Apple Photo Library on hard drive extremely slow

[HailAlistair]

Is it just me or Apple Photo Library basically requires an SSD nowadays?
I have my library (130k photos, 3k videos, 1.7 TB total) on an HDD (8TB WD RED, 7200 rpm, formatted APFS, in an external docking bay) connected to an M1 Mac mini (16 GB RAM).
It is just painfully slow. It is just beach-balling all the time, and sometimes for minutes.

I kind of understand the need for an SSD for a photo library. The problem is that my Apple Photo Library is both a photo library and a video library. And I am enjoying shooting more and more videos recently. It seems a bit wasteful to me to store videos on SSDs...

 

[0128672]

That's a very large library and I think you answered your own question. Yes, an SSD will be much faster. Why would it be wasteful to store videos on a large SSD?

 

[FreakinEurekan]

I have mine on an external disk array, with three 7200RPM 4TB disks (8TB effective capacity, with disk redundancy). It’s not “Beach balling” but it’s noticeably slower than SSD based on comparison to my MacBook with local library - more so than the Music or TV libraries also on that array.

But, of course Photos is offering more & more capabilities. Face recognition, automatic sorting into Memories, etc - features I actually like & use. So I don’t necessarily want to optimize Photos for slower disk storage, if it means losing functionality. I think we’re getting to the point where disk storage should be relegated to backups, if at all.

 

[HailAlistair]

I have mine on an external disk array, with three 7200RPM 4TB disks (8TB effective capacity, with disk redundancy). It’s not “Beach balling” but it’s noticeably slower than SSD based on comparison to my MacBook with local library - more so than the Music or TV libraries also on that array.

But, of course Photos is offering more & more capabilities. Face recognition, automatic sorting into Memories, etc - features I actually like & use. So I don’t necessarily want to optimize Photos for slower disk storage, if it means losing functionality. I think we’re getting to the point where disk storage should be relegated to backups, if at all.

I'm going to try and rebuild the library, probably on a new drive, to see if that improves it.

 

[HailAlistair]

That's a very large library and I think you answered your own question. Yes, an SSD will be much faster. Why would it be wasteful to store videos on a large SSD?

The main problem is that, at the moment, I have the Apple photo library + other data (mainly other photos and videos) on the 8TB HDD. Combined, they are around 7TB. To move all that on an SSD, I would need an SSD with 10TB minimum. To have proper room to grow, 16TB or 18TB would be better. As far as I know, there are no SSDs with such storage that are affordable to consumers, or even prosumers.

So that would probably require splitting the data on two drives. SSD for the photo library and HDD for the rest of my data. Which is adding complexity...

On top of that, I only have an external 2-drive docking station. With the SSD, the data HDD, and the backup HDD, I don't have a way to connect the SSD without occupying another port. (maybe an external enclosure with 3 or more bays? or switching all external drives to a synology or something?)

 

[HailAlistair]

Why would it be wasteful to store videos on a large SSD?

Because they are very sequential files, I suppose.

 

[Fishrrman]

Is this a platter-based hard drive?
If so, it should be formatted for HFS+, and NOT APFS.

The only platter-based drives that should be formatted for APFS are drives with a bootable copy of the Mac OS on them, or a drive that is used for time machine (which REQUIRES APFS for the latest versions of the OS).

Otherwise, APFS will cause a platter-based drive to become very fragmented (slowing it down), and you may hear the drive heads "thrashing around" inside.

In any case...
I'd suggest that you get TWO 2tb SSDs.

Use one as your "primary external storage" drive.
Use the second one as a BACKUP of the primary external storage SSD.
Use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to maintain the backup (which will always be AN EXACT COPY of the source drive).

You don't have to buy the "latest, greatest, fastest" SSDs.
In fact, I recommend that you do not.

Instead, get 2.5" SATA SSDs.
These will run cool and adequately "fast enough" for your needs.

Also get TWO 2.5" USB3 external enclosures.
I recommend these:

SABRENT 2.5 Inch SATA to USB 3.0 Tool Free External Hard Drive Enclosure [Optimized for SSD, Support UASP SATA III] Black (EC-UASP)

SABRENT 2.5 Inch SATA to USB 3.0 Tool Free External Hard Drive Enclosure [Optimized for SSD, Support UASP SATA III] Black (EC-UASP)

www.amazon.com

(the drive and case just snap together, no tools needed).

For an SSD, you can use either APFS or HFS+.
If it was me -- again, for a DATA ONLY drive (no OS on it), I'd suggest HFS+.

Good luck.

 

[gilby101]

I have my library (130k photos, 3k videos, 1.7 TB total) on an HDD (8TB WD RED, 7200 rpm, formatted APFS, in an external docking bay) connected to an M1 Mac mini (16 GB RAM).

From the hardware perspective, is it really WD Red which I thought were 5400 rpm? If Red (and not Red Plus or Pro) suspect your disk is shingled (SMR) and that can be slow. Check out https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detailweb/a_id/29458

That is a large library for Apple Sphotos. From the software design point of view, you might consider moving to a library type that allows you to separate the catalog (database on SSD or system disk) and files (photo and audio on external storage). I recommend Lightroom for photos. Someone else may like to comment on video library.

 

[GregorMae]

This is really insane. Any ideas on how to solve it? Do I really have to replace my 6-month-old USB C G-drive with a new SSD?

 

[trainwrecka]

Is it just me or Apple Photo Library basically requires an SSD nowadays?
I have my library (130k photos, 3k videos, 1.7 TB total) on an HDD (8TB WD RED, 7200 rpm, formatted APFS, in an external docking bay) connected to an M1 Mac mini (16 GB RAM).
It is just painfully slow. It is just beach-balling all the time, and sometimes for minutes.

I kind of understand the need for an SSD for a photo library. The problem is that my Apple Photo Library is both a photo library and a video library. And I am enjoying shooting more and more videos recently. It seems a bit wasteful to me to store videos on SSDs...

Did you ever figure this issue out? I bought a new Mac mini with 24GB of RAM and run Photos from a 2TB SSD. It is so slow, it is painful. All other apps run like butter, but photos... every click takes 30 seconds - 30 minutes of beach balling.