How can I find out how much space Photos is taking up

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Level 1

4 points

How can I find out how much space Photos is taking up

I see this was answered five years ago, but that answer hasn't helped me.

I tried this from 2018:

Open Photos and choose Photos > Preferences > General. Click the Show in Finder button to go to your Photos Library. After Finder opens, select your Photos Library, then choose File > Get Info. Look under General to find the size.

Once I select Photos Library, then choose File there is not Get Info to click on.

I'm on a Mac from late 2012, Os Catalina. It is so incredibly slow, I'm trying to decide if I want to pay for the space for all my photos to be on iCloud and just use my Macbook or if I want to replace the Mac.

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Dec 31, 2020 10:14 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Camelot

Level 9

58,791 points

Dec 31, 2020 10:26 AM in response to carebear1158

Go Apple menu -> About this Mac and hit the Storage button:

In the window the appears, click the 'Manage' button.

This will give you a breakdown of the storage used by various categories of data, one of which is 'Photos'.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

200,699 points

Dec 31, 2020 11:00 AM in response to carebear1158

When you see your Photos Library in the Finder, select it and enter the keyboard shortcut ⌘𝐢 to open the Info, if you cannot see "File > Get info" in the File menu.

How slow is your Mac? Moving your photos to the cloud may make Photos even slower. If you are not mirroring the iCloud Photos on your Mac you will have to wait for the download from iCloud to work with the photos.

It might be more efficient to move your Photos Library to an external portable drive to save space on your Mac. See: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

It is easier to keep a backup of your photos to keep them safe, if they are still stored locally and not in iCloud. And as an added bonus, you can access your photos, even if you might have occasionally network trouble.

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

166,008 points

Dec 31, 2020 10:59 AM in response to carebear1158

Once I select Photos Library, then choose File there is not Get Info to click on.

Try select the Library and go command-i

But if you select the Library then it will have a Get Info command:

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Answer 4

carebear1158 Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 31, 2020 2:47 PM in response to Old Toad

I have 672.84 Gb available of 1TB

I have 8 GB Installed

I was wondering if running cleaning, optimizing... would help. I haven't in the 8 years I've had this MAC. I don't know the first thing about that.

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Answer 5

Old Toad

Level 10

216,076 points

Dec 31, 2020 2:57 PM in response to carebear1158

Do not run any such apps! There is no reason to ever install or run any 3rd party "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus, VPN or security apps on your Mac. This user tip describes what you need to know and do in order to protect your Mac: Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community

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