I'm in the process of cleaning up my wickedly bad "Digital Photos" folder. I've got a workflow I like, but I need a better way of selecting the files. What I'd like to be able to do is select a top-level folder and somehow automagically select all the *.jpg files within both that folder AND any subfolders. I need to move all the *.jpg files to a single directory for easier processing, and having to do it one folder at a time after 10+ years of mis-matched filing systems is just taking way too long.
MacOS – How to select all files within a directory with subfolders
findermacosphotos
Related Solutions
It is a bad idea to try to manually modify the folder structure inside the iPhoto library, as you seem to want to do.
The best way is to follow Apple's instructions for rebuilding the iPhoto library.
However, this is usually only used as a repair procedure if iPhoto is malfunctioning.
You can try this, but make sure you have a complete backup of your iPhoto library before you start the rebuilding procedure.
Also, realize that iPhoto has an internal Trash that is separate from Mac OS X's Trash. If you have deleted hundreds of photos over the years, and never emptied the iPhoto Trash, those photos will still be in there and taking up space in the file structure.
You can use the Search feature in Finder to limit the view in a specific folder to search criteria that matches what's in the search field. One of the criteria you can search on is kind. In the screen shot below I start typing kind:jpeg in the search field and you see that Finder presents me with a drop down list that includes JPEG Image. I select this from the list and I'll see only files of that kind. To limit the filter to just this folder I make sure the Downloads view is clicked on the Search: area just about the list of files instead of This Mac.
Once you've searched and filtered your view this way, you can select all to perform an operation on files that match that search.
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Best Answer
I created an Automator application that does what you're looking for. You can download it here.
It's pretty simple, just drag-and-drop any folder onto the application, it will then find all images in the folder and any subfolders, and prompt you for a destination to copy them to.
If you'd prefer to activate it by a hotkey or the right-click menu, you can make it into a service by following these steps:
Once you've done that, you should be able to activate the service by right clicking on any folder, or hitting your shortcut key with a folder selected.