Moving large iPhoto library from MacBook Air to iMac

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Level 1

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Moving large iPhoto library from MacBook Air to iMac

I just got back from a trip to China. I brought my MacBook Air and dutifully uploaded each day's photos from my SD cards to my Air each day. I just got home and have a library that is 98 GB big. I know how to transfer the libary to my iMac but it says it will take 3 days to do it via WiFi (I know it will probably take less than that but still, even if it's one day, that is a bit long).

Is there any faster way of moving the library from my Air to my iMac?

iPhoto '11, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on Jul 16, 2013 5:20 AM

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Answer 1

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mende1

Level 10

93,538 points

Jul 16, 2013 5:24 AM in response to outtacontext

The easiest and fastest way to transfer the iPhoto library is to use an external drive. It's not expensive and you will save time.

First, get an external drive and use Disk Utility to format it in "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" as Format > http://pondini.org/OSX/DU1.html

iPhoto libraries are stored by default in Pictures folder, so if you didn't change anything, plug the external drive to your MacBook Air, open a Finder window and choose Pictures in the sidebar, so you will see the iPhoto library. The only thing you have to do is to highlight the iPhoto library and press Command and C keys to copy it.

Then, select the external drive in the Finder sidebar and press Command and V keys to paste it. Finally, plug the external drive to the iMac and copy the iPhoto library to Pictures folder, so the next time you open iPhoto, you will see the photos

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