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andrew8404

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 16, 2009
196
71
Loma Linda, Ca
So I just bought a 27imac and have been trying to import my iphoto library from my spacetime hard drive. But everytime I import it I get about a million duplicates! It's frustrating! But if install my entire hard drive onto my imac it will be just fine with no duplicates. What gives? Is there anyway to fix this? Going throwing 40,000 plus duplicates doesn't sound like fun! I've also tried a program on the app store that tries to get rid of duplicates but it ended up getting rid of pretty much everything. Help!
 

robgendreau

macrumors 68040
Jul 13, 2008
3,465
329
How are you importing? Do you have "Importing: Copy items into the iPhoto Library" in iPhoto preferences checked? This does just that: it copies them into a folder structure in the iPhoto Library.

I'm not sure what you mean by "install my entire hard drive onto my mac." Are you copying it?

You can use iPhoto to import just references to existing photos without copying anything.
 

andrew8404

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 16, 2009
196
71
Loma Linda, Ca
Thanks for the reply. I'm importing the iPhoto library from my hard drive in the program iPhoto. And when I do this I get multiple copies of the same photo. But if i do a fresh install of mavericks and have everything copied over via migration assistant my iPhoto library is perfect. But I don't want to do that as I'm trying to keep everything clean.
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,137
15,601
California
Thanks for the reply. I'm importing the iPhoto library from my hard drive in the program iPhoto. And when I do this I get multiple copies of the same photo. But if i do a fresh install of mavericks and have everything copied over via migration assistant my iPhoto library is perfect. But I don't want to do that as I'm trying to keep everything clean.

Okay... so you did a clean install and you just want to move over your photos from the Time Machine backup?

Open Finder and go to the Pictures folder and drag your iPhoto library to the desktop temporarily. Now click the Time Machine icon in the menu bar and select enter Time Machine. Now scroll back in time to the date you want to import from then select the iPhoto Library and click restore.

Once that is done exit the Time Machine interface. Now hold the option key when you launch iPhoto and you will get a popup asking where your iPhoto library is. Point it to the imported library in the Pictures folder. That should give you your library from before the clean install.

Once you make sure everything is okay you can delete the extra library from the Desktop.
 
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