iPhoto question

[fjdouse]

If this has been answered elsewhere go easy on me, I couldn't find it.

I have a Mac mini and an external USB hard disk which has thousands of photos on it which I've taken over the years. The problem is iPhoto has copied all these to my Mac's startup disk and when I add new photos from my camera, it puts them onto the startup disk too. I'd like iPhoto to use the folder on my external disk, but I don't know how to do it.

I've got iTunes working from the external disk fine and organising the music fine, I'd like to do the same with iPhoto.

Any ideas? Without being able to do this, iPhoto is rendered pretty useless for me.

[fjdouse]

I've found a solution quite by accident at:
http://aroundcny.com/technofile/texts/mac021203.html

FYI:

If iPhoto can't find the last library folder it used -- if that library was on a CD that's no longer in the drive, for example -- it asks whether you want to use an existing library or create a new one. That's nice. But what if you merely want to change from one existing library to another? The choice isn't listed.

The way to do this isn't clear -- and in fact, many users might assume they can't do it. But it's easy.

To force iPhoto to switch to a different existing library folder, hold down the Cmd and Option keys while dragging the folder to the iPhoto icon in the Dock. This forces iPhoto to open that folder as a library. (In fact, the folder you dropped on the icon becomes the new default iPhoto library folder. To choose a different one later, use the same drag-and-drop technique.)

If iPhoto is running when you drop a folder on its Dock icon, it closes down and quickly reopens with the new images. This is interesting behavior, but I doubt that Apple intended it that way.

If you like to experiment with the way your Mac works, you might see right away that dropping a library folder onto the iPhoto Dock icon without holding down Cmd and Option won't work. iPhoto won't respond unless you hold down the two modifier keys. (Tip: Cmd-Option-drag is the standard way to try to force get any program to open a file it doesn't otherwise recognize.)

[Decado]

a couple of alternative solutions:

2) you could also just move your library to where you want it. iPhoto will then ask where it is. Choose the new location and everything should be fine.

3) or you could use iPhoto Buddy.

[fjdouse]

Thanks, actually that's what I did ;-)

I've got it all working the way I want now.. cheers!