Tips and Tricks

My library has many, many albums. How can I better organize them?

You can add the same iPhoto library over and over. Each time you add it, give it a different name. Different albums can be enabled in each difference instance of the library.

So, for instance, you can add your iPhoto library and give it the name "Vacations". In it, you enable all the albums with vacation pictures. Next, add the same iPhoto library but this time name it "Birthdays" and enable all the albums pertaining to birthdays.

Frequently Asked Questions

I've enabled iPhotoWebShare. How can I test that it's working?

Open your browser of choice and make a connection. If you configured iPhotoWebShare to use port 8080 (a common setting), then point your browser here: http://localhost:8080/

If it doesn't work, you may have to adjust your firewall software (to enable port 8080, in this case.) The firewall settings are found in the System Preferences under the "Sharing" option.

I've enabled iPhotoWebShare, but no one is able to see my photos. What is going on?

If your computer is directly connected to the Internet, then most likely your firewall is blocking incoming connections. Under the MacOSX System Preferences, you can adjust your firewall to allow connections to reach iPhotoWebShare. Simply specify the same port number that you used in the iPhotoWebShare preferences.

On the other hand, if your computer is attached to intermediate network equipment (like a wireless access router), you have a litte more work to do. The exact steps are beyond the scope of this document since the steps vary in each vendors' product. What you need to do is enable "port forwarding" in whatever product you own so that incoming connections are forwarded to your internal machine.

I just imported pictures into iPhoto, but they're not showing up on the web pages. Why not?

iPhotoWebShare gets the list of pictures and albums from a file that iPhoto creates. Unfortunately, iPhoto doesn't update this file immediately when you make changes to the library. You need to be patient and wait for iPhoto to update the file with the new infromation. (Quitting iPhoto will make it write out the file sooner than later...)

Your product description says I don't have to be logged in for this to work. Why does it stop working when I log out at night?

iPhotoWebShare will run if you're not logged in -- but your computer still needs to be on. If you shut your computer off, or put it in sleep mode, all applications are suspended. (Note: only the computer needs to be on. You should still put your display in sleep mode when you're not using it.)

Although this is a cool application, I simply have no need for it. How do I remove it from my system?

Before removing it from the system, make sure you've stopped it. If you remove it while it's running, not everything will get cleaned up properly. This won't harm your system in any way, we just like to leave your system in as clean a state as we found it.

To remove all the software, start the System Preferences. Hold the control key down and click the iPhotoWebShare icon. The system will show a small menu with an option to remove the application.