Moving and combining iPhoto libraries to external drive

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Moving and combining iPhoto libraries to external drive

I have an iMac desktop computer, set up with multiple users (me, my wife and each of our 3 kids).

Three of us have cameras and have uploaded photos using iPhoto over the years.

I now want to move the photos all to an external hard drive to free up space on the desktop.

I moved my iPhoto library to the external drive without problem. But when I logged in as my wife and attempted to move her iPhoto library, I got a message that said there already was a iPhoto library on the external hard drive.

Is there a way to merge her Library with mine? If so, how? Or bad idea?

Ideally, it seems we would be best served by having a central library with a single copy of each photo, that would be accessible by each user as they logged in and used iPhoto. Is that possible?

Thank you for any insight into solving this.

iPhoto '08

Posted on Dec 10, 2013 4:37 PM

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Answer 1

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Old Toad

Level 10

207,451 points

Dec 10, 2013 4:53 PM in response to NWTrojan

You can use the paid version of x iPhoto Library Manager to merge the other 2 libraries on your boot drive into the copy of the one to have already moved to the EHD and confirmed it's working as it should. The destination merged library will include all of the photos, keywords, titles, albums, descriptions, etc. of the other 3. Once you're satisfied that the library on the EHD contains all of your photos and is working properly you can delete the other 3 to free up your boot drive.

Make sure the EHD is formatted OS X Extended (journaled) with Ownership set to be ignored:

Of course you can alwahys rename your current libraries to reflect who's library it is, i.e. Dad's iPhoto Library, Mom's iPhoto Library and Kid's iPhoto Library and put them all on the EHD. Then each user can open and use whatever library they'd like.

In any event be sure to keep current backups of your libraries (and your other files/documents). The easiest way to do that is with another EHD and Time Machine.

Happy Holidays

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Answer 2

NWTrojan Author

Level 1

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Dec 10, 2013 5:12 PM in response to Old Toad

Thanks for this prompt and helpful reply.

How would I rename the libraries if I wanted to go that route?

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

207,451 points

Dec 10, 2013 5:20 PM in response to NWTrojan

Like you would any file. Click on the library once, click on the Enter key and start typing.

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Answer 4

Oct 12, 2015 10:32 AM in response to Old Toad

Having a similar problem and find your help invaluable. I need to know how I can get to this menu screen to confirm the EHD's format and do settings as you suggest.........thanks.

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Answer 5

Old Toad

Level 10

207,451 points

Oct 12, 2015 11:06 AM in response to indybiznez

how I can get to this menu screen to confirm the EHD's format and do settings as you suggest

Control (right) - click on the hard drive icon and select Get Info from the contextual menu.

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