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Managing multiple iPhoto libraries

By Joshua Schnell Wed, Aug 13, 2008 @ 8:00 AM

In the “early” days we had to use third party applications to maintain multiple iPhoto libraries. With iPhoto 08 Apple has given us the tools we need to do it in iPhoto.

In this screencast, we’ll show you how to manage multiple libraries.

Download it here

  • http://www.silviorichetto.com Silvio

    Thanks for the video … it was exactly what I was looking for … AAA+

    • http://www.macgasm.net Joshua Schnell

      Thanks for the encouragement. There’s a lot of awesome tips and tricks here. Hope you can stick around. :)

  • Marcos

    Neat tip! thanks

    keeping the messy nights out photos separate to family holidays

  • Ulcer35

    Might want to change your title. This isn’t “managing” multiple libraries, it’s switching between multiple libraries. I was looking moving pics between multiple libraries, which would be some type of library management. Your tip is great, but doesn’t really constitute “management”.

  • Monsignor Martinez

    Nice little guide; exactly what I was looking for. I have lots of friends photos from events and whatnot that I like to maintain, yet I don’t like the idea of housing them in the same library as my photos. Using this functionality will allow me to keep one iPhoto library for my own photography, and another for friends’ pictures.

    In response to the person above, I think the title is fine. If you view managing from a higher perspective, I would say that juggling which iPhoto library you are using constitutes management, and in any case I arrived at post after searching for “multiple iPhoto libraries”, so the title worked for me.

    • http://www.macgasm.net Joshua Schnell

      Thanks Monsignor Martinez. Glad we could help you out. It took me a while to stumble on how to do that. I’m not sure why they’ve decided to bury the option to do that.

  • http://www.sliderescue.com Sly

    Right Ulcer35, for real Library management “iphoto Library Manager” is working fine. http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/

    Anyway the apple trick is fine for “simple” Library switching. Tks for it !

  • Caren

    I was hoping this would be my solution for archiving photos on my external hard drive. I created a second iPhoto library on the hard drive, but now I can’t get the photos over there. I tried to export, but it copies a few pictures then I get “Unable to create /Volumes/MyHardDrive/archive”. When I cancel, the folder is there, with 9 pictures.

    Thanks!

  • Steve

    Is there an easy way to move photos between libraries?

    Do far the best I could come up with is to copy each file to the desk to, close one library, open the other, then drag he photos from the desktop to the new library.

  • TS

    your little box of tweet/facebook/etc is blocking the actual material. might want to fix that (i’m using chrome)