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My iPhoto library is very fat already. I have about 90GB in it. I want to make a new one and label it 2012-present with the old one something like 2000-2011.

However I do sync my iOS devices with my iPhoto library, and I want some of the recent events and albums to be included in my new library so I can keep syncing them to my iPhone. Is there any way to copy the albums/events or make the other library see the albums/events?

In general, I do want to keep it in just one library, since iPhoto should be able to detect faces, show geotagged photo map, etc. However I may not do that for a while until I upgrade to a new computer :( (this is another big problem for me)

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2 Answers

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Another option would be to get iPhoto Library Manager:

iPhoto Library Manager allows you to organize your photos among multiple iPhoto libraries, rather than having to store all of your photos in one giant library.

iPhoto Library Manager lets you easily create and keep track of multiple iPhoto libraries, but that's only the beginning. It also has the ability to copy your photos from one library to another, while keeping track of photo metadata that is normally lost when exporting from one library and importing into another.

Titles, dates, descriptions, keywords, ratings, faces, and place information are all transferred along with the photos, ensuring that you keep all that information you spent hours entering into iPhoto. iPhoto Library Manager also reconstructs events and albums with the same photos as they had in the library they came from, as well as retaining both the edited and original copies of each photo. You can split up a large library into multiple smaller libraries, merge entire libraries together into a big one, and much more!

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I've heard about this a few times, but is there any other alternative? – Enrico Susatyo Nov 6 '11 at 9:52
Can you link to this program and summarize what it does? – Daniel Lawson♦ Nov 8 '11 at 19:06
Type it into Google and it's the first search result. – Bill Tanner Nov 10 '11 at 5:49
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Bill, the idea at AskDifferent is to answer differently as well. If we point everybody to Google why should the site be here in the first place? – patrix♦ Nov 12 '11 at 9:00
+1 for iPhoto Library Manager... have used it for years, and while it's not the fastest app in the world (all done in AppleScript i think), it does everything it claims... splitting, joining and generally moving things around between libraries without losing any metadata. – scottishwildcat Nov 12 '11 at 12:13
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You'll have to copy the media from said events in the first library to the second one, and create albums/events in the second library as necessary.

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The problem with this is I don't think it keeps the star ratings and the tags and the photo descriptions. :( – Enrico Susatyo Nov 6 '11 at 9:52
No one said it would be convenient. When a user starts approaching 100GB of content in iPhoto, they should have asked themselves some time ago as to what kind of user they are. iPhoto is a basic, entry level app. Your usage suggests Aperture or a similar app as more appropriate, since you can split libraries and archive content much more easily. – David Metcalfe Nov 6 '11 at 23:17
Alright, I do have a copy of Aperture but never got around into using it since it's not as simple as iPhoto at all (and at times much slower). Thanks though. Hoping someone can give a better solution :). – Enrico Susatyo Nov 7 '11 at 6:36
Aperture is actually far more efficient at handling large numbers of photos. Perhaps your experience was with an earlier version that had some performance bugs? I'd give it another earnest try. – David Metcalfe Nov 9 '11 at 3:03

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