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Want to access my iPhoto on my iMac with my mac book

I have an iMac that is my main computer. I just purchased a mac book pro and would like to use it to organize my photos but still have them stored on the iMac. The mac book hard drive isn't that big so I thought this would be a good solution. I was mislead by a Best Buy sales man and thought that TC would be a good solution but I have learned it isn't. Is there any way I can use the mac book to work with my photos and use my iMac for the main storage. I do use the TC for backups. I do have an external hard drive. I'm trying to find a way that has as few steps as I can. Thanks for the help.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, iOS 8.1.2

Posted on Dec 19, 2014 5:54 AM

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3 replies

Dec 19, 2014 6:06 AM in response to teckmom

I do have an external hard drive.

The safest method would be to use your external hard drive as a sneaker drive. Keep the iPhoto library on the external drive and plug it into the mac you are currently working with. The drive should be formatted as described here: Use locally mounted Mac OS X Extended volumes for your Aperture library


The other option would be to keep a small iPhoto Library on your MacBook Pro, with the new photos you are currently working on. When you are done, use a tool like iPhoto Library Manager to merge your iPhoto Library from the MacBook Pro into the main library on your iMac.


Perhaps you should wait till next year for your setup.

Apple announced that the new Photos.app for Mac to rereleased next year, will support iCloud Photo Library (Beta). That will allow you to store the photo library in iCloud and to work on it from several devices. Right now, it is only available from mobile devices with iOS 8 and from the iCloud webpage: iCloud Photo Library beta FAQ

Dec 19, 2014 6:21 AM in response to léonie





use a tool like iPhoto Library Manager to merge your iPhoto Library from the MacBook Pro into the main library on your iMac.





Where can I find information on iPhoto Library Manager and how to use it?? Also I probebly wouldn't start till next year. I'm a planer and I'm trying to justify spending the money on the mac book and TC 🙂 Thanks for all your help

Dec 19, 2014 6:53 AM in response to teckmom

Where can I find information on iPhoto Library Manager and how to use it??

You can download iPhoto Library Manager here:


Fat Cat Software – iPhoto Library Manager


For many tasks the free trial will suffice, but to use it for merging Libraries you need the paid full version.


See the Help page (http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/Help/table%20of%20contents.html), i.e. Merging libraries from two different Macs

Want to access my iPhoto on my iMac with my mac book

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