DaveJ-L

Q: too much memory

My photographs seem to be taking up too much memory on my mac!

 

When I purchased my mac I moved all my photos from a PC into shared pictures using the same folder structure (i.e. a folder per year); many of these photos were scanned from film images so the dates are when originally scanned - but that is a separate issue. The mac is set up for 4 users.

I also import RAW images from my Cannon into this folder structure. The size is around 307GB.

I started to use iPhoto and now only photo after it was released both of these show a folder size of 355GB (iPhoto) & 412GB (Photos) in my personal folders. It seems that i have the photos in 3 location

 

Q1. how do i get some of my hard drive back.

Q2. how to i set up each of my devices (and the families) to only put photos in the shared drive?

 

Thanks

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Aug 19, 2015 1:38 AM

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Q: too much memory

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  • by rafaespada,

    rafaespada rafaespada Aug 19, 2015 1:51 AM in response to DaveJ-L
    Level 1 (45 points)
    Aug 19, 2015 1:51 AM in response to DaveJ-L

    If you now using Photos.app you can delete iPhoto library.

     

    If you want to use Photos.app and storage pictures in your external hard drive you can move the "Photos Library.photoslibrary" to external hard disc and open from there (double click).

     

    Photos.app and iPhoto.app can manager several libraries, but allways open the last one. To select diferente library to open, open Photos.app with "alt" key pressed or double click to library item.

     

    Another preference in Photos.app is to deactivate "copy photos to library". With this opcion deselect the photos are storage in their original folder, but if you edit the photo, the modified photo is storages in library folder.

     

    p.d. sorry for my poor english

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Aug 19, 2015 9:54 AM in response to rafaespada
    Level 10 (84,217 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 19, 2015 9:54 AM in response to rafaespada

    a few things to correct with the post by Rafaepada

     

    1 - while it is correct tag you can safely delete the iphoto library it is not a good idea as you may want or need it in the future and if it is gone you will be in trouble and deleting it will not save much space at all since the original photos and the previews in iphoto and Photos are hard linked - not duplicated - Photos saves disk space by sharing images with your iPhoto or Aperture libraries - Apple Support

     

    2 - If you do want to use an external drive for your Photos library it must be formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) or it will not work correctly

     

    3 - unchecking "copy photos to library" again is a technically correct thing you can do but it strongly not recommended as it creates many problems including the requirement that the path to the original photos must never change which makes upgrades, replacements and moving to new computers very difficult

     

    LN

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Aug 19, 2015 10:05 AM in response to DaveJ-L
    Level 10 (84,217 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 19, 2015 10:05 AM in response to DaveJ-L

    DaveJ

     

    more information is needed

    tell us details about how the computer is set up for 4 users

    The mac is set up for 4 users.

    and about this

     

    I started to use iPhoto and now only photo after it was released both of these show a folder size of 355GB (iPhoto) & 412GB (Photos) in my personal folders. It seems that i have the photos in 3 location

    If you keep your own folder structure and import to either Photos or iPhoto you will have two copies of the photo (one in your folder structure and one in the library)  plus iphoto or Photos either will have two or three more versions of the photo in its library

     

    and

    Q2. how to i set up each of my devices (and the families) to only put photos in the shared drive?

    for this you must either use iCloud Photo library so everyone uses the sale library on iCloud or use an external drive formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) with ownership ignored - this article is about iPhoto but applies to Photos too - iPhoto: Sharing libraries among multiple users - Apple Support

     

    You may want to consider using other photos software as you are wanting to do things that do not work well with Photos - you are using a file management paradigm - Photos manages Photos not files

     

    LN