iPhoto and Backups
Hi,
seeing how key iPhoto is for me (over 2000 pictures) I've been good about taking a backup. Every week, without fail, I grab the folder called iPhoto Pictures within Pictures and drag it to my external drive where, a few minutes later, all my pictures are copied.
Last week my main hard drive failed. Completely. So it was replaced by another.
It was then time to restore my pictures. I took the iPhoto Pictures folder from my external drive, and copied it into my Pictures folder in my Home. A minute or so later, I fired up iPhoto, and hey presto, all pictures were in my library, with a list of all my albums on the left, as usual.
BUT, and this is where it became odd, not a single album had a picture in it! Why not? I copied the xml file called something like iPhotoAlbums.xml over, and isn't that where the album data is kept?
With the importance of backing up a digital photo library, you would have thought iPhoto would have a backup option, one that would also keep track of albums as well. There shoud also be a restore option.
Any ideas out there how to get back my albums, without manually going through the library?
Cheers,
David
PS Also with iTunes - my bought songs from ITMS are linked to the HD they were downloaded to, and not the actual computer. Isn't that ridiculous? Won't it mean that if I have 5 HD failures (unlikely I know), then all my ITMS music is lost to me? Am I right in thinking I have 5 such attempts?
So, if I buy a new iMac later this year (highly likely), and I transfer all my music, then that's effectively the third transfer. A HD failure there, and that's a fourth. A copy to my iPod and that's my fifth and final transfer.
Am I right?!
seeing how key iPhoto is for me (over 2000 pictures) I've been good about taking a backup. Every week, without fail, I grab the folder called iPhoto Pictures within Pictures and drag it to my external drive where, a few minutes later, all my pictures are copied.
Last week my main hard drive failed. Completely. So it was replaced by another.
It was then time to restore my pictures. I took the iPhoto Pictures folder from my external drive, and copied it into my Pictures folder in my Home. A minute or so later, I fired up iPhoto, and hey presto, all pictures were in my library, with a list of all my albums on the left, as usual.
BUT, and this is where it became odd, not a single album had a picture in it! Why not? I copied the xml file called something like iPhotoAlbums.xml over, and isn't that where the album data is kept?
With the importance of backing up a digital photo library, you would have thought iPhoto would have a backup option, one that would also keep track of albums as well. There shoud also be a restore option.
Any ideas out there how to get back my albums, without manually going through the library?
Cheers,
David
PS Also with iTunes - my bought songs from ITMS are linked to the HD they were downloaded to, and not the actual computer. Isn't that ridiculous? Won't it mean that if I have 5 HD failures (unlikely I know), then all my ITMS music is lost to me? Am I right in thinking I have 5 such attempts?
So, if I buy a new iMac later this year (highly likely), and I transfer all my music, then that's effectively the third transfer. A HD failure there, and that's a fourth. A copy to my iPod and that's my fifth and final transfer.
Am I right?!
Comments
Originally posted by iMac David
PS Also with iTunes - my bought songs from ITMS are linked to the HD they were downloaded to, and not the actual computer. Isn't that ridiculous? Won't it mean that if I have 5 HD failures (unlikely I know), then all my ITMS music is lost to me? Am I right in thinking I have 5 such attempts?
So, if I buy a new iMac later this year (highly likely), and I transfer all my music, then that's effectively the third transfer. A HD failure there, and that's a fourth. A copy to my iPod and that's my fifth and final transfer.
Am I right?!
Mostly - iPods don't count as authorized computers - you can put the song on any number of iPods. And there's an escape if you run out of authorizations. You can Deauthorize All, and then re-authorize the computers you're actually using. Apple says they only let you deauthorize-all once a year, but I imagine a call to support with a reasonable story would let you do it again if you had to.
About iPhoto...um, I don't know. Have you ever tried Backup, which is free with a .Mac account?