waldo's Avatar
waldo 4
2 Asked
12 Answered
0 Best
0
No one has voted on this question yet :(
3 years, 5 months ago

How do I know if all my photos are in iPhoto?

I have several photos in multiple hard drives, and I'm currently trying to consolidate everything into iPhoto. Is there an automated way to compare all HDs and the iPhoto Library to ensure all my stuff is in there?
I'm guessing by looking into the filenames since I usually don't change those(almost everything is organized in significantly named folders)....
Thanks!!!
Tip for best answer: M$1.00
Separate topics with commas, or by pressing return. Use the delete or backspace key to edit or remove existing topics.

You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.

M$

What is Your Answer?

0
0
0

2 Answers

1
canamrotax's Avatar
canamrotax | 3 years, 5 months ago
5
Go into iPhoto preferences, advanced tab, and make sure the "copy to iphoto library" is checked. Then import each drive enmasse, and click the "do not import duplicates" when it pops up. The only drawback is you end up telling not to import duplicates quite a few times. Someone probably makes an applescript, if you look hard...
source(s):
iPhoto on m own machine
images:

You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.

M$
waldo's Avatar
waldo | 3 years, 5 months ago Report

Thanks, but I already have them in the iPhoto library. I was wondering if there was a script that looked into the library, and compared it with a given directory to look for identical filenames?

Report Abuse

Post Reply Cancel
-1
pacodg's Avatar
pacodg | 3 years, 5 months ago
4
Though not the most convenient way, I would suggest first creating a folder where you want all the photos to go. Then from there start unloading all your pictures into that one folder. If the file names are different, no pictures will be lost as long as you keep track of what folders you have already copied into the new folder. The process, depending on how many pictures you have of course, will take roughly 5-10 minutes.

After, you can delete the old folders.

I would highly suggest as a precaution to burn a cd or dvd with all the photos for true backup.

You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.

M$
waldo's Avatar
waldo | 3 years, 5 months ago Report

Thank you pacodg, but as I mentioned before, the problem here is that the photos are already in the library.

waldo's Avatar
waldo | 3 years, 5 months ago Report

Teff, I completely agree with you. Best way to backup is to do it in a hard drive, I guess that is why I got into this mess :)

teff torbes's Avatar
teff torbes | 3 years, 5 months ago Report

This might work ok if you've got only a few thousand photos, but one directory with every single photo you have will quickly become horribly unwieldy. If I were to do it, I'd be mixing all different kinds of photos in to one horrible hodgepodge that makes everything far more difficult. Mixing thousands and thousands of wedding, sports, landsacpe, vacation, and snapshot photos in to one big mess would not be pretty, even if everything was tagged and searchable (I assure you, if I were to tag my photos, it would take a month)

Furthermore, burning DVDs is a poor backup method if you want a "true" backup. If you want to suggest a proper backup, a hard disk is better, because you know if it breaks, whereas with an optical disc, you'll run in to situations where suddenly 3 years later your old backup disc can't be read, and if you didn't check it every few months, you would be pretty much out of luck.

The best backup solution is something that automatically copies your files to a backup drive, which is optimally an external hard disk, but can be a tape drive, DVD, or anything else - but if it's one of the latter, you need to be able to check their integrity on a regular basis if you care at all about data security. It's OK if your backup fails as long as you know it failed, and the backup is backing something up that you already have stored somewhere else. Best, of course, is having your data in three places. you could use the hard disk in your computer as "normal" storage, a backup external hard disk, and DVDs as a *failsafe*.

There's nothing more deadly to data than a backup which has failed... and the user doesn't know that it has failed.

Both Vista and OSX have automatic backup tools that work perfectly. Use them!

Report Abuse

Post Reply Cancel

Learn something new with our FREE educational apps!

Private lessons in the comfort of your own home. Get back in shape or finally pick up a guitar with our great experts guiding you the whole way!
Learn Guitar
Learn Hip Hop
Learn Pilates