Using Photos for Mac, how do I sort by the length of playing time or by how big the file is? I am looking to find the "big offender" in storage space and if they are 10 minutes of junk, I would like to delete them and reclaim some storage space.
Thanks
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6)
I meant just to export the videos to a folder in the Finder to get a sorted list, but not to delete them from Photos.
It might be easier to find the large video files and to remove them quickly, if you download the free trial version of PowerPhotos. You can download it here: (https://www.fatcatsoftware.com/powerphotos/)
PowerPhotos will open a second browser for your Photos Library. You can display the items in your library in list view with many metadata and sort by each column by clicking the column header, i.e. by the file size. You can then select the top candidates in the file size column, ctrl click each large video in turn and use the command "Show in Photos" and then remove it from Photos.
My list of videos in PowerPhotos looks like this:
Launching PowerPhotos is. bait slow for a large library, but I simply keep it open all day, in case I should need it as a second window for my Photos Library.
I meant just to export the videos to a folder in the Finder to get a sorted list, but not to delete them from Photos.
It might be easier to find the large video files and to remove them quickly, if you download the free trial version of PowerPhotos. You can download it here: (https://www.fatcatsoftware.com/powerphotos/)
PowerPhotos will open a second browser for your Photos Library. You can display the items in your library in list view with many metadata and sort by each column by clicking the column header, i.e. by the file size. You can then select the top candidates in the file size column, ctrl click each large video in turn and use the command "Show in Photos" and then remove it from Photos.
My list of videos in PowerPhotos looks like this:
Launching PowerPhotos is. bait slow for a large library, but I simply keep it open all day, in case I should need it as a second window for my Photos Library.
Once selected in PowerPhotos you can quickly go to that file in Photos by Control (right) - clicking on the thumbnail in PP and selecting Select in Photos from the contextual menu:
You'll still have to do it one by one but will be quicker than going into Photos and searching for it.
If you select all videos in the Video album, you could run the script below. It will ask for a file size threshold - you could enter 512 kB, for example, then run the script. It will create two albums, one with the items smaller or equal than 512kB, one with the items larger than 512kB. now you can select easily the items that are too small or too large.
-- ✄ ✄ -- snip -- copy from here
(* How to use this script:
This script will split the selection into two albums -
- one album with pictures or videos larger than the given file size threshold
- one album with pictures or videos smaller than the given file size threshold
Open this script in Script Editor. Launch Photos.
Select the photos and videos you want to distribute between the albums.
When all all photo are selected, press the "Run" button in Script Editor.
Author: léonie
*)
--the file size threshold in kB
set defaultFileSizeThreshold to 10240 -- 10 MB, change this to the file size threshold you want for a photo to be counted as small
set dialogResult to display dialog ¬
"Enter the file size threshold for small photos or videos in kB : " buttons {"Cancel", "OK"} ¬
default answer (defaultFileSizeThreshold as text)
set FileSizeThresholdkB to (text returned of dialogResult) as integer-- file size in kB
set FileSizeThreshold to FileSizeThresholdkB * 1024 -- file size in Byte
set smallAlbumName to "smallerThan" & FileSizeThresholdkB-- the album to collect the small photos
set largeAlbumName to "largerThan" & FileSizeThresholdkB-- the album to collect the larger photos
tell application "Photos"
activate
-- Ensure that the albums do exist
try
set imageSel to (get selection)
on error errTexttwonumbererrNumtwo
display dialog "Cannot get the selection: " & errNumtwo & return & errTexttwo
end try
-- return the size of the first item of imageSel
try
if not (exists container smallAlbumName) then
makenewalbumnamedsmallAlbumName
end if
set theSmallAlbum to containersmallAlbumName
if not (exists container largeAlbumName) then
makenewalbumnamedlargeAlbumName
end if
set theLargeAlbum to containerlargeAlbumName
if not (exists container "SkippedPhotos") then
make new album named "SkippedPhotos"
end if
set theSkippedAlbum to container "SkippedPhotos"
on error errTexttwonumbererrNumtwo
display dialog "Cannot open albums: " & errNumtwo & return & errTexttwo
end try
-- process the selected photos from the All Photos album
set smallPhotos to {} -- the list of small photos
set largePhotos to {} -- the list of larger photos
set skippedPhotos to {} -- the list of skipped photos
-- check, if the album or the selected photos do contain images
if imageSel is {} then
error "Please select some images."
else
repeat with im in imageSel
try
tell im--get the file size
set s to its size
end tell
on error errText number errNum
display dialog "Error: " & errNum & return & errText & "Trying again"
try
delay 2
tell im
set s to its size
end tell
on error errTexttwonumbererrNumtwo
display dialog "Skipping image due to repeated error: " & errNumtwo & return & errTexttwo
end try
end try
set noSize to (s is missing value)
if noSize then
set skippedPhotos to {im} & skippedPhotos
else
if (s ≤ FileSizeThreshold) then
set smallPhotos to {im} & smallPhotos
else
set largePhotos to {im} & largePhotos
end if
end if
end repeat
addsmallPhotostotheSmallAlbum
addlargePhotostotheLargeAlbum
addskippedPhotostotheSkippedAlbum
return "small photos: " & (length of smallPhotos) & ", larger photos : " & (length of largePhotos) & ", skipped: " & (length of skippedPhotos)
end if
end tell
Hi thanks
I had a look at power photos I would still have to go into the photos app and find the offenders and delete them im looking for all the small files unlike the poster all the 0.01 and 0.02 files that have creeped in over the years there is now way to delete them using PowerPhotos and they are spread all over the 3849 videos I have in my database
I just need to be able to list them within the photos app in time order so we can review the large files and delete the small 0.01 second files as they go up automatically to iCloud one little double tap and we have lots of these little mistakes everywhere
I had a look at power photos I would still have to go into the photos app and find the offenders
But PowerPhotos will reveal the photo in Photos if you control-click it. It will take you right to the photo in Photos in the Moments so you can delete it there.
The programming interface of Photos does not allow other applications to delete photos from Photos. Therefore, there is no application that is safe to use to delete photos or videos directly from a Photos Library.
You could write an AppleScript to collect all smaller items in an album and the delete the photos in this album from the library.
An AppleScript can read the file size of a media item in Photos.
I saved this script as a user tip: Script: How to find videos and photos in your Photos Library larger or smaller than a given file size
You cannot sort by file size in Photos.
You could however export the videos "File > Export > Export ... original files" to a folder on an external drive, and then use the Finder to sort this folder by file size.
This will tell you the biggest offenders.
Hi Leonie
that sounds like a good idea however how do we get them back into photos without causing duplicates ?
That is just, what I have been looking for. Does it also work on live photos, not only photos and videos?
I tested it on Live Photos, and it seems to work, Brigitte. But the AppleScript dictionary does not mention Live Photos as media items, so we cannot be sure.
How do I sort videos by length of time or by file size?
