Creating iPhoto libraries by year on internal & external HD

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Level 1

4 points

Creating iPhoto libraries by year on internal & external HD

Hi there,

I have converted over from PC recently and want to get on top of my photo management.

Currently (as most PC users do) I have photos filed in YYYY/MM/DD Event format on my PC and a copy on my External HDD as a back up. Before I go and import them all onto my macbook, I want to make sure I am setting it up correctly so that I dont was internal HD space. I am happy to keep the bulk of the photos on the external drive, but I want to be able to pull sections (i.e. one year at a time) over to edit, save and create albums/print etc from. Being a laptop I will want the year project I am working on to be on the internal drive so I can lay about on the couch and do it rather then sitting at my desk connected to the external HDD all the time (I use a Seagate 1TB system and it requires power).

The way I am thinking to do this is to create a iPhoto Managed Library for each year (letting go of my file structure from PC days which is hard to do but I think necessary to move over to Mac way of thinking). I will create all the libraries for the years on the external HDD and then when I want to work on a certain year, I will drag that year library over to the macbook, work it, create albums to print etc and then move it back to the external HDD when it 'complete'.

Is this the easiest/best way to do this? I created a trial run with a referenced library for 2013 but as soon as I disconnect the external HDD, I no longer have editing access to the photos, just got the thumbnails.

I have been following Terence Devlins posts on managing iPhoto libraries but I cannot see if this specific question has been answered anywhere.

Any thoughts much appreciated.

Cheers,

Cathy

iPhoto '11, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2), iPhoto 9.5.1

Posted on Mar 16, 2014 1:45 AM

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

166,098 points

Mar 16, 2014 2:06 AM in response to cathygiliam

The problem with the system you have been using on your PC:

I have photos filed in YYYY/MM/DD Event format on my PC

(and which you can equally do on your Mac of course) is that to find a photo, you need to remember the date. What year did we go to Paris? Was it 98? 99? and so on. By having a separate library for every year you're recreating that problem. You still have to remember the year you went to Paris. And there are limitations too. What if you want a photo album of your sone or daughter? You can do one by year, of course, but children do things across years to - football seasons, school years all inconveniently straddle the calendar year.

I would suggest the following:

One managed Library on the external. That has everything in it.

On the laptop a smaller library for each year you're working on.

Use iPhoto Library Manager to move all the photos, versions and metadata back and forth as needed. It's the only way to move all the version histories and metadata between Libraries.

Two things to remember:

That library on your external needs to be backed up to (at least) another external.

The external drive needs to be formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

iPhoto Library Manager

That said, if you want to do a library-per-year then you can create as many Libraries as you like:

Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Create Library'

and the same keystroke will allow you switch libraries.

And to explain why a referenced library is not the way to go:

For more on iPhoto and file management see this User Tip:

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6361

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Answer 2

cathygiliam Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 16, 2014 2:22 AM in response to Yer_Man

Thanks for the quick response Terence.

I have already read your user tip (and bookmarked it for future reference as it is a lot for an ex-PC to take in!). This was actually the tip/comment that had finally converted me from being referenced so thank you for making it so clear.

In order to 'create a smaller library for each year I am working on' - how do I do that? Do I have to purchase IPLM first and expect there may be guidance in there?

On another note, I formatted my external HDD to cope with both Mac & PC (exFAT) - I am guessing if I go down the path of Mac OS Extended (Journaled) that my PC will no longer like it? Are you suggesting that it is time for me to stop going back to PC for comfort and support and turn my life fully over to Mac?? In the mean time, to reformat it I will have to move all the photos off it and onto my Mac - do I just copy and past them into Finder (if that is possible) or do I import them into iPhoto on the internal HD and then format the external and move it all accross once finished?

Still have to move all my video over from my PC as well so the external drive will no longer take it once formatted - any suggestions there?

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

166,098 points

Mar 16, 2014 2:48 AM in response to cathygiliam

In order to 'create a smaller library for each year I am working on' - how do I do that? Do I have to purchase IPLM first and expect there may be guidance in there?

That said, if you want to do a library-per-year then you can create as many Libraries as you like:

Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Create Library'

and the same keystroke will allow you switch libraries.

In the case that you're thinking of using the system I suggest, once you have completed a year's work and transferred the result back to the main library, then trash the Library on the internal and make a new one. - as above.

Can I strongly urge you to download the free trial of Lbrary Mansger and expolore - they have an excellent help section with the app and the website.

Are you suggesting that it is time for me to stop going back to PC for comfort and support and turn my life fully over to Mac??

No, I'm telling you that and iphoto Library will be damaged if you put it on another disk format. Life advice is the subject of another forum 😉

If you're (understandably) nervous, then I suggest that you buy another external - as I said above, you'll need ti anyway, and work with that until you feel comfortable.

No, PCs do not natively write to formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) disks. I use drag and drop for large amounts of data, I find it more reliable than cut and paste.

I don't understand your comment about video, sorry.

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Answer 4

cathygiliam Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 16, 2014 3:21 AM in response to cathygiliam

Scroll down please - couldnt see your comment in communities, only from email.

"

In order to 'create a smaller library for each year I am working on' - how do I do that? Do I have to purchase IPLM first and expect there may be guidance in there?

That said, if you want to do a library-per-year then you can create as many Libraries as you like:

Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Create Library'

and the same keystroke will allow you switch libraries.

In the case that you're thinking of using the system I suggest, once you have completed a year's work and transferred the result back to the main library, then trash the Library on the internal and make a new one. - as above.

Can I strongly urge you to download the free trial of Lbrary Mansger and expolore - they have an excellent help section with the app and the website.

Are you suggesting that it is time for me to stop going back to PC for comfort and support and turn my life fully over to Mac??

No, I'm telling you that and iphoto Library will be damaged if you put it on another disk format. Life advice is the subject of another forum 😉

No, PCs do not natively write to formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) disks. I use drag and drop for large amounts of data, I find it more reliable than cut and paste.

I don't understand your comment about video, sorry."

Thanks again Terence. Got your response via email but it isnt showing up here in the forum. I will look into that life advice forum later on I think...:)

I downloaded the trial IPLM app and will have a play with it.

To be clear for my tired brain - If I was aiming to manage the libraries via IPLM as you suggested, do I just create libraries and work them in iPhoto as per usual (as above), and then use the library manager to move them back and forth, merge etc as needed? I think this is what you are telling me above but not sure.

I will have a go at doing this over the next few days and repost if I have any questions re: the photo management.

In relation to the video I was asking that if I deal with the photos first, and reformat the external HDD, then I wont be able to connect to the PC again to move the video off. So I guess I should just move everything that I want to keep off the PC, then reformat and then can save iPhoto library back to the external HDD, and deal with getting my mind around iMovie at a later date. I am just concerned with filling up my internal drive as I have already had a problem with space (I accidently duplicated my iTunes library so fixing that cleared up a heap of space, but it has made me uber conscious of it).

Thanks again.

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Answer 5

Yer_Man

Level 10

166,098 points

Mar 16, 2014 6:51 AM in response to cathygiliam

If I was aiming to manage the libraries via IPLM as you suggested, do I just create libraries and work them in iPhoto as per usual (as above), and then use the library manager to move them back and forth, merge etc as needed?

You can do it either way, as you prefer.

I would certainly agree tha you should sort out one issue at a time. Wait a little before moving to iMovie.

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