I accidentally selected the wrong folders to use for my iPhoto library, I now have thousands of random gifs, album art etc.. In my library as well as my digital photos. I'd now like to get rid of it all and start again from scratch, is this possible and how? I'm totally new to osx as you can probably guess!
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iPhoto library mistake - can I start again?
- Thread starter plymman
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Hold down the option key while you launch iPhoto. It will ask you to locate your iPhoto Library. Choose the proper folder and click ok.
Is that what you mean?
Is that what you mean?
No that won't exactly do what you want. Do you mean you had iPhoto import all of the images in your Windows My Pictures folder instead of just your personal photographs?
If that's what you did you have 2 options:
#1 - from within iPhoto delete the images you don't want in iPhoto.
#2 - delete the entire iPhoto Library and start over.
If you want to do #2, with iPhoto closed, go to Macintosh HD (or whatever you've named it)/Users/YourUserFolder/Pictures, here you will find your iPhoto Library, drag it to the trash and empty the trash. Warning Will Robinson! this will completely remove EVERYTHING in the iPhoto Library (but not the application itself). Now, launch iPhoto, you'll get the message Your photo library was not found. Do you want to find your iPhoto Library?, etc. , click the Create Library button, use the default location or navigate to where you would like it to be kept and click the Save button. You will now have a new blank iPhoto Library to import your photos into.
Thanks for that, I have all my originals still on an external drive so I think i'll try that later and rebuild from scratch. I'm still confused about how iphoto works, where it saves to, how to copy albums etc...I'm so used to manually importing, creating folders and managing them myself that iphoto seems like a leap of faith but i'm sure i'll get to grips with it!
If you use iPhoto you need to do everything from within iPhoto, it will allow you to organize your photos in an assortment of ways, but like most things Apple
it keeps all the inner working away from the user and just allows the user to be productive. If you're not comfortable with that kind of thing (some people aren't) then you may want to use a different software that allows you to deal with the nuts and bolts of it all. I hear Google's Picasa is nice and will allow you to do that kind of thing. As to where does iPhoto store everything, the iPhoto Library is actually a package file, with many other folders and files within that iPhoto uses to do all it's magic, but because it's a package file it keeps the inner working away from the user. Versions of iPhoto before iPhoto 7 (I believe) didn't use a package file just a regular folder and many a user messed up their libraries by going in there and moving things around, deleting things etc. Take a look at iPhoto's help it'll give you an idea of all it can do, etc.
Does Aperture have its own contained library in the same way as iPhoto or will this allow me to have my own manually managed photo's. Basically I want something like Picassa that allows me to view all my photo's etc.. but with the editing tools of something like Photoshop Elements. I like to keep my photos in manual folders on a FAT drive as I'm forever copying folders out to give to family.
I don't own nor do I have any experience with Aperture so, can't help you there. Using iPhoto you can organize the photos however you like taking advantage of features like Smart Albums, etc. and when you want to give them to family you can just export the photos/Album/Smart Album, etc. You can also have iPhoto use something like Photoshop, etc. to do the editing if you so wish. If you want to manage the file structure manually, and not let iPhoto do it with the iPhoto Library then you'd probably be better off using something like Picasa.
Re-building Picture Library
I too started with iPhoto for my image library. Later I was told that Aperture would be more professional, so I switched. I was then advised that iPhoto had more useful interactions. So now I have pictures stored all over the place!!
Recently upgraded to Aperture V3 and see the new added benefits - Help! Should I re-name both Libraries and store on Ext hard drive, then re-import to new Aperture? What are the dangers to watch out for?!
I too started with iPhoto for my image library. Later I was told that Aperture would be more professional, so I switched. I was then advised that iPhoto had more useful interactions. So now I have pictures stored all over the place!!
Recently upgraded to Aperture V3 and see the new added benefits - Help! Should I re-name both Libraries and store on Ext hard drive, then re-import to new Aperture? What are the dangers to watch out for?!
I too started with iPhoto for my image library. Later I was told that Aperture would be more professional, so I switched. I was then advised that iPhoto had more useful interactions. So now I have pictures stored all over the place!!
Recently upgraded to Aperture V3 and see the new added benefits - Help! Should I re-name both Libraries and store on Ext hard drive, then re-import to new Aperture? What are the dangers to watch out for?!
I don't have any experience with Aperature so can't really help you with that part of it directly, however there is this Apple video that may be helpful:
Apple: Aperture: Moving Your iPhoto Library to Apertureand these might also be helpful:
Sharing images between Aperture and iPhoto
Macworld: From iPhoto to Aperture
Using Aperture as well as iPhoto
Thanks for the advice which was helpful, although the software updates to present time make the file structure a difficult choice.
Having wasted my years trying to get PC's to behave, I had hoped for a single library structure, so will try and get my head round the duplicity of images in order to save my hard drive going into melt-down!
Kind of you to offer your links.
Thanks for the advice which was helpful, although the software updates to present time make the file structure a difficult choice.
Having wasted my years trying to get PC's to behave, I had hoped for a single library structure, so will try and get my head round the duplicity of images in order to save my hard drive going into melt-down!
Kind of you to offer your links.