removal). So I'm assuming that the "Preview" folder simply replaces the older "Modified" folder (because there are M is symlinked to P). (BTW, "Preview" sounds like a place that Thumbnails might exist, but from what I can tell it's just an unfortunate choice names). I believe I don't need to copy the Preview folder, because this contains modified copies of some of the masters. I'd end up with duplicates and confusion.

So assuming I can simply drag my MASTERS to an external USB disk, and then later import some of these into other iPhoto libraries, then I should have a fairly straight forward way of splitting them into smaller groups which I can selectively import into ANY version of iPhoto.

I understand that there are also many 3rd party tools (fat cat, etc) to help. Sometimes managing multple version of multiple tools and licenses on multiple machines becomes harder becomes quite overwhelming. And of couse, the tool would have to be compatible with all past, present, and future versions of iPhoto. I prefer to either work within iPhoto when I can, and then work directly with files (finder or shell) for the rest.

I'm trying to manage 60 GB of photos (some movies). There are about 300 movies, mostly small, but a few are huge.

As for as I can tell, there's no way to have iPhoto do any of the following:

Can't sort photos and movies by SIZE
Can't display the KEYWORDs under each Photo while viewing a page full of thumbs.
Sorry, the Info button in iPhoto 11 which shows info for ONE photo at a time in the sidebad is not a solution.
Can't get iPhoto re-organize the Masters folder, by putting my photos into the same hierarchy as my Events (that would certainly make it easier to copy portions of a library to another library or computer).

Posted on Jun 23, 2013 3:01 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,630 points

Jun 23, 2013 3:44 PM in response to cwebber1

Masters:

Yes

Though of course you would never drag anything from the iPhoto Library anywhere. The correct way to do what you want would be to use the File -> Export command.

This User Tip

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4921

has details of the options in the Export dialogue.

No, Previews are not the same as the old modified folders.

With iPhoto 11 all edits or processing is virtual. It's all recorded in the database file. Nothing is committed until you export a file. To save you the bother of exporting every time, Previews are there for when you acces images via Media Browsers and drag and drop. They are medium quality and have very little metadata.

They have nothing to do with thumbnails at all.

No, dragging the Msters folder anywhere does not give you a way to split libraries. A Library is more than just the masters. It's the Masters plus all the work you've done in iPhoto already. You can split a library using iPhoto Library ManagerOr you can duplicate a library and remove the unwanted elements from each version.

If you prefer to work in iPhoto then you never work in the Finder or the Shell. That you try and do so might explain why you have problems understanding the app. It's not designed for that usage. If you can't manage licencing an app on two machines I'm not sure you should be manipulating iPhoto libraries.

Correct there is no way to sort on size. No iPhoto 11 does not show the keywords under the images. NO iPhoto will not "re-organize the Masters folder", nor is there any need to. Your problems are arising because you're doing things that are not supported by iPhoto. Are you sure it's the right app for you?

Reply

Answer 2

cwebber1 Author

Level 1

71 points

Jun 23, 2013 5:54 PM in response to Yer_Man

Thanks Terrance,

You've made some good points. I was thinking it was more straight-forward to just drag a copy of the Masters Folder onto my USB disk. But as you point out, the Export command makes more sense, especially because I can choose between "Current" and "Originals" (among other options). As long as the Original are truly original and there are no side-effects, then I agree this is the better method.

iPhoto vs Other tools...

If you prefer to work in iPhoto then you never work in the Finder or the Shell. That you try and do so might explain why you have problems understanding the app. It's not designed for that usage. If you can't manage licencing an app on two machines I'm not sure you should be manipulating iPhoto libraries.

I really don't have problems understanding the app. I have problems keeping up with the changes. When feature are taken away (like showing keywords under each photo), I have to re-invent the way I work with the tool. I looked at iPhoto Library Manager (nice tool) but it does not have a "sort by size" command. I think sort-by-size is an important parameter when somebody is trying to mange the size of their library. So I made a sorted list (%find . -ls) of files (there were 15,000 of them) from the Mastor folder and found several huge files that I didn't realize were in my library.

I have 15,000 files in my library. Not so different from a lot of iPhoto users. 300 are very large, and only 10 or so of the 300 large files are worth keeping. If I could sort by size in iPhoto, I could very easily find and flag the big files, and then scan through them fairly quickly, un-flagging the ones I'm willing to keep (despite their size). The remaining flagged files, could then be easily deleted from iPhoto.

Reply

Answer 3

LarryHN

Level 10

106,117 points

Jun 23, 2013 7:32 PM in response to cwebber1

Suggest to Apple - iPhoto menu ==> provide i{Photo feedback

LN

Reply

Answer 4

cwebber1 Author

Level 1

71 points

Jun 23, 2013 8:07 PM in response to cwebber1

cwebber1 wrote:

... I looked at iPhoto Library Manager (nice tool) but it does not have a "sort by size" command.

UPDATE:

In iPhoto Library Manager (Fat Cat Software), there is a way to sort by size. In the list view, you can add a "size" column, and then sort by size.

Reply

Answer 5

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,630 points

Jun 23, 2013 10:40 PM in response to cwebber1

iPhoto is a tool for managing Photos and video, not files. iPhoto doesn't care about the size of the file, it treats a 200mb video the same as a 30kb jpeg. It's about the data not the file. If these kinds of things are issues for you, again, I wonder if iPhoto is the tool for you. Why are you trying to 'manage the size of the Library'? If space is a problem just run the Library from an external disk.

Reply

Answer 6

cwebber1 Author

Level 1

71 points

Jun 23, 2013 11:26 PM in response to Yer_Man

Terence Devlin wrote:

iPhoto is a tool for managing Photos and video, not files. iPhoto doesn't care about the size of the file, it treats a 200mb video the same as a 30kb jpeg. It's about the data not the file. If these kinds of things are issues for you, again, I wonder if iPhoto is the tool for you. Why are you trying to 'manage the size of the Library'? If space is a problem just run the Library from an external disk.

I have a MacBook Air with only 256GB, and I travel 4 days a week.

My hard drive doesn't treat a 200MB video the same as it treats a 30KB jpg. My Hard drive is at 92%, and I'm trying to purge some things. I'm finding with iPhoto, it's kinda hard to off-load a portion of the library to recapture my much needed disk space.

Reply

Answer 7

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,630 points

Jun 24, 2013 12:30 AM in response to cwebber1

Again, these may be excellent reasons why iPhoto is not the app for you.

However

I'm finding with iPhoto, it's kinda hard to off-load a portion of the library to recapture my much needed disk space.

Not really. Use an external drive.

Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

1. Quit iPhoto

2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.

Now you have two full versions of the Library.

3. On the Internal library, trash the Events you don't want there

Now you have a full copy of the Library on the External and a smaller subset on the Internal

Some Notes:

As a general rule: when deleting photos do them in batches of about 100 at a time. iPhoto can baulk at trashing large numbers at one go.

You can choose which Library to open: Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'

You can keep the Library on the external updated with new imports using iPhoto Library Manager

Going forwrd, consider Aperture. You can store the masters on an external drive and still view the images without the drive attached - though you can't edit them for obvious reasons.

Reply

Answer 8

Old Toad

Level 10

208,373 points

Jun 24, 2013 10:32 AM in response to cwebber1

FWIW Below are the results of a test I ran regarding editing and exporting a photo out of iPhoto 9.4.3.

You'll notice that files #1, #2 and #3 are the same: the original file from the Masters folder, as dragged to the Desktop and as exported as JPEG Quality = Original.

The same goes for are #7 and #8: the edited file from the Previews folder and as dragged to the Desktop.

As can be seen in the screenshot the pixel dimensions of all the files are the same.

OT

Reply

Answer 9

hmsamuel

Level 1

0 points

Dec 17, 2013 8:19 PM in response to cwebber1

Hello,

I have a similar issue, and I would just like confirmation please? 🙂

I had a 2008 macbook pro and I used time machine to backup. My macbook recently died (completely unaccessible) therefore I need to offload my photos onto my new PC. All I have is the external harddrive. I was able to use "MacDrive" software to allow my PC to read my Mac-formatted harddrive. So now I need to decide which photos to bring over to my computer.

@ Terence Devlin: I know that you suggest using the Export feature from iPhoto, but my Macbook is completely unaccessible, therefore, I will be dragging the files onto my PC.

So my question is: as long as I grab all of the photos from the "Masters" file, I should be good? Correct?? I don't want to lose anything and I want to make sure I get the largest files/best quality.

Also, I definitely have edited some of my photos (cropping, red-eye removal, etc). So those would be in...which folder? And how do I know which photos I edited to know to grab those from my external harddrive?

Thanks!!

Reply

Answer 10

LarryHN

Level 10

106,117 points

Dec 17, 2013 8:23 PM in response to hmsamuel

Masters contains all of the originals exactly as imported - what you will lose is edits and metadata changes - but unless you have a Mac with iPhoto to open the library you can not avoid this

LN

Reply

Answer 11

dusm_lx

Level 1

0 points

Sep 4, 2014 2:13 PM in response to Yer_Man

Terence, probably you can help out on this:

Just read through this conversation, it looks like i have a similar problem. On my Mid10 MBP and with iPhoto11,

i am not able to export any video data. When i try to export a whole event, it only exports the pictures, and error

message appears where I can see that it tries to export from the Preview folder. Should it not export from Masters folder?

What can i do to also export the videos? Only for backup reasons.

Any help appreciated, thanks

Reply

Answer 12

Old Toad

Level 10

208,373 points

Sep 4, 2014 3:18 PM in response to dusm_lx

Some library's get damaged where iPhoto looks for the master video file in the Preview folder:

I found that dragging the video from the iPhoto window to the Desktop will work whereas exporting as Kind = Original does not. So export the photos via the File ➙ Export ➙ File Export menu option as Kind = Original and then drag the videos manually to the folder on the Desktop.

I had a library that did that. I had to use iPhoto Library Manager to rebuild the library in order to get the videos to export correctly. However, in doing so lost all of the projects, i.e. books, slideshows, etc.

Reply

Answer 13

LarryHN

Level 10

106,117 points

Sep 4, 2014 3:13 PM in response to dusm_lx

Video must be exported as kind is original - no other setting will work

and if you want help do not say an error occurs or it does not work - get the exact error message and exactly what happens and why it does not work

LN

Reply

Answer 14

dusm_lx

Level 1

0 points

Sep 5, 2014 9:21 AM in response to LarryHN

ok.so the error message was identical with what OldToad posted.the export function seems to access the wrong folder.

I also tried drag and drop which works fine - it would be easier though to export a whole event instead of pictures separated from videos. Would "rebuild the library" help?

Reply

Answer 15

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,630 points

Sep 5, 2014 10:27 AM in response to dusm_lx

Worth a try bur back up first.

Reply