How do I simplify my iMac photo collection by only using Picasa?
September 14, 2015 2:11 AM Subscribe
I manage my photos on my iMac with Picasa, but have realized that Apple's Photo app has sort of taken control of the library duties, and the "photos library.photolibrary" file is now in the tens of gigs...in short, that's way too large and I don't know where to start fixing this
First of all, I use Picasa. It's free, it's simple, and I can easily navigate the folders, especially when I add new pictures, they're right there. The few times I tried Photos, I couldn't find my folder directory to save my life.
I put my photos in a folder called username/Pictures. But I now have a directory within that called "photos library.photolibrary" The photos seem to be about 14 Gb in total, but the latter file is a whopping 90 Gb! I feel like deleting it but I'm sure that's a Bad Idea, so I've come here for advice.
Could I delete that file? Like I said, all I want for Christmas is my folder of pictures (and the specific subfolders), and Picasa, and that's it. How do I do this?
First of all, I use Picasa. It's free, it's simple, and I can easily navigate the folders, especially when I add new pictures, they're right there. The few times I tried Photos, I couldn't find my folder directory to save my life.
I put my photos in a folder called username/Pictures. But I now have a directory within that called "photos library.photolibrary" The photos seem to be about 14 Gb in total, but the latter file is a whopping 90 Gb! I feel like deleting it but I'm sure that's a Bad Idea, so I've come here for advice.
Could I delete that file? Like I said, all I want for Christmas is my folder of pictures (and the specific subfolders), and Picasa, and that's it. How do I do this?
Can you clarify this a bit? "Apple's Photo app has sort of taken control of the library duties".
Do you have an iPhone, and are you syncing your photos from it to iCloud Photo Library?
Have you ever launched the Photos app, and allowed it to import photos from your computer?
posted by misterbrandt at 8:36 AM on September 14, 2015
Do you have an iPhone, and are you syncing your photos from it to iCloud Photo Library?
Have you ever launched the Photos app, and allowed it to import photos from your computer?
posted by misterbrandt at 8:36 AM on September 14, 2015
You can right click on "photos library.photolibrary" and choose "Show Package Contents". In there is a folder called "Masters" those are all the original files and should amount to 14GB. The rest are edited images, thumbnails, etc.
posted by humboldt32 at 9:47 AM on September 14, 2015
posted by humboldt32 at 9:47 AM on September 14, 2015
Response by poster: Can you clarify this a bit? "Apple's Photo app has sort of taken control of the library duties".
By that I mean earlier this year, Apple replaced iPhoto with Photos.
Do you have an iPhone, and are you syncing your photos from it to iCloud Photo Library?
Yes, and yes, sort of. I have the free, 5GB setup with iCloud, and I think it's full. But I don't need that--or iPhoto--so it's superfluous to me.
Have you ever launched the Photos app, and allowed it to import photos from your computer?
Yes, so I guess iPhoto--and now Photos--has indexed all of my photos. Which is basically the problem. I just need a photo viewer--and I have one with Picasa--and I don't need Apple's intrusion.
posted by zardoz at 6:43 PM on September 14, 2015
By that I mean earlier this year, Apple replaced iPhoto with Photos.
Do you have an iPhone, and are you syncing your photos from it to iCloud Photo Library?
Yes, and yes, sort of. I have the free, 5GB setup with iCloud, and I think it's full. But I don't need that--or iPhoto--so it's superfluous to me.
Have you ever launched the Photos app, and allowed it to import photos from your computer?
Yes, so I guess iPhoto--and now Photos--has indexed all of my photos. Which is basically the problem. I just need a photo viewer--and I have one with Picasa--and I don't need Apple's intrusion.
posted by zardoz at 6:43 PM on September 14, 2015
The way Photos (and iPhoto before it) works is that it imports all of the images you feed it into a special file format that intentionally hides the underlying folder structure from you (as tomierna explains above). It does not index or reference images (technically, Photos can reference photos outside its Library, but it is not likely you are doing that)
So at some point, you intentionally imported some of your photos into iPhoto? What was your photo storage strategy at the time? What I am getting at is: are all of the photos you see within the iPhoto/Photos app duplicates that can be discarded, or do you think you need to extract those photos from the Mac photo app(s) and get them into Picasa where you want them?
If you need to rescue your photos from Photos.app, humboldt32 has your instructions. If you are 100% sure you already have copies of the photos that show up when you launch Photos, then you can delete the .photolibrary file. (Although I would recommend moving it to a flash drive or external hard drive for safekeeping, just in case you decide you need to restore them).
If you are not sure if you have duplicates or not, it looks from googling that Picasa for Mac maybe does not have "duplicate detection" built in, but there are some free tools you can download thaa will help you find/delete duplicates. So if you have any doubt about whether the photos in Photos can be discarded, extract them all using humboldt32's advice, import them into Picasa, and then delete duplicates .
posted by misterbrandt at 8:34 PM on September 14, 2015 [1 favorite]
So at some point, you intentionally imported some of your photos into iPhoto? What was your photo storage strategy at the time? What I am getting at is: are all of the photos you see within the iPhoto/Photos app duplicates that can be discarded, or do you think you need to extract those photos from the Mac photo app(s) and get them into Picasa where you want them?
If you need to rescue your photos from Photos.app, humboldt32 has your instructions. If you are 100% sure you already have copies of the photos that show up when you launch Photos, then you can delete the .photolibrary file. (Although I would recommend moving it to a flash drive or external hard drive for safekeeping, just in case you decide you need to restore them).
If you are not sure if you have duplicates or not, it looks from googling that Picasa for Mac maybe does not have "duplicate detection" built in, but there are some free tools you can download thaa will help you find/delete duplicates. So if you have any doubt about whether the photos in Photos can be discarded, extract them all using humboldt32's advice, import them into Picasa, and then delete duplicates .
posted by misterbrandt at 8:34 PM on September 14, 2015 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Like I said, my worry with deleting the .photolibrary file is that it is actually a kind of master file. Delete it, and I delete everything. Which would not be good. I'm running a program that is checking for duplicates, which should help. Thanks everyone for their input with this, I appreciate it.
posted by zardoz at 1:32 AM on September 15, 2015
posted by zardoz at 1:32 AM on September 15, 2015
Deleting the .photolibrary file will not delete photos, for example, in a folder on your desktop that you downloaded photos from your camera into. It doesn't' work like that. You really should think of your photos as files and manage them as files.
posted by humboldt32 at 9:18 AM on September 15, 2015
posted by humboldt32 at 9:18 AM on September 15, 2015
Best answer: Speaking of iPhoto specifically. By default, when copying photos to the mac, a copy will be placed in a folder of your choosing, and a copy will be placed in the iPhoto library. If you make any edits to pictures in iPhoto, and export them (save the edits), now you have a 3rd (or more) version of that photo.
I have been trying to clean up an iPhoto library that contained 80,000 pictures (many duplicates), and occupied 200Gigs of hard drive space. The fact that Apple does not want you to use the os file system to manage your photos is a major PITA when that is how most people manage files on a computer.
When you import your photos, there should be a folder Pictures or Originals, and this is where you should be managing the OS folder structure. The Apple libraries are archives of the photos, full resolution, that only Apple software uses. Each application will have its own library. I have both iPhoto and Aperture; one time I imported my iPhoto library, and now I have both an iPhoto library, and an Aperture library. If you do not use Apple software then these library files can be removed (I would recommend an external backup because no one wants to lose pictures). You can navigate these libraries as if they are os folders (I think that is an option in the mac system preferences).
There is an application in the App store called iPhoto library manager. This will allow you to create and manage multiple iPhoto libraries. There is no way to manage multiple libraries from within iPhoto (not sure if that is the case with Photos). This makes managing, and organizing content very difficult on Apple systems.
posted by bonofasitch at 1:49 PM on September 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
I have been trying to clean up an iPhoto library that contained 80,000 pictures (many duplicates), and occupied 200Gigs of hard drive space. The fact that Apple does not want you to use the os file system to manage your photos is a major PITA when that is how most people manage files on a computer.
When you import your photos, there should be a folder Pictures or Originals, and this is where you should be managing the OS folder structure. The Apple libraries are archives of the photos, full resolution, that only Apple software uses. Each application will have its own library. I have both iPhoto and Aperture; one time I imported my iPhoto library, and now I have both an iPhoto library, and an Aperture library. If you do not use Apple software then these library files can be removed (I would recommend an external backup because no one wants to lose pictures). You can navigate these libraries as if they are os folders (I think that is an option in the mac system preferences).
There is an application in the App store called iPhoto library manager. This will allow you to create and manage multiple iPhoto libraries. There is no way to manage multiple libraries from within iPhoto (not sure if that is the case with Photos). This makes managing, and organizing content very difficult on Apple systems.
posted by bonofasitch at 1:49 PM on September 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: bonofasitch, that is exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about, these duplicates and multiple photo libraries. I've tried out a number of apps--iPhoto, Aperture, Lightroom, etc--without realizing that I was making all these duplicates. I am an Apple fan overall, but between this issue and iTunes (that's another discussion), it makes me want to go back to a simple, cheap Windows PC.
posted by zardoz at 6:43 PM on September 15, 2015
posted by zardoz at 6:43 PM on September 15, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
Also, if you're using iCloud photos, you will find your photo stream updating into iPhotos/Photos, so that might be where the use is coming from.
Photos is going to hide your actual files inside a library bundle. Apple doesn't want you to go poking around in the filesystem.
I'm sorry this doesn't help with Picasa, but maybe it will be helpful in figuring out why your Photos library is taking up so much space.
posted by tomierna at 8:25 AM on September 14, 2015