How To Transfer Iphoto Library Between Macs

11.04.2020
92 Comments
  1. How To Transfer Iphoto Library To Another Mac
  2. Open Iphoto Library On Pc
  3. How To Transfer Iphoto Library Between Macs Free
  4. Iphoto Library Download

Nov 12, 2019  Assuming you use Photos or iPhoto as your Mac image library app, then the library may hold the only copy of every photo you've ever taken with a digital camera or your smartphone. Your image library should probably have its own dedicated backup method in addition to Time Machine to ensure that one-of-a-kind photos are retained for the long term. Apr 23, 2011  How To Safely Move Your iPhoto Library to Another Hard Drive. Cant Transfer File from Mac to External Hard drive? Drive Formatted in NTFS? Mac Tip: How to migrate your iPhoto Library. Mar 18, 2020  Move your Photos library to an external storage device. In the Finder, go to the external drive where you want to store your library. In another Finder window, find your library. The default location is Users username Pictures, and it's named Photos Library. Drag your library to.

I want to share a single iPhoto library between two Mac computers. I would like to store the iPhoto library on the network because both Macs may not be connected at the same time.

After reading the article Save Space On Your Mac By Storing iPhoto & iTunes Libraries Remotely Save Space On Your Mac By Storing iPhoto & iTunes Libraries RemotelyWith my head held low with shame, I publicly admitted last week that I'm a digital hoarder. My once blazingly fast Mac is now left with just 100GB of a 1TB drive left. I've already.. Read More on MakeUseOf, there is a comment there by Pierre and answer by James saying it’s not possible to for two Macs to use the same iPhoto library concurrently. Is there a way to get around this?

The other thing is, the office is all Windows apart from these two Macs, so I also need recommendations on network solution as the iPhoto library won’t open when on a non-mac formatted network share file system (I.e Windows Server).

Any suggestions?
Thanks

  1. The main problem is that iPhoto is purely client-sided. There is no 'server' or 'database' back-end therefor there is no safe way to use it on multiple systems simultaneously.
    Yes, if both Macs are running the same iPhoto version and the Library is stored on a central storage (e.g. external disk or a server) then both clients can use the same iPhoto Library in turns ~ I wouldn't recommend doing at the same time.

    Then you hit the already mentioned problems of it being a OS X only application and being 'unique'.
    On Windows you will never truly be able to use all the (meta)data you store within iPhoto. Basically you can only use the actual photos. And yes, this means you can access the iPhoto Library using Windows - it's actually just a file and folder structure. It is some 'magic' within OS X that makes it look like a single large library file.

    As for the storage:
    I don't recommend anything other than HFS+. iPhoto stores certain (meta)data in a way only HFS+ supports it. On NTFS or FAT32 you will get regular problems and errors, rarely data loss.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168
    So if you attempt to do this at all it should be a Mac playing AFP and SMB server for both systems.

    In your case I would start looking into a cross-platform Digital Asset Management.
    I don't have any experience or knowledge of some of the freeware options here. For payed options there would be Canto and Celum. But they both start in the four-digits as far as I remember.
    http://www.canto.com/
    http://www.celum.com/

    Before moving your iTunes library, make new backups or update your existing ones so you can avoid data loss of any kind.While this method is slightly slower than the former, it is still effective. How to move file to library mac.

  2. iPhoto '11 (version 9) library's volume is unsupported
    http://floppydonkeyste.blogspot.fr/2011/09/iphoto-11-version-9-librarys-volume-is.html

  3. Apple actually have a support article on this topic at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1198. In a nutshell, you can move the iPhoto Library to a file server, but as you rightly mention in your question, access from both Macs at once could lead to unpredictable results. You _could_ use a Windows server, but Windows machines still won't be able to access the photos as the library uses a proprietary format.

    In terms of alternatives, it would help to have some context so we can make suggestions. What are you trying to achieve? How big are the libraries? Does everyone need access to the photos, or only a few users? Does everyone need to be able to upload photos, or just one or two people? Are the photos for viewing only/downloading/something else?

    • Hello Oron,

      Thanks for your reply. I did come across that article. Putting the iPhoto library on a network share, does not work, like you said because the file system is of a different format.

      The context:
      - Two Mac laptops
      - Wanting to share the same iPhoto library and meta data added to the photo's
      - Both users will need to access and be able add photo's and meta data to the library
      - Library to be used to assist with creating content with Pages for Mac http://www.apple.com/mac/pages/ (so viewing, downloading and adding to applications)
      - Library to be accessed by a select few people only in a network
      - If possible, have photo and meta data access from Windows machines as well
      - Libraries currently would store around 10000 photo's+ (estimate)
      - Apparently to import images to Pages for Mac, they images need to be in a iPhoto library - I am yet to try drag and drop

      Thanks.

Migration Assistant copies all of your files to your new Mac so that you don't have to copy your files manually.

  • If your files are currently on a Windows PC, follow the PC migration steps instead.
  • If your new Mac is using OS X Mountain Lion v10.8 or earlier, follow the Mountain Lion migration steps instead.

Check software, settings, and power

  • Install all available Apple software updates on both Mac computers. Install any updates for your third-party apps as well.
  • Make sure that your old Mac is using OS X Lion or later.
  • Make sure that your old Mac has a computer name: Choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, then click Sharing and check the Computer Name field.
  • Connect both computers to AC power.

How To Transfer Iphoto Library To Another Mac

Connect the computers to each other

  • If both computers are using macOS Sierra or later, just make sure that they're near each other and have Wi-Fi turned on. If either is using OS X El Capitan or earlier, connect them to the same network using Wi-Fi or Ethernet.
  • Or connect them using target disk mode and the appropriate cable or adapter. Then start up your old computer in target disk mode.
  • Or connect your new Mac to a Time Machine backup of your old Mac.

Use Migration Assistant

On your new Mac:

  1. Open Migration Assistant, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
  2. Click Continue.
  3. When asked how you want to transfer your information, select the option to transfer from a Mac, Time Machine backup, or startup disk.
  4. Click Continue.

On your old Mac:
If you started your old Mac in target disk mode or are migrating from a Time Machine backup, skip these four steps.

  1. Open Migration Assistant.
  2. Click Continue.
  3. When asked how you want to transfer your information, select the option to transfer to another Mac.
  4. Click Continue.

On your new Mac:

  1. When asked to select a Mac, Time Machine backup, or other startup disk, click the appropriate icon.
  2. Click Continue. You might see a security code.

On your old Mac:
If you started your old Mac in target disk mode or are migrating from a Time Machine backup, skip these two steps.

Open Iphoto Library On Pc

  1. If you see a security code, make sure that it's the same code as on your new Mac.
  2. Click Continue.

On your new Mac:

How to repair itunes library mac. Repair damaged iTunes Library file. First, Locate your iTunes folder. Quit iTunes, and navigate to where the iTunes library file is located. It can be different locations. Backup the iTunes Library file. Remove the damaged database. Recreate new iTunes Library file.

  1. You should see a list of backups organized by date and time. Choose the backup that you want to use.
  2. Click Continue.

Continuing on your new Mac:

  1. Select the information to transfer.
  2. Click Continue to start the transfer. If you have a lot of content, the transfer might take several hours to finish.


How To Transfer Iphoto Library Between Macs Free

In the example above, John Appleseed is a macOS user account. If you transfer an account that has the same name as an account on your new Mac, you're asked to rename the old account or replace the one on your new Mac. If you rename, the old account appears as a separate user on your new Mac, with a separate home folder and login. If you replace, the old account overwrites the account on your new Mac, including everything in its home folder.

Iphoto Library Download

After Migration Assistant is done, log in to the migrated account on your new Mac to see its files. If you're not keeping your old Mac, learn what to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your old Mac.