Why Are Aliases So Large?

Question

Level 2

304 points

Why Are Aliases So Large?

I just noticed in Mavericks that if I create an alias to a file or folder, that the alias is extremely large... as in megabytes.

For example.

I made an alias of an empty folder. The size of the empty folder itself was, "Zero KB" in the get info panel.

When I made an alias of that same empty folder, the size of it was "5.5 MB."

I have a link to a website on my desktop, that link is 46 KB.

When I made an alias of it, the alias was 6.4 MB.

This just simply, utterly, doesn't make any sense ot me whatsoever.

Doesn't this defeat the entire purpose of even having aliases?

Is something wrong with my drive, or my installation? Is anyone else getting this issue? It appears regardless of whether the alias is created on the start up drive or on an external or other internal drive.

I checked on another Mac in my house, a Mini, running 10.6.8. An alias of an empty folder there registered as 1 MB.

What am I missing here? I haven't noticed this before. How can an alias be larger than the file it is linking to?

Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9), Mac Pro Mid-2012, 3.2 GHZ, ATI 5770

Posted on Feb 3, 2014 5:10 PM

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Answer 1

petermac87

Level 5

7,453 points

Feb 3, 2014 5:15 PM in response to Gene Surber

What icons are you using on the folder you are making an alias of? Sometimes the actual icon is where the space is being taken up, compared to a generic folder.

Pete

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Answer 2

Gene Surber Author

Level 2

304 points

Feb 3, 2014 11:01 PM in response to petermac87

None. Which is also why I find this so odd.

The folder that I am aliasing is just a plain folder. No icon except the plain blue one that the system assigned to it.

Apparently this is a long standing issue that covers several OS's, from what research I have done. Although, this is the first time I have ever noticed it. I just can't, for the life of me, figure out why a single alias would need to be 5.5 mb!!! Or an alias of a 46 KB file would be 6.4 MB.

Kinda defeats the purpose of having an alias... I can only imagine how much of my hard drive space is eaten up with these.

The whole thing just doesn't seem right.

Create an empty folder. Alias it. And post how large the alias is of the empty folder. Then drag a link from safari, alias that. And see how large it is.

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Answer 3

eldorec

Level 1

4 points

Apr 2, 2014 4:33 PM in response to Gene Surber

I have the same exact problem with Mavericks 10.9.2, 5.5 MB Aliases? What gives??

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Answer 4

petermac87

Level 5

7,453 points

Apr 2, 2014 4:53 PM in response to eldorec

Just seems to be the way it is now. Even a generic alias folder with no custom icon seems to be bigger than it used to be. To date I have not been able to find the reason, not that it is a big deal if you have lots of free space on your drive.

Pete

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Answer 5

etresoft

Level 9

56,278 points

Apr 2, 2014 5:31 PM in response to Gene Surber

Gene Surber wrote:

Doesn't this defeat the entire purpose of even having aliases?

Not really. Most machines ship with huge hard drives these days. Saving space is not an issue for most people. I have never seen a good explanation for why alias files are so large. I do know that aliases have a lot of extra tricks. If you just want to save space, you can use a symbolic link. They are fairly reliable. But if you move the target, the link stops working. This doesn't happen with an alias. An alias can find its target if you move it. It can also prompt you to help it, if necessary. If the target is on a network volume, it can automatically connect you to that network drive and open the target. Still, I don't see why aliases need to be 6 MB to accomplish all of that.

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Answer 6

May 30, 2014 1:02 PM in response to Gene Surber

I have this same problem: 3kb text file turns into a 2.4MB alias. And don't agree that this is ok because drive size is big. I only have 250GB and I need all the extra space I have.

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Answer 7

Old Toad

Level 10

215,238 points

May 30, 2014 1:29 PM in response to Gene Surber

I've gone to using symbolic links instead of aliases. There's a 3rd party contextual menu symbolic link creator, Download SymbolicLinker for Mac - Contextual menu creates symbolic links in Finder. MacUpdate.com. Where an alias would come in at 5 MB for some items the symbolic link remained between 23 and 80 bytes per link.

OT

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Answer 8

Feb 20, 2017 7:29 AM in response to Gene Surber

FYI: Fixed in Sierra 10.12

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