cyntlee

Q: use iPhoto or Photos for books?

Hi. I have over a dozen iPhoto Libraries, one for each year. What I do is make albums and then make books for my trips or one book each year. I am behind in doing the books. Now with Photos app (and faster,etc), I wonder if I should migrate my iPhoto Library over to Photos and use Photos to make the albums and books? Is there an advantage in doing that? It would mean that I will end up with multiple Photos libraries, since it cannot allow me to combine more than one iPhoto Library into Photos.

 

I thought I would link the libraries, instead of importing the same thousands of photos into the new Photos libraries. So the main question is whether or not there's an advantage in migrating all my iPhoto libraries into Photos libraries, or just stick with iPhoto and make my books there. Thanks.

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3), 27", 12MB RAM, 256 SSD + 2TB HD

Posted on Apr 13, 2016 4:30 AM

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Q: use iPhoto or Photos for books?

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  • by léonie,Helpful

    léonie léonie Apr 13, 2016 6:23 AM in response to cyntlee
    Level 10 (106,848 points)
    iLife
    Apr 13, 2016 6:23 AM in response to cyntlee

    You can no longer print books from iPhoto anyway, because Apple stopped the print service for iPhoto books.  If you want your books printed by Apple, the new Photos.app as the only option now.  Presto Photos can print your iPhoto Books, if you export them as a PDF file.

     

    If you open an iPhoto Library in Photos, the migrated library will not need much extra storage, see this document: Photos saves disk space by sharing images with your iPhoto or Aperture libraries - Apple Support

     

    In the long run it will be preferable to switch to Photos for Mac, because iPhoto will be less and less supported.

     

     

     

    I thought I would link the libraries, instead of importing the same thousands of photos into the new Photos libraries. So the main question is whether or not there's an advantage in migrating all my iPhoto libraries into Photos libraries, or just stick with iPhoto and make my books there. Thanks

    Some options:  If you also have Aperture, you can easily merge all iPhoto Libraries into one before migrating them to Photos.

     

    The PowerPhotos application makes it easy to manage several Photos Libraries, or to merge them  (

     

    http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/powerphotos/

    ).

  • by cyntlee,

    cyntlee cyntlee Apr 13, 2016 6:30 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (29 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 13, 2016 6:30 AM in response to léonie

    Thanks for the quick response, and well, now, it's Photos app or Pronto photo!

     

    I would like to finally have one library only, but I have at least 1.5 TB of photos from 15 iPhoto Libraries. Do you think Photos app can handle a merged library?

     

    I also like the idea of having only one Photos System Library so I can look at my albums on AppleTV, but how would I store 1.5 to 2.0 TB of data on iCloud Library?

     

    What do you think I can have for a total solution when migrating from iPhoto Libraries to Photos, and the possibility of sharing them on AppleTV and viewing them on my projection TV? My desktop Mac sits on the second floor, and the projector on the floor below.

  • by léonie,Helpful

    léonie léonie Apr 13, 2016 7:10 PM in response to cyntlee
    Level 10 (106,848 points)
    iLife
    Apr 13, 2016 7:10 PM in response to cyntlee

    I also like the idea of having only one Photos System Library so I can look at my albums on AppleTV, but how would I store 1.5 to 2.0 TB of data on iCloud Library?

    That will probably not work, because the largest iCloud Storage plan is 1 TB. 

     

    I would merge the older libraries selectively. I kept copies of all my iPhoto and Aperture libraries on a separate drive and merged only the most important photos from each library  into my new main system Photos Library. It fits easily onto the internal drives of all my Macs and a 200GB iCloud Storage plan suffices.

  • by cyntlee,

    cyntlee cyntlee Apr 13, 2016 7:12 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (29 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 13, 2016 7:12 PM in response to léonie

    Thanks for your advice. I guess that's my best bet, though it's a lot of work! Can you just selectively merge albums, rather than events? Do you use PowerPhotos for that?

  • by cyntlee,

    cyntlee cyntlee Apr 13, 2016 7:19 PM in response to cyntlee
    Level 1 (29 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 13, 2016 7:19 PM in response to cyntlee

    Do you suggest I make duplicates of all my iPhoto libraries before I do any merging, or linking? I'm not sure how safe it is migrating over to Photos app. Thanks.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Apr 13, 2016 7:54 PM in response to cyntlee
    Level 10 (84,585 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 13, 2016 7:54 PM in response to cyntlee

    You should never do any update or upgrade (or use your computer) without a good, current backup - if you do not always have a good backup you are guaranteed to lose important data

     

    LN

  • by cyntlee,

    cyntlee cyntlee Apr 13, 2016 9:09 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (29 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 13, 2016 9:09 PM in response to LarryHN

    I have one Pegasus 6T RAID drive I keep all my iPhoto libraries and iMovie projects. When one drive dies, it's supposed to rebuild all the data on to the replacement drive. Do you think I still need to buy another external drive to back up this RAID drive? I only have the originals, no copies. Thanks.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Apr 13, 2016 9:13 PM in response to cyntlee
    Level 10 (84,585 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 13, 2016 9:13 PM in response to cyntlee

    no idea - it sounds like the RAID drive is designed to keep you safe but I've never used it and have no idea how it actually works - i use Time Machine to a Time Capsule and Carbon Copy Cloner to a separate EHD - and do an occasional off site backup (important in case of a disaster)

     

    You probably are fine short of a disaster

     

    LN

  • by léonie,Solvedanswer

    léonie léonie Apr 13, 2016 11:06 PM in response to cyntlee
    Level 10 (106,848 points)
    iLife
    Apr 13, 2016 11:06 PM in response to cyntlee
    I have one Pegasus 6T RAID drive I keep all my iPhoto libraries and iMovie projects.

    A RAID is safer than no backup, but if the backplane of your RAID has a problem all internal disks can be unusable at once. Or a power surge could destroy all internal drives at once. I would always keep a copy of my important media drives on a second drive, that is stored in a second location.

  • by cyntlee,

    cyntlee cyntlee Apr 17, 2016 2:48 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (29 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 17, 2016 2:48 AM in response to léonie

    Okay, one more drive for safe keeping! Thanks much!

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Apr 17, 2016 2:53 AM in response to cyntlee
    Level 10 (106,848 points)
    iLife
    Apr 17, 2016 2:53 AM in response to cyntlee

    You're welcome