Library size after migrating from Aperture

Giving you a bump because I see the same issue And no one seems to have a good solution.

I had over 30K+images externally referenced off a secondary partition in iPhoto and Aperture. My iPhoto database was showing about 30 GB in my Picture folder before I imported it into Photos.

After importing, my Photos database has steadily grown to about 75 GB. I may have added about 4 GB of externally referenced images raj@nidwannaya.com since the conversion to Photos, but that doesn't account for the increase in 45GB of the database.

In checking the packages content of Photos databas, the largest size is the resources folder, about 50 GB.

I also use Picasa to upload images to Google+ to share with friends and family and it does nothing of this sort. Its database is miniscule compared to iPhoto or Photos despite the fact that it references the same pictures off my secondary volume, and I make basic edits like straighten, crop, and contrast before uploading/sharing online. There is no need to import anything because it monitors mt photo folder and automatically shows new photos when thy are added to the folder.

I am running out of disc space on my main partition and don't understand how the Photos database has swelled so much. Only reason I have used iPhoto so far is because I can sync my 5-star rated photos (Smart Album) with AppleTV, but the issue with the growing size of the Photos database has left me seriously reconsidering whether I want to continue using Photos to manage my pictures.

Steffen, you are not alone in your findings. I have 5550 Photos (RAW @ 25MB each, total of 137.68GB) stored on a separate HD.

My Aperture database, using the referenced masters feature, is 2.32 GB. Having created a new Photos Library, no photos to be copied, in other words, same referenced masters feature, the Photos database is 57.69 GB. This is in my view unacceptable.

There is no logical reason why the Photos' database is almost 25 times larger for doing nothing more then linking the photos to an external storage of photos.

Klaus

I am seriously considering deleting the Photos library and continuing using Aperture for now, with referenced images, until they fix the problems with Photos, or switch entirely to another app like Picasa. Lightroom is another option, but an expensive one.

IN any case I am very disappointed with Photos!

I have come to a similar conclusion. I too will stick with Aperture, especially since it allows the use of an external editor, another missing feature in Photos. I also use Picasa for comparison etc. I will continue using Photos in hope that Apple will start taking the hints from its users and improve the product.

If, after deleting the Photos library, you start Photos with holding down the OPTION (alt) key, you have the option to create a new empty library. This way you don't automatically migrate (import) your Aperture photos.

You can try, the worst that will happen it does not asked you which library to migrate. However, the open with option-key pressed does allow you to import, which is a migrate, any iPhoto or Aperture Library. The first one you import will be your main Library that will sync with iCloud, if you choose to do so. However, referenced photo libraries will not sync.