My iphoto library is almost full?!

I am trying to transfer photos from my camera to my macbook via iPhoto. Im getting the message that my iPhoto library is almost full. My macbook is only 2GB so i thought it was because my memory was full. so i have bought and installed 4GB of memory, but no joy transferring my photos?

No
as I stated
how much free space do you have on your hard drive? You must always have a minimum of 10 GB or more
With less than 5% of the minimum requirement you are at GREAT risk of damaging your system and losing photos
You need to immediately purchase an external drive formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) and move the iPhoto library to it -
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
And you can NOT have your TimeMachine backup and your working iPhoto library on the same volume
You can not view photos in TM - yo must restore a library and then view them - why exactly are you wanting to view the photos in your backup? Your problem is lack of disk space and you must resolve that now!
LN

Similar Messages

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 Disc Almost Full - Problem!

I have transferred my iPhoto Library to my external hard drive. I had over 1,000 photos. I have deleted the iPhoto Library from my MacBook Air and started a fresh one. I have got around 40 to 50 photos now and I have started to get the same message that the iPhoto disc is almost full. How can it be when I have deleted over 1,000 photos and started again?? I'm really confused. Do I need to delete from somewhere else besides the iPhoto library??
If someone could help me, before I throw my MacBook against the wall, it would be greatly appreciated
Thank you!

perhaps they could still be in your trash can?

I get a pop-up window saying my start-up disk is almost full. What kind of files am I supposed to delete? Have I used up the memory?

The rest of the message says I have to delete files.
Also, my iPhoto library is almost out of space...
should I be adding memory to my entire harddrive or, is
there a way to move memory from one area to another please?
Thanks!

emptying the trash often is always good. Also, check your downloads folder to make sure that there isn't anything in there you can trash (most things are find to trash, if you don't want it or know what it is, throw it away)
emptying your cache (in Safari is the easiest) is a good idea too.
anything you put on the computer can be moved to an external drive or disk, just don't move system files (IE: Library, Preferences, Home, etc...)

Scaling Down My iPhoto Library

I upgraded to iPhoto '08 some months ago and was happy to see that it had adopted Apertures system of saving a list of the changes to an edited photo rather than creating a new file.
However, with three previous versions of iPhoto, I've got 2.75GB of modified images and 8.37GB of originals inside the 'iPhoto Library' package. I want that hard disk space back. I know there was a script which would look for modified images and then delete the corresponding original - giving you more disk space - but this won't work with iPhoto 7.
Short of looking at two finder windows and deleting each file in the originals file which has a modified equivalent (yes, I tried), is there are other way?
If it helps, I've backed up my iPhoto Library file in full so if something goes wrong I can hopefully get it back. I suppose I could just delete all the modified photos, rebuild my library and then adjust everything again but that's not much fun...
Cheers
Message was edited by: ensee

ensee
I upgraded to iPhoto '08 some months ago and was happy to see that it had adopted Apertures system of saving a list of the changes to an edited photo rather than creating a new file.
You are mistaken. This is most certainly is not the case. A modified file is created for every edited photo, period.
What has changed is that iPhoto now has non-destructive editing - that is, if you re-edit an already edited file then the sum of the edits is re-applied to the Original file, and so you don't have generational loss caused by repeatedly re-compressing a jpeg.
Removing the Original is an excellent way of defeating non-destructive editing.
I know there was a script which would look for modified images and then delete the corresponding original - giving you more disk space - but this won't work with iPhoto 7.
This was risky and unsupported. It is strongly advised that you do not move, change or in anyway alter things in the iPhoto Library Folder as this can cause the application to fail and even lead to data loss.
Short of looking at two finder windows and deleting each file in the originals file which has a modified equivalent (yes, I tried)
Another excellent way to trash your Library. Did I mention: It is strongly advised that you do not move, change or in anyway alter things in the iPhoto Library Folder as this can cause the application to fail and even lead to data loss.
If you don't want version control (the ability to revert to the original) or non-destructive editing then simply, don't use iPhoto. There are other organisers out there that do not have these features.
If disk space is an issue you can run an entire library from an external disk, you can split libraries into smaller ones and so on. For details on these post back.
The only safe way to defeat version control (and disable non-destructive editing) is to
1. Export all your photos from the Library using the File -> Export command, set to Kind: Current
2. Delete all the photos in iPhoto. (Put them in the iPhoto trash and go iPhoto Menu -> Empty trash) Tip: Do this in batches of about 100 or so, iPhoto will not delete larger groups in a single go,
3. Import the product of your Export, above.
Regards
TD

IPhoto doesn't import after moving iPhoto library back to original (?) spot

Hello:
Because I needed space on my original drive, I moved iPhoto library to another drive and then moved it back. iPhoto works perfectly well - It automatically loads my photos. But - when I attempt to import from my Canon Digital Rebel, it won't do it, giving a message that these files (all 7 photos in the camera) may be corrupt.
However - the photos do import correctly on my wife's Mac.
I am thinking that I did not put the iPhoto library back in exactly the right spot.
Where should it go?
Oh - and Happy New Year!
Ian
933 MHz G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Hi Iann,
There is really no right spoet as you can place the iPhoto Library folder almost anywhere in your Users folder. The Pictures folder is the default location for the folder.
What I need to know is, when you moved the library to another spot, did you open iPhoto when it was there? And when you moved back to the original spot, did iPhoto open?
When you move the iPhoto Library folder, you must then launch iPhoto with the Option key depressed. iPhoto will then tell you that it can't find the library , and do you want to open another one or create a new one. You must then choose to open another one and navigate to where you moved it, then highlight it in the window, then click "open"
Lori

IPhoto library takes more space than the actual data that is in it.

Why is iPhoto Library taking almost 10 GB more than the real data i have in it ?

I have the original photos in a folder and it takes 10.7 GB of space in my hard drive, but when I get info from the iPhoto library its taking 17.9 GB of space
Do you have two copies of the photos on the HD? Why?
I have read that every single move I do in iPhoto it makes a copy of the file for backup no matter how big the photo is, even if you just rotate the picture,
When you edit a pic - including Rotation - iPhoto makes a copy of the Original and carries out the edit on that copy and saves it. However, if you then make another edit it does not make a second copy, it simply destroys the first copy and applies the total edits to a new copy. So there is never more than your Original and a single Modified version of your pics.
that’s just taking so much space I need is there any way to make iPhoto stop doing that?
No. If you don't want that, simply don't use iPhoto. IPhoto is a Digital Asset Manager and it coheres to the best practices of DAM by treating your original file like a film photographer protects his negative.
Also when look in the finder and search for every file I have used during the day, if I had just open iPhoto once it will apper a lot of this files called like Album.999001.ipmeta that are from iphot. If I haven used it just opened it why is it showing that ?
This is just the way that iPhoto works. These ipmeta files are tiny 4kb files. They take up the smallest amount of disk space possible.
Regards
TD

I want to transfer most of my photos from my iPhoto library to my external hard drive. I have been getting the message that my start up disk is almost full. I want to transfer and then remove them from my computer and have them only stored externally.

My start up disk needs more space and I have tons of photos on my computer that I want to transfer to my external hard drive and remove from my computer to free up space. How can I do this and make sure all my photos are still properly saved and transferred. I dont need to transfer my whole iPhoto library just some really old albums.

Here is some help.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3849933
After confirming that all your stuff is on the drive, delete the photos you have copied. You will need to empty the iPhototrash to free up the space.

HT204570 icloud photo library, yet storage almost full

iPhone 6, latest iOS. I recently went all in with icloud photo. I pumped over 20,000 photos and videos into the cloud. But it seems that I the automatic allocation of storage space is not getting it quite right. I am talking about space on my phone, not cloud. This morning my phone is warning me "storage almost full". But, photos is using 3.5Gb of space. Seems if my phone is sop low on storage (155Mb currently), instead of prompting me to manage the situation it should free some space by purging old media.
This is a big problem. The other day I was trying to take a video and it refused, stating that I was out of storage space. In the past I used to manually pull all the photos and videos from my phone and put them in my iPhoto library on my Mac. Now I can't do that. So, but purchasing 500Gb cloud storage and moving 20,000 photos into that space, I kind of screwed myself. My wife is going through the same thing. I decided to move us into the cloud to eliminate the headache associated with having to manually manage storage due to photo and video consuming lots of space. Now, because iCloud Photo doesn't manage it correctly I need to manage it manually. Only problem, I can't. This make s my phone nearly useless.
Anybody else going through this? Is there a solution? One coming? Can it really be this broken? Even my Mac is struggling with this problem. I should be able to limit the size of the local library at the very least.
Paul

I've had a similar problem. For me the best solution is to save the photos to my Mac, and then delete them from my phone. This does not however solve the problem with not wanting them to be gone on other devices. Unfortunately, I do not know of a way to exclude a device from having the photo deleted off of it (Wink*Wink* Apple- iOS 9/OS X 10.11? Cough*Cough*). Anyway as for saving space, for me, if I turn off iCloud photo library and then turn it back on again, it will make a lot of space open up. Note: still not total space. I assume that you have a lot of music/photos/apps or something because I have this problem on my 16 GB iPhone, but I don't see how a 64 Gb iPhone can accidentally run out of room. In conclusion, try turning off iCloud Photo Library on and off again. This is my best solution, and it works for me pretty well. Anyway, I hope this helped.

IPhoto will not finish upgrade..HD almost full

Hard drive almost full.... iPhoto 11 ( I have discs) upgrade will not complete, keeps spinning with no notification and iPhoto will not open. How can I move photos to an external without iPhoto. I have iPhoto library manager... Was trying to sinc a new iPhone and the music would not transfer. I'm sure it's due to memory somehow.

OS X needs about 10 gigs of hard drive space for normal OS operations - things like virtual memory, temporary files and so on. Without this space your Mac will slow down as the OS hunts for space on the disk, files will be fragmented, also slowing things down, apps will crash and the risk of data corruption - that is damage to your files, photos, music - increases exponentially. Your first priority is to make more space on that HD. Nothing else can be done until you do. Purchase an external HD and move your Photos and Music to it. Both iPhoto and iTunes can run perfectly well with the Library on 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

When I bought my Mac Air OSX Version 10.9.2 my daughter helped me migrate the contents of my previous macbook. But in the process seems to have duplicated the iTunes library . The start up disk is almost full and plus it doesn't my iPhone. Please help!

When I bought my Mac Air OSX Version 10.9.2 my daughter helped me migrate the contents of my previous macbook. But in the process seems to have duplicated the iTunes library - How do I get rid of one. The start up disk is almost full and plus it doesn't synch properly with my iPhone 4S. Please help!

Hello nicky:
You should run repair disk from your software install DVD before you try anything else. The crash may have damaged some of your directories - and a possible cause of the "missing/not missing" tunes.
Barry

My MacBook Pro hard drive is almost full and I wish to store my Aperture Library on an external drive, how do I do this and is the use of USB2 suitable or do I need to use a Firewire external hard drive?

My MacBook Pro hard drive is almost full and I wish to store my Aperture Library on an external drive, how do I do this and is the use of USB2 suitable or do I need to use a Firewire external hard drive?

You'll get better performance if you use a Firewire hard drive (especially if you buy a 7200 RPM drive). Firewire's IO speed is significantly faster than USB 2. USB 2 has a theoretical max speed of 480 Mbps except that it has extremely high over-head. The fastest speeds you can typically get are about 300 Mbps. Firewire, on the other hand, has very little overhead. The fastest speeds you can get are very nearly 800 Mbps. You will typically be constrained by the maximum read/write speed of the drive, not the speed of the I/O on the Firewire bus. Now if you had one of those nice shiny new Macs with the Thunderbolt I/O and a Thunderbolt drive (Light Peak) ... I think they alter space and time so that your data arrives before you know you want it.
Also... unless you want to buy a solid state drive (very expensive), try to keep your hard drives from becoming much more than about 60% full if you want great performance. A nearly "full" hard drive is, on average, only about half as fast as the same hard drive when nearly empty.
USB 2 will work perfectly fine... just not as fast.
Also... it's much safer to move the entire Aperture library than to "relocate masters". Your images must be managed. You can Aperture manage them, or you can manage them. But someone has to manage them. If you "relocate" them so that they are no longer stored inside the Aperture library then you'll need to work out a system of how you decide to organize things and it's critically important that you don't start moving files around or deleting things without Aperture's knowledge. If you do, you'll break the links to your masters and start having problems with missing masters. If you have Aperture manage the library then you don't need to worry about any of that stuff.... it's safer.
Do make backups (use the Aperture Vault or use some other backup program, but make sure you back up your work if you care about it.) There are only two kinds of hard drives in the world: (1) those that have failed and (2) those that are going to fail. There are no exceptions to this rule. Hard drives are cheap. Backup software is built into Aperture and into your Mac.

All my photos have been imported to iPhoto library. Is it safe therefore to delete all photos in the Finder pictures folder? It seems crazy to have them duplicated (all are backed up externally). And are they full size images in iPhoto?

All my photos have been imported to iPhoto library. Is it safe therefore to delete all photos in the finder picture folder? It seems crazy to have them dupllcated ( all are backed up anyway). And are they the full sized images stored in iPhoto?

Assuming you have iPhoto set to the Default setting, then yes, your full sized photos are copied into the iPhoto Library and so you can delete your own stored in the Finder.
Easiest way to check: Select a photo in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Reveal in Finder -> Original. A Finder Window should open with the file selected. Is it stored within the iPhoto Library? You can tell easily in the Finder's column view.
As an FYI:
There are many, many ways to access your files in iPhoto: You can use any Open / Attach / Browse dialogue. On the left there's a Media heading, your pics can be accessed there. Command-Click for selecting multiple pics.
(Note the above illustration is not a Finder Window. It's the dialogue you get when you go File -> Open)
You can access the Library from the New Message Window in Mail:
There's a similar option in Outlook and many, many other apps. If you use Apple's Mail, Entourage, AOL or Eudora you can email from within iPhoto.
If you use a Cocoa-based Browser such as Safari, you can drag the pics from the iPhoto Window to the Attach window in the browser.
If you want to access the files with iPhoto not running:
For users of 10.6 and later: You can download a free Services component from MacOSXAutomation which will give you access to the iPhoto Library from your Services Menu.
Using the Services Preference Pane you can even create a keyboard shortcut for it.
For Users of 10.4 and 10.5 Create a Media Browser using Automator (takes about 10 seconds) or use this free utility Karelia iMedia Browser
Other options include:
Drag and Drop: Drag a photo from the iPhoto Window to the desktop, there iPhoto will make a full-sized copy of the pic.
File -> Export: Select the files in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export. The dialogue will give you various options, including altering the format, naming the files and changing the size. Again, producing a copy.
Show File: a. On iPhoto 09 and earlier: Right- (or Control-) Click on a pic and in the resulting dialogue choose 'Show File'. A Finder window will pop open with the file already selected. 3.b.
b: On iPhoto 11 and later: Select one of the affected photos in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Reveal in Finder -> Original. A Finder window will pop open with the file already selected.

Hard disk full. so exported iPhoto library. can't locate them now?

received message stating Hard Drive full. therefore mac book air running slow whilst on net.
attempted to transfer all photos from mac book air to external hard drive. nothing would work.
noticed an export feature on iPhoto drop down menu, pressed it and the photos have moved somewhere but not available on mac or external hard drive?
help please
thanks in advance
Jamie

Having a Full HD is a big problem and a likely cause of this issue. How much free space have you on your Mac now?
How did you try and move the iPhoto Library?

Updating iPhoto library memory full, photos gone!!

Similar to the problem indicated in the response from: Muhamad Abdulkadir
in this thread: Pictures disappeared after installing Yosemite and new Iphoto. Why
When my iPhoto library (very large >1TB) was updating, it ran out of memory. Unfortunately, something happened and on rebuild, all my photos were gone.
Looking in the "Old Masters" that Muhammad mentioned, I see the folder structure, but no photos.
Now under my "iPhoto Library Recovered Photos" folder, I have >1TB of data in that folder. All the photos have a number appended to it (e.g. IMG_1469_14.JPG) in the example, the appended number is _14.
It sounds like this is all my photos, and would love to restore these photos, but can't seem to do it. I do have a backup, but its offsite at the moment. Any ideas?

Thanks Larry!
You bring up a great point.. Based on your comment "..assure that you have adequate disk space available..." It sounds like the upgrade copies the library and tries to upgrade it? When not enough memory is available, it would generate the "memory full" message? Somehow, when I saw it said memory full, I assumed it was RAM related and not storage.. If it is storage, then that makes sense, because I have just under 1TB available.

My iphoto library is almost full?!

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for