iPhoto Library is really slow with 13.4 GB pictures!

[DPH]

Hi, I have now started the project organize family pictures, and there is a big job. Now I've got an iPhoto library that is 13.4 GB big (only family pictures), and iPhoto is really slow, and not only that, I bought myself a QNAP TS-219P NAS as I drive in RAID1, so I could save iPhoto Library on it, its so important to save picture a safe place. but over the gigabit network is not possible to run iPhoto, so neither I or the rest of his family gets the pleasure of your iPhoto Library. Can anyone help to figure out a way I can save my family photos on my NAS, so that I and the rest of the family enjoy the pictures?

Someone who has another better program than iPhoto, which we can use? or how does it do? for iPhoto is useless when everything is going so slow, and faces feature is more laggy that anything other on my macbook.

Should i store the pictures in a folder? or what should i do? really want to use iphoto or something simmular!

tnx for all the help if anyone can help me! and sorry for my really ****** english!

 

[jerryrock]

Apple Aperture.

 

[DPH]

Thank you! I'm testing Apple Aperture right now, is there any special way you would recommend me to store photos, continue to use the iPhoto library?, Or is it smarter to create the folder system?

 

[mfacey]

Run your iphoto library locally on your macbook's disk. Then do a Time Machine backup (or any kind of regular backup) to your NAS.
13GB for a iPhoto gallery really isn't that huge... What model Macbook are you running?

 

[mtbdudex]

.....Now I've got an iPhoto library that is 13.4 GB big (only family pictures), and iPhoto is really slow.......

Someone who has another better program than iPhoto, which we can use? or how does it do? for iPhoto is useless when everything is going so slow, and faces feature is more laggy that anything other on my macbook.

For reference: I'm at 171GB iPhoto library on a 2.5 year old iMac w 4GB RAM (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) , switching to Aperture 3 later this Spring, house cleaning time.
Even then, mine not really "slow" per say, at times lag but not bad. Faces has always been sorta "laggy" for me as well.

 

[sammich]

Dunno, but home NAS' aren't really known for their high speed IOPS (how fast requests for data are handled). It might just be that iPhoto is just programmed to access data a lot, and the NAS box just doesn't take it that well.

In iPhoto/Aperture, just like in iTunes, you can set it up to share all your media to people in your network. Anyone with iPhoto can look at another shared Library (provided iPhoto is open on the host computer).

See how copying the iPhoto Library to your computer locally will speed things up.

 

[maddagascar]

i just store all my photos in a folder, i haven't really ever thought about organizing them, cause it's like it would make double the space if i had them in the folder, then in iPhoto. cause i would have a ton of different folders for every time i took a different occasion.

maybe in the future, i'll give it a test shot, i have aperture, but that seems confusing..lol. but i first have to backup all my photos, cause it's only on my HD.

 

[jerryrock]

Thank you! I'm testing Apple Aperture right now, is there any special way you would recommend me to store photos, continue to use the iPhoto library?, Or is it smarter to create the folder system?

Aperture uses it's own secure storage system called vault.
I store my photos on a separate drive.

 

[DPH]

Run your iphoto library locally on your macbook's disk. Then do a Time Machine backup (or any kind of regular backup) to your NAS.
13GB for a iPhoto gallery really isn't that huge... What model Macbook are you running?

Its abit hard to take a time machine backup to an NAS, its alot of problems, so thats not an option for me, its hard to get the time machine backup into the macbook again if the drive fails etc!

I got an Macbook Unibody late 2008, 2 ghz core2duo and 4 gb ram, is this bad for aperture?

Aperture uses it's own secure storage system called vault.
I store my photos on a separate drive.

Yes, i have found out, I'm backing up my Aperture now with vault, hope it work great! using AFP sharing to the NAS i think this may be the best way for me! and i found out that Aperture is much more responsive than iPhoto! its a new world!


Edit: It was very slow to use AFP sharing with Aperture 3 to backup my Aperture Library, so what i did instead, was that my QNAP TS-219P supports iSCSI! so i made a 50 GB big iSCSI share, and im now using it as my Aperture Vault, it works perfect!! i think this is the best way to backup Aperture!

 

[ChrisA]

Run your iphoto library locally on your macbook's disk. Then do a Time Machine backup (or any kind of regular backup) to your NAS.
13GB for a iPhoto gallery really isn't that huge... What model Macbook are you running?

Yes agree 100%. Run the iPhoto library on the internal disk drive. Use you largest external drive for Time Machine. 13GB is actually tiny and would fit even on a small notebook drive. But really if you wanted "speed" you'd not be using a notebook computer.

Aperture can be faster but you have to set it up for speed. Turn on those "yellow borders" that say you are working with reduced resolution images and set the preview size to be small, maybe down to 500 pixels or even less. Thos two things make Aperture pretty fast but have to turn the yellow borders off to edit an image then back on for organizing images. And ALWAYS let iphot or Aperure keep all the files inside the library.

Use both Time Machine and a set of external disk that yu rote through an off site location. But heck with only 13BG you could even make a backup set to DVD

Ho, and about NAS. Even on GB Eithernet, can it really "flood" the network. Most low cost NAS units have poor preformance because the CPU inthem is about the same as inside a router or even cellphone, just some low end ARM procesor. They don't have much internal RAM. You have to spend about as much as a server class PC to get a good one.

 

[DPH]

Yes agree 100%. Run the iPhoto library on the internal disk drive. Use you largest external drive for Time Machine. 13GB is actually tiny and would fit even on a small notebook drive. But really if you wanted "speed" you'd not be using a notebook computer.

Aperture can be faster but you have to set it up for speed. Turn on those "yellow borders" that say you are working with reduced resolution images and set the preview size to be small, maybe down to 500 pixels or even less. Thos two things make Aperture pretty fast but have to turn the yellow borders off to edit an image then back on for organizing images. And ALWAYS let iphot or Aperure keep all the files inside the library.

Use both Time Machine and a set of external disk that yu rote through an off site location. But heck with only 13BG you could even make a backup set to DVD

Ho, and about NAS. Even on GB Eithernet, can it really "flood" the network. Most low cost NAS units have poor preformance because the CPU inthem is about the same as inside a router or even cellphone, just some low end ARM procesor. They don't have much internal RAM. You have to spend about as much as a server class PC to get a good one.

Thanks for a good post. I will now use Time Machine with Aperture on a 250 gb wd passport, and i have now set up my NAS(running 1 TB in RAID!1) to run 50 gb as iSCSI, and im backing the Aperture vault up via iSCSI that works great!(iSCSI is so much faster than AFP, i dont think you can use Aperture vault with AFP) so i think thats the best way to make sure i got backup of all the photos!, tnx im gonna check out how i can do Aperture faster!

edit: im now using yellow boarder as you said, and everything goes smooth! tnx for the help!