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Level 1

12 points

What is the optimized size of a 1TB Photos library?

I plan on purchasing a MacBook Air 128GB. I have photos and videos that equal about 1 TB. I just bought the iCloud 2TB storage plan. Will a 128GB Mac be enough? I obviously want space for other things. I'm just wondering what the optimized library would be 10GB, 40GB, 80GB... I understand that when you view any photos or videos it downloads better versions to your computer but I’m just talking about bare bones optimized library size of 1TB of photos and videos.

Posted on Oct 20, 2018 10:14 AM

Best reply

markwmsn

Level 6

14,999 points

Posted on Oct 20, 2018 9:04 PM

It depends on a lot of factors, but the range 10%-20% is quoted often in this forum. That suggests you should allow 100GB-200GB, too much for a 128GB MBA even on the low end of the range.

A single data point: My 430GB iCloud Photo Library takes up 48GB on my MacBook Pro running Mojave and Photos 4.0. That's about 11%.

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What is the optimized size of a 1TB Photos library?

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