Photo Cache on iTunes

My photo directory is 12.9Mb.
When itunes syncs it creates a directory: iPod Photo Cache size: 410Mb.
When I try to sync with 500Mb free space on my ipod, there is not enough space to put all the photos on the drive.
Why does itunes inflate the files so excessively when 'optimizing' them? This is surely a example of bad programming by Apple. Anyone care explain this further or had similar problems like this?

Those photos taken or bumped photos should bi in the iPod's Camera Roll album
- If they are in an iPod backup then restore from that backup. Note however, that the the backup that had the photos may have been overwritten by a subsequent backup that did hot have the photos on the iPod.See the restore topic of:
iOS: How to back up
- If you used PhotoStream then try getting them from your PhotoStream. See that topic of:
iOS: Importing personal photos and videos from iOS devices to your computer
- Have you looked on the computer? Maybe they were imported to the computer and then deleted from the iPod. Since the photos were not synced to the iPod they are not in the iPod Photo Cache folder .

Similar Messages

Why does iTunes use an iPod Photo Cache at all?

Hi,
When iTunes is used to synchronize photos to a device, it creates an "iPod Photo Cache" folder. Why does this folder even exist?
For users that have multiple devices with multiple resolutions (e.g., iPad 3rd Generation, iPad Mini, iPhone 4S, iPhone 3G), the iPod Photo Cache is grow to approximately four times the original size of the photo. If I have 15 GBs of photos and a 250 GB hard drive, then the combined usage of 75 GBs (15 GB photos + 60 GB cache) is extremely unreasonble.
Device resolutions change often enough (these days) such that having multiple devices is probably more common than having more than one of a single product. iTunes should be designed to do the real-time conversion (which it already does), but not save it to the hard drive.
Also allowing the ability to change the location of the "iPod Photo Cache" folder would help many users, but not myself since I do not have an external drive.
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks.

Thank you for your response. I should have clarified. When trying to delete from the library, it gives me the option to delete them from the computer or just from the library. I choose not to delete them from the computer, just the library. As a result, I would not expect the deletions to free up room on the hard drive, but I don't see how it actually increases the space used up on the hard drive. If I delete a song from the library, but not the computer, does iTunes save the song again someplace else (such that there are now two copies of the song somewhere on the system)? That seems to be the only explanation for why the free space on my hard drive would decrease after deleting a song from the library.
Windows XP Pro

My husband recently tried to sync my ipod to itunes and in the process he managed to loose all the photos I had stored on the ipod. When I go to my pictures folder on my (Dell) laptop there is now a folder called ipod photo cache. How do I view?

My husband recently tried to sync my ipod to itunes and in the process he managed to loose all the photos I had stored on the ipod. When I go to my pictures folder on my (Dell) laptop there is now a folder called ipod photo cache. How do I view these files? They are now show as ITHMB files!

Those photos taken or bumped photos should bi in the iPod's Camera Roll album
- If they are in an iPod backup then restore from that backup. Note however, that the the backup that had the photos may have been overwritten by a subsequent backup that did hot have the photos on the iPod.See the restore topic of:
iOS: How to back up
- If you used PhotoStream then try getting them from your PhotoStream. See that topic of:
iOS: Importing personal photos and videos from iOS devices to your computer
- Have you looked on the computer? Maybe they were imported to the computer and then deleted from the iPod. Since the photos were not synced to the iPod they are not in the iPod Photo Cache folder .

I'm running iTunes 10.5 on my Macbook Pro and software 4.1 on my 2g iPod touch and having problems getting photo's to sync. Same error iPod can't be synced req'd file can't be found. Tried deleting the photo cache, restoring the iPod etc but to no avail.

I'm running iTunes 10.5 on my Macbook Pro and software 4.1 on my 2g iPod touch and having problems getting photo's to sync. Same error, "iPod can't be synced req'd file can't be found". Tried deleting the photo cache, restoring the iPod etc but to no avail.

Try here:
iTunes: Unable to sync photos
Usually deleting the iPod Photo Cache Folder works. Note that if you sync via the folder method, make sure you dlete all the ifolders since :
The iPod Photo Cache stores the photos that are optimized for display on your iPod, iPad, or iPhone. The location of this folder depends on the syncing options you select. In iTunes, if you change the selection in the “Sync Photos From” pop-up menu, a new iPod Photo Cache folder will be created (and the previous folder will remain).

How do I delete or move the apple tv photo cache created by iTunes

I was goofing with iTunes and at some point, a dialog popped up asking me where to put the Apple TV Photo Cache. Just to save time, I put it on my desktop. Now, if I delete it, it comes back every time I start iTunes. Can I really delete it for good? I don't have an Apple TV. Or, can I move it someplace like into the Pictures folder?
Thank you for your time
Perry

File -> Home Sharing -> Choose Photos to Share with Apple TV
then pick some place and it creates the cache at the top of the folder that you choose.
Or, you can uncheck the top left most check box "Share Photos From".
Now when I delete the folder, it stays deleted.

HT204478 Photos for Mac and iTunes create significantly larger "iPod Photo Cache" folder compared to iPhoto and iTunes combo

When I used iPhoto, my iPod Photo Cache folder was like 4-5 GBs. After cleaning my library once upgrading to Photos (deleting about 1200 pics, yes I should have done this before..) my new iPod Photos Cache folder was 13 GBs!!! I am already low on disk space as it is and I haven't synced videos or anything. Any ideas? Bug?
I am going to try deleting the folder and resyncing.
Some info:
iPhoto 9.6.1
Photos 1.0 on 10.10.3

This is not okay... I've never had the iPod Photo Cache folder go over 5 GBs with iPhoto.

Is there a way to sync photos alphabetically with iTunes 10.7.0

After upgrading to iOS 6 and iTunes 10.7.0 (from 10.6.1.7), my photos are extremely out of order and too jumbled up to even bother looking through. Before iTunes 10.6.3 and 10.7.0, photos were arranged by alphabetical order, not date taken or whatever it is sorted by now.
I adapted to the alphabetical ordering and named all of my pictures so that they would appear in alphabetical order like I wanted them to on my iPod touch 4th generation, and now Apple changes the ordering method so my photos are not in order. Why on earth did Apple suddenly change the method in which photos were sorted after being synced? And furthermore, why is there no option to revert back to alphabetical sorting? They took something that was perfect and made it complete garbage. I have ~10 folders each with upwards of 500 pictures in them, and while the folders are in order, the pictures in them are not and it's frustrating beyond belief.
I can't downgrade my iTunes alone because it won't be compatible with iOS 6, and I can't downgrade both my iOS and iTunes together because then my iTunes Library.itl will not be recognized (does not recognize an iTunes Library.itl made by a newer ver of iTunes), and then my play counts, synced iPod data, and other iTunes info will all be wiped.
This is stupid.. I want to know if there's a way to sort photos alphabetically like they did in the past few versions of iTunes (10.6.1.7 and a bit earlier), because now the 4 gb of photos stored on my iPod is just dead weight.

I just noticed this tonight! I'm kicking myself for updating iTunes! I have well over 30.000 photos and now they are all out of order.
I upgraded to 10.6.3.25 and all the photos are sorted by date now and none of the sub-folders are recognized.
This has happened before and it took them over a year to fix it. I wish they would give us a preference as to how we want our images displayed. The whole photo cache thing is so ridiculous! Mine is up to 11GB right now.

Purpose of folder "Ipod Photo Cache"?

What is the purpose of this folder? Should it be deleted automatically by iTunes after syncing? I've seen several posts here suggesting to delete the folder to try to resolve photo syncing issues. A co-worker tells me that this folder on his machine contains 2GB of .ithmb files. That seems to be a lot of space used unnecessarily.
Thanks,
Jack

No, it isn't/shouldn't be automatically deleted. When photos are synced to an iPhone (or iPod), iTunes creates an 'optimized' version of the picture (all the files are of uniform disk size and pixel resolution) and those are stored in the iPod Photo Cache. You can recover that space if you need to, especially if you put a lot of photos on the device that you later removed (by unchecking those albums, for example). If you delete the cache, iTunes will re-create the optimized versions at the next sync (for all the pics on the device).
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1314
@DaVBMan, as to why it's large, regardless of their original size, 'optimized' pics take up the same amount of space in the cache, for a given device.
Note that this means if you sync the same photo to an iPhone and an iPod Classic, there will be two copies of that photo in the cache, totaling ~1.6 MB for that one pic, +even if the original pic is a 1 megapixel jpg that's only 150 KB in iPhoto.+

Unable to sync full 'Photos' album in iTunes

Since updating to OSX 10.10.3, I am no longer able to fully sync my albums in Photos to my iPhone 6 via iTunes (12.1.2.27)
I have an album in Photos titled iPhone 3G/4. It contains all of the photos I shot on my previous iphones. The album totals 7,522 (about 9GB of photos) items in all.
When I sync to my iPhone in iTunes, and choose sync only selected albums in Photos, and choose this album (this is the only album I am selecting), only 1,118 photos sync to my phone. I have a 128GB iPhone 6 running iOS 8.3. I have used 49.3GB, and have 65GB free to use.
I have tried the following solves with no success
deleted the iPod Photo cache in the Photos library
deleted all other albums in Photos so that the only album/collection is the iphotos 3G/4 photo
unsyncing and re-synced my phone several times
Can anyone recommend anything else to get these photos back on my phone? My hope is the solution does not involve wiping my phone and setting up as new. I have several apps on my phone with data that I cannot bear to lose, and since there is no way to add apps back to your phone with data a la carte, I am stuck. I never had issues with this type of sync in iPhoto, this is a problem that seems to be unique to Photos.

Ah, I found the bug.
I had to go in and manually change the sync options for the Nano under the Devices > Movies tab.

IPod photo cache file - how do I locate it?

Hi all,
On my iPod nano I keep getting the "some of your photos were not copied because they cannot be displayed on your iPod" message, but the photo albums I am syncing do not contain the photo mentioned in the warning.
I have had a look around and noticed that one member said there is an iPod photo cache file that does not get updated. So, I want to delete that and then resync my iPod, in the hope that this warning message will not re appear. The problem is I don't know where it is located.
For the record, I have also recently restored my iPod using iTunes 7.1.1 and this still occurs.
Thanks in advance,
Anthony.
Intel iMac 20" Rev A Mac OS X (10.4.9)

ok well i dont have the exact same problem...but mine still deals with photos
well i recently restored my computer, and all photos and music were deleted, but they r still in my iPod, well i learned how to get my music out, but not my photos, so do u know how to do that?
well any suggestion would b appreciated, thanks!

Duplication Issues with Photo Sync via iTunes/iPhoto and Photo Stream/iCloud (Detailed Scenario Given)

Hi Everyone,
I'd like to share an issue I am having with photo syncing between my iDevices.
Here is how I USED to sync my Photos between my iDevices (no issues with photo duplication)
Note: In this scenario, I use iTunes and iPhoto on my Mac. iCloud and Photo stream have NOT been activated in this case.
1. Take photos via iPhone that saves in Camera Roll
2. After a month or so, I will connect my iPhone to my Mac.
3. Import my Photos in iPhoto and arrange Events and Photos in monthly sections and add some of them in a separate Albums (ex. Written Notes Photos) for easy access.
4. Once the import is done, iPhoto prompts an option to delete photos in my Camera Roll which I do as I like to start a fresh month with empty Camera Roll in my iPhone.
5. In order to access the Photos I have imported in iPhoto in my iPhone, I go to iTunes and sync all my photos to my iPhone. This syncs my events, photos, faces, albums as they have been arranged in iPhoto in my Mac. (I cant delete them in my iPhone once they are synced. I have to delete in my iPhoto and sync again to have similar setup in my iPhone which isn't a problem).
NOW I decided I don't want to manually go through all this process and went on to enable the Photo Stream ON in my iPhone and iPhoto with iCloud.
THIS IS WHERE THE PROBLEM ENSUES.
1. I Take photos with my iPhone that saves in Camera Roll
2. This automatically syncs with my Mac due to Photo Stream which a really convenient.
3. It syncs automatically to Photo Stream, Events, Photos, Faces section in the iPhoto and I put put some of them (notes) in a separate album.
THE PROBLEM:
The Photos does not show up in the Album, Events and Photos Folder in my iPhone. They are only shown in Camera Roll. So I thought to sync using iTunes so the new Photos will be arranged in their appropriate folder like it used to with my prior process of syncing. This worked, HOWEVER the photos in my iPhone started showing DUPLICATES! Apparently, one comes from Photo Stream (which, if I delete on my phone also deletes in all my iDevices) and the other duplicate is from the iTunes sync (this sets up my photos as arranged in iPhoto which is what i WANT to happen as Photo Stream does not sync them accordingly).
SOLUTION I AM IN SEARCH FOR:
I want to be able to take photos with my iPhone that automatically syncs in iCloud AND iPHOTO AS ARRANGED IN MY MAC (Albums, Events etc) WITHOUT PROBLEM OF PHOTO DUPLICATES.

Other folks have resolved similar issues by trashing the iPod Photo Cache.
Regards
TD

Photo cache problems

Ok, I've looked absolutely everywhere I can think to, and still coming up empty handed.. can someone please lend me a hand?
I just recently purchased my iPod nano 8g. I had sync'd all my photo's to it.. and everything was going great. Then I decided that since I only had 8% free space on my C drive, that I was going to spend some time transferring some of my files to my external E drive. Seeing as I am not a computer pro... this was an all-night task. Well, somehow during this, I managed to upset iTunes, and had to completely manually un-install it, and re-install it and QuickTime. I managed to get all my files back up and running except for one problem.
All of my pictures were missing. I have scoured all of my searching, and recovery software. I finally have come to the conclusion that the folder labeled "iPod Photo Cache" is actually my pictures (it contains a LOT of strangely numbered folders, etc). I know I'm missing something, but I'm new to iTunes, and iPod. Anyone have any ideas?

I've done that more times than I could count... including recovery programs (in case they were accidentally deleted). They seem to have just vanished. all I have is that folder with a lot of .qtr (.ithmb) files. I did have to manually delete a lot of files from both itunes, and quicktime. My best guess at this point is that I've deleted and recovered the missing link between my files, or my files themselves, and am still in the process of searching. Thank-you for answering me, and I will keep looking.
Message was edited by: jonkatchrsch

IPdo photo cache delete problem

I have a lot of images and they are all organized alphabetically and in numerous folders. I have over 40,000 synced photos.
When I delete my iPod Photo Cache, it was 30GB, and resync, it jumbles all the images up and they aren't in their original order or folder.
I keep reading that iTunes will rebuild the IPC but I am not haveing that outcome.
Any ideas or hints? I'm on a PC syncing to a folder location on my hard drive.
Thanks

Wow, no one with this issue but me?

Photo cache size

I have about 1800 pictures which i resized and stuck in a folder to sync, they are about 100mb total, but when I sync them to my iPod with iTunes it creates a cache folder that is 1.3gb. Why is it so large and can I turn off the cache folder?
Thank you.

I just bought a new 15" PowerBook (hi-res) and iPod with Video. I've synched my entire 4 GB photo library to the iPod at the optimized resolution. I have almost 5000 photos in my library according to iPhoto.
My photos are almost all 1600x1200, usually about 800k, but between 500k and 1 meg in size, depending on compression. From what I can tell, the "optimized for iPod" images really shouldn't be any larger than 300k (320 x 240 x 32 bit color depth) even if they're totally uncompressed. At most, my iPod Photo Cache should be about 3/8ths the size of my iPhoto Library, or in this case 1.5 GB.
My iPod Photo Cache folder within my iPhoto Library is a little over double the size of my entire iPhoto Library, or 8.2 GB! When iTunes was synching the images, it indicated that twice the number of photos were being synched to the iPod, almost 10000! I can confirm from looking at images on the iPod that photos are indeed duplicates, so it seems the thumbnails from iPhoto have also been converted to iPod format. This is highly ineffecient; is there some way around this?
I can only assume that those who are experiencing this problem have chosen to put their entire iPhoto library onto their iPods instead of just limited albums; I'd assumed that when one chooses individual albums on the iPod that the thumbnails are not included since Albums exist essentially as aliases to the photos.
Since I've endured the lengthy conversion, I'm unwilling at this point to delete everything and experiment just to figure out exactly what's going on, but hopefully this provides some insight into what might be the source of the bloat in the "iPod Photo Cache"
Thanks for listening,
g=

What happens if I reset cache on iTunes?

I have iTunes 10.3.1 I want to know What happens if I reset cache on iTunes? also, I have deleted every photo on my iPhone, and iTunes says that I still have 1.22 GB of photos, is it wrong?, or there can be hidden photos some were in my iPhone?

Resetting the iPod photo cache can free up space on the iPhone. That's all. You won't lose any photos.
iTunes: Understanding the iPod Photo Cache folder

Photo Cache on iTunes

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