zrowgz
Level 1 (5 points)
iPhone

Q: Questions about using Photos: Library use/storage, exporting, and troubleshooting.

Hello,

I recently upgraded to the new Photos app and I have a few questions/issues. Any help with these would be great! I use a 2009 MBP running Yosemite, magnetic HDD 500GB, 4GB RAM. I also have a QNAP TS-269L as a network attached storage device, and I don't currently have a paid-for iCloud, but I am debating it (see below).

 

1) First, I am going to store my photos on my QNAP network attached storage as a way to purchase a new computer with a smaller flash drive. It would be nice if I could just leave them in the Photos library, but I don't think that is possible. Anyone have input here? Can I get Photos to use my NAS as it's library, or does Apple not allow this? I saw on some forums that there were issues doing this starting at the previous iPhotos update. Anyone have any experience with Apple Photos and QNAP NAS devices?

 

2) So, I'd like to export my 7 years of photos. What is the difference between exporting as an unmodified original and using the Photos Export option? The only difference that I can see immediately is a difference in file size, like 6.2 MB for the standard Export option vs 8.5 MB for the unmodified original photo. I assume a difference in quality, but my screen isn't nice enough to see, and they are both equal resolution. What's up with this?

 

3) Once I complete this, I can at least organize and store them on my NAS and potentially place them in cheap or free cloud storage solutions. How is the Apple iCloud for Photos? Is it essentially the same as opening the Photos app, giving access to everything from anywhere?

 

4) Also, I was looking through all my photos to clean up duplicates and blurry images. I deleted about 1,500 photos and videos, some videos being 30 minutes! But, this did NOT make my Photos library any smaller: it remained exactly the same at 82.4GB! This seems unlikely. What happened here? Would exporting them and re-importing them fix this issue? I want to reduce the amount of data that needs to be stored on my computer so I can purchase a new one with a tiny amount of local storage. I looked at everything and between these photos and my music being placed into the cloud, I would only have about 42GB of local data...!

 

5) And speaking of duplicates, I found that I have an iPhoto Library AND a Photos Library stored on my computer. Perhaps this occurred with the update to the previous iPhoto which required a major change to the library? Or does Photos create a new Library and not just convert the old iPhotos? The images/videos stored in the old iPhotos library are the same (up to that date) ones that are now in the Photos Library (minus the one's I spent two days culling...). Wanting to just delete that flat out since it is 81.86GB... Yeah? It was last modified 5/20/15, which sounds similar to when I changed to Photos. When I try to open it, it gives me a message saying my files have been migrated to Photos. I assume this means I can just delete this then, right? Why would it duplicate such a huge file!?

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Jun 9, 2015 2:05 AM

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zrowgz

Q: Questions about using Photos: Library use/storage, exporting, and troubleshooting.

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Jun 9, 2015 2:18 AM in response to zrowgz
    Level 10 (139,597 points)
    iLife
    Jun 9, 2015 2:18 AM in response to zrowgz

    With Photos and iPhoto, the Library uses hard links to connect to the original files. So, while both libraries report 81gigs, it's the same 81 gigs, not 162... That's also why deleting from one does not recover disk space - you need to recover from both. This is a temporary situation until you decide if you want to abandon iPhoto entirely. If you're sure you want to then you can delete the iPhoto Library.

     

    1. The situation with NAS is unclear at this time. Previously you could not have an iPhoto library on a NAS. Some folks have reported doing it with success, however, the long term situation is unclear. Some folks and their iPhoto Library on a NAS and it worked fine. Until one day it didn't. Personally I would not put my library on the NAS. Essentially,  when you do this you're putting what is a complex Mac database onto a Linux computer. What is clear is that you cannot use iCloud Photo Library with a NAS.

     

    2. The Unmodified original is just that -  the file as imported from your camera. Any other setting you choose will result in a different version. What  you mean by "resolution" as that's a tricky word that means different things to different people. The difference in file size is because you're exporting with a different level of compression.

     

    3. iCloud Photos is not a back up or storage. It's your Photo Library in the Cloud managed by any of your devices - Macs, iPhone, iPad whatever.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Jun 9, 2015 2:31 AM in response to zrowgz
    Level 10 (108,901 points)
    iCloud
    Jun 9, 2015 2:31 AM in response to zrowgz

    1) First, I am going to store my photos on my QNAP network attached storage as a way to purchase a new computer with a smaller flash drive. It would be nice if I could just leave them in the Photos library, but I don't think that is possible. Anyone have input here? Can I get Photos to use my NAS as it's library, or does Apple not allow this? I saw on some forums that there were issues doing this starting at the previous iPhotos update. Anyone have any experience with Apple Photos and QNAP NAS devices?

    There is nothing in Apple's documentation that answers this questions.  For Aperture and iPhoto it is documented in the support documents, that storing a Photo Library on a remote volume and not a directly connected volume will result in data loss.

    We have seen a few reports, were users failed to migrate an iPhoto Library to Photos, if the library was hosted on a NAS.

     

    However, your NAS will not not have a supported filesystem.  If the File System is not MacoS Extended (Journaled) You cannot use iCloud  with this library.

    See this link:                Overview      

    By default, your System Photo Library is stored in the Pictures folder on your Mac, but you can move it to another location on your Mac or store it on an external storage device. However, to use iCloud services, the external storage device must be formatted using Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format, also known as HFS+.

     

    As to deleting files - did you empty the "Recently Deleted" album?  To check, if the photos are still cached, use the command "File > Show recently Deleted" and delete the photos finally.

     

    You should be aware, that your old iPhoto Library and your migrated Photos Library are sharing the original image files using hard links.  When you delete an image or video  in Photos, the size of your Photos Library will decreases, but the storage will only be released, when you delete the the same items in your iPhoto Library as well. As long as iPhoto is still using the photos, the storage will not be released.

    See:  Photos saves disk space by sharing images with your iPhoto or Aperture libraries - Apple Support

     

    When I try to open it, it gives me a message saying my files have been migrated to Photos. I assume this means I can just delete this then, right? Why would it duplicate such a huge file!?

    It is not really a duplicate, because the photos are shared.  And you can open the iPhoto Library again. When you see the warning that the library has been migrated click the "Open iPhoto" button.  Keep the iphoto library until  you are sure that all photos migrated correctly, and you have recreated all products -  your books, slideshows, calendars will not have been migrated in exactly the same way.

    See:  How Photos handles content and metadata from iPhoto and Aperture - Apple Support