Using an external hard drive to back up iPhoto

You are overthinking this

iPhoto use a library - it always opens the last used one

to use your iPhoto ibrary on an external drive

Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)

And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto

And backup soon and often - having your iPhoto library on an external drive is not a backup and if you are using Time Machine you need to check and be sure that TM is backing up your external drive

If you want a second library on your local computer so you can use it when the EHD is not connected 9like on a loptop) you depress the option key, launch iPhoto and create a new library - you switch between libraries by doing an option -launch (on using the switch library command on later version of iPhoto) and move photos/albums/events between libraries using the paid version of iPhoto Library Manager - http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/ -

Never any importing involved in mananging multipl libraries

LN

Ok thank you. The reason I have tried exporting albums and renaming them on my EHD is because I would like to have a back up of my library that is available in Finder without using iPhoto. I know you can access the library in Finder by right clicking to show package contents. But this only lets you see dozens of folders within folders entitled with numbers, and only when you get to the bottom folder can you see names of picture files. As a designer, I need to access my pictures more easily than that and would welcome being able to have my albums named on my EHD. But apparently this is not possible unless I do it the long way round.

I will now move my library onto an EHD to free up my iMac once and for all! It is running so slowly – I have 1TB used up with 170GB photos, 50GB Movies etc. With 480GB free space, my imac runs slowly. It seems to prefer about 520GB or more to run fast.

I realise I will have to set a backup from the extra EHD to my time machine BU disk.

Tess

PS The backup says it's going to take 16 hours!!

The reason I have tried exporting albums and renaming them on my EHD is because I would like to have a back up of my library that is available in Finder without using iPhoto.

That is NOT a backup of your library in any way - it is only a backup of selected photos, two totally different things - haveing a second cop of photos for what ever purpose you want is fine but it is not a backup of your library

I know you can access the library in Finder by right clicking to show package contents.

You "can" but your SHOULD NOT - this is not supported and is very dangerous - there is no reason to do it and you are likely to damage your library sooner or later if you muck around in it

As a designer, I need to access my pictures more easily than that

THen why not do it correctly using the media browser - in every open/upload/attach window on the left under media ==> photos ==> iPhoto - seethe user tipon accessing your files for details on the various supported ways to access your photos

PS The backup says it's going to take 16 hours!!

Ignore that - it will not take any where near that long - the finder does a poor job of guessing about copy times

LN

Hi Larry,

I like the idea of keeping the SD cards and will adopt that approach. I have three different HDs and I have my 'main' iPhoto Library on one of them because I have an old MBP with limited space. Every 30 days I copy the entire iPhoto library over to another HD for back up. Is that the correct process or is there a different / safer method of copying the library to another HD for back up?

Is it possible to use Time Machine to run a back up between the HDs or is that just to back up information from my MBP?

Thanks,

Milo

Every 30 days I copy the entire iPhoto library over to another HD for back up.

A quicker method and one that would let you make frequent backups would be to use a backup applicaiton that will make incremental backups, i.e. after the first full backup only the new or modified files are copied. That does not take nearly as long compared to copying the entire library again at your set inverval.

There are a number of apps that can do one-way, incremental backups, ChronoSync and Synk Pro. are two.

I use Synk Pro to make continuous, one-way, incremental backups of selected folders.

OT

You choice but for me havig only one backup that is an average of 15 days old (unles I forget to do it which I would) is not adaquate for my photos

Time Machine will backup both your internal drive and any external drives hat ar not excluded (by default EHDs are excluded)

I run TM constantly so I have hourly backups - and I do a daily bootable clone of my entier system - and I keep my photos on the source SD card for at least a year - and I do an occasional off site backup

And I have still lost a few photos due to problems but not many

Computers, software and peopole fail and a great currect backup is the only protection

LN

Thanks for the tips, which I will apply. For now, if I were to copy the iPhoto library from one EHD to another, is that a proper method? Literally drag and copy the library over so I have some back up?

It does sound like TM will not work from one EHD to another.

I will adopt your SD card method - I like that idea.

I was curious - would you recommend a service like Carbonite for offsite storage?

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.

Example of such apps: Chronosync- but there are many others. Search on MacUpdateor the App Store

There is no good online backup service for iPhoto. The data sets are enormous, so folks talk of days to restore the data, and the resulting libraries are frequently damaged on restore.

TM works fine backing up EHD as well as the internal drive simply remove the EHD from the excluded list

Cloud backups will not work for the iPhoto Library

LN

Larry, I am looking at your original response to NathanNormShaw on 9/19/13 and I'm already stumped. I am trying to move my daughters photos from my Mac to an EHD but cannot figure out what the "select library" option is. I am a PC user so find using a Mac ultra confusing. Thanks for your help.

depress and hold the option (alt) key while launching iPhoto and use the resulting "select library" window to point to the new location on the external drive

LN

A wealth of information here. I figure I should ask this here, rather than start a new thread. Just to make sure:

Can I use an EHD and plug it into my Time Capsule that will allow me to do the following:

Access photos on the EHD via my Time Capsule wireless connection to use in Iphoto or Picassa on my Mac Book (running 10.9.2 - but a 2009, 2.53 GHz model)?

Could Iphoto use standard files/folders of photos on that EHD as a screensaver file? (I've got 250+ GB of images in very specific folders that I'd be importing from a PC onto the Mac compatible EHD)

Could the Time Capsule be set up to back-up that EHD? (I hope to continue to edit these files on my Mac Book)?

Assuming I can access and work off of an EHD attached via cable to a Time Capsule. Do folks have any suggestions on a specific brand/model of EHD that would work best for this type of file access?

Thanks. I've already erased one of my image archive back-ups by plugging it into my Time Capsule improperly.... I don't want to jeapordize my second back-up (lucky for me) without knowing this is all possible.

Neal

Access photos on the EHD via my Time Capsule wireless connection to use in Iphoto or Picassa on my Mac Book (running 10.9.2 - but a 2009, 2.53 GHz model)?

No. See this article

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168

for more. Note specifically this comment:

“Additionally, storing the iPhoto library on a network rather than locally on your computer can also lead to poor performance or data loss.”

A wireless conneection is a network location.

Sorry but tha seems to render the rest of the queries a bit pointless.

Tried your tip, Terence but had som issues.

I´m running ML on a MB (early-09) and I´m trying to copy my iPhoto library to my EHD (Mac OS Extended Journal formatted) by draging iPhoto Library in Finder from my MB to my EHD. It starts copying but after a couple of minutes "Error code -36" shows up and it says that it can´t read or write some of the files.

I hade the same issues before when the EHD was NFTS formatted, but not since I reformatted to Mac OS Extended.

What do you think can be the problem?

Regards, Filip

That would be due to the fact that you cannot have the Library on an NTFS drive, only one formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)