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Resuming an incomplete merge


When merging libraries together, iPhoto Library Manager will sometimes encounter an error, iPhoto will crash, or some other problem will occur that prevent- the merge from completing all the way through. The result is that you have part of one of your libraries imported into another one, but still need to import the rest. Following these steps will let you continue your merge with a minimum of duplicated photos or lost information.


  1. In the preferences window, under the "Photo Copying" tab, check the "Don't import duplicates" checkbox. When you restart the merge, iPhoto Library Manager will check as it proceeds to see if the photos it's about to import already exist in the destination library and skip them if they do.
  2. Also, check the "Combine contents of albums with same name" checkbox. During the first attempt at the merge, the albums from the source library were recreated in the destination library and any photos that have already been imported will already have been added to these albums. Checking this preferences will make sure that during the second part of the merge, instead of creating a whole new set of albums and adding the imported photos to them, it will instead add the imported photos to the albums created during the first merge attempt.
  3. After setting this up, go ahead and do another merge with the source and destination library you were working with the first time through. iPhoto Library Manager will have to process the already imported rolls, checking for duplicates, but it should eventually get to the rolls that weren't imported the first time and start importing those photos.
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