Symbolic Links for iPhoto

[Poob Bubes]

I was thinking of drilling down into the package contents of my iPhoto library and moving just the folders with the pictures to an HDD (using symlinks) and keeping the rest of the library on SSD. Just wanted to see if anyone has tried this and if this would have any adverse effects.

 

[bucksaddle]

Not tried the symlinks method specifically but why not just uncheck the "Copy items into iPhoto library" option in the advanced preferences and rebuild your library? Should have the same effect.

 

[Poob Bubes]

Not tried the symlinks method specifically but why not just uncheck the "Copy items into iPhoto library" option in the advanced preferences and rebuild your library? Should have the same effect.

Well I believe if you do it this way, you will lose the management features in iPhoto. You will have to use the Finder for deleting content and you will not be able to use the import functionality of iPhoto.

By using the symlinks, iPhoto is still managing everything. It just doesn't know that it is actually managing a different location thanks to the symlinks.

(I am not saying this is factual, it is just my understanding from what I have read. I could be wrong )

 

[Mal]

Why not just move the whole library? Shouldn't be any real disadvantage, and you don't have to futz with anything so complicated. I don't think iPhoto recognizes symlinks properly for that, much like iTunes has trouble with them.

jW

 

[Poob Bubes]

I wasn't aware that iTunes has any issues with this. That is actually the reason I posed the question because I read that if you leave the iTunes library on an SSD and move the Media folder with a symlink, there are tangible performance benefits without consuming precious SSD space.

I thought maybe the same was true for iPhoto.