Can I move my iPhoto Library to an external drive?

On your Mac? Yes, you can.

• Back up your current iPhoto library.
• Make sure, the drive is formatted MacOS Extended (Journaled) and drag the library to that drive.
• Then double click the copied library to open it in Photo and make it the current iPhoto library.
• Test it thoroughly, if it is working, before deleting the original version.

If your drive has a different formatting, see this document, how to format it to be used with iPhoto:

Format external drives to Mac OS Extended before using with Aperture

iPhoto: Issues with FAT32-formatted drives

Note: Formatting will erase the drive. You need to backup any content you want to keep, before formatting the drive.

Is there a way to back up the iPhoto library on an external hard drive and then instead of deleting the entire original version, can I just go back through and manually delete periods of times on my computer to free up the space? There are some photos I want to have access to at all times.

Also, do you know what to do, if I want to keep backing up newer, more recent photos I take into the same older library?

This User Tip by Terence Devlin describes options how to back up iPhoto libraries,

iPhoto and File Management

The simplest way is to copy the library to an external drive.

And sure, after testing the copy, you can delete selected events from your original library, then would your backup be no longer the backup, but your only copy of the deleted events. In that case you should use two backups, and preferably on different drives.

Also, do you know what to do, if I want to keep backing up newer, more recent photos I take into the same older library?

iPhoto does not support the merging of libraries. You would have to export the photos from th events and import them into your archive library. Or buy iPhoto Library Manager, that supports merging of Libraries.

Another way to keep your backup in sync with the original would be using clones of your disk as backup or TimeMachine.

I am running Time Machine on another external hard drive, so I heard that on my Time Machine, I can also back up the other external drive. So that would put one copy on EHD #1 and one copy on EHD #2 . . . so then I guess my Time Machine on EHD #2 would be my backup for my newer photos . . . so then I wouldn't need to merge my new ones with my old ones on EHD #1. Is that what you are saying?! Thank you for your help!

I have created two iPhoto libraries, one on my Mac and one on an external drive. The library on my external drive shows up as my default. Do you know how I can make the one on the Mac the default? Thank you!

Susan,

iPhoto will use your last opened iPhoto library as your default library. What is your iPhoto version?

With iPhoto '11 you would simply use the menu "File > Switch to Library" ( or hold down the alt/options key while launching iPhoto) and then direct iPhoto to the library you want to use.

The next time this library should show as the default library. If not, there may be a problem with your iPhoto preferences files in your user library.

-- Leonie

Hi Leonie,

I am using iPhoto 9.5.1. Thanks for the instructions for launching and switching libraries.

Susan