Converting/liberating IPhoto ’08 collection

[often-befuddled]

So a friend has 8000 labeled photos under IPhoto ’08, version 7.1.5 on OSX 10.7 & we need to do something to migrate them. She bought an Air with 10.10 but would not want them all internally. She has a fair-sized RAID I got her with space but....

I know zip about the photo s/w Apple offers; I'm more comfortable in bash... I've been reading here and elsewhere but......

Thus a collection of open-ended questions for the more knowledgeable people here.

1. Where exactly in the file tree is the iPhoto collection? [We will back it up before trying anything.]
   
2. How do you liberate the iPhoto archive but preserve the albums & individual tags?
   
3. Apple assumes the archive is on the recipient machine with non-iPhoto running; it is not. Can Photo even deal with an external mounted filesystem?
   
4. Few people seem to have anything good to say about "Photos" but she does not need many tools to edit the imagery, just a way to catalog & view. Good enough?
   
5. What are the alternatives? Google Photos? Flickr?
   
6. If #5, how can you export the collection to another platform re: tool/tools?

Suggestions/leads?

ps: I agree re: generic names make it a PITA to search for information.

 

[Fishrrman]

I've never been a heavy iPhoto user -- in fact, my "iPhoto library" contains only about 14 images!

BUT...

I just tried an experiment to see if I could do what [I think] you want to do.

I believe you could do this:
1. Have a "target" ready. For 8,000 photos, you probably want an external drive, unless you already have significant "mounted storage".
2. Open iPhoto
3. On the left, under "library", click "photos".
4. This should display ALL the photos in the iPhoto library (all 8,000 of them)
5. Next, type "command-A" to select all of them
6. From the file menu, choose "export". The Export dialog will appear.

7. Now, take a moment to SET THIS UP properly. I would think you want:
Kind: JPEG
JPEG Quality: Maximum
Include: checked or unchecked as you desire
Size: Full Size
File Name: Use filename
Prefix for sequential: not sure how to use this
Subfolder Format: Event Name

8. Click the Export button
9. Now you're presented with a dialog asking WHERE you want to export all this to.
10. I'd suggest you navigate to the new location, and create a new, single folder ("New Folder" button in lower left of dialog. Give it a name that's meaningful to you.
11. The dialog should change and point to the new location.
12. Click "OK"

I just tried this procedure on my own (small) iPhoto library, and it successfully exported the entire library -- and preserved the "events".
It did so "in finder file/folder format" -- accessible to any photo app.

IMPORTANT:
Doing the above exports the photos WITH ANY CHANGES THAT iPHOTO HAS MADE.

If you want the unmodified originals, I'm going to -guess- that would take a lot more work.

But if your friend is satisfied with "the look" of the photos as they appear now in iPhoto, I believe the above method will "get you where you want to go".

You can try this (again, on an external drive). If you like the results, keep them.
If you DON'T like the results, just trash them.

Some additional thoughts:
If your friend likes iPhoto and has no complaints, be aware that you can KEEP USING iPhoto, even with El Capitan. It still runs fine and does everything it did before.
HOWEVER -- you need the latest (actually, the "final") version to run in El Capitan -- version 9.6.1.

It's possible to get this from Apple.
If you can't get it from Apple, there are .... (cough).... "other ways"....

 

[Weaselboy]

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204655

The new Photos app can directly migrate the old iPhoto library from the external disk. Just hold the option key the first time she launches Photos and point to the iPhoto library on external drive as the import source. Once the import is done, you will find the new Photos library file in here ~/Pictures folder. Just drag that file to whatever external drive you want.

This will bring in all the original and edited photos along with any tags and event structures from the old iPhotos library.

Do not fuss around inside that iPhoto library file. It is not meant to be edited manually and you will break things.

 

[often-befuddled]

Fishrrman:
Thanks.
I will give this a try tomorrow.
But it looks like I have to download and install iPhoto on the new box; it's 10.10.5 and does not have it. I am d/l the 9.4.3. updater in the background;but no sign of a newer one.

Then I get the updater somehow. Will the 10.7 box update itself?


Weaselboy
The new Photos app can directly migrate the old iPhoto library from the external disk. Just hold the option key the first time she launches Photos and point to the iPhoto library on external drive as the import source. Once the import is done, you will find the new Photos library file in here ~/Pictures folder. Just drag that file to whatever external drive you want.

Will it be unhappy to have the archive on an external drive?

And where in the file tree is the iPhoto library stored? Is it the one under $USER/pictures/ ?

And is Photos another trap; or can the albums be exported from it easily?

 

[Weaselboy]

Will it be unhappy to have the archive on an external drive?

And where in the file tree is the iPhoto library stored? Is it the one under $USER/pictures/ ?

And is Photos another trap; or can the albums be exported from it easily?

It will work fine on an external drive. After the import and after you have moved the Photos library, do an option key boot of the Photos app and it will ask what library you want to use. Point it to the external and it will remember that selection on future launches.

Yes... by default both iPhoto and Photos store the library file in the users ~/Pictures folder. (~ equals the logged in users user folder).

Yeah... kinda. I don't believe you can export from Photos and include the albums/event structure.

A lot of people like to rag on Photos, but I converted to it form iPhoto and have no issues at all.

 

[often-befuddled]

It will work fine on an external drive.

Well, we copied the iPhoto "iPhoto Library" from the source machine onto a 1 TB partition of the outboard RAID. She started Photo and it insisted on running some updater that renamed it to something like iPhoto.Library.updated.2467875q687

Photos than loaded it. That's the good news.

The bad news is this: It did something nasty to the filesystem of that partition. It in no longer usable with the source 10.7 machine. When connected there, it pops up with a password request, but what password? It's not the login password of either machine.

Disk Utility under 10.7 now identifies it as

 Core storage physical volume

vs. the usual

 Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

. On the 10.10 machine, it mounts without a password but identifies as

 encrypted logical partition

.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Is this some secret present from Photo or the conversion tool?

I can {hopefully} recover by copying the files off to another partition, and deleting/recreating it, but until I know the cause.....

 

[Weaselboy]

It looks like that disk has been encrypted with OS X FileVault and that was not done by anything related to these photos or the photo apps. Somewhere along the line somebody turned on encryption for that disk.

If it mounts in 10.10 that means someone saved the password to the Keychain so it no longer asks for it. Just open Keychain and start typing "volume" up top like in my screenshot and you will see the Keychain entry under whatever the disk is named as an encrypted volume password. See mine called Backup in the screenshot. Just double click that and enter the login password to see the disk password. Then you can use that password on the 10.7 machine and save it to Keychain there also.

I think you are fine, it is just that the disk password was saved to Keychain on the 10.10 machine and not the 10.7 machine. But there is no way the photo operations had anything to do with this.

 

[often-befuddled]

It looks like that disk has been encrypted with OS X FileVault and that was not done by anything related to these photos or the photo apps. Somewhere along the line somebody turned on encryption for that disk.

She denied any knowledge of that, AND I looked at Filevault's panel on the new box. I could see no way to unencrypt the partition; the panel just talked about the boot volume [the internal SSD of the Air] & not the 3 externals.....

Further, when I first looked at the box, all three partitions were ordinary yellow {on the desktop}. Now the one isn't; and only I was working on the machine then...

If it mounts in 10.10 that means someone saved the password to the Keychain so it no longer asks for it. Just open Keychain and start typing "volume" up top like in my screenshot and you will see the Keychain entry under whatever the disk is named as an encrypted volume password. See mine called Backup in the screenshot. Just double click that and enter the login password to see the disk password. Then you can use that password on the 10.7 machine and save it to Keychain there also.

I think you are fine, it is just that the disk password was saved to Keychain on the 10.10 machine and not the 10.7 machine. But there is no way the photo operations had anything to do with this.

My goal is to restore the partition to open; if I can't get Filevault to do that, I'll delete it & start over.

 

[Weaselboy]

She denied any knowledge of that, AND I looked at Filevault's panel on the new box. I could see no way to unencrypt the partition; the panel just talked about the boot volume [the internal SSD of the Air] & not the 3 externals.....

Further, when I first looked at the box, all three partitions were ordinary yellow {on the desktop}. Now the one isn't; and only I was working on the machine then...

My goal is to restore the partition to open; if I can't get Filevault to do that, I'll delete it & start over.

It would not show anything in that FileVault pref. pane. That is just for the boot disk and it won't show others there.

A clue would to look in Keychain on the 10.10 machine and look at the date/time the password was saved. For example in mine it was March 11, 2015. That will tell you when this was done (or at least when the password was saved).

To turn off the encryption just right click on the icon on the desktop and select Decrypt.

I'm just not seeing any way just moving these library files back and forth would encrypt the disk. Did you reformat any of the partitions before or while doing this? It is just one click away in Disk Utility to select a encrypted format vs a regular format.

 

[often-befuddled]

It would not show anything in that FileVault pref. pane. That is just for the boot disk and it won't show others there
....
To turn off the encryption just right click on the icon on the desktop and select Decrypt.

Ahh, thanks...

I'm just not seeing any way just moving these library files back and forth would encrypt the disk. Did you reformat any of the partitions before or while doing this? It is just one click away in Disk Utility to select a encrypted format vs a regular format.

Nope, I built them months ago.....
So it's a mystery.

 

[often-befuddled]

Next chapter:

a) How do I deal with 2 photo libraries? I now have one on an outboard drive, and another under ~/Pictures.
I can switch back & forth when starting Photos up, but can I move albums from one to another?

b) How do I control which photos/albums get sent upstream to the Jobs_Cloud, and which do not?

 

[Weaselboy]

Next chapter:

a) How do I deal with 2 photo libraries? I now have one on an outboard drive, and another under ~/Pictures.
I can switch back & forth when starting Photos up, but can I move albums from one to another?

b) How do I control which photos/albums get sent upstream to the Jobs_Cloud, and which do not?

a. You can option key start Photos and pick which library to use, but it is really intended to have all your photos in one library.

b. Related to (a)... I think you are going to need to pick a library for primary usage and stick with it and sync that library to iCloud if you want. I don't see any way to sync two libraries. You cannot move albums back and forth. You could drag out and move individual photos I suppose if you want.

 

[often-befuddled]

Hard to make one library from two unless there's a way to move albums between........


update:

Looks like buying Fat Cat's PowerPhotos would solve this issue. Thanks, Apple......