I'm considering buying an iMac for shared use with my wife and to get the pics off of my MB Air because it is filling the HD up like crazy. Is there a way to transfer my complete iPhoto library including albums, titles, faces, etc. over to the iMac?
When I bought new laptops in the past and tried to do this it just transferred all of the pics and no albums which was horrible because I have 5k+ pics that were then a jumbled mess. Hopefully there is a way! Thanks in advance
Hopefully you have been copying your images into your iPhoto Library from the day you created it. In iPhoto Preferences, under the Advanced tab, look at Importing section and see if you checked off "Copy Items to the iPhoto Library". If you did, good. That means all your photos and video that are in iPhoto have the Original photo/video also in iPhoto. Since the adjustments that you make to any photo (cropping, straightening, editing, etc.) aren't actually made the the original image but are instead an instruction set, you need the original image on your computer when you want to DO something to that photo - print it, email it, use it in another application, etc. If you DO NOT have the original files copied into your Library, it means that they are scattered around your MBA in various folders and other locations, and it means transferring your Library is going to be a real pain.
If you have copies of all your images in your Library, the process is easy. Make a copy of your Library. Move that Library to something with enough capacity (an external HDD if it is big, a memory stick if it is small, etc.), and then move from the portable storage device into the Photos folder in your new Mac. Once there, double click on it and it will open, complete with all your albums, faces, edits, etc. Once you are 100% sure all is working, delete the Library from the MBA.
If you already launched iPhoto on your new Mac, you have already created a new Library. No problem - iPhoto allows for endless Libraries. When launching iPhoto, just hold down the "Option" key and it will bring up a dialog box asking you which Library you want to use. Or, you can just double click on the Library in the Photos folder that you want to use. I think the last Library opened becomes the new default.
An iPhoto Library can get big fast, especially is you are using PhotoStream and all of the images you shoot on your iPhone and iPad are automatically dumping in there. You can clean those out routinely if you don't want them. Also, if you are dragging photos or video into iPhoto and have the "Copy Items..." dialog selected, you now have both the original on your MBA, and a copy in the iPhoto Library. This is especially troublesome for video, as video files are large. You can safely delete the original file once you've added it to iPhoto ASSUMING YOU HAVE THE COPY SELECTED. Otherwise, you need the source photo/video on your MBA in order to use it in iPhoto.
Hope this helps!
