Library size question

Does LR at any stage save an edited copy of a picture in the library taking up extra disk space when applying changes (like iPhoto does) or does it always just reference the original file and apply the set of editing instructions to it, not taking up any extra space?

No, not unless you round trip to a pixel editor. Or unless you ask LR to export an image.

Similar Messages

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

Dual library question (iTunes gets the library size and bitrate wrong)

I have two libraries, one ripped in Lossless, and the other in AAC at 256 kbps. I use one for streaming, and the other for syncing to our iPods. I just switched from the Lossless library to the AAC library (kept on separate drives). iTunes now sees the AAC files, but incorrectly lists all the bitrates as their higher Lossless numbers. However, when I click on an individual song to play it, the bitrate appropriately is recognized as 256 kbps. When I do this, the total library size (listed at the bottom) also incrementally "shrinks."
The problem is that I just purchased a new 80 GB iPod capable of holding the entire library (nearly 8000 songs@25 kbps, ~60 GB total size). Unfortunately, iTunes still thinks the library is much larger (using the incorrect lossless bitrates to calculate file size). This results in it telling me (erroneously) that the library is too large to sync.
Is there an easy way to get iTunes to realize the new file sizes? I could obviously double-click on each and every song in the library until iTunes "gets" the real size, but I assume there's a better way. I also assume that this will be an issue every time I switch between the two libraries.
Help, anyone? Thanks in advance.
KK
iMac G5, Mini, PB G4 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Thanks for the tip, but this didn't work, unfortunately. Following your lead a bit further, I even created a new playlist and dragged the whole library there, but the wrong bitrates (and thus, playlist size) still appeared.
One more curious update regarding this situation. iTunes automatically populated my iPod with what it believed was a subset of my tunes that would fit on the iPod. The real size of this subset was ~20GB, but iTunes thought (using the Lossless size) that it was nearly 60 GB. In categorizing the contents of my iPod, it listed ~60GB of songs, ~1 MB of photos, 1 GB of video and still listed the space available as ~50 GB (for a grand total of ~112 GB of space on my 80 GB iPod). Clearly, iTunes used the calculated size to estimate the music content, but used the actual space remaining based on a query of the iPod drive. Strange, huh?
I'm still looking for advice--any other suggestions would be welcome.
KK

File size questions

new to Apple MAC and iPhoto...so....I shot my new camera in jpeg, files are roughly 20mb...then I shot in RAW and after editing, the saved jpegs are ~ 5-10mb and up to 15mb....what happens to make this discrepency? how could my RAW converted jpegs be ~ 1/3 the size of straight out of camera jpegs?
another question...iPhoto is 1.7 gb, my iPhoto Library size it 37gb, but my pictures in iPhoto total 17gb.....is the discrepecy due to stuff like Slideshows I created? Faces just is referring the files right, not making duplicate files?...having trouble wrappping my head around stuff I''m seeing that doesn't add up...
thanks

It's all a bit more complex that that. There is no correlation between file size and the quality of a shot. A well exposed shot of 2 or 3 mb will print just as well as a well exposed shot of 25mb. There is no difference in what gets printed. A poorly exposed shot of 25mb will print like garbage.
It gets worse, we used to suggest a rule of thumb that printing at 300dpi was a reasonable giude to printing quality. Not any more. Printers and cameras have improved, iPhoto books are uploaded at something akin to 150 dpi.
Again, a 3 mb jpeg will print exactly as well as a 30 mb tiff.
Remember, the internet is full of high quality images that weigh in at a lot less than 500kb.
Where file size comes into play is when you're using destructive editing on a lossy format, like Jpeg, and, as I said above, that doesn't come into play in a non-destructive editing system like iPhoto.
The output from the export will - depending on the settings you use - either be smaller or larger than the jepg from a camera. It means very little - unless you're going to go an an edited destructively.

ICloud photo library size

Hi all,
I just have a quick question regarding iCloud photo library size.
What happens when the iCloud photo library is larger than the space on my iPhone?
My iCloud photo library size is 4gb (I am still within the free 5gb) however, the space on my phone is under 4gb.
All of my photos have been uploaded on the iCloud photo library beta for Mac/ Yosemite.
I'm aware that there are 2 options within the iCloud - Photos menu which are "Optimise iPhone Storage" or "Download and Keep originals"
Now I thought that regardless of which option you selected they would still store a local copy on your iPhone, but what happens when even the optimised versions take up more space than your phone can handle?
Sorry if I'm being a bit slow here, I'm just slightly puzzled by this one.
Thanks

http://www.imore.com/what-you-need-k...ut-photos-os-x
#macrumors
One lesser-known feature of iCloud documents (I can't speak for Photos quite yet) is that storage on your iOS devices is dynamically managed - if a document hasn't been accessed from the iOS device in a long time, it will automatically be removed if space is needed (the way RAM is managed on a Mac) - all you have on the iOS device at that point is document metadata (title, etc.). If/when you need to access it again, it'll be re-downloaded. Note that it's different on a Mac - every iCloud document is cached on your Mac - I guess the assumption is that you have the space, and that accessing documents while working offline/off the grid is more important to someone who's using a laptop.
I expect iCloud Photo Library will work similarly, if not identically: On iOS a thumbnail of everything, larger images of items that are actually opened and viewed. If available storage starts to dwindle, the higher-res versions of the least-frequently viewed items will be removed until they're called for again. On Mac, a complete cache of everything, at full resolution.

Itunes Library Size / Unlimited Online Storage

Hi
- I have a question regarding Itunes library size.
I have a couple of movies, some music and even TV series on my itunes library and its slowly getting bigger and bigger.
Is there a certain limit for the itunes library size?
And if so, does apple support any kind of Online private storage where you can store your music library?

'iTunes in the Cloud' provides the ability for devices to re-download songs you have already purchased. There is no equivalent facility for movies or TV. There is no charge for this service.
'iTunes Match' enables you to upload from your own files songs you have obtained elsewhere than in the iTunes Store. The cost is $25 p.a. and there is a limit of 2,500 songs. Again, there is no equivalent facility for movies or TV.
iCloud does not provide general online storage. While there are other online storage services, if your library is very large you would find it impracticable to upload it even if you could find a service offering sufficient space.
Hard disks are not particularly expensive and your best bet would be to transfer your library to one.

Huge Library Size!

I just imported my iPhoto library (3.75 GB worth of pictures) into Aperture selecting the option to keep the masters in the original location. In Aperture's preferences, I have the preview size set to the default 5. After importing, my Aperture package file is 2.28 GB! This is quite unacceptable in my book...is this caused solely by Aperture creating previews and thumbnails?
Thanks.

The unanswered questions here are: what are the sizes of your originals and how many do you have? If you have a lot of relatively small (in megapixels) JPEG files in you iPhoto library then you are not going to see a very small Library size. If you look in the Aperture Library package file you will see many housekeeping files are used to keep the necessary information for your images. Aperture does generate large thumbnails which I think are around 1000 pixels at the long dimension. You cannot turn these large thumbnails off. Then Aperture maintains additional files that keep the Keyword and Metadata information. Files are needed to keep track of what project each file is associated with, as well as any albums, etc.
You may see more of a difference with your XTi when you start shooting RAW because the ratio of RAW file size to the thumbnail size will be greater.
Also, just a thought, but have you checked to make sure you don't have any Managed images in your Library? You can check by making a Smart Album:
1) With the top Library highlighted in the Projects Panel, select File>New Smart>Album and name the Smart Album "@Managed". The @ sorts the Smart Album to the top of the Projects List, right underneath the blue Library Albums.
2) In the Smart Settings HUD, click on the "+v" button in the upper right corner and select "File Status". A new line is added that says "File Status Offline".
3) Click on the dropdown box and change the word "Offline" to "Managed".
4) Make sure the "Ignore stack groupings" checkbox is checked.
More interesting info related to your questions can be found on the Bagelturf website, a website chock full of usefull Aperture info:
http://homepage.mac.com/bagelturf/aparticles/library/library.html
http://homepage.mac.com/bagelturf/aparticles/previews/previews.html
-Karen

Best Practices for Keeping Library Size Minimal

My library file sizes are getting out of control. I have multiple library's that are now over 3TB in size!
My question is, what are the best practices in keeping these to a manageable size?
I am using FCPX 10.2. I have three camera's (2x Sony Handycam PJ540 and 1x GoPro Hero 4 Black).
When I import my PJ540 videos they are imported as compressed mp4 files. I have always chosen to transcode the videos when I import them. Obviously this is why my library sizes are getting out of hand. How do people deal with this? Do they simply import the videos and choose not to transcode them and only transcode them when they need to work on them? Do they leave the files compressed and work with them that way and then transcoding happens when exporting your final project?
How do you deal with this?
As for getting my existing library sizes down, should I just "show package contents" of my library's and start deleting the transcoded versions or is there a safer way to do this within FCPX?
Thank you in advance for you help.

No. Video isn't compressed like compressing a document. When you compress a document you're just packing the data more tightly. When you compress video you do it basically by throwing information away. Once a video file is compressed, and all video files are heavily compressed in the camera, that's not recoverable. That information is gone. The best you can do is make it into a format that while not deteriorate further as the file is recompressed. Every time you compress a file, especially to heavily compressed formats, more and more information is discarded. The more you do this the worse the image gets. Transcoding converts the media to a high resolution, high data rate format that can be manipulated considerably without loss, and go through multiple generations without loss. You can't go to second generation H.264 MPEG-4 without discernible loss in quality.

Reducing Aperture Library size

Sorry if this has been dealt with before (I did a search and found nowt).
I'm fairly new to Aperture, and my Library has grown to 14GB (14,000 files). All files are referenced on an external drive (31GB of referenced files). I use a MacBook Air with SSD, so I start with 56GB after formatting. There were lots of duplicate photos (because I merged my iPhoto library with some offline archives I had). So, it was time to get rid of the dupes.
I deleted about 3,000 photos, but the library didn't get any smaller. I deleted all of the previews, but that only freed up 2GB. When I regenerated the previews, it went back to 14GB. After recovering from a prolonged bout of consternation, I searched the web. It appears that thumbnails are not deleted when photos are removed. This strikes me as a bug, or at the very least, poor design. So, I went in and removed all of the thumbnails as described here:
http://brettgrossphotography.com/2008/04/24/aperture-library-slimming-the-size
After regenerating thumbnails and previews, my library was down to 6GB!
My question is: how do people on this forum deal with this unnecessary library bloat? I typically only keep a few percent of the photos from each import, so my library volume will again outpace the actual number of photos.
One possible approach is to create a new Aperture library from a vault. Because my files are referenced, it should create a new library from scratch and then generate the thumbnails and previews. Has anyone tried that? Seems preferable to opening packages and manually deleting files.
-Rick

After a weekend of investigation, here's some more info on Aperture library size:
1) I deleted another 1,000 or so photos, updated the vault, moved the library and then restored from the vault. The library size went from 6GB up to 7GB!
2) Looking inside the old library and the restored one revealed:
a) AP.Thumbnails files in the restored library were generally twice the size of the ones in the old one.
b) Looking at the AP.Thumbnails files with File Juicer revealed that the restored library had created thumbnails of the master files as well as the versions. The original library had thumbnails for some master/version pairs, but nowhere near as many.
3) I then deleted all of the AP.* files in the restored library, and got Aperture to regenerate the thumbnails. This reduced the library size to 5GB. The AP.Thumbnails files were much smaller.
So, my conclusion is that the best way to trim your library is to go in and delete all of the AP.* files, then regenerate the thumbnails. Restoring from a vault is not as effective.
Anyone have any intuitions as to why Aperture generates thumbnails for master files when there is an edited version? I'm fairly new to Aperture and have yet to see Aperture display thumbnails of masters if there is an edited version.

APERTURE 3.1.2'S MAXIMUM LIBRARY SIZE?

I HAVE MY APERTURE 3.1.2'S LIBRARY FILE STORED ON AN EXTERNAL DISK. IT IS OVER 150 GB IN SIZE (ALONG WITH ITS VAULT SIZE OF ANOTHER 148 GB. I'VE ATTEMPTED TO FIND WHAT THE MAXIMUM SIZE THIS FILE CAN/SHOULD BE BUT CANNOT FIND IT IN APERTURE'S LITERATURE. SO, IS THERE A MAXIMUM SIZE AND IF SO, HOW BIG CAN IT GET AND NOT EXHIBIT ANY PROBLEMS?
ALSO, IF I CREATE ANOTHER LIBRARY FILE AND NAME IT DIFFERENTLY, HOW COULD I HAVE THE SAME PROJECTS, ALBUMS, AND FOLDERS BE IN THE NEW FILE (OF COURSE, WITHOUT ANY OF THEIR PHOTO FILES -- EMPTY SO I CAN ADD TO THEM AS I CONTUNE MANAGING MY PHOTOS?
I LOVE THIS PROGRAM -- ALTHOUGH IT GIVES ME THE "CIRCULAR RAINBOW" A LOT OF THE TIME. I'M ASSUMING THIS IS BECAUSE THE FILE IS SO BIG AND MY MACBOOK PRO 17" IS OVER 2.5 YEARS OLD. I HAVE THE MAX RAM FOR IT (@ 3GB) AND I RUN DISK UTILITY EVERY OTHER DAY TO REPAIR PERMISSIONS. I HAVE OVER 400 GB REMAINING ON MY EXTERNAL DRIVE OF ITS MAXIMUM OF 2 TB. MY MACBOOK'S HARD DRIVE IS 160GB AND HAS ONLY 17GB REMAINING. THIS IS THE REASON I HAVE TO LOCATE MY LIBRARY FILE (AND MY iTUNES MUSIC FILES) ON EXTERNAL DISKS.
ANY RESPONSE TO THESE QUESTIONS WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED:
CREATE A NEW LIBRARY FILE WITH THE SAME STRUCTURE AND MY CURRENT ONE (BUT CONTAINING NO PHOTOS YET)?
MAXIMUM FILE SIZE OF ANY APERTURE 3.1.2 LIBRARY FILE?
MINIMIZE "CIRCULAR RAINBOW" ACTIVITY?
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
LARRY W. HAMILTON

Hi Larry -- welcome to our sunny clearing in the orchard.
Please don't post in ALL CAPS. It means you ARE SHOUTING. There is no reason to shout. Regularly capitalized text is also easier to read.
You need more RAM. Aperture stresses hardware. 4 GB RAM is a working minimum. If you have only 4 GB you should not run any other programs when Aperture is running.
Library size, in GB or in number of Images under management, is not a concern as long as you have the storage space. I have run Libraries of several hundred thousand Images and over 500 GB on machines with 4 GB RAM.
You should upgrade to the newest Aperture version. It is 3.2.2. The upgrade is free for owners of 3.x.
You should leave at least 15% of your system drive empty -- the OS uses this. At just 17 GB free on yours, you should open up some more free space.
Two changes may keep your computer from hanging as much as it does. In Aperture, turn off sharing Previews, and turn off Faces. Each of these eats processor cycles.
Are you connecting your external drive with FW800? FW400?

Time Machine Picture Library size is 2GB smaller in backup than computer disc.

Time Machine Picture Library size is 2GB smaller in backup than computer disc using Cmd I (Eye, not EL—don't we all love sans serif fonts as default) for both info.
Ah, this is readable at faster reading speeds.
Now ( oops the return key killed the font setting).
Now, we'll use run-on paragraphs. OK? ¶ On topic: I need more space to install a newer iOS on my iPhone. ¶ Someone at Apple Store Genius Bar advised deleting the album of pictures originally copied from my computer when I had vast memory space since it is already on the computer. Got 1GB About to say Available was still too low for the new iOS install. ¶ Another Apple Store Genius Bar advised making a good backup using TimeMachine on my computer and deleting all the pictures from my iPhone by the painful method of selecting each collection. ¶ So I thought I'd check how successful the backup was. Cmd I (doesn't look like El, yea!) on the Picture Library was 38 GB on my back up disc and 40 GB on my computer disc. ¶ Desktop folder is 87.1 MB (87,091,206 bytes) in both. How do I get the other 2 GB on the backup?

Time Machine Picture Library size is 2GB smaller in backup than computer disc using Cmd I (Eye, not EL—don't we all love sans serif fonts as default) for both info.
Ah, this is readable at faster reading speeds.
Now ( oops the return key killed the font setting).
Now, we'll use run-on paragraphs. OK? ¶ On topic: I need more space to install a newer iOS on my iPhone. ¶ Someone at Apple Store Genius Bar advised deleting the album of pictures originally copied from my computer when I had vast memory space since it is already on the computer. Got 1GB About to say Available was still too low for the new iOS install. ¶ Another Apple Store Genius Bar advised making a good backup using TimeMachine on my computer and deleting all the pictures from my iPhone by the painful method of selecting each collection. ¶ So I thought I'd check how successful the backup was. Cmd I (doesn't look like El, yea!) on the Picture Library was 38 GB on my back up disc and 40 GB on my computer disc. ¶ Desktop folder is 87.1 MB (87,091,206 bytes) in both. How do I get the other 2 GB on the backup?

IPhoto 6 library size-weirdness continues..

I have archived my full library to DVD and deleted all items. Finder still shows the library size at 1.24 GB! Inside I find it is not cache, nor thumbnails that take this space, but rather orinals which I have deleted before. Please see the screenshots showing the library, its size, size of the originals folder.
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/1261/picture16vg.png
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/5755/picture22ql.png
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/9955/picture32bj.png
In other words, deleting photos from library may not always lead to deleting the actual photos from disk, even if the trash in the library is emptied! In my opinion this is a bug and leads to unnecessary orphans and size bloat on disk. What do you think?
Also when burning the archive iPhoto library showed 3.2 GB from within iPhoto, it showed 5.19 GB in finder and when I was burning it on a DVD the size showed 3.9 GB!!
Just wanted to make you aware of this.
Roman

Dear Roman--I have had the same problem with iPhoto 6. I recently discovered that the iPhoto library contained many full-size images and movies which I had earlier trashed via the iPhoto application. In other words, when I discarded an image or movie when running iPhoto, the image or movie was not actually removed from the library (and my hard drive). Over time, the library became approximately 2 GB larger than it should have been. This is a waste of hard drive space which could become significant. To start tracking down the non-deleted movies, first create a smart album in iPhoto which displays all of your movies. Then, leaving the iPhoto application open, use the find command in the Finder to locate all of the movies in the iPhoto library folder. In theory, the number of movies should be the same in both the smart album and the Finder window. I found approximately 40 extra moves via the Finder. One by one, I compared the movies in the Finder window to the movies in the iPhoto smart album. After manually deleting those movies which iPhoto should have deleted long ago, I freed 500 MB of disk space. The process for images will be more tedious, and I hope someone finds a quicker way to perform this function. Good luck. --Tom

Aperture 3 Library size vs iPhoto Library

Hi!
I recently switched from iPhoto to Aperture and am wondering about the library size? In iPhoto the library size was bloated because it made a copy of every photo behind the scenes upon import. I got tired of that and thought that moving to Aperture would solve the problem. But, after importing most of my photos into Aperture, then comparing the size of my Aperture Library package with the size of my Photo folder in Finder that I imported from, I'm finding my Aperture library is over 100 GBs bigger!! Yikes! How did that happen?
I am running a managed library, but I thought Aperture didn't make a copy of every photo behind the scenes but rather just made versions of the master when changes are made.
Frankly, I haven't even done any editing yet, just importing. So, why the huge library size compared to the size of my Photo library in Finder? It's 186 GBs versus 85 GBs. Same photo collection. Crazy.
TIA!

No, from folders in Finder. I always have my photos in Finder too on an EHD, even after I import them to iPhoto or Aperture.

Library size incorrect

My iPhoto library for 06 is 21GB. I duplicate it and eliminate photos getting it down to 4.2GB (Jan-Apr 06)to burn to DVD. I duplicate the original again (21GB), delete Jan-Apr and attempt to get May-August down to around 4GB to burn another DVD. No matter how many photos I delete (and I've deleted all but 17 photos in May) the library still lists its size as 10.9BG. And yes, I've emptied the trash.
This has happened before, deleting photos and the library size not reflecting the correct size. What am I doing wrong?

John
Where are you reading the library size?
In the iPhoto Window the size shown is of the library as shown: the mix of Originals and Modified Pics.
In the Finder, the size of the iPhoto Library Folder is the total Originals, totla Modifieds, thumbnails and database files.
Regards
TD

Library size: what's "normal"?

I have around 13,000 images equaling 140 GB. When I first built a library, with normal rendered previews, the library was close to 19 GB.
I then rebuilt the library, I believe without previews, and it reduced its size to under 2 GB. Now, my libary has swelled to around 8 GB, even if I delete the 1:1 previews.
What is "normal" or reasonable when working with LR? How can I keep a balance between speed and reasonable library size? Is a new hard drive looming in my future?
I would appreciate guidance, clarity, and recommendations!
Thanks!
Reid

Hello, Reid. I recall your posting on this some time ago, and since then I concluded for the mix of images I put in, the library plus previews will equal somewhere between 8 and 12% of the overall. Recognizing milegae, of course, but it doesn't seem like you are out of line.

Library size question

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