I find that running a single photo library on my iMac makes my photos App very heavy, i am talking here of a 3TB library.
i with Apple could come with a Library management functionality inside photos App, where i can split my library into smaller subsets but still can see them all in the same view.
any suggestions for tools to help with that?
iMac 27″, macOS 13.4
My Photos library is already getting somewhat hard to manage with only 50000 photos and videos, 250GB.
I am continually exporting partial libraries to keep the library small and are only keeping my favorites and the new photos and videos that still need editing in the System Photos Library. All other items are archived in small libraries, one library per year, plus one library for each major photo shooting event, like a photo safari in some national park.
I am using Power Photos to export and merge selected folders and albums to a different library.
When I want to split a large library, I create two smart albums, one smart album to show the items that should remain in the library, one smart album to show the photos that will get moved to library two.
Then I duplicate the library and delete in the original library the items in the smart album for the photos to be moved to library two. In library two I delete the items in the smart album with the "keepers" for library one.
The smart albums will me help to split the library correctly, without deleting photos from both libraries.
My Photos library is already getting somewhat hard to manage with only 50000 photos and videos, 250GB.
I am continually exporting partial libraries to keep the library small and are only keeping my favorites and the new photos and videos that still need editing in the System Photos Library. All other items are archived in small libraries, one library per year, plus one library for each major photo shooting event, like a photo safari in some national park.
I am using Power Photos to export and merge selected folders and albums to a different library.
When I want to split a large library, I create two smart albums, one smart album to show the items that should remain in the library, one smart album to show the photos that will get moved to library two.
Then I duplicate the library and delete in the original library the items in the smart album for the photos to be moved to library two. In library two I delete the items in the smart album with the "keepers" for library one.
The smart albums will me help to split the library correctly, without deleting photos from both libraries.
You're welcome. Apple has started to add some functionality to move items between libraries. At least we can already import items directly from another library, but currently only the media (photos and videos), not the structure (albums and folders). There is Power Photos still ahead of Photos.
Thank you Léonie for your feedback, this sounds like a good way to manage large libraries, i have powerphotos installed and just updated it to latest version.
I could split my database based on years, for me this could be easier to manage.
i wish though that Apple developers would take such a challenge and add database management functionality into photos.
thank you again.
Large Photo Library
