I'm trying to delete files, specially those that are larger, but can't see a way to view with filesize in order, and view the file sizes in the Photos app.
How do you do it - the way to do in the file Manager screen?
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 15.2
simon_a6 wrote: … I feel there should be some simple way to show the sizes,
Lots of folks have ideas what software should do. You can leave suggestions here:
they are all technically files.
That's a misunderstanding of how Photos works. The image you see on the screen isn't a file-- it's created on the fly from what Photos knows of the original image and the editing steps. It doesn't become a file until it's exported. It's important to think about images rather than files. Photos is an Image Manager.
The original files exist, but with different file names, so they depend on the database to put everything together. PowerPhotos makes that information available in list form.
simon_a6 wrote: … I feel there should be some simple way to show the sizes,
Lots of folks have ideas what software should do. You can leave suggestions here:
they are all technically files.
That's a misunderstanding of how Photos works. The image you see on the screen isn't a file-- it's created on the fly from what Photos knows of the original image and the editing steps. It doesn't become a file until it's exported. It's important to think about images rather than files. Photos is an Image Manager.
The original files exist, but with different file names, so they depend on the database to put everything together. PowerPhotos makes that information available in list form.
simon_a6 wrote: …view the file sizes in the Photos app. How do you do it - the way to do in the file Manager screen?
Photos is not a file manager system-- it's an image manager, so file size doesn't help much in curating images. Each image involves multiple files in multiple sizes, and the image size in the Info Window isn't much of a measure of the size the image takes up.
However, if I were interested in sorting pictures by size, I'd use the trusted 3rd party app PowerPhotos ($30) which will generate lists like this:
You can even see stars among the keywords indicating my ratings. If I were going to reduce the Library size, I'd rather pay attention to quality than size.
I see no way in Photos to sort by size. Can only see size for each photo in the info menu.
Since they are taking up storage, they are files. if I export them, I export files.
They aren't 100% database, as a database in itself does not store the image, it stores the URL or details of the image. Like SQL, it doesnt' store the image itself. that's held on a server, and referred to by SQL.
There maybe versions of the image for thumbnails, but the photo taken, even Burst, are still files.
And if PowerPhotos can list them, it is listing files.
Just wish the Photos App had a means to show the size that PowerPhotos shows, so we can manage our storage better.
As for managing your storage, I've yet to meet someone who would trash their favourite photograph because it too up too much disk space, nor keep an out-of-focus, error of a shot just because it used very little. Are you the first?
Since they are taking up storage, they are files. if I export them, I export files.
It's pedantic but it's an important distinction. Photos is a photo manager. It's about the photographs, not the files that contain them. That Jpeg is not a photograph, anymore than that Word file is your novel. They're both shoeboxes that contain your photograph or novel. The kind of shoebox is optimised for the kind of data it contains, but the file is not the data, and the data is not the file.
Jpeg is not even an image format. It's a compression format. The data size within that Jpeg is much larger than the Jpeg file. When you view the image it is unpacked, and that 3 mb file can contain the equivalent of a 50 mb tiff image. And given that you can export from Photos at a variety of compression rates you can produce any thing from a 500kb Jpeg to a 6mb Jpeg. So size is not simple.
And when you export a photograph you're exporting a raster image into any of a number of formats including lossless one like Tiff or PNG or lossy ones like Jpeg.
Interestingly, the industry leader in photography management, Adobe Lightroom Classic, doesn't have this information either...
simon_a6 wrote: …I just want Apple to show me at a glance, the storage of each, so I can better manage it.
You're wasting time telling us this. Again, lots of folks have ideas about what software should do. Here's where you can leave suggestions:
I think that Yer_Man and I have both explained that file size is not a discriminating factor in managing images, but we have no way of knowing what Apple thinks, so good luck with your feedback,
I feel there should be some simple way to show the sizes, in some List view.
If you use iCloud to store them, and iCloud builds up, by that very nature, there really has to be a way to view what's taking up the space, at a glance.
If you have over 7,000 photos, going through each one is not right. It should be sortable, and to view it by that amount.
I accept images have multiples, the way CMS does to have a Thumbnail version - BUT, the image in question is the one that I suspect is what the system uses to state what size KBs or MBs you are taking up.
Either way - the same way a system like WordPress does, it has a default size. Delete that image, and it deletes the relative thumbnails.
This should be possible, in the iOS system itself.
Whether it is on a FileManager or Image manager - they are all technically files.
Hopefully there is a free way to do that.
Exactly. No way to see them by list, to then see the sizes and reduce. I don't see any way to do it.
Whatever. They take up storage, as seen in the Info panel.
I just want Apple to show me at a glance, the storage of each, so I can better manage it.
Can you view photos/Videos with File Size in MacOS?
