iPhoto library - Am I completely missing the point?

hoogie · 14 Mar 2012 at 14:20

Hi All,

I moved to Mac a few months ago and I’m feeling settled with most aspects of the OS and Software, however I am finding myself completely lost with iPhoto and how it manages photos...

Fundamentally my main problem is that iPhoto makes a duplicate copy of my pictures when importing them and saves it in a different library location, which I didn't know was happening.

As a result I now have a load of pictures stored as I would expect in my pictures folder, duplicates in the iPhoto library and a large amount of new pictures in the iPhoto library but not in my Pictures folder.

A few questions:

1) Why does iPhoto behave like this? Does it offer any benefits?

2) The iPhoto library seems not to use my original folder names, so navigating the library structure is a nightmare. Is there a way around this?

3) Is there a way to easily re-structure to a more standard approach with my photos in their normal locations?

Thanks for any advice.

hyper_piper45 · 14 Mar 2012 at 15:02

I will admit moving from windows this behaviour can seem a bit strange.

1) Why does iPhoto behave like this? Does it offer any benefits?

It is the same with iTunes. Apple likes to organise and manage you media. Usually what most people do is when they import their photos, they remove the originals. This means you do not have duplicates and everything is stored neatly in the iPhoto library. As you are viewing the photos within iPhoto the folder structure etc is irrelevant. There is an option (preferences, advanced, import to iPhoto) which allows you to keep your photo in the original location and not have duplicates.

2) The iPhoto library seems not to use my original folder names, so navigating the library structure is a nightmare. Is there a way around this?

See above. However apple expects you to navigate within iPhoto and not worry about folder structures.

3) Is there a way to easily re-structure to a more standard approach with my photos in their normal locations?

See option in answer 1.

hoogie · 14 Mar 2012 at 15:47

It's quite interesting that I have found this "Apple wanting to manage data for me" as the hardest thing to adapt to.

I have done it with iTunes and find it ok as it is structured by Author/Artist/Film etc and I can easily navigate if I ever had to. But with photos losing all folder names and ability to manually navigate scare the hell out of me...

What if I ever wanted to return to Windows, how would I go about getting my pictures back into a normal structure?

I suspect I may disable the "import to iPhoto" setting and keep my files in their original location, however if I do that I will have to manually find and move all photos that I have imported to iPhoto since getting my Mac, which will be very time consuming

kristmace · 15 Mar 2012 at 14:18

This is my #1 gripe with Apple software. As a Mac/Windows user it drives me nuts. It's not a problem until you want to use a different program with your photo/music library and iPhoto/iTunes has left the folder in a complete mess.

I've reverted to keeping my folders organised manually then using iTLU to scan my folders and keep iTunes up to date. This doesn't help with your iPhoto problem. I wonder if an equivalent scan/update program exists.

DoubleCheese · 15 Mar 2012 at 17:00

Have you considered using Lightroom? Its not free but is very, very good!

Turbo-G · 15 Mar 2012 at 19:13

iPhoto is great. You can just export your library into traditional format should you move back. My recommendation would be I port all photos, and then remove the originals.

sswats · 27 Dec 2013 at 16:16

hoogie said:
What if I ever wanted to return to Windows, how would I go about getting my pictures back into a normal structure?

Its a huge pain. I've had to do it once, I think i had to resort to a third party program to export it in the same structure.

iPhoto does work nicely, but that same issue puts me off using it as my main photo organiser.

Prophet · 27 Dec 2013 at 16:19

One issue I have with moving photo's is I never know if it's going to delete the right one. I like the cross device sync but knowing what's safe to delete, what's backed up and what's going on is quite tricky!

ic1male · 28 Dec 2013 at 23:10

I would never trust Apple to completely manage your data - if you do import to iTunes/iPhoto make sure you keep the originals safe and secure on another drive. There have been instances in the past where updates to the software/OS have caused data loss.

With iTunes, I have everything duplicated to a separate drive and backed up to Google Play Music (20,000 songs stored for nowt!) and my photos are also on Picasa.

box · 29 Dec 2013 at 13:53

Turbo-G said:
My recommendation would be I port all photos, and then remove the originals.

This. Take the leap

At the expense of a short period of feeling a little out of control, you'll benefit in the long run. Relieving yourself from the burden of having to delve into the file structure for everyday tasks, you can instead deal with higher level, more natural categorisation, such as 'Events' and 'Albums'. And everything just generally makes more sense.

If you decide you don't like it, there are quite easy ways to move all your photos back to a more familiar way of working. And for those concerned about the rare event where software does weird things and messes up behind the scenes ... this is what your daily time machine backup is for! In 5 years, I have never had a problem though.

ic1male · 29 Dec 2013 at 13:59

tim80bwi said:
And for those concerned about the rare event where software does weird things and messes up behind the scenes ... this is what your daily time machine backup is for! In 5 years, I have never had a problem though.

Yes and I wouldn't trust that thing, either!

box · 29 Dec 2013 at 15:27

ic1male said:
Yes and I wouldn't trust that thing, either!

[Insert preferred incremental backup software]