Iphoto Library Size Too Big

I am getting increasingly nervous over the size of my Iphoto library as it exceeds 60gb. In prior versions of Iphoto you could open and find photos through the finder. In Iphoto8 you can't, so if something happens to that file, or even the backup you are screwed. Is it possible to break this down into more libraries of more manageable size without duplicating everything? Alternatively if I were to use Aperture, would it make a duplicate database or reference Iphoto; I think smaller libraries might be possible there.

cybermooks:
If you're looking for a method to find a photo for use outside of iPhoto then read Terence Devlin's treatise on file access. There's no need to go into the iPhoto Library package to get to an image file.
If you maintain a recent backup of your library, either with Time Machine or a 3rd party backup application like Synk Standard you'll be able to recover a single file or entire library.
Also, in order to be able to recover from what many users are experiencing, corruption of the library's database file, Library6.iPhoto, you should backup that one file frequently. The tip at the end of my signature below describes one way you can do that very easy, like using the Save feature in many applications.
There is a way to create multiple, smaller libraries and that's by using iPhoto Library Manager. However, if you don't have a backup strategy for them you won't be any better off than having one large library.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.
Note: There now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

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My iPhoto Library is too big for my iMac

My iPhoto Library is now 272gb so is taking all the space on my iMac, so I need to move it off the Mac. I believe I can copy it to an external drive and then just "point" iPhoto at it by holding down the Alt key on launch?
But I am very nervous about losing any or all of my photos if I do this as I don't have a back-up (due to the library size). I don't even have space to run Time Machine. So I would like to check that I would be doing the right thing above please?
Also, I would appreciate any tips on organising photos in my own folders outside iPhoto, please.
I think it is best to import to my own folders from the camera because I tend to open photos in different applications, depending on what I want to do – Preview, Adobe Bridge, Photoshop and now possibly Aperture or Lightroom, because I need to upgrade to either Aperture or Lightroom.
If I import photos to iPhoto I end up exporting hi-res versions to edit in Photoshop etc before publishing them or sending them to anyone. Thus I am actually storing the photos twice, so it is small wonder I have run out of space.
I also have an iPhoto Library on my laptop, and many of these are duplicates of the other iPhoto Library. But I do not have enough space to merge them and get iPhoto Manager to remove the duplicates.
Help!
Thanks,
Sarah

Thank you Larry,
I was wondering how professional photographers organised their work as they would quickly outgrow the space on a Mac hard drive the same as I have now I have been doing a lot more photography for publication.
Because of this I use different programmes for different requirements (either displaying, editing or adding to the photos' inbuilt file information), but keeping the original photos in the iPhoto Library and Hi-Res JPG copies to work on in my own folder before submitting to a client just means I am using double the amount of space to store the photos. And I have set Photoshop as the edit programme, I know about that, and yes they pretty much all need tweaking in Photoshop. It improves them greatly, plus many need cropping.
I am aware of the importance of back-up and even though money is tight I will be getting a new LaCIe external drive to ensure I have enough space for Time Machine to back-up both iPhoto Libraries from both my Macs. But in the meantime I only have space to back them up manually on one LaCie external drive, formatted as Mac OS extended (Journaled) as you say. I hope I can eke out the couple of GBs space left on my Macs until I can get the new drive.
I am not happy about running the iPhoto Libraries from an external drive but due to the space problems I have no alternative.
Going forward I seem to have three alternatives. Either transfer them to Aperture or Lightroom or avoid duplication and storage problems by keeping the originals filed in my own folders for opening in one of these management programmes as required. I currently have folders for both hi-res and low-res edited versions of each photo in a project, as well as the originals in iPhoto. So the best filing system and the best way to reduce storage space is what I was wanting advice on.
ADDITIONAL ADVICE NEEDED ON REMOVING DUPLICATES
Additionally, many of the photos in my laptop iPhoto Library are duplicates of the ones in my main iMac iPhoto Library. Will iPhoto Library Manager work on libraries that are on an external drive? And do you know if it is possible to use iPhoto Library Manger to merge them on my external drive and remove duplicates please?
WILL IPHOTO LIBRARY MANAGER WORK ON LIBRARIES ON AN EXTERNAL DRIVE?
Final question: If I have two iPhoto Libraries on my external drive, is it safe to change their filenames to distinguish between them? Will iPhoto recognise libraries where the names have changed?
Many thanks,
Sarah

IPhoto library way too big

iPhone 4S
Using iOS 8.02
Hoping to upgrade to 8.1
The iPhone tells me I have not enough space. Looking at Manage Storage, I'm told my Photo Library is 5.7 GB in size. I have exactly 14 photos in there -- no videos. I did delete a lot of videos just recently and also restarted the iPhone. Is there a temporary trash directory that I have to empty or something?
Any suggestions? Thanks.

When you're thinking of updating the system, the system is saying how much space you need generally in your phone. Meaning you need 4.6GB or whatever the amount in total of free space throughout your phone. This could include photos, videos, messages, the amount of apps you have and their separate data, web data, and etc. almost anything counts, so just keep deleting until you achieve the acquired amount of free space for the update. Hope this helps!

Can an iPhoto Library be too big?

Mine holds 24,000 images . . . organized into over 100 albums. Should I start a new Library? I also have a lot of photos stored on the web, in Picasa and Shutterfly (took over my KodakGallery). I would dearly love to have all my photos in one place, backed up on the internet. An advice?

24,000 is no problem - I have nearly 50,000 - one posted claimed over 300,000 - Main things are free disk space, memory and processor speed
LN

Can't backup: Photo Library size too big

Hey gang,
I've got about 20 pictures on my phone but it keeps saying that I've got 1.4GB of data in iPhoto when I go in to manage my backups. How can I get it to display the accurate photo information. My phone will NOT Back up and I don't have anywhere near 1.4GB. It's like it's trying to FORCE me to upgrade my iCloud storage and it's unfair.
Any input appreciated, thanks,
Dan P.

What version of iPhoto?

Why is the iPhoto Library file so big?

Why is the iPhoto Library File so big?
I cancelled the option in settings that it copies the files to the Library but the LIbrary file grows and grows when I import new photos?
Can someone help me?

You have disabled "Copy items to the iPhoto Library"?
Then the original image files should not be imported; you can check this by selecting one of the recently imported photos and using the command "File > Reveal in Finder > Original File". Does it show you a file outside the library?
Your library will grow in size, when you import and edit photos, even if the originals are not included. iPhoto will store thumbnails of your photos, previews of the edited versions, of the faces, and if you sync your library with iTunes, there will also be an iPod Photo cache, that can be quite large:
iTunes: Understanding the iPod Photo Cache folder
You know, that disabling "Copy items to the iPhoto Library" is quite risky, don't you? Just in case you are not aware of the risks - iPhoto does provide no tools at all, if the connection between your referenced original files and your thumbnails in iPhoto gets broken. Or if you need to move your photos to a different drive, when the drive fails, as will happen one day. You will not be able to migrate the library to a new computer or restoring from your backup will be difficult. You will need third party apps like iPhoto Library Manager to recover from such a situation.
If you need to free space on your mac it is much safer to move the whole library to an external drive, or to split it and relocate the partial library with the older photos to an external drive.
-- Léonie

I have 1250 songs, a few videos in my ITunes library. I tried to synch with my IPhone 3g last night but it said my library is too big. Is that true?

I have about 1250 songs and a few music videos in my ITunes library. Last night I tried to synch with my IPhone 3G but I got a message that my library is too big to synch it all. Is that true? How many songs can fit on an IPhone 3G. Thanks for any help.

Look down at the bottom of your Itunes player and check the total size of your library. If the gigs are more than what your iphone will hold that error message will pop up. My suspicion is it that you have some very large video files and those take up a lot of space. To get more room, delete some of those video files and covert your music files to 128, if larger. Then resync your iphone. Also if you are using .wav files, covert those to mp3 @ 128

After installing Aperture and leaving photos in iPhoto library, why did iphoto library size almost double?

I installed Aperture and chose to leave all my images in the iPhoto library until I became more comfortable/familiar with Aperture.
I was looking at my hard drive space and see that the available space went way down. In Finder, the Aperture library.ap library is 17.97 gb and the iPhoto library is 122.75 gb.
When I open iPhoto, it says that it contains 19349 images/87 gb.
What happened? Is that extra size related to the Aperture referencing the images? Should I delete and start over, and move all the images into Aperture so that they are managed there?
I'm just figuring my way around Aperture, and I'm trying not to over-think the organizational differences, but this size discrepancy seems a bit too much.

I wish I had more info for this but I'm stumped. As I said there is no reason Aperture would increase the iPhoto library size by importing iPhoto's library.
BTW how did you do the import, that might shed some light on the problem.
The image count between the backup and the live iPhoto libraries seems fairly consistent so why the jump in size I can't say. And as for the increase in the number of images in Aperture, you started with an empty Aperture library, correct? And did you import anything directly into Aperture since you did the iPhoto import?
I'm still a little confused on the whole thing where Aperture shows both original and edited versions of an image, and some show both RAW & JPEG versions of an image,
Well Aperture really doesn't show both the original and edited versions, all you ever see are the versions unless you specifically ask to see the master. When you import an image into Aperture a version of the master is automatically made and displayed. Because at this point the version is no different then the master (you haven't made any adjustments to it yet) the version looks exactly like the master but it is the version you are seeing.
As for the RAW & JPG thing, if you shoot both RAW + JPG's in your camera when you import them you have the choice of which to make the master or to make each one a master. Not sure if that is what you are referring to.
I'm wondering whether I would have been better off just moving the whole iPhoto library into Aperture at the beginning, and deleting the iPhoto library.
That is definitly one option and the option most users who switch eventually make. You're not going to want to have both programs handeling your photos. But you should probably hold off until you;re more omfortable with Aperture and make sure you have a good backup of the iPhoto library before you do anything.
Remember when you import the iPhoto library into Aperture you're only choice is to copy the images not move them. This is done so that you can make sure all went OK before doing anything with iPhoto.
If you have the room you could try bringing in the iPhoto library backup, and trying the import again into a new empty Aperture library.
regards

IPhoto library size smaller than original collection

I've seen several iphoto library size questions but nothing seems close to my own situation. If anything, it's mostly the other way around. Apologies if this has already been covered but I've searched long and hard!
I have my photo collection in two places- an iPhoto library and separately stored in a finder folder called "Photos". For backup purposes and in case anything goes wrong, I prefer to have them doubled up like this. My iPhoto library is 7.96GB when viewed in finder, whereas the folder "Photos" is 8.95GB. The same number of images are in both. Can anyone shed some light onto why this would be the case? There are no other items contained in either collection, movies etc., just the same amount of photos in various folders within folders. Surely the iPhoto library would be at least as big, if not bigger with thumbs, photos modified etc?

I would expect the iPhoto Library to be significantly bigger than the folder tree so something is not right.
Are you running a Managed or a Referenced Library?
A Managed Library, is the default setting, and iPhoto copies files into the iPhoto Library when Importing. The files are then stored in the Library package
A Referenced Library is when iPhoto is NOT copying the files into the iPhoto Library when importing because you made a change at iPhoto -> Preferences -> Advanced. The files are then stored where ever you put them and not in the Library package. In this scenario you are responsible for the File Management.
BTW: Storing the files in a folder tree and iPhoto on the same disk is a waste of space and not a back up. A back up needs to be on a separate disk, at least. The most common problems are disk issues. Such a set up offer no protection whatever from that.
Regards
TD

Can a library be too big to share?

I just upgraded to Windows 7 (32 bit) and had to reinstall iTunes (don't know if that is the real issue). My home networked sharing library shows up up however when I select the library to share iTunes thinks for a bit then goes back to the apple icon (like it times out or something). I used to be able to share a library from one computer to another on my home network. I have gone to the computer that has my entire library on it and again I can see my laptop library (which is empty) and seam to be able to access it. Can a library be too big to share?

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Open the .mov - with QuickTime-player (as it can open so many more)
open Inspector [cmd+I] and read
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WHAT does they read ?
iMovie has one very bad thing going - It tries to open Video-Codecs that it really can not use - so all kind of strange behaviors can occur. No Sound / Only Sound no picture etc.
So knowing the true Video-Codec IS VERY IMPORTANT.
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IPhoto library size and movie imports - getting HUGE!

In iPhoto 08- (in my primary library) I have 23,000 photos, and about 300 movies (some MPEG) from an older Sony digicam, and now I have a Canon Powershot TX1 which is a flash based still digicam/720P HD camcorder that captures very large AVI's (depending on shot length, they range from 30MB to 400-500MB). I know I can choose on import to not bring them into iPhoto, and just bring in the still shots. However, it does make it easy to bring them into iPhoto along with the still pics, but I am concerned about the growing size of my 45GB library (1 of 3 libraries - I have not been splitting them up in the last couple of years, relying on the fact that iPhoto is stable with very large libraries- and going to enable a Time Capsule w/ Time Machine very soon). Time Capsule would save me here, right? Am I playing with fire here on the library size, and setting myself up for a crash?? There are so many downsides to multiple libraries when it comes to projects, searches, imports, etc. I'd love to know that I can safely stick with one.
Wondering also if I should NOT import the movies into iPhoto, and keep them seperate? The benefit to doing this, is that we can post MULTIPLE movies to the .Mac gallery at the same time, and have them appear as seperate movies...whereas in iMovie 08, if I put a bunch of clips into a project to post to .Mac gallery, it compiles them as a single movie - which is, many times, not what we want.
Any advice here is greatly appreciated!!!

GaryFL1:
You might consider creating a separate library for the movies and see if that will speed up your primary library. If you needed a movie in an album to create a web gallery you could put it in an album in the Movie Library and copy that album to your working library.
A lot of iPhoto's quickness depends on both CPU power, RAM and free space on your boot drive. I would imagine your iMac would be your primary iPhoto machine and it should meet the CPU and memory criteria. How about your free space?
Time Machine is a very good backup device in my experience. Depending on how big your backup drive is and how much you're backing up, you can go back in time a fair amount. I've got a 750 GB TM drive backing up my boot drive and one external. It now goes back 5 1/2 weeks for me.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.≤br>
Note: There now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

How best to reduce iPhoto Library size?

1. Can I delete big HD movie files from iPhoto (that were uploaded from camera) after I have run iMovie so they are now iMovie Events, without any subsequent impact (ie, deletion of) my iMovie Events?
2. How can I find out size of iPhoto Books to see if it's worth moving them (and all those photos) to a second Library on an external drive?
I have 100GB in 15K photos & 227 movies, but Finder says iPhoto Library is 134GB. That implies that the Book Projects are big and self-contained rather than pointers, but I think I read somewhere that if I just move photos from this Library to a second Library, it will "break" the books still left on the first Library?
A search found an old link to Old Toad's application note about duplicating/moving Libraries on web.mac.com but that's no longer available. Is there a new link?
Thanks.

1. Can I delete big HD movie files from iPhoto (that were uploaded from camera) after I have run iMovie so they are now iMovie Events, without any subsequent impact (ie, deletion of) my iMovie Events?
You really need to ask that on the iMovie forum. It's very possible that it just links to the material stored in iPhoto.
2. How can I find out size of iPhoto Books to see if it's worth moving them (and all those photos) to a second Library on an external drive?
Book projects are not large. They are entries in the database only. They take up negligible amounts of space.
There is no way to move a book from one Library to another.
I have 100GB in 15K photos & 227 movies, but Finder says iPhoto Library is 134GB.
The iPhoto Window reports the nominal size of a folder if you exported everything from iPhoto at the Current setting.
The Finder reports the size of the Library Installation. This includes: Original shots, Preview of Edited shots, thumbnails, database files, cache files and so on. All of these are required for iPhoto to work. There is no material in the Library that can be deleted.
If space is an issue you can run a Library from an external disk:
Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
Regards
TD

Saving animated gif error - canvas size too big?

Hi,
i have been asked to create an animated gif which has a snow effect in the background. The animation runs pretty well using the pattern style to move the animated snow down. The problem is when I try to export the animation the save for web dialogue window freezes and I can't quit photoshop. I have tried to make the canvas (image size) smaller and it works.
Is there a memory problem with creating animations in Photoshop if the document size is too big, im running a 3000x1000px at 72dpi
TThe animation would be used on a web app, which a script could probably do a better job, but I need to try this first.
thanks
lister

Something is very wrong here. The point behind using GIFs is that they are small and OK to put on a Web site.
First thing: forget all about PPI - this has absolutely no relevance to Web/screen images; it is only used for printing. You need to think about the pixel size.
So, how big in pixels are your starting images?
How big do you want the resulting GIF to be? Again, you have to decide in pixels, as the viewing size will depend upon screen resolution of the person looking at it. You can use a notional PPI of 70-100 to guess how big it will be in inches, but that's all it is - a guess.
Is this getting you going in the right direction?
I cannot resist commenting that I hate almost all animated GIFs as they reduce Web site usability so much.

Iphoto Library Size Too Big

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