My Library.photoslibrary of my newly converted photo app, is over 200gb. I notice that there are several subordinate files of several gigabytes.
Are there any safe techniques to reduce the size of these files (apart from deleting photos)?
MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11)
How many photos have you imported, and what format are the photos? Usually the Photos library will be no larger than 1.5 times of the size of the original image files. The auxilliary files photos is adding to the library are nessary for photos to speed up browsing and sharing with other applications.
if you are syncing your library to mobile devices with iTunes, an additional iPod Photo cache might be created, and this folder can be quite large, see: iTunes: Understanding the iPod Photo Cache folder
Ok, from what you say, it looks like my library is as small as it can be.
masters 184gb
thumbnails 24gb
resources 18gb
database 2.5 gb
previews 118mb.
Could the thumbnails be reduced in size? I mean, in Aperture, they grew and grew, duplicating. Does something similar occur in Photos?
no
You can not control anything in the library - there are no user serviceable parts in it - and nothing you have looks out of line
the only way to reduce it's size is to use iCloud Photo library and set optimized photos on the Mac (and any device with limited storage avaialble)
LN
In Aperture you had a preferences setting to specify the size of the previews, but in Photos this is all automatic.
Thanks for the info.
There is this large folder "modelresources" (but I could not find a supermodel there — haha). It contains photos and other stuff. Can this be deleted or at least reduced in size? I am thinking that there is unnecessary stuff left from the aperture to photos transfer. Am I right or just blowing steam?
I am thinking that there is unnecessary stuff left from the aperture to photos transfer. Am I right or just blowing steam?
It is not documented, what Photos is storing in modelresources. I found there copies of the origininal files used for syncing with iCloud, faces thumbnails, all externally edited photos. Are you using a referenced library? This folder will be particularly large, if your original files are referenced. Deleting items from his folder is not safe. You cannot delete any parts of the library, other than the iPod Photo cache. All parts are created by Photos because it needs them to speed up the processing or keep track of edits. The only thing that will happen, if you delete items will either be, that you slow down Photos, because needs to recreate the folders or you damage the library beyond repair and Photos will not be able to open it.
If you are running out of storage, move the Photos library to an external drive.
Reduce size Library.photoslibrary ? Possible
