Q: iphoto stored on TC

Get a regular external drive, choose Utilities from the Finder's Go menu and use the Disk Utility to reformat it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled)(this step can be skipped if the drive is specifically intended for Macs), drag the entire iPhoto library to it, and set Time Machine to back up both drives.

(131737)

Are you saying you can't use this 3TB drive as an external hard drive?  I was told I could.  Some help would be great.

iphoto is the older photo app.. the current one is photos.

Apple designed photos (and iphoto in later revisions) to work from local drive or iCloud.

The TC is not now and not ever an external drive.. you need to understand in Mac or Windows world for that matter there is the world of difference between external drives (plugged directly to a computer and controlled by the computer OS) and Network drives, controlled by the network device OS and made accessible to other network devices by totally different method.. SMB protocol (Mac and Windows both use this now).

There is something else you are missing.

Apple uses a special format drive for all system files and some aspects of application files.. HFS+ and any files stored that are going to be valid must be stored using HFS+ format.

iPhoto (and photos) should be stored on HFS+ drive.

So boiling all that down to the essentials.

1. iPhoto should be stored on local drive.. either internal or external. (Not a network drive).

Please read explicit documentation about it from Apple.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168

Explicitly don't use FAT32 and don't use Network drive.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1198

Info on sharing library over a network.. but from a local drive.

I found this article very helpful.

http://macthing.co.uk/media-server/iphoto-9-5-sharing-and-maintaining-a-master-i photo-library/

What is important here..  Apple removed the network aspect of iphoto in later editions. They were moving to a model where iphoto library should be stored on icloud and not locally.

I have used the above articles and extrapolated them to Photos because Apple is almost dead silent on Photos.. I can only say that Apple have always approved my posts about this issue.

2. WARNING WARNING WARNING.

You can store the photos library on the TC disk.

This has nothing to do with Time Machine.. and it is important again to understand.. the Time Machine backup cannot be used for active files.

You can copy the library to TC disk and open it from the MBA computer. You should create a directory and place the photos file inside a DMG to do this properly. See Q3 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html

Then delete the library from the local computer disk.

That means you now have both TM backup and the source library on the same disk.

BUT worse.. TM cannot backup network drives. So that is the end of backups of the library.

Worse and worse.. TM will eventually delete the existing library from the backup.

And worser and worsest.. We can guarantee you will corrupt the library at some future point due to having an open live file and accessing it over wireless.. when is unknown .. but count on it.

So if you are committed.. and move ahead.. you need to do a few things.

1. Make sure you backup constantly the photos library. Since TM cannot do it you must either do it manually or get a different backup software.. eg Carbon Copy Cloner.

2. Where will you backup to? It is possible to plug a USB drive into the TC.. and use CCC to backup via the MBA to it.. but expect this to take super long times.

3. You do also realise the library is now located off the computer so at anytime you need the library away from home you will need to carry the USB drive where you backed up.

So.. what Neil suggested is the best way to do it. If you wish to have the files available locally.

An external self powered USB SSD drive is fast, light and efficient. And TM can then work properly to backup your files.

OR use iCloud which is what Apple intended people to do.. use the computer as a terminal to your files all stored on central server.