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Moved My iPhoto Library...Help

soundguy15

soundguy15

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 9, 2009
86
0
I moved my iPhoto library and the folder where I kept all my pictures to an external drive. Now when I open iPhoto, I can see all my pics but when I click on them I get an error saying "the volume for 'filename.ext" cannot be found."

So is there a way to tell iPhoto that all my pictures are in a different location at the same time, because finding the location of each pic isn't an option (I have over 7000)
 
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I edited "AlbumData.xml" in the iPhoto library and changed all the old file paths to the new one with search and replace, but when I launch iPhoto all the paths change back to what they were before. Apparently there is another file where this information is kept.

Any ideas???
 
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That's pretty much what I did. I think it's not working because i didn't import my photos into the iPhoto library, and kept them in the pictures folder.

BTW, I moved both the iPhoto library and all the folders where my photos were located to my external drive.
 
Just hold down the option key when launching iPhoto. Then tell iPhoto where the library is.

When you hold down option there will be an option to select "Other Library" select that option and point it to where you moved the library on the external.

Screen Shot 2011-08-01 at 8.09.35 PM.png
 
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Cynicalone said:
Just hold down the option key when launching iPhoto. Then tell iPhoto where the library is.

When you hold down option there will be an option to select "Other Library" select that option and point it to where you moved the library on the external.
Click to expand...

I had the correct library selected. That's not my problem. iPhoto will show the thumbnails of my pics, but when i click on them it can't find them because they are in a different location.

Is there a way to fix my library without creating a new one altogether?
 
If you moved the iPhoto Library and then pointed iPhoto to it I not sure what you can do beside restoring it from a backup.

Moving iPhoto is easy so something must have went wrong.
 
Cynicalone said:
If you moved the iPhoto Library and then pointed iPhoto to it I not sure what you can do beside restoring it from a backup.

Moving iPhoto is easy so something must have went wrong.
Click to expand...

It's easy if you have all of your photos imported into the library.

I tried to move a few pics back to the original location and those work in iPhoto now, but I can't fit all of them back in that location. I also tried to create an alias that pointed to the new location but that didn't work.
 
I found a half-workaround. I have to create an alias for all 7000+ of my pics in the original location for it to work.

However, when i view the pics in iPhoto it zooms in to the original size and wont zoom out. This doesn't happen when I move the actual files to the new location, but does if I use an alias.

On a side note: is an alias supposed to report itself as the size of the original? I just created about 1GB worth of alias' and daisy disk and the file info is reporting the size of the original instead of the size of an alias which should be really small. maybe it's a Lion thing?
 
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Pre Lion you could just...

  • Quit iPhoto
  • Move the iPhoto Library
  • Launch iPhoto holding the option key
  • Select your iPhoto Library in it new location

I don't know why that would change but maybe it is a bug.
 
I did the move pro-Lion and it didn't work then either. It's because I don't like the way iPhoto moves my pics into its own library with its own file structure. I unchecked the option to copy my files into the library and kept them where they were. When I moved my pics to my external, iPhoto is still looking for them in the old location.

Is there a database file I can edit to change the directories to the new location?
 
Unfortunately you may already know what you have to do. You may have to build a new library.

It took me a minute to figure out that you where manually managing the pics. :confused::eek:

I would imagine there is no good way to move them without iPhoto losing track of the location.
 
Cynicalone said:
Unfortunately you may already know what you have to do. You may have to build a new library.

It took me a minute to figure out that you where manually managing the pics. :confused::eek:

I would imagine there is no good way to move them without iPhoto losing track of the location.
Click to expand...

That's what I didn't want to hear. :( It wouldn't be so bad if i didn't have to redo all of my faces data. Is there any way I can transfer that from my old library to my new one?
 
The Faces DB and Faces Folder is buried in the iPhoto package contents. I'm not sure what would happen if you tried to move that from the old library to a new one.
 
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