Fred Womack
Level 1 (8 points)
iWork

Q: photolibrary vs photoslibrary

What is the difference between the files labelled photolibrary and photoslibrary? Specifically, which is the basis for the system Photo Library backed up in the Photo iCloud?

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Jun 13, 2015 8:45 AM

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Fred Womack

Q: photolibrary vs photoslibrary

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Old Toad,Helpful

    Old Toad Old Toad Jun 13, 2015 8:57 AM in response to Fred Womack
    Level 10 (141,721 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Jun 13, 2015 8:57 AM in response to Fred Womack

    The .photoslibrary package is the active Photos library and would be the one that is synced with the iCloud Photo Library. 

     

    The .photolibrary is the iPhoto library that was used to create the new Photos library. 

     

    To double check launch Photos with the Option key held down and see which library  is designated the "System Photo Library" in the window.  That will be the one.

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  • by Fred Womack,

    Fred Womack Fred Womack Jun 13, 2015 10:13 AM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (8 points)
    iWork
    Jun 13, 2015 10:13 AM in response to Old Toad

    Thanks, Old Toad, this solved my problem in deciding which file(s) I could exclude when backing up using SuperDuper since my 1TB external drives could no longer contain all my files.

  • by Old Toad,Helpful

    Old Toad Old Toad Jun 13, 2015 10:37 AM in response to Fred Womack
    Level 10 (141,721 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Jun 13, 2015 10:37 AM in response to Fred Womack

    You are aware that the iPHoto and Photos libraries point to the same image data on the hard drive and don't take up twice the space as the iPhoto Library, right? 

     

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

     

    So if you think you might want to use iPhoto again for a while you might what to backup that library.

  • by Fred Womack,

    Fred Womack Fred Womack Jun 13, 2015 10:56 AM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (8 points)
    iWork
    Jun 13, 2015 10:56 AM in response to Old Toad

    Oops, I should've known.  I'm assuming that I can rely on the Photo iCloud to totally backup my photo system library and thus allow me to clone the remainder of my computer without the burden of the space taken up by my photos. So somehow, in the SuperDuper exclusion script, I need to specify which file(s) should be ignored during the backup process. Perhaps it would be simpler to buy a 2 TB external drive to handle the load.