Reverting to iPhoto after Photos migration

Engage automatic backups into Dropbox. Everyone should do it, it's so simple & cheap. Properly set up (it's easy), Dropbox automatically uploads all your images each time you sync your phone or load pictures from a camera to your computer. It's the best solution I know to preserving every picture you have without worrying about expensive proprietary programs (I'm talking to you, Adobe). Dropbox doesn't care about formats. It uploads and preserves anything & everything.

Adobe, Apple and everyone else, including Dropbox store images in bog standard formats.

Terence Devlin wrote:

Adobe, Apple and everyone else, including Dropbox store images in bog standard formats.

I'm guessing that is "Non-Standard" formats - love spell check

LN

Love the 'bog'.

; - )

Won't ague for Adobe or others of the ilk. Love 'em all you want. Dropbox works, without conflicts.

LarryHN wrote:

Terence Devlin wrote:

Adobe, Apple and everyone else, including Dropbox store images in bog standard formats.

I'm guessing that is "Non-Standard" formats - love spell check

LN

Nope, it's bog.

I did not know that. I've been using Mozy as a backup and assumed that the photos were backed up on their system and available in case of a crash. So that is not the case? And there is no way to set things up so they can be backed up on line?

I've also been using Time Machine and backing up to a second removal hard drive, but it's better to learn now about Mozy's limitation rather than after a crash

I was under the impression I could back up the photo library (found in pictures file on computer) by copying the folder onto dropbox and it would be another place to safeguard my photos. I even bought the bigger Gig package from dropbox to have room for this. So are you saying that copying my folder and putting it into dropbox it won’t work for me later if I want to see any of my photos? I am not terribly savvy with this stuff, but I am not particularly dense, either, so if you could explain it to me that would really help! And what about the programing that dropbox has to allow you to automatically put a copy of your loading photos from phone or camera up to dropbox? Do they not save there as .jpg or useable file?

The problem with Dropbox and all other online systems is that the Library may well be stored (read: very likely to be stored) on a disk not formatted appropriately. That means that when you restore there is a high likelihood that the Library will be corrupted. These services are perfectly fine for storing files, but a database is not a file, it's a complex ecosystem of interlinked database, cache, metadata and data files.

> These services are perfectly fine for storing files, but a database is not a file, it's a complex ecosystem of interlinked database, cache, metadata and data files.

A Photos Library is a folder. You can right click at it and select "Show Package Contents" to see the actual files. Are you saying we should not store any folders in Dropbox now?

Now, if you use a referenced Library, and you store your referenced photos outside of Dropbox, you may have a problem if you move them around manually.

> You do realize that you can't backup an iPhoto library to an online site, right?

Are you sure about that? What do you mean an 'ecosystem' of files? They are just a bunch of referenced files, not unlike a folder that contains a bunch of other folders and files under Finder.

An iPhoto Library is similar to an Aperture Library in that both of them are a 'Package' file that contains files, directories, etc. I store some of my Aperture libraries on Dropbox all day (years actually) without any issues.

No, I'm saying that you should avoid storing complex database ecosystems on there, Like iPhoto, Aperture, Photos and Lightroom Libraries.

What do you mean an 'ecosystem' of files?

a database is not a file, it's a complex system of interlinked database, cache, metadata and data files.

A Photos Library is a folder.

Well to be picky, it's a package. But what's inside the package?

a complex system of interlinked database, cache, metadata and data files.

I store some of my Aperture libraries on Dropbox all day (years actually) without any issues.

Good for you. But see what was written above:

That means that when you restore there is a high likelihood that the Library will be corrupted

We've seen plenty of reports of this here over the years.

Richard3030 wrote:

An iPhoto Library is similar to an Aperture Library in that both of them are a 'Package' file that contains files, directories, etc. I store some of my Aperture libraries on Dropbox all day (years actually) without any issues.

No, Apple are saying that the iPhoto library should only be stored on a correctly formatted drive. It remains your choice whether or not you heed their advice

I think I understand what you are saying— the catalogs and organization aspects of the photos in the library fall under another data file category— data attached to photo files inside the folder? Or something like that? And so maybe this would be affected if incorrectly formatted? But unlike my annoyance with catalog issues with the iPhoto/Photo apps, for Dropbox all my personal concern is for saving the photographs themselves— having my valuable photographs saved somewhere in any order as a backup in case of horror or travesty outside my computer box. I thought that the photo libraries would have a folder of just the jpgs themselves...

To do what you want, export the files from Photos to an Folder on your dropbox.

File -> Export

> No, Apple are saying that the iPhoto library should only be stored on a correctly formatted drive.

Well, anything should be stored on a correctly formatted drive. 😁

I did a search 'Dropbox corrupted iPhoto library' and couldn't find any credible evidence that Dropbox would specifically corrupts iPhoto libraries. On the other hand, my experience and other reported cases indicate it's ok to put the whole library on Dropbox (or Box for that matter).

This is different from storing a library on a FAT32 drive as it can't handle some links, etc., so I was told. Dropbox is much more sophisticated than than and millions of people use it to sync all kinds of databases. I myself have Filemaker databases, and even a Quickbooks (Windows) database on it without problems.

Are there any specific technical reasons why you don't recommend Dropbox other than the generic statement like 'databases are complex'?