Library is too big

My library folders are gigantic. My system library folder on the Macintosh HD is 38GB. and the library in my user folder is 9 gb! What is going on? I checked mail already and safari's preview. They aren't causing it. Not sure what else it could be. I am running a Mac Mini with OS X snow leopard (the latest build). I have a 2 ghz processor and 4 gb of DDR3 Ram. What is making these files so big? Any ideas?

By "system library folder" I assume you mean the /Library folder, and not /System/Library. If that is the case it depends in part on what you have installed. For instance, if you have GarageBand installed there will be gigabytes worth of various and sundry support files, including things like loops. This stuff gets installed in a couple of sub-folders inside the /Library folder. The easiest way to start sorting things out is to open the /Library folder and put it in List view. Now go to View->Show view options, and check the boxes for show size column, and calculate all sizes. Click on the Size column to sort by size, and wait a bit while the sizes are calculated. The largest sub-folders will be at the top. In my case it is Application Support that is largest, at 5.35GBs. Click the little arrow in front of a large folder, and wait some more while its sub-folders have their sizes calculated. For mine the biggest is GarageBand, at 2.63GBs and Adobe at 1GB. Do the same thing in your home ~/Library folder. Once you know which things are gigantic we can figure out what, if anything, you want to do about it.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Similar Messages

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?

Hi
Not really understanding - but anyway
.swf - have no idea what that is
.mov - Is NO Video-Codec - but a Container (sort of folder) and can hold Video-Codecs that iMovie can use or not.
Open the .mov - with QuickTime-player (as it can open so many more)
open Inspector [cmd+I] and read
Video Format (Codec) : nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
Frames per second : YY.yy
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.
Yours Bengt W

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

What do i do once my itunes library is too big to fit on one drive?

I have a 1 tb drive and I can upgrade it even to a 3 tb drive but eventually i am going to fill that one too. What are my options once my itunes Library fills my HDD. I use this library to syn to multiple computers and apple tv units throughout my house.
Any suggestions?
Alan

connect the external to your Mac and make sure it is properly formatted
go iTunes > preferences > advanced and point iTunes media folder location to the external
on the same tab, ensure the copy to ... when adding option is checkmarked and ok out
select (highlight) the content you want to move in iTunes, right-click (or ctrl-click), and choose consolidate files from the pop-up menu
repeat as necessary pointing iTunes media folder location to other drives/locations.
when the moving's done, you can delete the original files to make room on your boot drive.

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

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

What if my itunes library is too big

if i have an Itunes library that is 100 GB, what happens if i have a 16 GB IPad?

Then you need to select just the music you want streamed from the iPad from your iTunes library.
Connect the iPad to your computer, launch iTunes.
Select the iPad under Devices left side of the iTunes window.
Select the Music tab.
Click the Sync button bottom right corner of the iTunes windows after you make your selections.
You can change those selections anytime then re sync the iPad.

Photo library way too big

ive delet almost all the photos from my iPad, and yet the photo library is still 4.1GB? How so? The deleted photos album is empty - so are my photos being stored somewhere secretly?

Hi Joseph,
This appears to be a bug in the way that the Recently Deleted photos are being aged off of the device.
txforever found this solution:
1.     Go to Settings>General>Date & Time and change your date back to 9/1/2014
2.     Go to the Photos app and select the Recently Deleted album (even though it says "0")
3.     You should see the aged-off Recently Deleted photos. Delete them manually and see if that resolves your issue
Cheers,
GB

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!

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.

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?

Library too big?

Hi there;
Just a quick question, if my iTunes library is too big, for instance i have 160gb ATV and my library is 200gb. Is it possible from the ATV, using the remote to select different movies, tv shows and songs to sync or does that have to be done from iTunes. For example; lets say im using ATV and because my library is too large i cannot sync everything. Using ATV am i able to say, remove movie X from the ATV which will create room on the ATV and thus sync movie Y or does that all have to be done using iTunes?

Scud89 wrote:
oh, i didnt know that. so if my library is too big i can simply sync as much as possible, and then whatever doesnt fit can be streamed directly to ATV??
yes

Aperture Library too big

My only Aperture library is too big (almost 1TB) and slow to open. I would like to move older projects (2005-2009) into a 2nd new library (aka Archive Library) to another internal HD and continue to use the existing library for projects in 2012 and later.
I am assuming that the reduced sized original library will free up the space on the HD and open faster. My questions are:
1. How do you move older projects (en mass) from Library A to Library B? Assuming A & B are on separate internal HDs
2. Will this speed up accessing Library A?

Thank you for suggesting the use of folder. This will definitely help save time once I figure out the new set up.
I am running Aperture on Mac Pro (specs below):
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 8
L2 Cache (per processor): 12 MB
Memory: 14 GB
Bus Speed: 1.6 GHz
When I first started using the system, it was fast and as I have added projects, its starting to slow down a bit. The problem is not just the sluggish performance, it's also capacity as explained below.
The HD configuration is Mac HD 500GB for OS and apps of which 207.96 GB is available.
The three additional internal HDs. The first named HD2, size 1TB for the Aperture Library which is 926.99 GB with ONLY 72.87 GB available. All the images, masters, managed and referenced reside here. As you can see, I have to find more disk space. To keep things simple I don't have any smart albums and filters. The RAM is 14 GB.
HD3 is alo 1TB. All is available for the "new" library. I created a new Aperture Archive Library and moved 2 smaller projects into this to test if it frees up memory on HD2 and it doesn't. Data indicates that transferring does not free up any memory in HD2 while taking up additional memory in HD3.
The internal drive HD4 (1.5TB) is for the Main Vault which is about 935GB. Still available 566GB.
There are three External HDs. LaCie I (2TB) has 1TB of video. My plan is to archive this Video on a off-line HD and repurpose LaCie I as a back up to the Main Vault.
LaCie II (2TB) is for Time Machine back up. At present, the Time Machine back up is 1.4TB
Finally, for now, I am using a EXT HD (2TB) as a back up for the Main Vault. Once I off load the Video files from LaCie I and use it as a back up for Main Vault, I will use this HD for off site storage.
As you can see, the current system is kludgy but has worked up to now. I shoot RAW and some projects are quite big. If you have suggestions for a robust and easily expandable system, I will appreciate it. Thank you in advance.
Aib

ITunes Library too big - how to fit on Mini?

My iTunes library got too big, and I got the message saying "you don't have any more room on the Mini so we'll make you a playlist and put some cool songs in that list". I said okay, and went to work. When I got home, I figured I'd delete some stuff to make the library smaller. And I deleted the playlist that iTunes made! DOH!
I have tried uninstalling, reinstalling, resetting. When I try to synch I get the message "we can't move anything because the playlists you want to move don't exist". So I tried making new playlists. That didn't work.
Any ideas?

hi Jorgi!
folks get that message when they have "automatically update selected playlists only" selected in their itunes "ipod" preference tab.
plug in the ipod, and wait until it shows up in the sourcelist. go "edit > preferences" and click the "ipod" tab.
under "automatically update selected playlists only", there's a list of playlists. deselect any (in the preference tab) that no longer exist (in your sourcelist), and select the ones you want to sync to the mini.
love, b

When doing a second "Organize Library" cuz the first was too big, will iTunes recognize what's already copied over?

I'm stuck with a large folder of music on my PC in My Music folder. And I used "Organize Library" in iTunes but it didn't copy everything over because the amount of music was too big. I've deleted the original copies of music outside of iTunes to open up more space and was wondering if I do a second "Organize Library" if it will recognize that some of the music has already been copied over.

I don't know what "restore the iPod" is
It's usually the second thing to do (after Reset) when the iPod is not working correctly.
Select the iPod in iTunes and click Restore.
See this -> Restoring iPod to factory settings
what about my main question? Can I go back to "sync all" but manually block certain albums?
No because sync all is just that.
Sycning specific playlists should work fine. And you can create more than one and sync which ones you want.

Library is too big

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for