iphoto and spotlight (unrelated)

[TreeHugger]

I just did a clean install for Tiger. I backed up my picture folder from my Home folder before the install. I imported that whole folder into my iphoto5. But since I have more than twice the amount of pictures than I had before I'm guessing it imported all the thumbnails etc... Is there a way to import only the actual original images and not the ones that iphoto created?

Second problem I have is that I can't get spotlight to index my external western digital 120 gb hard drive. Its formated FAT32.

 

[Applespider]

I'm not sure how to get them back out of iPhoto easily now that they are in there. If you have a look on the iPhoto board at discussions.apple.com, there are a few people there who know lots about 'fixing' iPhoto's quirks.

I suspect that what you should have done (and possibly still could do depending on whether you've updated iPhoto in the meantime) is replace the iPhoto 5 library with the iPhoto 5 library from Tiger rather than re-importing which would bring all the thumbnails/original pics etc back in.

As far as Spotlight goes, I don't think it can index FAT32 volumes, just the HFS+ ones.

 

[efoto]

I think this question was asked recently elsewhere and the solution was to not re-import the images (because as stated and as you know, that takes all photos including thumbnails in again) but to replace the directories that iPhoto makes when it starts.

If you have them backed up from your home folder in 10.3.x, you should be able to erase what iPhoto makes initially in 10.4 and paste what you have from before. iPhoto should recognize the libraries without hitch and your back in business.

 

[vouder17]

All i did was copy the iPhoto Library(User>Pictures>iPhoto Library) from my old HD to my New one. I also did a clean install..If you do it this way it saves all the settings...ratings etc. I did the same with my music it is really easy and it works!!

 

[efoto]

All i did was copy the iPhoto Library(User>Pictures>iPhoto Library) from my old HD to my New one. I also did a clean install..If you do it this way it saves all the settings...ratings etc. I did the same with my music it is really easy and it works!!

Then when you paste them into the proper folder/location in Tiger, the app automatically recognizes the pictures/songs/ratings/etc correct?

 

[TreeHugger]

I'm not sure how to get them back out of iPhoto easily now that they are in there. If you have a look on the iPhoto board at discussions.apple.com, there are a few people there who know lots about 'fixing' iPhoto's quirks.

I suspect that what you should have done (and possibly still could do depending on whether you've updated iPhoto in the meantime) is replace the iPhoto 5 library with the iPhoto 5 library from Tiger rather than re-importing which would bring all the thumbnails/original pics etc back in.

As far as Spotlight goes, I don't think it can index FAT32 volumes, just the HFS+ ones.

Thanks for the advice. I will give it a try later. If I reformat my external drive HFS+ will it still work with my dell?

 

[wwooden]

A little side note, I realized I could save some space on my hard-drive my removing the originals from each photo role. I like to tweak each photo and iPhoto makes a copy and saves the original. That means I basically had twice the space used for the same number of photos. I went through and deleted all the originals and saved about 250mb. Of course, this means I can't revert back to the originals, but I don't plan to. Maybe I'll create a script in automater to do this for me.

 

[Applespider]

wwooden - it might be an interesting Automator project but you could just use iPhoto Diet to do it for you.

@TreeHugger - your Dell won't be able to use HFS+ volumes. I don't have a FAT32 to try indexing from but I did read a suggestion somewhere that you might be able to tell it to index the FAT32 drive, it just wouldn't do it automatically when you plugged it in. If I find the reference again, I'll let you know

EDIT - Found a reference to it. It won't do the metadata/content for FAT32 drives but it should be able to pick up filenames if that's any use.

 

[TreeHugger]

I just tried to copy my backed up itunes music folder back onto my PB to replace the empty itunes music folder but when I opened itunes my library was empty. So i hit add files and at which point it started processing and my songs showed up but it didn't keep any of my ratings or play counts. Is not much of a big deal... but oh well...

 

[TreeHugger]

EDIT - Found a reference to it. It won't do the metadata/content for FAT32 drives but it should be able to pick up filenames if that's any use.

That would be swell. How do I tell it to index it?

 

[Applespider]

I'd guess through the mdutil terminal command but as I don't have any FAT32 volumes I haven't tried it.

 

[TreeHugger]

I'd guess through the mdutil terminal command but as I don't have any FAT32 volumes I haven't tried it.

I tried the mdutil command. More specifically I followed these intsructions:

[From http://veerle.duoh.com/index.php]
First you need to be root. This is done by using sudo su
Enter your Mac's password
Type mdutil -i on /Volumes/x (x is the name of your volume)
Then type mdutil -p on /Volumes/x (x is the name of your volume)

I went root, typed in my password and tried the mdutil -i on /Volumes/External HD . I got this output: "Could not set indexing value for this volume."

(External HD is the name of my external)

Is that because of the FAT32? This is what the drive was formated to out of the box. I'm not to crazy about the meta data, so if i could use spot light to find filenames that would be good enough...