Best Way To Backup iPhoto Pics?
I have a album structure in iPhoto like this:
20090101 New Years Day Pics
20090704 4th Of July
20090829 1st Day Of School
20091225 Christmas Program
etc...... (this is just a sample. I have tons more pics than that.)
When I select all, then export so that I can read them on a pc or at a photo store, ALL of the pics are stuck in one directory. The album names are lost.
I normally back up all of my year's photos to dvds, but to use them, iPhoto will be required in the future. I became concerned that if iPhoto isn't prevalent in 25 years when my grandchildren look at the photos, what will they do?
So, what's the best way to keep my naming structure in place so that I can export to JPG's?
20090101 New Years Day Pics
20090704 4th Of July
20090829 1st Day Of School
20091225 Christmas Program
etc...... (this is just a sample. I have tons more pics than that.)
When I select all, then export so that I can read them on a pc or at a photo store, ALL of the pics are stuck in one directory. The album names are lost.
I normally back up all of my year's photos to dvds, but to use them, iPhoto will be required in the future. I became concerned that if iPhoto isn't prevalent in 25 years when my grandchildren look at the photos, what will they do?
So, what's the best way to keep my naming structure in place so that I can export to JPG's?
Comments
I have a album structure in iPhoto like this:
20090101 New Years Day Pics
20090704 4th Of July
20090829 1st Day Of School
20091225 Christmas Program
etc...... (this is just a sample. I have tons more pics than that.)
When I select all, then export so that I can read them on a pc or at a photo store, ALL of the pics are stuck in one directory. The album names are lost.
I normally back up all of my year's photos to dvds, but to use them, iPhoto will be required in the future. I became concerned that if iPhoto isn't prevalent in 25 years when my grandchildren look at the photos, what will they do?
So, what's the best way to keep my naming structure in place so that I can export to JPG's?
The best way is to keep the files and the naming structure outside of iPhoto, in a Folder in folder system in the Documents 'directory'. That is how you keep your naming structure in place = independent of iPhoto's proprietary database system.
You are aware of course that your burnt DVDs can be reliably read up to 5 years max after burning, aren't you? After that the data can go Poof! at any time!
If you have old burnt DVDs like that: reburn them damn quickly if you still can!
If you want to preserve data for 25 years you cannot do it once and assume it will be available after 25 years. To start with the medium of storage will be outdated so people wont be able to retrieve the data even if they wanted to. Second, DVDs are not worth the hassle for backup. It is easier and more reliable to use an external hard disk or a storage solution like Drobo.
If Apple dies and you want to retain your organization, applications like Picasa can import iPhoto libraries, so you are set. It is better to rely on the import abilities of 3rd party applications instead of trying to device your own system which cripples usage of the existing product and doesn't really serve any purpose in the long run. By virtue of backing up the hard disk folder of iPhoto, the files are accessible via Finder / Windows Explorer as well. iPhoto internally stores photos on your hard disk by date as well. To see this, click on the iPhoto Library icon in Finder and do a "show package contents". You will see Year / Month / Day type of organization.
http://picasa.google.com/support/bin...&answer=134847