admoc

Q: Migrating Photos AND iPhoto Libraries to external hard drive

iMac 21.5inch 1tb (Late 2012) on OSX El Cap using Photos

 

Hi

 

Now I've run out of space on the Mac, I have moved the Photos Library to a 2tb external drive, deleted the original library and repointed Photos to the new drive (works fine). The Photos library was 650Gb and it is identical on the new drive.

 

I updated from iPhoto to Photos in May 2015. I understand that Photos points to the old iPhoto library as well as the new Photo library in order to save space. But here's the space problem:

 

Photos library on external drive 650Gb

iPhoto library still on Mac 490Gb

On the 'About This Mac' photo and video storage shows as 305Gb!!

 

How can the combined Photos and iPhoto be larger than the capacity of the Mac? And how can the storage be a completely different figure to either- especially when I deleted the entire Photo library.

 

My concern is that I am about to move and delete the old iPhoto migrated library but will Photos work properly- because it won't be linked anymore?

 

Thought I knew what I was doing but the storage differences have unnerved me completely!

 

Thanks for any help!

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Feb 16, 2016 8:30 AM

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Q: Migrating Photos AND iPhoto Libraries to external hard drive

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  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Feb 16, 2016 9:04 AM in response to admoc
    Level 10 (85,032 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Feb 16, 2016 9:04 AM in response to admoc

    How can the combined Photos and iPhoto be larger than the capacity of the Mac?

    It can't and is not - the shared photos are simply double counted

     

     

    And in your case they are on different drive - so in any case you do not add the sizes since they are not on the same drive  --  each library does use that much space on the drive it is on

     

    I understand that Photos points to the old iPhoto library

    No that is not correct - both libraries use hard links to share access to the same original photos and previews - neither library uses the other library in any way

    Photos saves disk space by sharing images with your iPhoto or Aperture libraries - Apple Support

     

    Pay close attention to this paragraph

     

    When Finder reports the file size of your Photos library, it includes all your originals and previews. It may look like your remaining iPhoto or Aperture library is taking up twice the space on your hard drive, but it isn't—your images exist only in one location, even though you may have more than one photo library.

     

     

    Since you moved one library the source photos for that library were copied to the external drive and exist there  since the target for the hard link must be on the same volume as the link - they also exist on the internal drive since they are being used by the iPhoto library - to release the space used by the originals and previews on teh internal drive you will have to move or delete the iPhoto library too - as long as a single hard link addresses a file the space for that file is not released

     

    And yes moving or deleting wither library has no effect on the other library - again the libraries are not linked to each other - they are both linked to the photos -

     

    And when you move the iPhoto library to the EHD it will use the reported space since you have broken the hard links - each library will have its own copy of the originals and previews and on the EHD the space reported will be used by each

     

     

    LN

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Feb 16, 2016 9:05 AM in response to admoc
    Level 10 (141,304 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 16, 2016 9:05 AM in response to admoc

    When an iPhoto library is initially migrated to a Photos library they both share the same master files on the hard drive even though each library shows it's occupying essentially the same amount of space on the hard drive.

     

    However, when you move either of this two library or both to another volume they stop sharing the master/orginal files and each take up the space they need on the new volume or drive.

     

    Both libraries will work just fine after moving to a new location.  However, at no time does a change made to one library affect the other library.  They are totally independent libraries is all respects except for sharing the master/original files at the time of migration.

    OTsig.png

  • by admoc,

    admoc admoc Feb 16, 2016 9:46 AM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 16, 2016 9:46 AM in response to LarryHN

    Thanks very much LarryHN. Very thorough answer, helped immensely. So, to verify, I can delete the older iPhoto library (490Gb) entirely, since the Photo library duplicated everything when I updated from iPhoto- then Photo library continued to add my newer photos- making it 650Gb?

  • by admoc,

    admoc admoc Feb 16, 2016 9:47 AM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 16, 2016 9:47 AM in response to Old Toad

    Thanks OT. Great, clear explanation.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Feb 16, 2016 9:47 AM in response to admoc
    Level 10 (85,032 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Feb 16, 2016 9:47 AM in response to admoc

    Yes if you are sure you do not need it - how long has it been since you used it?

     

    LN

  • by admoc,

    admoc admoc Feb 16, 2016 10:09 AM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 16, 2016 10:09 AM in response to LarryHN

    I switched over from iPhoto to Photos in May 2015. When it migrated was the last time it was used (iPhoto library is dated May 2015).

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Feb 16, 2016 3:35 PM in response to admoc
    Level 10 (85,032 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Feb 16, 2016 3:35 PM in response to admoc

    I'd probably just delete teh iPhoto library then - you could archive it adn hen delete but probably no reason to do that

     

    LN