Comments on: How To: Access your iPhoto ‘08 Library from your browser

By: John17

John17 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:41:14 +0000

By packaging several choices together and naming the set, Newman identifies the selected strategies clearly. ,

By: yury nedelin

yury nedelin — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 03:50:10 +0000

thanks for the tip, another example how things on mac do not just work. also iPhoto gets really slooooow, often, and i got a new mac book pro and I am running the “fast” video card only.

By: Nate

Nate — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 05:30:40 +0000

Oops, i messed up on the link to iTerm, sorry! It can be found at iterm.sourceforge.net or easily from a quick Google search. Oh, and I also forgot to mention that rsync is great in the future too. Say you export your whole library of 4000 pictures and then a week later you add a new album to iPhoto. If you do the rsync again, it will build the list and figure out that most of the pictures are already there and only copy the new ones. Neat! Hmm, it also looks like there is a graphical rsync utility for OS X called arRsync, found at arrsync.sourceforge.net, although I haven't tried it to see if it would work for this purpose.

By: Nate

Nate — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 05:17:43 +0000

For those of you who are (more or less) savvy with command-line instructions, getting to and exporting photos is quite simple. (Turns out that annoying “package” is just a folder with special bits set.) I have a Mac laptop and recently built a desktop with Linux on it, and naturally wanted to copy all my iPhoto pictures over. This was incredibly simple for me. Here are the steps:

1) Open Terminal.app or iTerm, a great Terminal replacement.
2) Navigate to your iPhoto Libray folder: cd ~/Pictures/iPhoto\ Library
3) See what exists in the folder: ls
4) Copy the “Originals” folder: rsync -av Originals /local/path/to/export/to/.
5) Copy the “Modified” folder if necessary: rsync -av Modified /local/path/to/export/to/.
6) Done.

Note: “cp -v” can be used instead of “rsync -av”, but I recommend using rsync as it builds a transfer list and picks up where it left off if it is interrupted. I personally used rsync since it will copy files over SSH to another computer. So, in step 4, I typed “rsync -av Originals username@desktop_computer:/remote/path/to/export/to/.” instead. Also note that typing “rsync -av Originals/ /path/.” is different than “rsync -av Originals /path/.” as the former will copy the contents inside the Originals folder, while the latter will copy the whole Originals folder intact. Hopefully this is still helpful for someone. :)

By: Darin Marshall

Darin Marshall — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 11:31:43 +0000

Okay, after further review, I was able to get this to work. My next question is, how can I remove the movies that I’ve captured with my Canon S3 IS from the iPhoto Library without corrupting or in some way damaging the iPhoto Library?

I don’t want all of those movies files taking up space in my iPhoto Library but that’s where they end up in the new version of the app which makes very little sense to me.

I’ll try consulting the iPhoto help and then see what the toobs have to say about this subject. Thanks for the tip on accessing files inside of a package!

By: Darin Marshall

Darin Marshall — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 07:36:49 +0000

I tried doing as you said in Firefox with the Upload button from Youtube. I created some movies that are embedded in the iPhoto Library package and when I say Show File from within iPhoto, I get a directory that is under iPhoto Library package file.

When I attempt to Control + click the iPhoto Library file in Firefox’s standardized Upload dialog as is appears in your blog post as well, I get no options from the Control + click action. Basically, nothing happens. What browser were you using? I just copied the files from the sub-folder within the iPhoto Library package window to my desktop which kinda sucks but I couldn’t get Firefox’s default Upload browser window to give me those Control + click options you show in your post when I clicked the YouTube upload video button.

By: Devin N

Devin N — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 23:37:06 +0000

As many of you have discovered, iPhoto is very crippling in regards to file organization. I tried using it, but being a graphic designer, I was frustrated when after editing and saving a photo in the root folder the photo was located (which seemed to be the most logical place), not only did iPhoto not show it, but I couldn’t get to it through finder. I have began using my own folder organization, creating folders by date and event which allows me to have the flexibility I need. I have been envious of those who dont need that flexibility when I see the simplicity that people can create slideshows with iPhoto and since the new version has face detection, I am really interested in making this work. I found out today that in the advanced section of the properties, you can uncheck the option to copy photos to iPhoto. It simply creates aliases for use within iPhoto but allows you to still find photos in the finder. I am not sure what happens with manipulations or tagging, but it will be interesting to figure out if this solution works.

By: Kim W

Kim W — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:08:58 +0000

I did the whole “show package contents” thing, and made a copy. When I did that, I had no problem accessing the pictures from an internet browser. The problem I am still having is when I upload new pictures from my camera to iPhoto, the imported pictures are not saving in the copied “original” folder. Also, if I modify a picture, and does not save into the “modified”. Every time I want to get a picture I have to either have to drag to the desktop (which is a pain) or open the package and copy again (which is a bigger pain). Any suggestions???

By: Michelle

Michelle — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:32:56 +0000

You have saved my life – I’d copied by files from one mac to another but couldn’t for the life of me get to my original photos of my little boy. I was gutted but your ’show package contents’ tip has meant that I’ve got all the originals and not lost them like I thought!

By: Atiyeh

Atiyeh — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 18:40:44 +0000

I love you!! I was hopeless!

By: Camille

Camille — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 11:50:44 +0000

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Damn iPhoto ;(

By: Laurens Jeronimus

Laurens Jeronimus — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 12:41:45 +0000

I’m most grateful…..and I understand now! Thanks!

By: Glen

Glen — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 18:57:06 +0000

Sweet…

I love the Media Tip…

You can drag the image from iPhoto browser and drop it into InDesign… but it imbedds the image…

Using your Media look up option – it does do a true “Link.”

By: terrydev

terrydev — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 05:38:41 +0000

@Kevin:

Actually everything in that post except for the Open dialogue and the Media Browser in Mail will work for iPhoto 08 on 10.4. That includes the Media browsers too for accessing your pics with iPhoto not running. That includes dragging and dropping into Cocoa apps an so on. The simple fact of the matter is that rooting around in the iPhoto Library via the finder or any app has never been the way to access your files in iPhoto, and everytime you do you risk damaging the library.

By: kevin

kevin — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:53:24 +0000

@terrydev,

As mentioned in previous comments, this post is not really relevant to OS 10.5

However, as iLife ‘08 is compatible with 10.4 (and maybe even 10.3?), this post should most definitely NOT be pulled.

Nothing on Apple’s forum even comes close to hinting about how to accomplish this on 10.4, and even Microsoft agrees that providing support for older (but still not obsolete) operating systems is a good idea.

So, in short, no.

By: John Carl

John Carl — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:47:42 +0000

Post #1 > Post #40

By: terrydev

terrydev — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 20:14:31 +0000

Really this post should be pulled. It’s sending you utterly the wrong way to do this – completely wrong – and particularly dumb when you consider the variety of ways that iPhoto has for accessing your files

– from the iPhoto Window
– from anywhere in the entire OS in 10.5
– with or without the application running

Have a look at this:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1557582&tstart=50

There are even screenshots.

By: Steve B

Steve B — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 20:06:43 +0000

Hey, I’m new to mac and pretty computer savy. This was never a problem with windows and I don’t see why we have to have some sort of work around to access our pictures. I would imagine that there are countless people out there who import their photos in iphoto and then want to open them in photoshop or fireworks or whatever….only to get frustrated.
My work around: Don’t bother importing anything into iPhoto. Just create folders and store your pictures where you can access them.

By: Kevin Nakagawa

Kevin Nakagawa — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 06:59:31 +0000

HUGE help. I was exporting to the desktop and attaching/uploading/etc. from there. What’s with Apple making us use the control key for opening up the contents?! Upgrades should make things easier and more intuitive –especially for Apple.

By: Liz

Liz — Wed, 28 May 2008 06:22:13 +0000

great hint! Can’t believe that apple seem to have gone backwards with iLife ‘08… Hints like these are priceless!