iPhoto Library problems (too big!)

[Joeytpg]

Hi guys, I need some help... My iPhoto Library is getting too big, and it's basically eating my hard drive. I researched and found out that iPhoto pretty much duplicates the photos when you modify them. I love iPhoto, the organization, and everything, but honestly guys, I don't wanna deal with the added space that it holds.

Can someone recommend me a GOOD photo manager that doesn't hold extra space?

thanks.

 

[AxisOfBeagles]

Dunno about a better photo library ... but for that reason, as well as a coupl others, I do not edit from within iPhoto.
I downlaod from camera to computer via the Canon EOS utility. Any simple utility will do - I like the ability to apply my chosen naming convention at the time of downloading. Then I import those RAW images into iPhoto - but do all mey CS2 / whatever editing on those original RAW images - not on the ones I imported to iPhoto. I then import any 'final' images into the iPhoto lbrary.

That way, iPhoto is managing my library of original assets, and final images. But all 'in process' stuff is outside of iPhoto.

 

[66217]

Download a trial of Aperture. Once you get to know it and understand it you'll love it.

As for Photoshop, it depends on your needs, but with Aperture I find myself almost never using Photoshop.

 

[Karpfish]

If you want a program that will do most of the organizing for you, Aperture is a great choice. However, I did not find it to be the best when it came to actual editing. Lightroom is my favorite for that, and because of that Lightroom in conjunction with Photoshop is my program of choice. I spend several hours a day in Lightroom, so for me it is essential to be comfortable with the program and like the results it produces.

 

[maestrokev]

I also use iPhoto only on final outputted jpg images from Lightroom. I also keep separate iPhoto libraries for each photo album book I create to keep the library file to a manageable size.

 

[Joeytpg]

thanks for the reply guys. I don't really do heavy photo editing, just the normal "enhance" so I don't use photoshop.

I just want a good program to "manage" my photos so I can view them organized as iPhoto WITHOUT duplicating my photos everytime I "enhance" it or change something

 

[Drgroomes]

Help I Deleted Iphoto!!

guys,
i think i messed up BIG time. A couple of days ago, for some reason my iPhoto would not run. Everytime i clicked on it, it would attempt to open then quit. It would then inform me that the program "unexpectedly" quit and would i like to re-launch? i click on the "relaunch" button only to have the same thing happen over and over and over.
So.....i terminated the iPhoto application. ( i trashed it) and tried to download another app online. And now see that won't work. An alert tells me that "an eligible iPhoto application was not found in the location/Applications".
I don't have iPhoto anymore....can someone PLEASE tell me what i did wrong and what to do???

 

[AxisOfBeagles]

1. If you have AppleCare for that computer, call them. Great support.

2. If you don;t have AppleCare, get it - if your photo library is worth the $

3. If it isn't, or you're just too cheap, then post this same question as a top post in this forum - and in the Mac forums - rather than buried as a reply to another post.

Good luck - wish I could help, but I haven't a clue.

 

[Drgroomes]

Iphoto disaster!!

Well.....i do NOT have Applecare. I bought my Imac G5 back in 2006, i was told that it was too late to get Applecare. Is that true? Dude i really must of messed up......

 

[Drgroomes]

Iphoto disaster!!

Well.....i do NOT have Applecare. I bought my Imac G5 back in 2006, i was told that it was too late to get Applecare now. Is that true?

 

[66217]

Just install iPhoto again from the DVD that came with your Mac. Or if you have Time Machine you might be able to restore the iPhoto application.

Really, no need to worry, you might have deleted the app, but that doesn't means you deleted your photos.


EDIT: Yes, you only have one year to get Applecare, so you are out of luck there.

 

[ChrisA]

guys,

I don't have iPhoto anymore....can someone PLEASE tell me what i did wrong and what to do???

Can't you move it back out of the trash to where it goes? Failing that simply reinstall it from the CD/DVD that you got it from. You photo library should still be Ok. It is in "Pictures". If the library is not backed up now would be a great time to make a coupe redundent copies.

Hi guys, I need some help... My iPhoto Library is getting too big, and it's basically eating my hard drive. I researched and found out that iPhoto pretty much duplicates the photos when you modify them. I love iPhoto, the organization, and everything, but honestly guys, I don't wanna deal with the added space that it holds.

Can someone recommend me a GOOD photo manager that doesn't hold extra space?

thanks.

First off, why worry? I just bought a 500GB disk drive for $100. That works out to 20 cents per gigabyte. With prices like that it cost less then a peny to store many image files. Just go buy a bigger disk. Don't stop there because you will need a few more disks for backups.

Aperture can do non-detructive edits. What it does is keep the image yuo imported in the library and when you make changes it only stored the changes which ar stored in a small test file. But Aperture does keep lots of JPG preview and thumb nail images. It really does not save space. Many times Aperture does need to keep duplicate, for example if an image is run through Photoshop of one of Aperure's new pluig in filters.

If you want software to manage you photo collection you are just going to have to give it the space it needs. Either that ro manage everything yourself

Well.....i do NOT have Applecare. I bought my Imac G5 back in 2006, i was told that it was too late to get Applecare. Is that true? Dude i really must of messed up......

Why would you need Applecare? Just you you can hear some guy on the phone say "Reinstall iPhoto." Then you say "How?" and he talls you to go find your CD with iLife on it., put it in the drive and follow the instructions.

I also use iPhoto only on final outputted jpg images from Lightroom. I also keep separate iPhoto libraries for each photo album book I create to keep the library file to a manageable size.

Man, is that a lot of work? You must not have many photos or you have a lot of free time. Do you really keep each allbum in it's own library? Doesn't that defete the purpose of iPhoto? You can't search across libraries so you'd just have to remember what photos are where.

Is there something you need Lightromm for that iPhoto can't do?

 

[johnsy]

Do you have iPhoto 2008? It organizes photos into events. I think this way is very easy to find whatever. Can't find something? Just click all photos and you will see what you need. As far as editing... Iphoto was newer about editing. You can do a few small things, but that is it. It is your photo manager (which is very good for that purpose). If you want to edit use PHOTO EDITING PROGRAM.
About A LOT OF WORK. Well just practice to take better pictures. You will need to edit less. Get a DSLR, that will make you better pictures (optically- it has dedicated lens vs some small crummy stuff inside point and shoot).

Finding your pictures. Iphoto is just front end. Your pictures stored on a hard drive and can be accessed without iphoto- just go to macintosh HD--->pictures-->iphoto library---->(now it might prompt you to open with iphoto and if you uninstalled I am not sure what will happen, but just right click it and select SHOW PACKAGE CONTENTS.

AN HERE YOU ARE!

 

[johnsy]

and get 1TB hard drive, they cheap enough. It is almost a joke to use small internal hard drive for storage.

 

[johnsy]

You can also delete all original if you want just edited ones- just follow my path I posted earlier and add ---->Originals, then delete whatever you don't want to keep. The problem however is not with iphoto but wit SMALL hard drive!!! Iphoto can hold (correct me if I am wrong with the number) 1000-1500 pictures in each library.

 

[Drgroomes]

its me again.....

about a month ago i accidently deleted my iphoto application. I now have installed the the 2008 iLife onto my computer. However when i try to open the iphoto it tell me to upgrade and gives me this message:

"Your photo library will not be readable by previous versions of iPhoto after the upgrade. The upgrade process may take several minutes depending on the number of photos in the library."

When i click on the upgrade button it then replies that:

"This photo library is damaged and cannot be upgraded"

What do i do?

 

[Driver]

"Your photo library will not be readable by previous versions of iPhoto after the upgrade. The upgrade process may take several minutes depending on the number of photos in the library."

This is not that difficult. Just tell it to go ahead and upgrade your Library. The newer version just changes the file a little. As long as you are not planning to go back to an older version of iPhoto then it should not be an issue. No different than new Photoshop files not being readable by older versions (unless you save differently). No big deal...

 

[ChrisA]

The problem however is not with iphoto but wit SMALL hard drive!!! Iphoto can hold (correct me if I am wrong with the number) 1000-1500 pictures in each library.

Are you kidding? Move the decimal point over two places. 100,000 - 150,000 is closer. The specs say it can do 250,000

If iPhoto could only hold 1,000 images it would be nearly usless. It's easy to shoot 1,000 photos in a weekend.

Today in the paper Fry's has a 750GB disk for $99.95 That means that if each of those 250K photos was a 3MB file you could store the entire library for $100.

 

[Everythingisnt]

Well, my first recommendation would be just to buy external hard drives, but if you don't want to deal with that stuff then I would suggest Aperture.

It's rather expensive (at least I thought it was) but it's a very good product and more then worth the price.

 

[dllavaneras]

To follow the original post, is it safe to simply delete all the folder contained inside the "Modified" folder? Since iPhoto doesn't have an "Actual size" button (or if it does I haven't seen it yet), I used to click "edit" to see it at 100%. But every time I clicked "edit" it duplicated the file, even if I never did anything to the pic.

So, can I just nuke the folders or do I have to do something different?

 

[razvandan]

Try iSlimPhoto, it will make your library slim

Hi guys, I need some help... My iPhoto Library is getting too big, and it's basically eating my hard drive. I researched and found out that iPhoto pretty much duplicates the photos when you modify them. I love iPhoto, the organization, and everything, but honestly guys, I don't wanna deal with the added space that it holds.

Can someone recommend me a GOOD photo manager that doesn't hold extra space?

thanks.

I think for what you need iPhoto is the best photo organizing tool.

I just finished the free app iSlimPhoto -- please go ahead and use it to slim down your iPhoto library. It will take away 40-80% of its weight, without any noticeable loss in quality on your monitor (multi-megapixel images are resized anyway to be displayed on your monitor).

Grab it here:

http://www.appleications.com/iSlimPhoto/

Let me know if you liked it.

 

[ChrisA]

Can someone recommend me a GOOD photo manager that doesn't hold extra space?

Not destroying your original file is a Good Thing. I would not even consider software that destroyed original files.

You can buy a 1TB disk drive for only $100 now. Buy a few of these. One to hold the iPhoto library and at least two others to hold backup copies of the library. Disk space is so cheap there is no reason to try and save it any more.

To answer a question posted above: No. It is NEVER safe to do ANYTHING in the iPhoto library. Never modify any files in there yourself. Let iPhoto do that. Well, OK it you truely understand exactly how iPhoto works, not just think you understand, but really do then you can go in an adjust to compression ratio of some jpg files or make links ("alieases" in apple-speak) but be sure you have multiple backup copies of the library.

 

[cutcopypaste]

You can also delete all original if you want just edited ones- just follow my path I posted earlier and add ---->Originals, then delete whatever you don't want to keep. The problem however is not with iphoto but wit SMALL hard drive!!! Iphoto can hold (correct me if I am wrong with the number) 1000-1500 pictures in each library.

I hate this attitude. Yeah, harddrives are cheap, so lets design programs so they just waste harddrive space for no good reason. $100 for an external drive is still $100 that could have been spent elsewhere if the software wasn't dumb. But I guess that's the 'mac way' .. it just works! ?? Picasa doesn't add doubles of all your photos, it leaves em where they are. It doesn't even save your edits as additional photos, it just keeps track of what filters you've applied and displays them as such (unless you specifically export the files/tell it to update) so it's nondestructive without eating up your hard-drive. I think I'm going to hop on Picasa for the Mac when it comes out.. I find it more inutitive than iphoto basically bc it's fewer mouseclicks to accomplish things (esp now that it has keywords).. haven't used iPhoto extensively I'll admit, but I don't see it doing a whole lot that picasa doesn't

 

[-hh]

I think for what you need iPhoto is the best photo organizing tool.

I just finished the free app iSlimPhoto -- please go ahead and use it to slim down your iPhoto library. It will take away 40-80% of its weight, without any noticeable loss in quality on your monitor (multi-megapixel images are resized anyway to be displayed on your monitor).

Just reading your page quickly, I don't think that it does what the OP was asking for: his concern was that his "BIG" library was too big and your App doesn't do anything about that per se, but merely makes a down-rezzed duplicate copy of the 'BIG' library: it doesn't appear to actually change Mr. BIG.

And since this means that you're not destroying the originals, that's not a bad thing IMO (its a good thing!) - its simply that this wasn't what the OP was looking for.

I hate this attitude. Yeah, harddrives are cheap, so lets design programs so they just waste harddrive space for no good reason. $100 for an external drive is still $100 that could have been spent elsewhere if the software wasn't dumb. But I guess that's the 'mac way' .. it just works! ?? Picasa doesn't add doubles of all your photos, it leaves em where they are. It doesn't even save your edits as additional photos, it just keeps track of what filters you've applied and displays them as such (unless you specifically export the files/tell it to update) so it's nondestructive without eating up your hard-drive.

Everything in life is a trade-off; better get used to that.

The trade-off here is that iPhoto does eat space, but it leaves you with an unmodified original and a modified version - - both of which are not in a proprietary data format. As such, you're not STUCK with iPhoto for the rest of your (and its) life.

That's the 'good reason' right there.

I think I'm going to hop on Picasa for the Mac when it comes out..

You're free to use whatever you like.

But please remember to refrain from whining if a problem you've now been warned about comes back to bite you in the ... posterior regions.

To that end, before committing a lot of labor to Picasa (or anything else) you may want to check to see what it has today for its "exit migration" strategies, such as a tool that faithfully preserves both your originals as well as applying all of your modifications and creating for export a full file version of your modified....and capable of being automated for your entire portfolio.

If that sort of tool doesn't exist, then you may be very well looking at having to abandon all of your file modifications at some point in the future...

And that's your trade-off for using this tool to save some HD space today.


FWIW, I've observed is that while the iPhoto data directory is a big chunk of where I'm using storage capacity, its not necessarily because of 'inefficiency' but because of heavy utilization: my iPhoto library currently has 22,000 images in it and yet the Originals folder consumes roughly 70GB, which means that if I modified 100% of my originals, then the total disk consumption would be ~150GB in total. In the big scheme of things where a 1TB drive now costs $110, that's on the order of ~$20 worth of storage.

I'm not about to complain about today's storage space costs, because I still have a few CD-R disks that when new cost me $10 per disk.


-hh

 

[dmelgar]

Are there programs to help you manage a big iPhoto library? It seems that all iPhoto libraries are destined to become too big. Then what.

Things I can imagine needing to do with photos:
- Have a huge archive of photos which may or may not be readily accessible, but it at least needs to be searchable.
- Be able to choose what set of photos on want on my laptop hard drive. I'd like things such as:
-- A particular event or set of events.
-- Most recent pictures
-- Photos found using some search criteria in iPhoto
- I'd like management of laptop hard drive and archive storage to be as seamless as possible, meaning that photos get moved around as needed to that I never run out of space.

Does something like this exist?
Is there a way to approximate this with iPhoto?
Do most people have this problem? Would this be useful to many people?

I love iPhoto with events and faces. But I don't see how its practical managing photos, too dependent on its own internal structure, and it can't handle playing videos in a slideshow mixed in with photos.