iPhoto always freezes - is there an easy way to get 10 years of photos exported?

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I have been using iPhoto for a number of years, but it is now freezing on my iMac just about every time I open it. I am afraid I will lose the years of photos (10 years i think). Is there an easy way to export the photos instead of going into each folder? I think I have 8-10 years of photos.

I am running OSX 10.9.5 Any help anyone can provide is greatly appreciated!
 
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Hello TriciaC - welcome to the forum! :) For starters, please provide some more information: 1) What Apple computer do you own (model/year); 2) Do you have any backup(s) in place, e.g. Time Machine and/or cloning software; and 3) How many images (pics) are your talking about (hundreds, thousands, or more)?

Also, you are on 10.9.x (Mavericks) and are 3 versions old (current is 10.12, Sierra) and Photos has replaced iPhoto, a now defunct app - please provide us the information requested, so the best advice can be given; if you do not have any backup of your computer, then that is the first concern. Dave
 

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I have been using iPhoto for a number of years, but it is now freezing on my iMac just about every time I open it. I am afraid I will lose the years of photos (10 years i think). Is there an easy way to export the photos instead of going into each folder? I think I have 8-10 years of photos.

Hi Tricia:

Before you lose your photos because of a failed hard drive or other problem, please back them up as soon as you can. Use Time Machine if you have no other backup application. However, we strongly recommend using either Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to clone your hard drive and all the photos to an external drive. Don't wait until it's too late. ;)
 
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Thank you for the replies. I apologize that I did not give all the requested info up front. I have an iMac 27" Late 2013. It's running OS X 10.9.5. I have some time machine backups but sounds like i should do a backup as recommended in the previous post. I will do that tonight. I have thousands of photos that I don't want to lose.

Since iPhoto has been replaced by Photos, is it an easy transition, or do I have to export all the photos once I upgrade?

Thank you again for your help!
 

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First make sure you have a good backup of all your photos. Time Machine is OK, but we recommend a second backup in addition to Time Machine. Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper cloning software to another separate hard drive. Once you've accomplished that, then you can proceed and import all your photos from iPhoto into the new Photos application. That way if anything goes wrong you have all your photos safe on an external hard drive.
 

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Hi TriciaC, the first question I would ask is how much storage do you have left on your hard drive? Have a look in About This Mac>Storage under the Apple menu. If you have less than 20% of your HD storage empty you will certainly have problems opening what I assume to be a pretty big iPhoto library.
 
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Thank you for the replies. I apologize that I did not give all the requested info up front. I have an iMac 27" Late 2013. It's running OS X 10.9.5. I have some time machine backups but sounds like i should do a backup as recommended in the previous post. I will do that tonight. I have thousands of photos that I don't want to lose.

Since iPhoto has been replaced by Photos, is it an easy transition, or do I have to export all the photos once I upgrade?

Hi again Tricia - you've been receiving some great advice - I agree w/ Rod, i.e. please provide some more information of your computer (year/RAM/HD size/Storage left/etc.) - may impact on whether you can easily upgrade to the latest macOS, i.e. Sierra, if you want to migrate to the newer Photos app.

iPhoto & Photos are both on my laptops (iPhoto just carried over in my upgrades to the newer OSs) - in both of these apps, images are typically imported from elsewhere - for me, the 'Pictures' folder in Finder - open the app and check in that folder to determine if your images are also stored there (see my screen capture below, blue arrow) - if so, then for more reassurance, you could easily just drag that folder onto an external device, such as a large USB flash drive, an external HD, or other - let us know; of course, this is in addition to updating your TM backups and adding cloning software. Dave :)
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Screen Shot 2016-10-12 at 9.44.09 PM.png
 
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I have 8GB of Ram and my hard drive has used 558GB of 999GB. I am currently running Carbon Copy Cloner - onto a external hard drive. It's been running for a while, so I won't be able to do anything tonight. Once it is complete I will check - I believe i have pictures on the sidebar and will check to see if iPhoto added photos there.

I can't thank you all enough for your guidance. You've all been very helpful. I never realized that I could backup other than time machine. The Carbon Copy Cloner seems much easier to navigate.
 
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Thank you for the Carbon Copy Cloner suggestion. It came just in the nick of time. After I completed one backup (time machine runs in the background but I'm not sure the last time it ran, the hard drive failed. The iMac is currently at the Apple store so they can replace the hard drive. This issue has motivated me to do the same backup on my MacBook Pro.
 
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Thank you for the Carbon Copy Cloner suggestion. It came just in the nick of time. After I completed one backup (time machine runs in the background but I'm not sure the last time it ran, the hard drive failed. The iMac is currently at the Apple store so they can replace the hard drive. This issue has motivated me to do the same backup on my MacBook Pro.

Well, has been over a week since your last post, so please let us know your results - anxious that you have 'saved' your pics - good luck! Dave :)
 

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