Faster transfers of iPhoto library

The iPhoto Library is a package that contains a large number of tiny files (reference files for faces, locations, albums, thumbnails, etc). The Finder needs to sort out all this before it starts copying, and it overestimates the time required. In my experience not much seems to happen during the first 10-15 minutes of the copy process except the estimated time keeps rising to a scary level; but once it actually starts copying things speed up. It's still not as fast as a "normal" copy, I think the reason has something to do with the iPhoto Library being a package and the internal structure of the library. The same slowness exists wtih iCal files, by the way.

There are some workarounds on the internet that people have used but they involve digging into the iPhoto LIbrary package and manually copying portions to a new folder on the destination drive, then renaming and some other stuff. When you do that you risk corrupting the Library. I wouldn't advise doing it.

Does the NAS have a USB, FW or eSATA port that you could use to attach it directly to your Mac for the copy process? Copying via a direct connection will usually be faster than via your network, especially if you have FW800 or eSATA. In my experience copying disk-to-disk via a gigabit network is about as fast as FW800 if you are only copying a few files and they aren't too big. But as the number and size of the files rises, FW800 does a lot better.

(9 hours later), it was completely finished!

1 file, 225Gb copied via USB 2.0 to a USB-powered portable HD in under 9 hours. Now I'm getting REAL excited to give Thunderbolt a try...

Keep in mind that you were copying an iPhoto Library, which is different from a normal file copy process. With an ordinary 225 GB file (or ordinary files totalling 225 GB) over FW800 this would have taken about 2 hours. USB 2.0 about 4 hours. Given the apparent complexity/overhead of the iPhoto Library, 9 hours sounds about right to me.

Glad you were able to get this done overnight!

I hear what you're saying about Thunderbolt. Me too. Except for the high cost of Thunderbolt cables & peripherals ...

About half a year after Martin's post, history repeats itself.

Trying to copy a 65 GB iPhoto library from a 2007 imac (source) via gigabit ethernet to a 2011 imac (target) exhibits snail pace copying regardless of whether I copy to the SSD in the target machine or a Lacie 6TB 2big raid0 array attached to the target via THUNDERBOLT. Initially it takes the Finder about 10 to 15 seconds to "prepare" the copy process. After commencment, transfer rates hover above 100 MB/s (per Activity Monitor) until about 300 MB have been copied when the transfer rate practically settles to about 100 kB/s with an estimated time of completion of several days.

IMHO there is seems to be something wrong with the network stack (both source and target machine run Mavericks) despite the "fragmented" nature of the files in the iPhoto library. I don't have space on the source machine, otherwise I'd zip the whole library and try transferring the resulting archive to test this further. In the meantime it's a waiting game.

Any other fellows feeling the same pain?

I have found that copying iPhoto Libraries directly via Firewire 800 seems to work better than any other method. It still takes a frustratingly long time, but not nearly as long as the OS X estimate says it will take.

I am convinced this has something to do with the internal structure of the iPhoto Library, not the copying process itself. (Although if you use a network connection, it appears to me that the extra overhead of IP networking seems to extend the copy time substantially.) As I said earlier, this has also been the situation with the iCal (now Calendar) database for many years.

Bottom line, this is one of the main reasons I stopped using iPhoto. I now use Aperture and set up the Aperture library as a reference library, with my image files stored on an external hard drive that I can back up normally.

I have just started my transfer from an old imac (possibly 2007/8) to a new macbook pro - 58.45GB - went up to 3 days for the transfer, has now settled at about a day. I'm thinking as I have started it will be better to stick with it now, hoping it settles with an even quicker time, than to stop it and start again after purchasing a cable of sorts. Can't wait to do my imovie files...