iPhoto hackery…kind of (How to change the default iPhoto Library location…)
In: Technology
18 May 2008
It’s my hard drive space, the gigantic half terabyte I added to my iMac. I use it for audio files, but there is plenty of space for a little dual purpose. I got a new camera last week and I decided to use my iMac as my “photo work” machine. That being said, instead of filling the hard drive on the machine, I wanted to store my photos on the external drive.
I opened up iPhoto, browsed to the preferences, and to my shock, this wasn’t possible. Unlike iTunes, you can’t just browse to a new default Library location and move on.
Lucky for us, there is a work around and it’s probably the most un-Apple like, not remotely graceful fix.
How To Change Your Default Library:
- Make sure iPhoto is closed.
- Copy your existing Library file to it’s new home.
- Delete the existing Library file from it’s old home.
- Open iPhoto and relieve it’s shock at it’s missing guts by selecting the newly re-homed file.
That’s it. iPhoto now has a new home. It’s not exactly tough, but why not the same dialog iTunes has? Surely you can reuse that tiny bit of code.
This CAN also be done from the Unix Terminal, but who wants to go through that much trouble.
In case you do, here it is:
To change the default file store location, go to terminal and type:
defaults write com.apple.iPhoto RootDirectory /path/to/To remove the change default:
defaults remove com.apple.iPhoto RootDirectory
Hope you had a wonderful weekend and enjoy the tip.
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6 Responses to iPhoto hackery…kind of (How to change the default iPhoto Library location…)
Brian G.
May 19th, 2008 at 4:40 am
Or, hold down the option key and launch iPhoto. It will then provide several options to you on which library to use or how to create a new library. Searching the macosxhints.com would also reveal this.
Not the most obvious way, but certainly the Mac way. Think of it this, way. The option key is there to provide more options. Try the option key before the command line and you’ll be surprised.
Brian G.
May 19th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Just hold down the option key while launching iPhoto. Before it launches, iPhoto will give you further options, either to create a new iPhoto library or choose a different one.
It is sort of an Apple thing that the option key is used to, for lack of a better word, hide advanced options, ergo “option”.
Jason Burns
May 20th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Thanks for the feedback Brian, it’s interesting that Apple chose to surface the technique I mentioned in their knowledgebase instead of the option key way to go, don’t you think?
JA
May 20th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Thanks for posting this. I too picked up a 40D in early January and have tapped out my Mini’s HD pretty quickly. I was looking to drop my iPhoto library to the external drive I have attached to the Mini, but had yet to look-up the means to do so. This saves my bacon!
It’s also been a some time since I last visited…love the new layout.
Thank you.
Dee
September 24th, 2008 at 3:19 am
I have had my library on an external drive for some time. Then unplugged it while moving. I plugged it back in again, selected the library and.. NOTHING! Well.. all the originally are their , thumbnail etc just no library data or structure. The files all seem to be OK , tried reselecting the directory again but stupid i-tunes doesn’t give me any libraries.
If anyone could help that would be greatly appreciated as I have several thousand photos which were all well organised..
Bud
October 21st, 2009 at 10:59 am
Big problem and I need some help. It appears my iPhoto library is not responding. I’ve tried rebuilding it etc. The problem is with other programs that use the library such as Comic Life, Posterino, etc. Although my iPhoto appears to be working okay: iPhoto opens, all my albums, event, etc. are there…it just won’t show up in these other programs. As a test, I moved the library and began a new one, threw some photos inside and they appeared in Comic Life, Posterino, etc.
My fear is that I will need to export all my photos and re-import them back into a new library. This is where the big problem comes in: I will lose all my events, faces, albums. Is there another way?
I would be grateful for any advise. Thanks.