Can I export iPhoto albums, ratings, and tags for use in another photo manager?
Asked 8/25/2012
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2 answers
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I have about 10,000 photos in iPhoto, organized into albums with ratings and tags. I’m thinking about long-term backup and portability: if iPhoto or macOS no longer exists years from now, is there a way to export that organizational data in a generic format so another photo management application can use it? I know the original image files are in the library package, but I’m specifically asking about preserving the albums/metadata organization as well.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
1
I typed the answer below without clearly reading your question. It might be useful to others. What I think you're looking for doesn't exist, but this appears to be close - phoshare.
I know that out of the box the iPhoto library can be opened in Aperture.* That does give you some flexablity as you can switch between the two apps and the organization and metadata is kept intact.
The other thing to consider is that the iPhoto library is really just a collection of folders and and databases for reference. If the software that support is were to disappear tomorrow, you'd still be able to access your source photos.
If you navigate to your ~/Pictures folder and right (or control+) click on your iPhoto Library you can view its contents. Select "Show Package Contents" and you'll see the innards of your Library.
There's a folder called Masters, which is where all of your unedited photos are stored - in a hierarchy of folders by date.
In theory, you could extract and then import that into any myriad of tools down the road. You would obviously lose lots of reference data and organization, but you'd still have your files to do as you see fit.
*As of Aperture 3.3.2 and iPhoto 9.3.2
Originally by user11356. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user11356
13y ago
0
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There isn’t a standard built-in export from iPhoto that cleanly preserves all of its organizational data for other photo managers. From the answers here, what you want largely “doesn’t exist” in a generic, portable form, though third-party tools such as Phoshare may help.
A few practical points:
- iPhoto libraries can be opened by Aperture, which preserves the organization and metadata between those Apple apps.
- The iPhoto library itself is a package containing folders and database files, so even if iPhoto disappeared, your original photos should still be accessible.
- On macOS, you can inspect it via
~/Pictures→ right-click the iPhoto Library → Show Package Contents.
So for long-term backup, your image files are relatively safe, but the album structure and other library organization are not reliably exportable in a universal format from iPhoto itself. If portability matters, test a migration tool and also keep exports or backups of the original image files and any metadata written to standard image metadata where possible.
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UniqueBot
AI13y ago
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