Did iPhoto just create ~100GB of files?

[mickbab]

Hi guys,
Just went to plug in my external HDD to back up, and Time Machine tells me that there is 118GB of files to back up.

I've just installed iLife '11 and iWork '09 and upgraded to 10.6.6, but this seemed a little outrageous, and after a quick Finder search of all files modified since my last backup (10 days ago) I discovered over 10,000 (that's all Finder can tell me, I assume that there is more) .apversion and .apmaster files, and folders like "ct2UqWF2Tn28m2XMi6r46A" all in various iPhoto directories, created at the time I would have installed iPhoto.

Is there some way I can get rid of these? Because besides taking up space on my ext HD and taking ages to backup, they seem to be taking up considerable space on my internal drive as well.

Or do I have this completely wrong and those files aren't taking up space and I am just missing something?

Thanks all,
Michael.

 

[dllavaneras]

To see what's taking up so much of your HDD space, you can use Disk Inventory X. That way you can see if the files reside in the iPhoto directory or if there's another reason for all those files.

I stopped using iPhoto because it created a large JPG for every RAW file I shot, and after a while all those large resolution jpgs took up a considerable amount of Gb. If you shoot in RAW, you might be losing space because of that. I have no experience with the latest version of iPhoto, but previous versions did that.

 

[Tumbleweed666]

Sounds like these are changed files, if the library structure has changed going from 9 to 11 with iPhoto that could be enough for a large number.

If you arent happy with iPhoto managing files you'll have to move to another app that doesn't have a big library, or use its own structures but uses your own folders instead (perhaps Picasa, or PSE9)

If you start messing with iPhotos internal files, expect big problems.

 

[ucdesai]

If you are importing your pictures On your Mac thru different application, iPhoto by default will make another copy to iPhoto database when you import your files to iphoto library and it will use lots of your hard drive space. There is an option in preferences and you need to uncheck that box. Same is true for even iTunes.