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Got my photos back into iPhoto - how to make sure they stay there?

annk

annk

Administrator
Original poster
Staff member
Apr 18, 2004
15,326
10,116
Somewhere over the rainbow
I've had a lot of trouble with iPhoto, most of it my own making. After careless moving of photos and backups, I've now FINALLY found all my images and gotten them back into iPhoto.

iPhoto is open right now, and I don't dare to close it until I'm certain that all these photos will still be there next time I open it. I've apparently had more than one iPhoto library (and most likely still do), but the images in the program right now are the ones I want to be my library.

Can I just close iPhoto and know that they'll be there next time? Should I export them to a folder on my desktop (for example), and point to that / import it the next time I open the program? Ideally I want my iPhoto library on my external HHD.

I've made a real mess of this, and want to clean up once and for all. :eek:
 
It's ticked ^.

What's making me nervous is that my iPhoto library isn't where it ought to be by default. This is what I've got:

  1. In home -> Pictures, I have a file called iPhoto library, but it's a package, and only 14.5 MB. It's got a plain white sheet-of-paper icon.
  2. In the home folder I've got a file called iPhoto library (that shows the correct icon), and it's 615 MB. But with my 7000 images, I would think my library would be GB, not MB.
  3. On my external disc, I've got yet another iPhoto library (with the correct icon) that's 14 GB.

Ideally I suppose I should merge them somehow. But right now I don't know how to check exactly which file is the library iPhoto is reading. I want to assume it's the 14 GB file, but how can I check? :confused:
 
annk said:
Ideally I suppose I should merge them somehow. But right now I don't know how to check exactly which file is the library iPhoto is reading. I want to assume it's the 14 GB file, but how can I check? :confused:
Click to expand...

Hold Option when you open iPhoto, it will let you choose the library (and show you the location of each). It will also tell you the default library.
 
Once I've done that ^ and have decided which library is the "real" one, how do I tell iPhoto which one to open by default? Does the default library have to be in the Pictures folder, or can it be elsewhere?
 
annk said:
Once I've done that ^ and have decided which library is the "real" one, how do I tell iPhoto which one to open by default? Does the default library have to be in the Pictures folder, or can it be elsewhere?
Click to expand...

It will use the most recently opened one until you tell it otherwise.

e.g.:

Library1 is current default ...
Option-iPhoto, choose Library2 ... library2 is default, until you manually open a different library or option-iPhoto again.
 
Cool, thanks. :) It's opening the huge library now, and the library is on my external, where I want it to be.

One last question: the package file I described above, in my home -> Pictures: what is it, and is Pictures where it's supposed to be?
 
annk said:
Cool, thanks. :) It's opening the huge library now, and the library is on my external, where I want it to be.

One last question: the package file I described above, in my home -> Pictures: what is it, and is Pictures where it's supposed to be?
Click to expand...

That might be the original library, created the very first time you opened iPhoto, but it is empty because you never added photos to it.
 
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