Why is my iphoto library a lot bigger than it actually is?

several things

1 - going into the contents of the iPhoto library is not supported and is not a good idea

2 - the contents of the iPhoto library are always much greater than the items you see in iPhoto - each photos has two or three versions plus face thumbnails and support files - so both the number of items and size of the library is greater than just the photos - which is what iPhoto reports

3 - you never IMPORT an iPhoto library for any reason - it does not work and creates a massive mess (all of those various versions and face thumbnails become original photos creating a unrepairable mess - you make at least two good, tested backups of your iPhoto library with one being an exact copy of it or clone and use the clone by dragging it to your pictures folder of the rebuild computer and then launching iPhoto letting it open the library - no importing

4 - in any case you can not modify the contents of the iPhoto library - it is what it is so use it as it is

LN

The innards of the iPhoto Library are a bot like under the hood of a car - quite clear if you know what you're doing, best avoided if you don't.

What the iPhoto Window reports is the nominal size of the resulting folder if you exported everything from iPhoto at the "Current" setting.

The iPhoto Library in the Finder contains your original photos, thumbnails, previews, cache, database and metadata files. it is always larger than reported by the iPhoto Window.

Those aren't random numbers, they're the date and time of import. The named folders are a result of upgrading from earlier versions.

Before you wipe the drive copy the iPhoto Library as a single item to your back up disk. After you've reinstalled copy it back. That's it.

Under no circumstances try and "clean up" the Library package.

And when i say importing i mean to drag and drop the iphoto library into my pictures folder after i have re-installed my software.

That's not importing, that's restoring from your back up.

If you backed up correctly and restored correctly, then it works.

I have to 'show package contents' to get in to see the folders. Is that normal?

Perfectly. And unless you know what you're doing there, don't do that 😉

I'm sure it used to be 'pictures>iphoto library>photos> and then the rest of the folders were visible.

That changed in 2007 and it's doesn't matter. You never access your files that way.

For help accessing your photos in iPhoto see this user tip:

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4491

This is your problem

Every time i backup it's with Time Machine and every time i restore my library i drag and drop but last time was a complete mess like i said before.

You NEVER directly access the TM backup - you can only restore TM backups using TM - Mac Basics: Time Machine backs up your Mac

You need to stop going places you should not be - you are messing around inside the iPhoto library - inside the TM backup - both of those are major NO-NOs - you use the appropriate programs to access their data - stay out of the inside of their data files and use the respective programs to manage the data

LN

This Apple document might be of interest to you: iTunes: Understanding the iPod Photo Cache folder

But where are all these apparent duplicates? In the iPhoto Window? Or on the HD?

Download iPhoto Library Managerand use its rebuild function. (In early versions of Library Manager it's the File -> Rebuild command. In later versions it's under the Library menu.)

This will create an entirely new library. It will then copy (or try to) your photos and all the associated metadata and versions to this new Library, and arrange it as close as it can to what you had in the damaged Library. It does this based on information it finds in the iPhoto sharing mechanism - but that means that things not shared won't be there, so no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your events, albums and keywords, faces and places back.

Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.

The good news is that it will only copy over those images that are also in the database. So these hidden duplicates should be left behind.

Then stay out of the Library package.

TimeMachine backups simply are not usable directly - they can not be used until the TM applications has reassembles them into a useable package during the TM restore process - since you choose to ignore the direction and directly copy the backup you can not use what you have - if you use the Time Machine application to restore the backup it will give you exactly what was there when the backup was made so if you had a correctly operating iPhoto library when TM made the backup then after the TM restore you will have a correctly operating iPhoto library

You really need to follow directions and heed advice

You need to stop going places you should not be - you are messing around inside the iPhoto library - inside the TM backup - both of those are major NO-NOs - you use the appropriate programs to access their data - stay out of the inside of their data files and use the respective programs to manage the data

The instructions are very simple

Restoring data from Time Machine backups

With Time Machine, you can go "back in time" to restore files, versions of files, or your entire system. Make sure your backup drive is connected and mounted. If it is not, Time Machine alerts you that "Your Time Machine backup disk can't be found."

Restoring specific files or folders

Choose Enter Time Machine from the Time Machine menu. The restore interface appears. You can literally see your windows as they appeared "back in time."

You can use the timeline on the right side of the window to reach a certain point back in time. The timeline shows the times of all backups on your backup drive. If you don’t know exactly when you deleted or changed a file, you can use the back arrow to let Time Machine automatically travel through time to show you when that folder last changed.

Note: Dates in pink indicate the data resides on your Time Machine backup device. Dates in white indicate the data resides on your Mac. In OS X Lion v10.7 and later, portable Macs include local snapshots.

You can also perform a Spotlight search from the Finder. Simply enter a search term in the Spotlight search field, and use the back arrow to have Time Machine search through your backups to find what you are looking for.

Before you restore a file, you can also use Quick Look to preview a file to make sure its the one you want. Highlight the file and press the Space Bar to bring up a quick look.

To restore, select the file/folder and click the "Restore" button. The file will automatically be copied to the desktop or appropriate folder. If the file you are restoring has another file in the same location with the same name, you will be prompted to choose which file to keep or keep both.

IT did not "put all that stuff in your library" before because you did not use TimeMachine according to you - if you use it correctly it works correctly - when you misuse it or do not use it then you get bad and unpredictable results

LN

😉