Justin Cox
Dropbox and iPhoto — The Better Way to Sync Across Macs
What follows is my experience using Dropbox to sync an iPhoto library across Macs, along with how to set it up on your own system. You may also be interested in tutorial on how to simply geotag photos using iPhoto ‘09 and an iPhone 3G or 3GS.
How do I sync my iPhoto library across multiple Macs? It’s been a question I’ve been asking for a very long time. I’ve tried programs like ChronoSync but nothing has really worked all that well. At one point I tried hosting the iPhoto library an AirPort Disk, but the transfer rate was so slow it wasn’t worth it. Then I came across Dropbox, the free cloud storage option.
I had actually been using Dropbox for quite some time to sync my 1Password keychain, Safari ad blocking style sheet, desktop wallpapers, and encrypted documents folder. Dropbox was perfect for these things. Then the other night while editing an html file for a website I accidentally uploaded an older version — I hadn’t used ChronoSync to merge the website’s folder across Macs in awhile. Oops. So I decided to have Dropbox start maintaining my Sites folder as well. Once Coda was directed to point to Dropbox rather then the Sites folder, I realized that Dropbox could do way more than just backup files.
The beauty of Dropbox is that even though the files are stored remotely in the cloud, it also maintains a cached copy on the local machine; which is why it’s perfect for syncing across systems. Once the file is saved on the local machine, it’s automatically uploaded to the cloud and then subsequently downloaded to the other machines. All of this is done nearly instantly and completely seamlessly. It’s fast and efficient and completely blows Apple’s iDisk out of the water. For this reason I figured the Dropbox would be perfect to host my iPhoto library.
Setting it up, however, was no small task. My iPhoto library is huge, roughly 25,000 files and nearly 13 GB in size. This, of course, required a Dropbox Pro account. Once I upgraded and my new massive storage drive was ready to go, I backed up the iPhoto library through Time Machine and then moved it into the Dropbox folder. It took a very long time to upload the massive library — about 68 hours.* Once it was completely uploaded from the iMac, it needed to be downloaded on the MacBook. Because Dropbox works on multiple machines at the same time, these times overlapped making the wait a little easier to bear. The MacBook was done about two hours after the iMac completed the upload.
Once the library was uploaded from the original host and downloaded onto the additional mac, there were a few different ways I could go about setting up iPhoto. One was to use the built in Library Manager to choose the location of the iPhoto library. Library Manger is run by holding down the Option key while opening iPhoto, or it will open automatically if iPhoto has not yet been set up or the default library has been deleted or moved from it’s original location. The other option was to use OS X’s alias system — which is the route I took. I created an alias to the iPhoto library stored in the Dropbox file, used the default “iPhoto Library” file name, and placed it in my user’s Pictures folder — the default iPhoto library location. When I fired up iPhoto it opened the Dropbox hosted library through the system alias. Whichever option you chose, both will work smoothly.
That’s really all there is too it. I can now add photos to the library or make changes to a photo or it’s metadata — including Faces and Places — from either machine and it’ll upload to Dropbox automatically and be synced across machines. A word of caution though. I wouldn’t have the same iPhoto library open on more than one machine at a time. Dropbox has a built-in conflict system that could correct any issues that may arise, but I personally wouldn’t want to take the chance with my photos. You might. What do I know.
Needless to say I’m pretty happy with Dropbox and it’s performance. Besides iPhoto and 1Password keychains, I’ve been moving just about every file I work on into Dropbox. Now, no matter where I am, I have access to everything. It’s really great. I would move my iTunes library into Dropbox as well, but it’s nearly 75 GB and not only does Dropbox not offer that much storage, I wouldn’t want to spend a month making the initial upload. (Dropbox now offers a Pro 100 account with 100 GB of storage for $19.99 a month.)
If you want to try Dropbox out, you can sign up for a free 2 GB account. Signing up using any of the Dropbox links in this post or anywhere else on my site will give each of us some bonus storage, so please use them. It’s a great service and I can’t say enough great stuff about it. (And if you work for Dropbox and are reading this and want to send some sweet stuff my way, I won’t mind at all.) I’m shameless, I know.
[Note: The total 13 GB upload slowed considerably after the first 16,000 files were complete. Interestingly enough, the remaining 6,500 files contained nearly 9 GB of the 13 GB total upload. I'm not sure if Dropbox throttles files so that the larger ones are pushed to the end of the queue or not, but the remaining files took nearly 48 hours to completely upload. The large amount of time could be due to a number of additional factors, including limited upload rates from my ISP and poor wireless reception for the iMac hosting the library. The MacBook, on the other hand, was able to download at nearly four to five times the iMac upload speed. Your milage will obviously very.]
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4/28/09
Pedro
Just to confirm your suspicion: yes, Dropbox queues files by filesize. I actually did the same thing with my iPhoto library, and it really is great. It would be better if it were possible to use Dropbox’s Photos feature, let’s hope they get this sorted out sometime.
to Pedro
4/28/09
Justin
Thank you for confirming that. I’m not sure if it’d be able to be set up through Dropbox’s Photos feature because of the way that the iPhoto library handles pictures, unless it just defaulted to the “originals” folder as that’s the only location that has an actual copy of all the images in the library. Either way, it’s the best system out there for syncing libraries across computers. Thanks for the comment.
to Justin
7/12/09
Simon
Hi, thanks so much for the advice I’m going to try out dropbox for my iphoto library. One question though… my library is a few gig and from what I can gather, dropbox uploads files whenever they are changed. Does this mean that I edit one of the hundreds of photos in my iphoto library and the whole library file gets uploaded? I could do without hammering my bandwidth!
Thanks for the great into in this article,
Simon (New Mac user and now a huge Mac fan!!)
to Simon
7/12/09
Justin
Glad you found this helpful.
When you change a file in iPhoto, that file, along with it’s metadata files, and the main iPhoto library file changes and are re-uploaded to Dropbox. It sounds like a lot, but the files other than the picture are very small in size as they’re basically just text files. So once the initial backup to Dropbox is done, future changes will only take a very short (if not completely unnoticeable) amount of time.
If you join Dropbox, be sure to use the links in this article as they give you and me a small boost in storage size.
to Justin
10/8/09
AJP
I love Dropbox, but my iphoto library is about 80gb. Way too big for dropbox synching.
to AJP
10/14/09
Justin
Actually, Dropbox now offers a Pro 100 account with 100 GB of storage for $19.99 a month. Might be worth checking out if you are interested in cloud centered backup and can afford the price.
to Justin
11/16/09
AJP
Yeah, I could, but 80+GB for photos and 20+ GB for client work means I’d have to upgrade my accounts, and my harddrives on both computers! Eeek! So, I’ve got a drobo, and use amazon s3 for photo backups. First was expensive, now, not so much per month.
to AJP
10/20/09
Jozz
Hello Justin,
I was just wondering how you set up Coda with dropbox. How can I get Coda to point to dropbox?
Thanks
Jozz
to Jozz
10/20/09
Justin
Just move the folder containing all your sites local files to somewhere inside of Dropbox. Then, on both computers, update the site info to point to the new local folder location. Works like a charm.
to Justin
10/21/09
Jozz
Ah, I see what you mean. Sorry, I was after a way of syncing my sites information (~/Library/Preferences/com.panic.Coda.plist ) across machines with dropbox.
Thanks,
Jozz
to Jozz
10/21/09
Justin
Ooh, yeah, that would be the only thing to make the sync complete but as of yet have not found a way to do that. I do know that in the pipeline for future Dropbox updates includes the ability to sync folders outside the Dropbox folder [this is currently an option if you know a little Terminal trickery]. Once that’s up and running I assume you could just point Dropbox to sync that particular file and include it — in theory at least.
to Justin
11/3/09
40 Creative Uses For Dropbox Designers and Mac Users Will Love
[...] Dropbox and iPhoto — The Better Way to Sync Across Macs [...]
to 40 Creative Uses For Dropbox Designers and Mac Users Will Love
11/5/09
Delving Deeper Into Dropbox – Mac.AppStorm
[...] also a great option. A guide to syncing your iPhoto library across multiple computers can be found here.Multiple Instances of DropboxIf you’re looking for a way to run multiple instances of the Dropbox [...]
to Delving Deeper Into Dropbox – Mac.AppStorm
11/30/09
Peter
Hi, I was able to load my Macbooks library to dropbox, without any trouble, but cannot get my second computer (iMac) to use it. When opening iPhoto, and looking for a new library, the program can’t click on the iPhoto library in the dropbox folder. Any suggestions? Thanks
to Peter
11/30/09
Justin
Did you create the iPhoto Library alias as described above? That’s the easiest way to make sure iPhoto finds it.
to Justin
12/3/09
Peter
Spoke too soon….After closing iPhoto, the error message “created using an earlier version of iPhoto” came up, and with shift-option, was unable to select dropbox file or alias. Even tried creating new alias, but no go……
to Peter
12/3/09
Justin
Hum. That’s strange. It seems like one of the alias’/libraries is conflicting with another. Delete all but the actual library, move it back to Home > Photos and start the process over again and see if it works.
to Justin
12/3/09
Peter
Worked, thanks. I had tried the alias before, but just onto the desktop, not the pictures folder.
to Peter
12/17/09
Ask TUAW: Syncing photos, compressing and transferring large files, virtual printers, and more
[...] best way to share an iPhoto library between different macs is with Dropbox; I even found a handy tutorial. This would cost something ($9.99 per month for 50 GB / $19.99 for 100 GB), but would be nearly [...]
to Ask TUAW: Syncing photos, compressing and transferring large files, virtual printers, and more
12/19/09
Alastair Cutting
Very helpful, J. Could you just mention a bit about how you set up DropBox with 1Password? Many thanks
to Alastair Cutting
12/22/09
Justin
Glad you enjoyed the tutorial. The fine folks at Agile Web Solutions, maker of 1password, actually have a wonderful tutorial on syncing their keychain with Dropbox on their knowledge base. I suggest you check it out.
to Justin
1/5/10
Eric
Why can’t I view mpg4 files on my iPhone from DropBox? . . .
to Eric