iPhotos won’t export entirely

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Level 1

8 points

iPhotos won’t export entirely

My (OS X 10.12.6) mid-2012 MacBook Pro and iPhone SE (iOS 11.4.1) are totally full and iCloud cannot backup or support the amount of content I have to create. Thus, I have to export all my precious photos and videos to an external hard drive (I go through 1TB per year and increasing steadily). some videos are a couple hours long and the images need to remain the original high quality for purposes of using in art very large video projected art pieces. So here’s what I am doing:

I select all and choose ’Export Items’ (I have tried both modified and un-modified as well as the same with video), PNG, Original Color Profile, Full Size, 4K, Include Title Keywords Descriptions & Location Information, Use File Name and Moment Name.

I have tried this all week and been unable to use apps or photos and everything keeps crashing because it’s so full. One day it took over 20 hours to export and there were still 300 files of 38,000 apparently still missing when I went to count in the actual file, there were actually only about 80 files copied. i also found that if I tried to do anything else with my computer, that the file export process would slow down, stop and give me an error message. So that was about 20 hours lost for nothing. I had to delete all the files from the external hard drive and that took another 3-4 hours because to delete files, they’re placed on the computer Trash Can but the computer was already above and beyond full.

I don’t know how to move my audio or video files from iPhotos while keeping them all. I cannot lose any of them! I am a serious lifelong digital artist going on 12 years with a reputation and people are asking me for my content that I cannot even work on.

I have been posting all the error messages and videos of it to social media. I tagged Apple on Twitter asking for help.

i am at my wits end.

Can anyone assist? I would love if I could go into a store and they pull all my files for me but maybe they would need a hotel for people to sleep in during that time...

Thank you in advance!!!

www.185668232.org

p.s. My devices are too full to even take a picture of the screens to show you...

Posted on Sep 16, 2018 12:18 PM

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Answer 1

185668232 Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 16, 2018 8:55 PM in response to Yer_Man

From now on I will try to make my files directly drop onto my external hard drive.
But is has not been all well otherwise; I already went through your process of HOW to export on my own.
What I am having issues with is how to recover the broken or lost files - there are MANY of them.
These are irreplaceable... it's why I pay $9.99 for the maximum iCloud storage.
It seems as thought he iCloud storage cannot locate itself and the files are considered damaged?
There are many error messages after I do the whole process of what you said.
Some images and photos are saved onto my external hard drive, but not ALL of them...
I have been trying to clear the hard drive for a week but it always has several errors as depicted below.
Also it is literally impossible to take a break one day to clean the computer or phone because I use them all the time.
It has been stuck on 33,519 & 33,888 exports (as in example) for almost a week...
What does that even mean? Does it need more time to export? It was going for 8 hours one day... same thing.
And when it is finally done, the files continue to repopulate with more details and literally blip when I hover over them.
Not all of them... only some of them and I don't understand why...
I obviously push my gear harder and that's why I am sponsored by Ableton and Akai notices me (professional audio).
But then it says MANY items are damaged and missing and I cannot tell which are which.
If I actually need to sit down for an entire day to compare back and forth, it is not efficient or safe at all.
This must be really new this year because it never happened before.
How am I able to be sure I have all of those items?
And it says I have successfully moved my files yet there's a LOT less than it says were moved..
I can literally count the amount of files I have in both iPhoto as-well-as in my external hard drive - they're different.
Also, when it is backed up on my 5th external hard drive Terabyte since 2013, it is TOTALLY out of order.
Many files from over the years are missing.
This is not the first time I have tried to do this but it is the first time I am posting about it.
For the future it is corrected, but how about the now?
Thanks again. Your iT details are really good.

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Answer 2

185668232 Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 18, 2018 5:43 PM in response to Yer_Man

Thanks.

How do I know if the library is prepared?

I deleted everything after backing it up a third time (iHope it's actually backed up and there's no other computer around to test/check).

(Also hilarious that one cannot upload a screen shot to the forum - you will see I left the error page up but for some reason allowed for me to upload the error page, just not the screen shot of the youtube channel from 2016 that helped me find exactly the route to find the file.)#,

Thanks!!!

<#,
185668232.org

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,308 points

Sep 16, 2018 8:56 PM in response to 185668232

All of this stems from the fact that you've allowed your HD to become too full.

Exporting from iPhoto will not reduce the size of the library. Exporting does not remove things from the library just makes a copy outside it, thereby taking even more space.

OS X needs about 10 gigs of hard drive space for normal OS operations - things like virtual memory, temporary files and so on.

Without this space your Mac will slow down as the OS hunts for space on the disk, files will be fragmented, also slowing things down, apps will crash and the risk of data corruption - that is damage to your files, photos, music - increases exponentially.

Your first priority is to make more space on that HD. Nothing else can be done until you do.

Purchase an external HD and move your Photos and Music to it. Both iPhoto and iTunes can run perfectly well with the Library on an external disk.

Don't export from iPhoto. Move the entire Library as a unit to the external

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.

3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.

4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.

Regards

TD

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Answer 4

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,308 points

Sep 16, 2018 10:53 PM in response to 185668232

Couple of things strike me about this:

1. You're not using iPhoto but you're using Photos.app.

2. You're not getting the difference between exporting - which takes up more space =. and moving the Library. And even if you're exporting to an external disk, this still requires space on your internal HD for temporary files.

As for the fact that there may be damaged or missing files: remember what I wrote above...

Without this space your Mac will slow down as the OS hunts for space on the disk, files will be fragmented, also slowing things down, apps will crash and the risk of data corruption - that is damage to your files, photos, music - increases exponentially.

The iCloud Photo Library is a sharing mechanism, not a back up. Do you have a back up?

I obviously push my gear harder

No, this is not pushing gear 'harder'. It's a basic error in using a computer.

This must be really new this year because it never happened before.

Nope, been like this since forever.

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Answer 5

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,308 points

Sep 18, 2018 11:14 PM in response to 185668232

Prepared? How does this relate to what we were talking about? I don't understand.

I'm not sure why you find it hilarious that you 'cannot upload a screenshot to the forum' in a post where you've uploaded two...

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iPhotos won’t export entirely

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