Photos app - managing big libraries

[mcl82]

I have spent ages trying to find an article or advice on how to manage large Photos libraries with limited SSD and iCloud space. I just can't find anything that really addresses my situation. Here's the issue:

I have a MBP with 256 gb SSD. I also have 200 gb iCloud storage. But I have about 1.5 TB of dslr photos and videos. What's the best way to a mange this? Right now I have archived libraries (converted to Photos from aperture) on an external usb3 drive. I also have a smaller primary/current system library on the MBP that syncs with iCloud. But I am running out of space in that library on the SSD. When I tried to create a new primary library on my MBP and transfer the old one to the external drive, as soon as I made the new empty library the primary system library it pulled all the photos back down from iCloud just to fill it up again! It's driving me crazy. I don't want to buy more iCloud space because once the size goes beyond what my MBP can hold then I am relying on Apple to store my originals. I want copies myself that I can backup. I don't mind archiving older libraries and moving them off the MBP, but how do I start fresh with iCloud photos? I like to use iCloud to sync edits I make on my iPad so don't want to turn it off.

Anyone have suggestions or know of a post or article that discussed this? Thanks.

 

[maflynn]

Up until recently, I worked off a 256GB SSD, now that I have an iMac with 2TB of storage, my workflow has changed.
For aperture, I used to create a library by year. So for 2015, I had on my SSD, the 2015 library, but the 2014 images resided in their own library on an external drive. Now that 2015 has finished, I'd move that to the external drive and start a 2016 Aperture library.

I will say first off, I've given up using Aperture since apple killed it, and moved on to Lightroom. The advantages with LR, is the catalog will remain on your primary drive, and you can move your images off to another external drive within the app, so unlike Aperture (and I'm assuming Photos), you can view both your 2015 and 2014 images at the same time without needing to select a different library - follow what I'm saying.

 

[mcl82]

Up until recently, I worked off a 256GB SSD, now that I have an iMac with 2TB of storage, my workflow has changed.
For aperture, I used to create a library by year. So for 2015, I had on my SSD, the 2015 library, but the 2014 images resided in their own library on an external drive. Now that 2015 has finished, I'd move that to the external drive and start a 2016 Aperture library.

I will say first off, I've given up using Aperture since apple killed it, and moved on to Lightroom. The advantages with LR, is the catalog will remain on your primary drive, and you can move your images off to another external drive within the app, so unlike Aperture (and I'm assuming Photos), you can view both your 2015 and 2014 images at the same time without needing to select a different library - follow what I'm saying.

Yes, thanks. I guess Photos is just not good if you have a lot of photos. I will look at switching to Lightroom.

 

[TheGenerous]

Do you need all those photos and videos on the computer memory? maybe what you're looking for is a solution to keep your best photos and videos (as derivative jpgs and compressed videos) in your primary computer and cloud service while keeping a good archival system in an external harddrive and an offsite harddrive.

Look for dpbestflow website, it has a free and detailed workflow for photographers and video. If you need more there's their DAM Book

 

[maflynn]

Yes, thanks. I guess Photos is just not good if you have a lot of photos. I will look at switching to Lightroom.

I was never a fan of Photos, iPhotos was decent, but if you had a lot of images, then you were better off with Aperture. Apple unfortunately let that great app whither on the vine and then killed it off with an app (photos) that had ver few features that were in Aperture.

I moved on to Lightroom, given Apple's track record with its software (not updating it, then rewriting it, and stripping features when it gets re-released)

 

[robgendreau]

Yes, thanks. I guess Photos is just not good if you have a lot of photos. I will look at switching to Lightroom.

That's true.

As you have seen, it's kinda tailored to iCloud Photo Library, so you have to pay for that subscription since it's kind of an all or nothing deal with the "system" Photos library.

But you could use multiple libraries. Yes, that sorta defeats the purpose of something like Photos, but you're kinda stuck. But then again, does anyone even need 1.5TB of photos at hand? Have the system library use IPL and for stuff you are working on, and other libraries for other stuff. If you make those referenced libraries (vs. managed) then they can be stored on an external. You might have to manually move some stuff around at times, or use the new product from the iPhoto Library Manager developers, which promises library merging and searching across libraries.

But those are still workarounds at the end of the day. Maybe time for something else.