a really stupid iPhoto question :o

[boston04and07]

I just looked at a thread about iPhoto copying images and it got me thinking about how I organize my own photos. I use both the Finder and iPhoto to look for and view photos, and so I ended up having two copies of each photo - one for the Finder, and one within iPhoto. This is pretty annoying, but I always thought that iPhoto needed its own copies so that was that. However, I just discovered the "Copy Photos to the iPhoto Library" option under the Advanced Preferences pane. (duh). If I uncheck that, can I just have iPhoto refer to the photo's original location (a Pictures folder within the Finder) instead of having two copies of each picture on my hard drive? Like, how iTunes does it if you hold down the Option key when importing a song...

 

[tibi08]

Yes you can, but I think this is an awful idea. Iphoto does not play well when using files which aren't located in its library - it creates a shortcut in the library which links to the original file. But if you move the original file, then the shortcut breaks and your library is screwed.

You might think "oh well I won't be moving things / changing their names". Well I tried this, upgraded my Mac, and none of the shortcuts worked on my new Mac so I had to re-import my entire iPhoto library.

My advice - either keep two copies or store your photos only IN the iPhoto library.

 

[skybolt]

My advice - either keep two copies or store your photos only IN the iPhoto library.

Agree, iPhoto app works beautifully for organizing, there is no need to have two copies. Just let iPhoto do it for you and stay out of the finder. Once you let iPhoto organize, you don't need to any more. That is what the app is for -- organizing. Once you let iPhoto work, don't do anything to/with your photos from the finder. If you do, iPhoto will not be able to find the photo and you will have quite the mess. There is never a need to go into the finder for photos.

 

[boston04and07]

Agree, iPhoto app works beautifully for organizing, there is no need to have two copies. Just let iPhoto do it for you and stay out of the finder. Once you let iPhoto organize, you don't need to any more. That is what the app is for -- organizing. Once you let iPhoto work, don't do anything to/with your photos from the finder. If you do, iPhoto will not be able to find the photo and you will have quite the mess. There is never a need to go into the finder for photos.

Hmm.. sounds interesting. Right now, whenever I search for a photo in the Finder, I always get two copies, and I always guessed that one was the Finder copy and the other was the iPhoto copy. If I get rid of the Finder copy, theoretically, the iPhoto copy would still be there, right? But you're right, I guess there really is no need to go to the Finder for photos, I mean it really is such a mess right now that I've been using iPhoto alone for a while. The only time I don't is when I don't feel like waiting for it to start (it really bugs me that it won't stay running in the background like everything else!)

Do you have any good ways that I could go about deleting the Finder copies without totally messing everything up, too??

 

[tibi08]

Do you have any good ways that I could go about deleting the Finder copies without totally messing everything up, too??

To open the iPhoto library in Finder you actually have to right click on it and choose "Show Package Contents". Assuming you haven't done this, you are safe to delete any other copies you find in Finder.

 

[boston04and07]

To open the iPhoto library in Finder you actually have to right click on it and choose "Show Package Contents". Assuming you haven't done this, you are safe to delete any other copies you find in Finder.

OK. So, what you're saying is, I can go ahead and delete my Photos folder in the Finder and not have it affect iPhoto, or how it's organized, *at all*?

 

[tibi08]

OK. So, what you're saying is, I can go ahead and delete my Photos folder in the Finder and not have it affect iPhoto, or how it's organized, *at all*?

Yes, assuming you never, at any point, disabled the option in iPhoto settings to copy items to the iPhoto library. Worst case scenario you move the items back out of the Trash

 

[skybolt]

In your pictures folder in your user account, if you have a file with pictures and another file that is named iPhoto Library (and assuming as stated before, that you have never unchecked the option to add to the iPhoto library), you can delete the one NOT named iPhoto Library. Don't just delete the pictures folder or everything will be gone.

It would help for us to be able to see the structure of your Pictures folder so we can advise you more specifically.