Merging Libraries (registered users only)
As Apple has continued producing upgrades to iPhoto, each new version that comes down the line is able to handle a greater number of photos in a library than the previous one. Since one of the popular reasons for putting photos into separate libraries in the first place is to limit each library to a size that iPhoto can handle speedily, after upgrading to a new version of iPhoto, you might find yourself wanting to have all your photos in a single library instead, since iPhoto can now handle all the photos at once without a slowdown. This is the sort of situation in which you might want to merge your libraries back together.
iPhoto Library Manager allows you to do exactly this. Using its merge feature, you can copy all your photos from one library to another while preserving their title, keywords, and other metadata, as well as their organization in rolls and albums.
Note: due to technical limitations in iPhoto, some elements of an iPhoto library cannot be copied to another library and thus will not be included when merging. The items that cannot be copied are:
- Smart albums
- Folders (these will be copied in iPhoto 7, but not earlier versions)
- Books
- Calendars
- Slideshows
- Web galleries (these will be turned into photocasts in the merged library)
Note that if you have hidden photos in iPhoto, those photos will not be reflected in the photo counts in the album list even if you've chosen to temporarily show your hidden photos in iPhoto itself. However, if you have the "Copy hidden photos" option selected in the preferences, then hidden photos in those albums will be included in the merge even though they don't appear to be there in the album list.
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