Transferring albums from iPhoto to a new Mac

[JimmyB248]

I've been trying for months now to get myself an enclosure for my old hard drive. Having finally got one I'm looking for a way to transfer over all my old photos and music. The music is easy, however the photo's aren't quite as simple. I've got over 1000 photos sorted into albums, and I don't fancy importing them all in and having to sort through them to get the albums back again. Is there an easier way?

 

[balamw]

I've been trying for months now to get myself an enclosure for my old hard drive. Having finally got one I'm looking for a way to transfer over all my old photos and music. The music is easy, however the photo's aren't quite as simple. I've got over 1000 photos sorted into albums, and I don't fancy importing them all in and having to sort through them to get the albums back again. Is there an easier way?

Yeah. copy the entire iPhoto library folder (~/Pictures/iPhoto Library) over to the new Mac. Start iPhoto. Done.

EDIT: If you already have a library on the new Mac, you can rename the folder (e.g. to Old iPhoto Library) and switch between the two libraries by holding down the Option key when you start iPhoto '06.

If the old drive was still in a Mac, you didn't need the enclosure, just a firewire cable and use target mode...

B

 

[JimmyB248]

Nah I didn't have the hard drive in the computer as it had broken but thanks a lot for this, solves my problem!