I would like to archive my iPhoto photos to external hard drive, what would be the best/easiest way to do this? I had copied the whole iPhoto folder across but I would like to leave more recent photos in iPhoto then add them to external periodically.
iMac
The easiest way is to have an external drive that is formatted Mac OS extended (jorunaled) and move the iPhoto library to it then create a new library on the internal drive and use iPhoto Library Manager to move photos between the two - be sure that your backup software is backing up the external drive - usually by default they do not
LN
Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
Now you have two full versions of the Library.
3. On the Internal library, trash the Events you don't want there
Now you have a full copy of the Library on the External and a smaller subset on the Internal
Some Notes:
As a general rule: when deleting photos do them in batches of about 100 at a time. iPhoto can baulk at trashing large numbers at one go.
You can choose which Library to open: Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'
You can keep the Library on the external updated with new imports using iPhoto Library Manager
Thanks for your replies. Making two versions sounds good, I will give that a try.
I already have time machine set up to back up iPhoto to an external HD but I would like to have an additional external HD with majority of my photos stored on it to keep at another location in case of theft/fire etc. Do I just 'drag' the iPhoto Library to this additional external hard drive. As I won't b using IPhoto Library Manager for this one is there a way it will recognise which photos are already on it to avoid me having to sort which photos I need to copy across each time I want to archive? Or should I create folders?
Sorry for all the questions, I hope I am making sense!
Time Machine is not an archiving solution, it keeps a rolling back up. Therefore, if you delete material from your Mac it will inevitably also be deleted from Time Machine too.
So the archive Library must be quite distinct from your Time Machine back up, and must be on another disk.
Do I just 'drag' the iPhoto Library to this additional external hard drive.
You can do that, but better to use an incremental bak up system, otherwise each time you back up you're copying the whole library again:
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
Yes my understanding is time machine would only back up the small iPhoto library of photos I am currently using as the rest of the photos would be in an iPhoto library on the external drive that I keep connected to the computer. On my other external drive I need to make a copy of the whole iPhoto library, as this 2nd hard drive will not be permanently connected to the computer I would connect it and use the app to update any changes to external HD. ???????
I really what to do this properly so I don't lose all my photos, thanks so your patience with me.
Time Machine will backup all external hard drives connected to a Mac. If you find it doesn't see a particular EHD go into the Time Machine preferences and exclude that EHD, close TM's preferences, reopen and remove the EHD from the exclusion list.
Just make sure the Time Machine hard drive is large enough to backup all of the other HDs, internal and external, i.e. about 2 - 3x the size of the others combined.
Thanks for the info. I had tried to get time machine to back up an external HD by removing the hard drive from the exclusion list, however when I went back in it was still on the list. Obviously my Time Machine HD was not large enough, even though the info I wanted to back up was small.
How to archive iPhoto
