How To Safely Move Your iPhoto Library to Another Hard Drive

[popitn2nd]

Why delete the old iphoto app? You can just empty or delete the picture right? To maKe space now that you copied it to the external drive. Can't you use both iphoto app?

[jcalvarez]

Thank you -- you are a God send! How wonderful of you to have taken the time to demonstrate how easy this is.

[ScanYourEntireLife]

@jcalvarez ~ You're Welcome! I appreciate your kind words.

[gt4ucla]

Great information....I do have a question. I have APERTURE on my iMac. Do I do the same steps to move all my pictures/Library to the external drive?

[ScanYourEntireLife]

@gt4ucla ~ If you store your photos/videos IN the Aperture Library, then it's the exact same thing.

After you finish copying, you either hold down "Option" and then click on Aperture App in dock, OR you can click on File > Switch to Library to choose your new library file there.

IF your photos/videos are "referenced" (most people's aren't) then you can move your library file but your photos will remain where they currently are stored.

Hope this helps.

[normanlucasjr]

damn u sound like that guy in apple. thanks, really helpful!

[ScanYourEntireLife]

@normanlucasjr ~ Thank you! I really appreciate that — especially since I am a big fan of Apple and their promotional videos / tutorials. :)

[HNPHOTOGUY]

Thank you so much, I wish I did this along time ago, I'm now also using my external for my iTunes library

[laxwyo1]

I've already moved our library to an ex HD and have been using for a long time. My wife got a new 1TB harddrive and now I'm trying to move the libraries to that new one. Basically moving the library from one ex HD to another ex HD. I get a "The operation can’t be completed because an item with the name “Ambers iPhoto Library” already exists" after about 90MB have been transferred. There is zero iphoto libraries on the new HD. I don't get how I did it the first time, but now it won't work.

[wueve13]

12 hours / 250 gbs.......uhhhhhhh...

[Plateuser]

How did you place your External harddrive on your desktop like that?

[firewalk47]

Thank you so much, it was so straight forward, however my file is 110gb and the music is 200gb, so i need to permanently move them to the external, my mac drive is only 500 ( which is the max i can do at this time)

[tvalenti17]

Great video. Thanks for that. I am wondering if the links in my Imovie projects will be incorrect? There are still photos and videos to be concerned about. Will I have to rework all of those projects to tell Imovie about the new library location? TIA TimV.

[Ciczara]

ThanX for an incredible step-by-step. Quick-n-easy!

okaaaaaaaay, "deep breath" deleting off originals....

[MrPeepingBird]

Thank You!

[MidLifeCrisisHW]

I moved my iPhoto library to an 1 TB external drive. 1 TB drive also serves as my time machine back up. Running out of room and need to move library from 1tb external to a 2TB external. However the last time I tried to copy my library onto the 2TB drive, it didn't copy my pics as events, it copied them individually and the new library is a MESS! Got any clues as to why this might have happened. Should I erase this library (on hd2) and try it again? If so, how? THX!

[ScanYourEntireLife]

@MidLifeCrisisHW ~ Is it possible your Library isn't being managed by iPhoto? Preferences>Advanced>option "Copy items to iPhoto Library". If this is checked, all of your photos will be automatically copied and maintained in this one "iPhoto Library" file. Then when you copy this one file, all the events and photos move together. If not, then your photos are stored where they were when you import anted them. When you copied your file last time, Did you do it just I showed in this video? - Curtis

[MidLifeCrisisHW]

@ScanYourEntireLife Not sure. When I initially transfered my library from my Mac to the 1tb external, I think I had someone from Apple walk me through it. So right now my photos are backed up at all. I want to back them up using another hard drive. When coping external to external, canI just follow the same directions? If so, I can I trash the library that is all discombobulated (the one I tried to copy from my 1 tb to my 2tb drive)?

[ScanYourEntireLife]

@MidLifeCrisisHW - Yes you can delete the bad library. IF your iPhoto Library works PERFECT on your older 1tb (test to be sure) but is messed up on newer 2tb, you can delete the library on your 2tb and copy it again using the instructions in my video (except instead of your [user folder>pictures] the library will be on your 1tb external drive.)

My video explains how to move a "managed" Library. If yours isn't, you will have to back up photos out of lthe iPhoto Library in their own folders.

[soitsawhat]

Great video. 

[kaexo]

PLEASE HELP! My iPhoto will not let me drag and drop into my external hard drive. ughh so frustrated. please SOS!

[ScanYourEntireLife]

@kaexo ~ I can't think of a reason off the top of my head that would prevent you from copying your Library file to another location other than a "permissions" problem. For example, if you are trying to copy the iPhoto library file of another user. Can you post a comment on my site for this video with this question with any "error" it's giving you when you drag at this link. The link is under this video's description - the second link not my main page. I will have more room to answer you there.

[maschev1981]

@ScanYourEntireLife Yeah...I have the same issue...as we speak and funny thing is I been doing this exact thing from time to time using eBay and the ProDuo stick since my new iMac 27 cant even handle taking that....anyways I been on here for over an hour trying to export onto my external HD and just gives me a white circle with cross through it. Im getting very upset over the time I have spent on this...almost about to go back to my 4 year old 800.00 PC if Mac keeps changing rules its getntrash

[maschev1981]

@maschev1981 I also threw my key board already and its a little bent so if someone wants to help me I'd really like it :D lol.

[judydbt]

Thank you for this information; however, in the middle of 'moving' my iphoto library, the process was interrupted (it appeared to have gotten 'stuck' at 2.78 gb of the 59.1 gb)....I force quit the process hoping to just be able to start over....but the hard drive says it can not find the library...is there a way to resume? if not, how do i do over?

[judydbt]

@judydbt Also, the original library appears to be intact......the dialog box only shows the one library......

[ScanYourEntireLife]

@judydbt ~ You're welcome for the info! You are right. I believe if you quit a copying process, it will assume you don't want that portion that you already copied to remain in your new (target) location — so it will just delete it. In order to start copying the file again, you just restart your initial steps. Go back to the original location where your iPhoto Library file is, and drag it to another location. You can also copy and paste it into a new location. Hope this helps!

[mybestavatar]

Hey Thanks Curtis, great video, I have a question though. You said before we start the whole precess, Back up first... ok I did that I'm using a time capsule to back up. After completing the transference to the external hard drive, (not the time capsule) does it mean we have two copies of my files, one in my time capsule (that I'm using as the main back up hard drive) and another copy in the second hard drive, where i'm actually using to store all my files. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[ScanYourEntireLife]

@mybestavatar ~ Glad you liked the video! Thank you. Your answer is yes. If your iPhoto library is on your main HD and you back it up to a Time Capsule, you now have it in 2 places. If you then copy your library to an ext. HD so you can have it on a drive with more space on it, you now have it in 3 places (but take the TC out of the equation now - think of that as last resort to be safe). Delete it from your main HD only when you are sure your ext HD version is working okay. Hope this helps!

[TheFrank1025]

Good to have people like you that share their knowledge to others. thank you very helpful.

[johnnygilligan]

Thank you so much! I always keep my external drive plugged into my MBPro anyhow. It seems iPhoto is moving a LOT faster now. AWESOME!!!

[ScanYourEntireLife]

@johnnygilligan ~ Excellent! Glad to hear your iPhoto is running better for you now—Thanks for the comment!

[shempone]

Excellent work. Thanks heaps. I knew some of the info already but you added to it and it was exactly what I needed to know. Cheers

[ScanYourEntireLife]

@shempone ~ Awesome! Thanks for letting me know that!

[CharlieLovesYouFilms]

Hi loved the video is there a way of doing this but with all my applications ? would really appreciate the reply !

[ScanYourEntireLife]

@CharlieLovesYouFilms ~ Glad you liked my video. Thank you. I don't know how to answer your question. Can you be a little more specific what you mean by all your applications? This tutorial focuses on how to move the managed library "folder" for iPhoto. Are you asking how to move the database file for other programs you might use? Let me know and I will help you out if I can.

[Grazylyma]

Thanks for taking the time!

[ScanYourEntireLife]

@Grazylyma ~ You're so welcome! :)

[theknottytruth]

this is wonderful!

thanks Curtis!

[ScanYourEntireLife]

@theknottytruth ~ Thank you! I appreciate it. I hope it helped you out. :)

[notoriousdjones]

sweet. I did it years ago and have all the different events saved with all the pictures in their events. But I did it again recently and must have done it wrong because it threw 6000 pictures all scattered in separate files which Is a huge headache to separate. Hopefully I don't do that again whatever i did. I'll letcha know how it works

[ScanYourEntireLife]

@notoriousdjones ~ Is your collection set to "import items into the iPhoto Library" ? Click on Preferences > Advanced and check to see. If this option isn't selected, then your photos aren't stored inside of the Library file ("cocoon"). Maybe this could have cause the "scattering" before.

[notoriousdjones]

when moving it, will all the photos stay in their original "events"?

[ScanYourEntireLife]

@notoriousdjones ~ Yes, photos in "events" will absolutely stay as you had them. The way I like to think of it, is that the library file is like a "cocoon". It protects everything - photos, the database, your events - everything. Loose or delete the "cocoon" and you have then lost everything. So just moving it around doesn't hurt it at all. It's just geography to the computer. The trick of course is letting iPhoto know where you have moved it to and that's what this video just taught you. ;)

[kevinwardmusic]

very helpful! Thanks

[ScanYourEntireLife]

@kevinwardmusic ~ Thanks Kevin! Glad it was helpful!