One more way to do it that comes to mind is to use Preview. Select the first photo and Control+click it, select Edit With, and then Preview. After that opens in a Preview window, then do the same with the second photo. Then manipulate those two Preview windows any way you want to compare them. How to Use Side-by-Side Editing in iPhoto. Open iPhoto on your Mac and navigate to the photos you wish to compare and edit. While you’ll most often want to compare just two photos side. See what makes each Mac notebook and desktop different. And find the one that’s perfect for your life, your work, and your budget. Compare Mac models.
I want to share a single iPhoto library between two Mac computers. I would like to store the iPhoto library on the network because both Macs may not be connected at the same time.
After reading the article Save Space On Your Mac By Storing iPhoto & iTunes Libraries Remotely Save Space On Your Mac By Storing iPhoto & iTunes Libraries RemotelyWith my head held low with shame, I publicly admitted last week that I'm a digital hoarder. My once blazingly fast Mac is now left with just 100GB of a 1TB drive left. I've already.. Read More on MakeUseOf, there is a comment there by Pierre and answer by James saying it’s not possible to for two Macs to use the same iPhoto library concurrently. Is there a way to get around this?
The other thing is, the office is all Windows apart from these two Macs, so I also need recommendations on network solution as the iPhoto library won’t open when on a non-mac formatted network share file system (I.e Windows Server).
Any suggestions?
Thanks
Thanks
- The main problem is that iPhoto is purely client-sided. There is no 'server' or 'database' back-end therefor there is no safe way to use it on multiple systems simultaneously.
Yes, if both Macs are running the same iPhoto version and the Library is stored on a central storage (e.g. external disk or a server) then both clients can use the same iPhoto Library in turns ~ I wouldn't recommend doing at the same time.Then you hit the already mentioned problems of it being a OS X only application and being 'unique'.
On Windows you will never truly be able to use all the (meta)data you store within iPhoto. Basically you can only use the actual photos. And yes, this means you can access the iPhoto Library using Windows - it's actually just a file and folder structure. It is some 'magic' within OS X that makes it look like a single large library file.As for the storage:
I don't recommend anything other than HFS+. iPhoto stores certain (meta)data in a way only HFS+ supports it. On NTFS or FAT32 you will get regular problems and errors, rarely data loss.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168
So if you attempt to do this at all it should be a Mac playing AFP and SMB server for both systems.In your case I would start looking into a cross-platform Digital Asset Management.
I don't have any experience or knowledge of some of the freeware options here. For payed options there would be Canto and Celum. But they both start in the four-digits as far as I remember.
http://www.canto.com/
http://www.celum.com/ - iPhoto '11 (version 9) library's volume is unsupported
http://floppydonkeyste.blogspot.fr/2011/09/iphoto-11-version-9-librarys-volume-is.html - Apple actually have a support article on this topic at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1198. In a nutshell, you can move the iPhoto Library to a file server, but as you rightly mention in your question, access from both Macs at once could lead to unpredictable results. You _could_ use a Windows server, but Windows machines still won't be able to access the photos as the library uses a proprietary format.In terms of alternatives, it would help to have some context so we can make suggestions. What are you trying to achieve? How big are the libraries? Does everyone need access to the photos, or only a few users? Does everyone need to be able to upload photos, or just one or two people? Are the photos for viewing only/downloading/something else?
- Hello Oron,Thanks for your reply. I did come across that article. Putting the iPhoto library on a network share, does not work, like you said because the file system is of a different format.The context:
- Two Mac laptops
- Wanting to share the same iPhoto library and meta data added to the photo's
- Both users will need to access and be able add photo's and meta data to the library
- Library to be used to assist with creating content with Pages for Mac http://www.apple.com/mac/pages/ (so viewing, downloading and adding to applications)
- Library to be accessed by a select few people only in a network
- If possible, have photo and meta data access from Windows machines as well
- Libraries currently would store around 10000 photo's+ (estimate)
- Apparently to import images to Pages for Mac, they images need to be in a iPhoto library - I am yet to try drag and dropThanks.
The iPhoto is a great application that holds all your images clicked with your Apple device. With an amazing imaging device, these devices give rise to a huge collection of photos on your iPhoto. Due to this, a user may find difficulty in recalling images or accessing them. There are many other instances of loss of photos while transferring or merging the library. Although, deleted iPhoto library by mistake can be recovered easily. Everyone who uses this function must know how to merge iPhoto and Photos library on Mac to perfectly execute the merging.
This also allows users to save plenty of space on your Mac computer. There are a number of ways to do this on your device. There are some third party applications that allow users to merge, import and manipulate the iPhoto library. These may not be good for your system or your photos.
You can export your library to the system entirely to merge the photos. However, this may not be recommended as there is a threat of losing photos. There may also be a loss of other photos related information like metadata and titles of files.
Here is how you should merge your iPhoto to the Photo library
Steps to Merge iPhoto Library to Photo
You can upgrade the iPhoto library to Photos and export all the photos in the library. Export the library as a file to the next system.
Go to Edit > Select all
Click File > Export
If you have made changes in the photos on your iPhoto library, click Export Photos
If not, click Export Unmodified Original
Import all your photos to the master photo library and remove the duplicate images.
Once you have done this, you have to export the images in iPhoto using the iPhoto export option. In order to do this, use the iPhoto option
Click File > Export
Click Original or any format – You will have a list in the pop-up menu
Export all the images in the previous used Photos library.
Now you can remove all the duplicate images from the library.
You can also do this in a different way, here is how:
Free Photo Libraries
Upgrade the iPhoto library to Photos on your system and then make it your primary library for all the photos. Once upgraded, you can make the library master for the iCloud library.
Compare 2 Photo Libraries Machine
Mac os clean up library folder. You should keep the previous library separate and make use of Power Photos to switch between them.
The merging needs some time and you have to give it time. Once it is done all your collection will be well organized. If you choose to do it in a third way, try to get a backup of all the images in the library.
Compare 2 Photo Libraries Mac Os
Merging the iPhoto to the photo library on your Mac is easy. You have to make use of tools like Power Photos to remove the duplicate files. you can also do it manually, by organizing all the images, but it may not be efficient enough. So make use of any one of the suggestions made here and save a lot of space to your computer. It also relieves you from the unorganized photo library.