Comments on: How to merge iPhoto libraries for free

By: Bruce

Bruce — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 19:12:23 +0000

This also works between two User accounts on the same Mac

It sure does (see comment no. 4)

By: Jason

Jason — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 19:08:51 +0000

This also works between two User accounts on the same Mac.

I had lots of problems reading a Shared Library across the network, but locally worked well (and was fast)

By: Rodrigo

Rodrigo — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:28:28 +0000

The recommendation that keeps on working!

Thanks Bruce, it worked for me EXCEPT that it didn't move across any of the .mov and .avi files. Those I had to manually pile into a folder and tell iPhoto to import them.

It's truly extraordinary that Apple doesn't help people easily synch iPhoto (and iTunes) libraries across computers. You'd think this would be a must in an age where people own multiple Apple "computers".

All the best.

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:56:02 +0000

sweet... just saved me $20

By: Pete

Pete — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 13:23:43 +0000

Thanks, good hint to solve my exact same problem...

By: Bruce

Bruce — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:27:35 +0000

@Scott: Do note that this post is a couple of years old now, and iPhoto has moved on. Even Library Manager can't merge everything, and some things are version-dependent. If preserving organization is essential the only thing I can suggest is to do the merge in small batches (e.g. event by event) in order to replicate albums etc.

By: scottb

scottb — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:59:25 +0000

Actually Rob it does! How cool is that?

On the laptop I shared my album as above, then without logging out of my account logged in as my wife on the same machine. I opened her iPhoto library, and there was my shared album. I could simply select and drag images from my library into hers.

Do confirm it works for you too OK?

I just tried this (improting photos from one user to another user on the same machine) and it worked. However, all the folders and organization was lost.

By: john blue

john blue — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 02:00:02 +0000

I am just glad this library merge worked! I have been pulling images from three computers to one and then putting in place back up process (Retrspect for local backup and Mozy for remote site backup).
* Retrospect is being used to backup one library to a primary external drive backup and then to a secondary (different) external drive.
* Mozy will provide a paid for off site backup. Inexpensive but speed of backup is determined by connection to Mozy servers. mozy.com

Interestingly, both Mozy and Retrospect software are owned by divisions of EMC, a large IT company. http://www.emc.com/

By: Bruce

Bruce — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 07:25:50 +0000

This post is a couple of years old now Jodeo and was written with reference to iPhoto 6. Both iPhoto and the OS have been updated since then, so I have just tested this between two Macs, both running iPhoto 7.1.3 and Leopard 10.5.3.

On the donor Mac (1) the Firewall was set to "Set access for specific services and applications", (2) created a new album containing 10 photos divided between 2 named events and (3) confirmed sharing was enabled in iPhoto Preferences.

On the destination Mac I (1) confirmed "Look for shared photos" was checked in iPhoto Preferences, (2) selected the photos from the donor Mac's shared album, and dragged them into the Library (Photos) of the destination Mac.

I successfully merged all 10 donated photos into the destination Library. However, the Event grouping was lost, with the entire import being treated as a single Event. If event preservation is important to you, I suggest creating an album for each event on the donor Mac and importing each event individually to recreate the same groupings on the destination Mac.

I don't know why you ended up with "blanks", since this technique clearly does still work in principle using the current versions of iPhoto and OS X.

By: Jodeo

Jodeo — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 03:57:12 +0000

Well, I wasn't so lucky. I have iPhoto ver 7 (aka iLife '08) and followed these steps to merge the library from my iMac to my Powerbook. Both were running the same version of iPhoto - exactly. The MB is choc full of 'empty' events and 'blank' photos in the library. I don't understand it. Nothing interfered with the process, but the long and short of it is that it didn't work for me. The MB is running 10.5.3 and the iMac is on 10.4.11, but I don't think that would matter.