Alternatives to iPhoto Library Manager?

Question

Level 1

18 points

Alternatives to iPhoto Library Manager?

A friend asked that I copy several photo collections onto a thumb drive for transfer to her machine.

Both my friend and I have iPhoto.

I tried using iPhoto Library Manager to copy some of my events into a new iPhoto Library on my friend's 32 GB thumb drive. (I don't want to copy my entire library over, as my iPhoto collection totals over 50,000 photos.) iPhoto Library Manager gave me a warning message that I need to purchase the software in order to copy photos from one library to another. As I have no real long-term use for iPhoto Library Manager, I would prefer not to buy it.

Are there any freeware alternatives that allow me to copy specific events from one iPhoto library to another? I want to do this to preseve some of the information (including informative Event titles) so my friend can navigate all these photos more easily.

An alternative might be to duplicate my entire iPhoto library and then delete most of it, leaving only the stuff my friend needs. This sounds like a VERY laborious route to take. (Unless iPhoto makes it easy somehow.)

MY HARDWARE

iMac 13,1 (late-2012) 2.9 GHz Core i5, 1 TB HDD, 8 GB RAM

MY SOFTWARE

MacOS 10.8

iLife 2011

Toast 9

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8), late-2012 Core i5, 8GB RAM, 1 TB HD

Posted on Nov 7, 2013 5:15 PM

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,308 points

Nov 7, 2013 11:32 PM in response to Walt_Atwood

Library Manager will only copy a limited number at a time in trial mode. Once you buy that restriction is lifted.

As for alternatives, no there are none at all, not to mind free ones.

That said, what exactly do you want to copy... Copying with Library Manager gets everything - Original, edits, edit history, all the metadata, faces and so on.

If you don't want everything then you can simply export from your iPhoto to a folder on the desktop. Copy that folder to the other machine and there import. This process will have the following limitations:

- you will need to choose between the original and editied version, you won't get both and you'll lose the edit history (the ability to revert to the original, if you export the edted version)

- You won't get the Faces.

Petty much everything else can be exported. If you wan to preserver the Event titles then simply create a folder on the desktop. Name it for the Event. Export the contents of that Event to the folder. Repeat.

This User Tip

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

has details of the options in the Export dialogue.

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Answer 2

Nov 8, 2013 6:56 AM in response to Walt_Atwood

Hi Walt

I am no expert but I have software called iPhoto to Disk. It is similar to and costs about the same as iPhoto Manager. It is very easy to use. My recollection is that I bought it (IPtoD) on the basis of the on line reviews.

Hope this helps.

Rachel aka Shackleton #1

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,308 points

Nov 8, 2013 7:06 AM in response to Shackleton#1

Photo To Disk is really nothing like iPhoto Library Manager at all, either in intention or capability.

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