[madaras]

I have iPhoto 2.0 installed on both my 17" iMac and my PowerBook G4. On my iMac I have a "Photo Library" which contains several different imports of pictures, and I also have created "Albums", called for example A, B and C. On my PowerBook I have a Photo Library that contains several different imports of pictures, and also Albums, called for example D and E.
I want to be able to move the pictures from iPhoto on my Powerbook to iPhoto on my iMac, so that all the pictures are in the Photo Library on the iMac, and Albums D and E are also on my iMac. So on the iMac I would then have Albums A, B, C, D and E in iPhoto.
I know how to move files from my PowerBook to my iMac (using a Zip disk, or ethernet cable, etc), but it is not clear to me exactly what files I need to move, and how to make sure that they are integrated correctly in iPhoto on my iMac. Afterall, there is some structure and organization in iPhoto, and the entries in the Albums are all aliases, so how do I add the files from iPhoto on my PowerBook to iPhoto on my iMac so that they are treated correctly by iPhoto?
Thanks for any help you can give.

[Chris Breen]

You could mount the PowerBook as a networked volume (or an external volume using FireWire Target Disk Mode), choose Import from iPhoto's File menu, navigate to the iPhoto folder on the PowerBook, and press Choose. This would copy all the photos from the PowerBook to the iMac's iPhoto library (there's even an option to not copy duplicates).
This could mess up your album structure but it shouldn't be too difficult to create new albums on the iMac.
Chris

[madaras]

Chris,
Thanks, but isn't there a way that will preseve the Album structure? And will your method preserve the editing that I've done with the photos?
Ron

[Brian_s]

You could use iPhotoLibraryManager to create another iPhoto library and copy the library from the Powerbook to your iMac. I have done this between my iBook and my G4 tower.
The other thing that works is to burn a DVD/CD backup of the library from within iPhoto. When you have iPhoto running an put the DVD/CD into the machine iPhoto recognized it and shows it as an album.
Brian

[madaras]

Brian,
Thanks, but I already have an iPhoto Library on my PowerBook, so what good does it do me to create another one there with iPhotoLibraryManager? As you can see, I am not understanding what you suggest. Sorry. Could you please explain further?
And you say to "copy the library from the Powerbook to your iMac". Do I just copy the whole library (with Albums D and E) and just plop it into iPhoto on my iMac? That is the part I'm worried about, that iPhoto won't then index properly Ablums A,B,C,D and E.
Thanks for your help.
Ron

[Brian_s]

What this gives you is another separate iPhoto Library. I have several.
I have one for family, one for people, one for places and so on.
Once my library grew beyond 4GB it became very slow to use.
I hope this helps.

[madaras]

Brian,
You say "You could use iPhotoLibraryManager to create another iPhoto library and copy the library from the
Powerbook to your iMac. ". I downloaded iPhotoLibraryManager, and I don't see any way to use
iPhotoLibraryManager to create a iPhoto library that I can copy. Could you please clarify for me? Thanks.
Ron

[Brian_s]

Create a new emply library called "iPhoto New". The instructions with iPhoto Library Manager tell you how to do this.
Connect the two machines via firewire with one in target mode.
Copy the iBook iPhoto library contents into "iPhoto New"
Run iPhoto Library Manager to make iPhoto New your active library and then start IPhoto.
Brian

[madaras]

Chris,
I'm sorry, but your proposed solution of 2/12/03 doesn't work. It doesn't preserve the structure of the iPhoto Library.
I can explain more. The iPhoto Library on my iMac has a certain structure, and the iPhoto Library on my PowerBook has a certain structure. When running iPhoto on the PowerBook, I see 48 edited pictures displayed when I select "Photo Library", and I see 25 edited pictures displayed when I select an Album that I created. When I look at the actual files in iPhoto Library, in a particular folder I see the 48 edited jpeg files, the 48 original jpeg files in a sub-folder, 48 small thumbnail jpeg files in another sub-folder, 25 aliases in a different folder, and a bunch of different preference files in various spots.
When I followed your instructions (after backing up all folders, of course), the Import added 144 jpeg files to the "Photo Library" on the iMac, and didn't transfer the Album at all. The 144 jpeg files were the 3x48 jpeg files I described above. So you see, the structure of the iPhoto Library on the PowerBook (with separate folders for the edited jpeg files, original jpeg files, thumbnail jpeg files and preferences) wasn't transferred.
It doesn't matter that the iPhoto Libraries were on different machines. If I have 2 iPhoto Libraries, A and B, on the same machine, and each one has a structure of edited, original and thumbnail jpeg files, I have not found a way of joining them together into one iPhoto Library that has the proper structure (ie. all the edited, original, and thumbnail jpeg files, aliases, and preferences, are in the right place.) And I don't think it is possible to move each of the folders with the edited, original and thumbnail jpeg files, and the aliases, and the preferences, one by one, because the aliases and preferences would then have to be modified, and that sounds like a nightmare.
So the best I have been able to do is to have 2 different completely independent iPhoto Libraries on my iMac, and use the freeware program iPhoto Library Manager (http://homepage.mac.com/bwebster/) to be able to switch easily between them.
Ron