IPhoto library too small?

Trying to transfer iPhoto library 09. To external harddrive. The file transfer goes fast and the size is 237mb. That seems MUCH too small for the amount of photos that I have. How do I make sure everything is ok?
2 years ago I got a MacBook Air with newer iPhoto which took a copy of iPhoto library converted it to lion and that file is 65 gb. Since then there has been more added to the old iPhoto 09 library so I don't understand how it can be less than 1gb even with compression.
Please help

What size is the iPhoto library on your main disk before transfering it? Yes 237 MB is very small - but with nno actually information about what you are doing (lots of information about things that have no bering on the question) it is impossibel to tell
the correct way to transfer an iPhoto library is
Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)
And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto
And backup soon and often - having your iPhoto library on an external drive is not a backup and if you are using Time Machine you need to check and be sure that TM is backing up your external drive
LN

Similar Messages

IPhoto file too small for publication

I am writing a series of gardening articles for a national publication and was told the size of the photo (from my iPhoto library) I e-mailed is too small. Will changing the size from "large" to "actual" do the trick? Or do I need to send it through Dropbox or another application? Many thanks, Lynn

Hi Larry,
Thank you for your reply. I apologize for not adding more details. The photo I originally sent as a "large" file was 414 KB. When I switch to "actual" it is 2.3MB which I am assuming will work for the publication. I am only sending one photo at a time – one for each article. Thank you again. I expect the photo editor will let me know tomorrow if they have what they need. Fingers crossed.
By the way, in addition to iPhoto I also have Lightroom but have not had a chance to learn the basics of using it. As of now my entire library is in iPhoto and Picasa.
Thank you again for your time,
Lynn

Iphoto library too large

So, I'm uising iPhoto for my home photography and Aperture for my professional stuff. My iPhoto library is over 200GB. My entire internal HDD is 500GB. My HDD is getting too full. I could just move my iphoto library to an exrternal HDD, but then it won't get backed up with the rest of my HDD. I do have a lot of RAW files that probably don't need to be RAW, but exporting them to JPG and then reimporting them into iPhoto will only buy me a little bit of time until I fill it up again.
So how does one handle having a HUGE iPhoto library when I want to keep it backed up? Is my only option to get a larger internal HDD?

several options
Get a larger internal HD
move the library to an external drive (of course it can be backed up - any backup prpogram you are using can I'm sure backup from multiple volumes)
LN

IPhoto library too big -- how do I sort video, size to remove/archive?

Okay folks. So my iphoto library has gotten so big, I can't even install updates on my MacBook. Normally with any files on my computer, I can sort by size...see who's hogging up space and what I don't need. Not only can I not sort by size, I really have no way of managing these files in finder.
Advice?
Saw previous posts about "no sort by size". Someone even said "iPhoto is a photo manager, not a file manager" -- cute, but at some point the space runs out.

I really have no way of managing these files in finder.
It is strongly recommended that you do not use the finder to delete, move or otherwise modify any files within the iPhoto library - doing so risks corrupting your library and losing data
If you want to delete anything in the iPhoto library you must us the iPhoto program to do it
To identify your movies you can make a smart album for all items with the keyword = movie - selecting one and looking in the information window at the lower left hand corner will show you its size
LN

Retina iphoto library too large

When I tranferred my iphoto library from my old macbook pro to a new retina macbook pro, the size went from 56gb to 113 gb without adding any new files. I also lost my albums? What happened? Any idea how to preserve the albums and not have the size double?

iPhoto Diet - or any application that makes changes in the iPhoto Library Folder - is not recommended and not supported.
iPhoto uses the best principles of Digital Asset Management - it preserves your original file and all operations are executed on a copy of that file. This is basic version control. There is no way to defeat this and attempting to can damage your library and even lead to data loss - that is, losing your pictures.
If you don't require version control, simply, your best bet is to use a different application.
If disk space is an issue you can run an entire library from an external disk
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library Folder as an entity 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.
If you sync your library with an iPod or Mobile phone be aware that this creates a large cache inside the iPhoto Library. In my case this accounts for almost 15 gigs of my 48 gig library. The iPhoto Window reports that my library of photos is 22 gigs.
Regards
TD

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

Downsizing original Iphoto library

I wanted to downsize (segment) my 96Gb Iphoto library to smaller libraries by year.
What is the recommended method of doing this?
I've already tried this:
Copied original 96Gb to another location, renamed as "2006" , opened in Iphoto, using hold option button when opening Iphoto, and proceeded to delete all images not related to 2006.
I also did the same for years 2004, and 2005, and 2007.
What I've noticed is that the library size is still very big (around 50Gb, even though the content is much smaller , (like 10Gb).
Digging around in Finder , I examined the package contents to find that for every new library I created, it had remnants of other years in them.
So I deleted anything in the package contents not applicable to that year.
*I know, I know , everyone says dont mess with the package contents.
Anyways, this did reduce my library file size to a more reasonable figure. (factoring in thumbnail pics etc..)
But on one year , 2005, I get an occasional error message to check the disk space for the library. *I have plenty of space.
Other years seem to be fine, but I still am holding onto my original multiyear library, which works without error, but is just too **** huge.
Any ideas on a different approach , short of starting libraries from scratch?
Thanks

Using Photoshop (or Photoshop Elements) as Your Editor of Choice in iPhoto.
1 - select Photoshop as your editor of choice in iPhoto's General Preference Section's under the "Edit photo:" menu.
2 - double click on the thumbnail in iPhoto to open it in Photoshop. When you're finished editing click on the Save button. If you immediately get the JPEG Options window make your selection (Baseline standard seems to be the most compatible jpeg format) and click on the OK button. Your done.
3 - however, if you get the navigation window that indicates that PS wants to save it as a PS formatted file. You'll need to either select JPEG from the menu and save (top image) or click on the desktop in the Navigation window (bottom image) and save it to the desktop for importing as a new photo.
This method will let iPhoto know that the photo has been editied and will update the thumbnail file to reflect the edit..
If you want to use both iPhoto's editing mode and PS without having to go back and forth to the Preference pane, once you've selected PS as your editor of choice, reset the Preferences back to "Open in main window". That will let you either edit in iPhoto (double click on the thumbnail) or in PS (Control-click on the thumbnail and seledt "Edit in external editor" in the Contextual menu). This way you get the best of both worlds
Do you Twango?
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto 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 written an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger), 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 08 libraries. 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.

What is the best sequence of upgrading: SSD, OSX Mavericks, iPhoto Library?

Working on breathing new life into / upgrading my wife's mid-2009 MacBook Pro (Macbook Pro 5,5 - Core 2 Duo, 2.26 GHz, 13"). Currently running OSX 10.6.8 Snow Leopard.
So far: I have upgraded the RAM to 8 GB from 2 GB, and replaced the battery which recently reached the end of its life.
Next up: SSD upgrade and possibly OSX upgrade to Mavericks.
My questions:
(a) What is my best upgrade path (order/sequence), given the few things I want to with this machine still?
(b) Are my plans and reasoning below sound?
1.Upgrade the 120 GB hard disk to a 240 GB SSD. I have a SanDisk Extreme II 240 GB (although I know this MBP won't fully utilize the SATA III, I got a good deal on it and plan to use it as an add-on drive somewhere when/if this MBP logic board fails eventually), and a USB to SATA adapter for prep work.
Plan: Attach the SSD via USB adaptor, initialize and partition with Disk Utility (Journaled, GUID Partition Map so it's bootable), clone existing hard disk using Super Duper or CCC (recommendations welcome--I'm on a budget ). Set TRIM enabler, and other recommendations per Upgrading Your MacBook Pro with a Solid State Drive
Reasoning: Doing this SSD upgrade first will give me more free space for updates/changes I plan under #2 and #3 below. (For example, current drive has 11 GB free, which is not much room to try and upgrade to Mavericks now before swapping out for SSD.) Additionally, Mavericks will perform much better on the SSD, per other threads I've read with similar MBPs.
2. Upgrade OSX 10.6.8 Snow Leopard to Mavericks.
This is where some of my Mac knowledge is lacking: Is it best to upgrade here (what I've read so far indicates it's pretty seamless), or to install Mavericks freshly on the SSD and then use Migration Assistant to import from the old hard disk? I hesitate to do the latter, since this Mac still has some messes from a previous migration (see #3).
Coming from a Windows background, I have my biases, but I don't know if the jury's still out on performance differences between fresh Mavericks installs versus upgrades--any light to be shed here?
3. Fix iPhoto '09 Library and Consider Upgrading to iPhoto '11. Through reading on the great forums here I have concluded that my wife's photo collection currently exists in a weird place - 68 GB under /Previous Systems/<date of MBP upgrade from Macbook>/Users/<username>/Pictures/iPhoto Library. This seems to be left over from when she copied her iPhoto Library from her old Macbook, before this MBP. (Before I sat down to write this post, I had noticed there was an iPhoto Library (much smaller size, just a few GBs) in the normal place, under /Users/<username>/Pictures/iPhoto Library/ -- but now I don't see it, so maybe I goofed up and either lost that or imported it into the above library. Either way, that was going to be one of my questions!)
Should I move this "Previous Systems" iPhoto Library to a more normal place?
If I do again find extraneous photos or libraries outside of it, how best should I bring them back into one -- or a better question might be, how do I ensure THIS becomes the primary iPhoto Library going forward? (links to threads also appreciated -- I have come up short)
If this machine is now on Mavericks, is it a best practice to also purchase iPhoto '11? Eventually, our next Mac will come with it so it may be worthwhile eventually upgrading (I don't know if it is urgent, though).
Overall, does this process make sense? Any glaring gaps? Thank you for your time and wisdom!
Ryan

Thanks Melophage. I've been looking into my options, together with the advice you gave. It seems like I can salvage quite a bit of data after a fresh install if I follow the steps here - OS X: Manually migrating data from another Mac. However, applications are my (only) concern -- for my iLife suite apps (which as I mentioned, are old -- '09 editions) how can I restore those after installing Mavericks fresh? Can I just plug in the original Snow Leopard disc that says applications on it, to install? Or would they show up in Mac App Store (I think not since they are so old and I haven't purchased '11 with this account yet).
My wife's computer also has some third party apps which would be a pain to reinstall but not end of the world, I suppose. Another route of migrating and keeping these (but still doing a fresh OS install) might possibly be according to OS X: How to migrate data from another Mac using Mavericks, which is really designed for multiple computer copying. But with the SSD external, could I install Mavericks and then take a Time Machine backup of my internal (original) HDD, including those apps, and then follow these steps to import them into the Mavericks install on the SSD, once I booted into it? Does that make sense?
After some further reading on the subject, I found a lot of difference of opinion (especially on some MacRumor threads) about whether to install fresh OS X or upgrade, but I guess if the install ends up cleaner it could be worth it to install a fresh copy.
Any comments on the above approaches, or thoughts from others here? Thanks again for your help.

I accidentally moved my iphoto library to another foler, and i delete the original one, how can i get my images back

i was thinking of clear some space for my macbook, so i moved some images form picture to window disk, but i accidentally moved iphoto library too. And i didn't realised it would affect iphoto, until i opened iphoto finding all the images were gone. How can i get the images back?

This might help: Rebuilding the iPhoto library

My iPhoto Library is huge - over 800GB

Hello, I'm running Yosemite on a new Mac mini (late 2014) with iPhoto 9.6. My single iPhoto Library file is over 800GB at this point.
I would love some best practices on how to manage this file as it is getting big and I'm afraid the file will get corrupted - it's also hard to manage backups (I have redundant backups on Time Machine and external HDD. I already had to restore the file once from a backup.
Could you please provide some options on:
1) how to parse out the existing iPhoto Library to smaller sizes (i.e. one file per year?)
2) should I upgrade to Aperture or Lightroom? Would this help with anything?
3) I assume I should start a new iPhoto Library starting in 2015?
I'm sure this is an FAQ - please point me to some good posts, if available. Thanks in advance.

it's also hard to manage backups (I have redundant backups on Time Machine and external HDD. I already had to restore the file once from a backup.
The Time Machine backups should be automatic, if you include the drive with your iPhoto in your regular Time Machine backup. The second backup to an external drive would best be done with a cloning application that can do incremental backups like Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper, so only the first backup would take a long time.
Could you please provide some options on:
1) how to parse out the existing iPhoto Library to smaller sizes (i.e. one file per year?)
iPhoto Library Manager could do that - the full, paid version. But splitting your library would make your library less useful, since you can no longer search all photos at once. Having to switch between libraries is tedious.
2) should I upgrade to Aperture or Lightroom? Would this help with anything?
I don't have much experience with Lightroom. Upgrading to aAperture is useful, if you want advanced editing options and more ways to search a large library based on metadata tags. An Aperture library is easier to navigate, if you take the time to explore Aperture's advanced features. Aperture supports to manage huge libraries distributed across several drives. But upgrading to a professional application would only be necessary, if there are things that you would want to do in iPhoto, that iPhoto cannot do. Aperture can open your iPhoto library without any need to migrate, and iPhoto can open the Aperture library. Only problem, apple announced that neither Aperture nor iPhoto will be further developed. Apple to replace Aperture and iPhoto with Photos for OS X early next year | 9to5Mac
3) I assume I should start a new iPhoto Library starting in 2015?
See my answer to your first question.

Splitting iPhoto library and social media

Greetings,
I am in the process of breaking up my gargantuan iPhoto library into smaller libraries, by year (this scheme works perfectly fine for me). However, I ran into a problem last night which I would like not to repeat. Starting with all of the photos from 2013, I had exported all of them out of iPhoto.photolibrary into folders on my desktop. Then, I had created "2013 iPhoto Library" and mass-imported all the files from the desktop. When I was satisfied that I had everything I wanted, I both securely deleted the desktop files and also the albums from within iPhoto. However, when I started doing the latter, they began removing themselves from Facebook. It makes sense, but it's an undesirable side effect.
Since I plan on doing this reorganization at the end of each year, I obviously don't want to keep this from happening, i.e. I'd like to leave my albums which take me a great amount of time to put together for sharing on Facebook in place so that they don't get removed. My proposed solution is something like the following:
1. Continue the process all the way back to 2005 and before (since I hate to have a disconnect with last year's albums gone but none of the others deleted, I might as well delete them all from my Facebook).
2. Leave 2014's photos in "iPhoto Library" (thus leaving my photos still connected to my Facebook albums.
3. When 2015 rolls around, rename "iPhoto Library" to "2014 iPhoto Library" and create a new "iPhoto Library" (hoping such a name change is permissible).
4. Repeat 2. and 3. every year.
Can anyone tell me if this is a recommended solution, or if this will/won't work? My main concern is that "iPhoto Library" is somehow special and has to be left as-is, i.e. I can't rename it, or have a new file called "iPhoto Library" which might corrupt something
Thanks,
Mike

The Social Media albums are attached to the library that created them. So step 2 works. Yes you can rename libraries.
The way you're splitting the Library destroys the non-destructive editing feature of iPhoto and, depending on a: what you've done in iPhoto and b: the exact export settings you are using, risks significant dataloss. If you must split the library (and deal with all those inconveniences) use iPhoto Library Manager to do it, and preserve all your versions and data.
For the sake of others who may read this: iPhoto can only open or search one Library at a time. That's just one of the inconveniences of multiple libraries. An iPhoto Library can contain up to 1,000,000 million items

Printing iPhoto Library or iPhoto Album

How can I print all the photo thumbnails in my iPhoto library or in a specific album on several sheets of paper? I want to send someone all the photos I have in a specific album so they can circle which photos they want me to make copies of. Is there anyway to print out the entire album (or iPhoto library) in small thumbnail samples on several sheets of paper? Hopefully this makes sense!

Select the photos, click print and select the contact print theme on the left - if the lay out is not what you want you can change the numbers of rows/column by clicking customize
LN

Backing up entire iPhoto Library and data

Hey guys!
Getting a New 27'' inch iMac and New 17'' inch MacBook Pro on Friday!
I have an old iMac G5 and want to copy my whole iPhoto Library too a blank disk so that I can move my photos to my new Macs. I've also done a good amount of work with my Places, Faces, tagging, and slideshows. Is there anyway to move everything over to a blank disk including Places, Faces, tagging, and slideshows? This would make my day!
Thanks guys!

Connect the old and the new Macs inFirewire Target Disk Mode (the old one in the Target disk mode) and copy the library as described by Terence.

Iphoto Library confusion- removing duplicates - photo appears too small now

I have a massive mess in my Iphoto library so please excuse the confusion of this question but I can't simplify it any more
1) I had many duplicate photos so I recently started deleting duplicates manually through the Iphoto window.
2) I also have two photo libraries. I made a new library awhile back on the advice of this forum as I had Question Marks instead of pictures. I never removed the old library and now not sure what to do with it. Should I trash it?
3) After deleting duplicates and rebuilding thumbnail cache as it prompted me, now when I look at some of the photos they appear very small in the Iphoto viewer window and others appear fully. When I try to make them bigger in the Iphoto window they become fuzzy..
4) However, when I look at the actual files in the library in the Finder, I see I still have these photos in quadruplicate plus I have backups on other drives..
5)When I look at each copy of the same exact photo all of them appear in Preview as the same size as they do in the Iphoto library window. All except one - this one appears full screen...and very clear. The one that appears clear is actually visible in the finder menu where as the others all just have the jpeg icon...
6) How do I get my photos to appear as there full size in the iphoto library...Thank you....

I have a massive mess in my Iphoto library so please excuse the confusion of this question but I can't simplify it any more
1) I had many duplicate photos so I recently started deleting duplicates manually through the Iphoto window.
2) I also have two photo libraries. I made a new library awhile back on the advice of this forum as I had Question Marks instead of pictures. I never removed the old library and now not sure what to do with it. Should I trash it?
3) After deleting duplicates and rebuilding thumbnail cache as it prompted me, now when I look at some of the photos they appear very small in the Iphoto viewer window and others appear fully. When I try to make them bigger in the Iphoto window they become fuzzy..
4) However, when I look at the actual files in the library in the Finder, I see I still have these photos in quadruplicate plus I have backups on other drives..
5)When I look at each copy of the same exact photo all of them appear in Preview as the same size as they do in the Iphoto library window. All except one - this one appears full screen...and very clear. The one that appears clear is actually visible in the finder menu where as the others all just have the jpeg icon...
6) How do I get my photos to appear as there full size in the iphoto library...Thank you....

HT1229 My iPhoto Library (version 8.1.2) is 280GB (greater than 50% of my 500GB total storage memory on my iMac. It was too large for me to drag it to a new hard drive so the Apple geniuses did it for me. However they did not delete the Library from my

My iPhoto Library (version 8.1.2) is 280GB (greater than 50% of my 500GB total storage memory on my iMac. It was too large for me to drag it to a new hard drive so the Apple geniuses did it for me. However they did not delete the Library from my iMac (that's my responsibility). I dragged it to Trash and when it started to move I clicked over to the new hard drive to confirm it had indeed been copied. I became nervous when I didn't see among the few files on this otherwise empty new hard drive anything that resembled a 280GB Library so I cancelled the migration to trash.
How can I be sure that my iphoto has been copied and that all my "metadata" survived in tact?

the new backup drive
I thought the new drive would be your data drive to host the iPhoto library. Do you also use it for TimeMachine backups?
I am unable to search either in email as well as Finder. I AM able to search within iPhoto though, thankfully
Spotlight may still be busy rebuildig its index.
You could try to rebuild the Spotlight Index, if you do see no progress:
Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes
I hope, other frequent posters will drop in. I have not used iPhoto 8.x in long time.

IPhoto library too small?

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