Roger Talks Tech

Making the tech in your life work for you

How to Back Up up your Photos Library (Mac)

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Photos main

If you use Apple’s iCloud Photo library, your images are automatically synced to iCloud. However, my experience has shown that one should not depend solely on one backup source, especially when working with irreplaceable files such as your photos and videos. For that reason, I always back up my Photo Library to an external drive as well as to another third-party cloud backup service (I use Backblaze).

The first thing you want to do is to ensure that you’re downloading full-sized versions of your images to your Mac, rather than smaller, optimized device sized versions. You don’t want to restore your files from a backup only to discover that your full-resolution originals are lost.

When downloading originals to your Mac, you’ll also want to ensure that you have enough hard drive space on your computer to store the full-sized version of your images. If not, you may want to move your Photos Library to a larger external drive rather than store it on your computer.

To Download Original Versions to your Mac

  1. Launch the Photos application.
  2. Choose Photos > Preferences from the menu.
    Choose preferences from the menu
  3. Click the iCloud tab on top of the window.
    Click icloud tab
  4. Click the Download Originals to this Mac radio button. Your Mac will now download full-resolution copies of all your images and store inside your Photo Library file (located by default in your Users > Photos folder).
    click Download originals to this mac

Once you’ve set the option to download your original images, you can then back up your library automatically by using your Mac’s Time Machine backup or a backup application such as Carbon Copy or SuperDuper. I use Carbon Copy and back up my entire Mac to an external drive once a week.

You can also backup your Photos Library manually by simply copying it to an external drive. Here’s how:

To Back Up Your Photos Library Manually

  1. Open a Finder window.
  2. Click your Home folder in the Sidebar (your username)
    Or
    Choose Go > Home from the menu.
    Double click the pictures folder
  3. Double-click your Pictures folder.
  4. Drag your Photos Library file to an external drive.

If you subscribe to an online cloud backup service such as Backblaze or Carbonite, you’ll want to ensure that your Photos folder (or whatever folder contains your Photos Library) is selected for automatic backup.

I personally recommend backing up your Photos Library to an external drive as well as a Cloud backup service. I’ve been using this system for many years and have never lost a file that I haven’t been able to retrieve easily.

Use your flagged iPhoto images as a screensaver

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Did you know that you can use flagged images from your iPhoto library to display as a Screen Saver? This can come in handly if you get tired of seeing the same old images over and over again on your screensaver. All you have to do is flag any images in your iPhoto application to add them as part of your screensaver rotation and unflag the ones you don’t want to see (change the flags periodically to keep your screensaver fresh).  To Flag an image in iPhoto, move your mouse cursor over the image you want to flag and click the Flag icon when it appears.

 

Click the flag when it appears image

Quick Guide: To Use Flagged Photos in iPhoto as a Screensaver

  1. Select  ➪ System Preferences from the menu.
  2. Click the Desktop & Screensaver icon in the top row.
  3. Click the Screen Saver tab on top of the screen.
  4. In the left pane, click the desired Screen Saver style.
    Click the screen saver style
  5. In the right pane, click the Source drop-down list and choose Photo Library.
    Choose photo library from the source list
  6. In the left pane, click Flagged and then click Choose.
    Clicked flagged in the left pane image

That’s it! Your flagged photos in iPhoto will now rotate through your screen saver.

Import Photos from your iPhone with Image Capture

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By default, iPhoto launches whenever you plug in your iPhone or another camera, allowing you to import your photos into the application. However, many folks prefer to import their photos to another application rather than iPhoto or import them to a folder on their hard drive.

There is an applicaiton that comes bundled with Mac OS X called Image Capture that allows you to import photos from your iPhone directly to your computer. You can even choose to have Image Capture automatically launch every time you plug-in your iPhone.

Another benefit of the Image Capture application is that you can use it with your scanner as well. I happen to have a older scanner whose drivers are incompatible with OS X Mavericks. But using the Scanner in conjunction with Image Capture allows me to render the scanner once again functional.

Quick Guide: Automatically Launch Image Capture when Plugging in an iPhone

  1. Open the iPhoto applicaiton.
  2. Choose iPhoto > Preferences from the menu.
  3. Click General on top of the Preferences window.
  4. Click the Connecting camera opens: drop-down list and choose Image Capture.
    Choose image capture from the list

Quick Guide: Import Photos using the Image Capture Application

  1. Open the Image Capture Application.
  2. Click to select your iPhone or camera in the left pane.
    Choose your iphone or camera
  3. To import only specific images, select the images to import. Hold down the ⌘ key as you select to choose non-adjacent images.
  4. Click the Import to: drop-down list on the bottom of the window and navigate to the folder where you want to save your images.
    Choose where to save images
  5. Click the Import button to import only the selected images or the Import All button to import all images.

Stop iPhoto from Launching when Plugging In Your iPhone

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Does your iPhoto application open up every time you plug in your iPhone into your Mac? If you typically only plug-in your phone when you want to import photos into iPhoto, then this behavior may not be what you want.

Luckily, you can easily disable or change this behavior from iPhoto Preferences.

Choose no application from iphoto preferences

Quick Guide: Stop iPhoto from Launching when Plugging in an iPhone

  1. Open the iPhoto applicaiton.
  2. Choose iPhoto > Preferences from the menu.
  3. Click General on top of the Preferences window.
  4. Click the Connecting camera opens: drop-down list and choose No Application.

How to upload from iPhoto to Facebook

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In response to yesterday’s post, I received a couple of e-mails today asking me how to upload photos from iPhoto to Facebook. This feature is not built into Facebook – you need to first download the Facebook Exporter for iPhoto plug-in. If I remember correctly, it installs automatically. If it doesn’t, double-click the downloaded file. The first time you use it, you will need to enter in your Facebook credentials.

Once it is installed, select the photo or photos you want to upload (you can upload multiple photos at once) and then choose Share > Facebook from the menu.

Facebook option from the iPhoto menu image

Then, choose whether you want to use the photo as your Profile Picture, a Wall post or create a new album.

Facebook iphoto options image

You can download the plugin HERE

Images Uploaded from iPhoto not showing up on Facebook

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Many people like to post images to their Facebook account from iPhoto. But what many people do not know, is that by default, Facebook locks any images uploaded by third-party applications so that they are viewable only by you. What this means is that if you upload an image to Facebook from iPhoto, none of your followers will see the image. I’ve seen anguish-ridden posts by folks who lamented that they have uploaded daily photos to Facebook for months only to discover that nobody ever saw them.

To fix this, you need to change the “Posts of your behalf” setting for the app (in this case, iPhoto) from “Only Me” to “Public” or “Friends”.

To Change the Facebook “Posts on Your Behalf” setting for iPhoto

  1. Log into your Facebook account.
  2. Click the drop-down arrow next to your account name and choose Account Settings.
  3. Click Apps in the left pane.
    Facebook 1
  4. Scroll down until you see the entry for iPhoto.
  5. Click the Edit link to the right of iPhoto.
    Facebook 2
  6. Click the button next to Posts on your behalf and choose either Public or Friends from the list.
    Facebook 3
  7. Repeat this for any other apps from which you post images to Facebook (TweetDeck, HootSuite, Reeder, Foursquare, etc.)

How to Use Multiple iPhoto Libraries

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Many folks don’t realize that you are not limited by only one iPhoto library but rather can categorize your photos into as many libraries as you want.  While there are several applications out there that allow you to maintain multiple libraries, you can also do so with just a press of the Option key.

Choose iPhoto Library dialog box

To create a new iPhoto library:

  1. Press and hold down the Option key on your keyboard.
  2. Launch the iPhoto Application.
  3. Click the Create Library button.
  4. Type in a name for your new library in the Save As box.
  5. Navigate to the folder where you want to save your new iPhoto library.
  6. Click Save. This will now be the default iPhoto library.

To switch to a different iPhoto library:

  1. Press and hold down the Option key on your keyboard.
  2. Launch the iPhoto Application.
  3. Click the Choose Library button.
  4. Navigate to the folder that contains the iPhoto library you want to open.
  5. Select the library and then click open. This now becomes the new default library.

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