Photos app - managing 1.5TB libary

[conamor]

Hi,

I would like to see how you would be approaching my 1.5TB library. I have a couple others under 100GB, these were created when I wanted to easily manage an event taken and then finally imported regular photos into "that" event. Anyway, this 1.5TB library and those 5 100GB libraries are a pain to manage.

What would you be doing to easily manage this? Create multiple libraries? such as per year? Leave the 1.5TB intact, import the other libraries and create "albums/folders" within that master library?

Thanks for all your input!

 

[MCAsan]

Are you doing managed libraries with all raw files and edits inside a database package or, are you storing you original raw images in referenced file system folders?

 

[Ledgem]

My Photos library is currently sitting at 1.22 TB. It has a mix of video and image files. It imports all originals, rather than using a referenced library. I sort photos into albums, and group albums by years and season (such as 2019-1 spring, 2019-2 summer, 2019-3 autumn, and 2019-4 winter)

I would think that having multiple Photos libraries would be more of a pain, and would also reduce some of the effectiveness of Photos for certain things (like facial recognition).

It sounds like this is more of a workflow question than pure library management. The questions are, what is your image intake and editing workflow, and are you doing a mix of photo and video or pure photos? What makes your current setup a "pain to manage" - is it purely a storage space issue, or is there a performance issue with the library?

For me, Photos is a horrid image culling program (relatively slow to load images, and there is no way to view multiple photos enlarged at the same time for comparison). I also find it limited as an editor. I only shoot RAW, and instead import all images into Capture One Pro. I do my culling, sorting, and editing there. Then I export photos and convert to HEIC; those photos are then imported into Photos. It's a bit more work, but I mirror the sorting structure in Capture One and Photos so that I can always easily go back to the "digital negative" if needed. Photos is used purely as a viewing and sharing platform for finished photos and albums.

Capture One makes management of multiple catalogs fairly easy, too. I archive data to a Drobo, but it's slower to work off of than my internal SSD. However, my SSD fills up very quickly with all of the RAW files. After completing albums, I export the completed albums as a catalog file from my SSD and then import them into the Capture One archival catalog on my Drobo. I'm then free to wipe them off of my SSD, keeping it clear for new images. I don't believe that similar operations can be performed with Photos.

 

[MCAsan]

I use only referenced libraries in Lr, C1P, or Photo Raw. The import creates date based folders such as: yyyy/yyyy-mm-dd. Because these file system folders are referenced by the catalogs, the folders can be on N number of different drives. None of these folders are on my iMac's boot SSD. They are all sitting in on external drives. The catalog and preview folders are sitting on the internal SSD. Makes for a fast workflow that does is not limited by the capacity of an internal drive. My library is 1.49TB with over 80,000 images.

 

[Ray2]

Can the OP elaborate on why it’s a pain? What is it that's consuming time?

I have near 1tb in Lightroom spread over 25 years. Mostly events that become “dormant” once edits are complete and subjects which are always active. I spend virtually zero time on anything to do with “managing”.

On the chance this this may be of use. I use Lightroom for edits and management only. All finished work goes to Photos (resized jpeg's, sans keywording and ratings) which handles albums and distribution. I did the same with Aperture and iPhoto. I don’t care about dating file names in Lightroom. That’s what metadata and filtering is for. I do date the folders the files/event resides in. I use names for the than 10 subject folders I have. That provides order in the Folders column.

 

[conamor]

Are you doing managed libraries with all raw files and edits inside a database package or, are you storing you original raw images in referenced file system folders?

Managed library, a mix of raw, jpg and video files.

Never sorted them or use tag. I have a long time dealing with that now.

 

[conamor]

Can the OP elaborate on why it’s a pain? What is it that's consuming time?

Because those libraries are a mix of photoshoot, family pictures, friends and different events. This is why it’s a pain to find a specific picture when it is not well organized and there is only 1 person to blame...
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My Photos library is currently sitting at 1.22 TB. It has a mix of video and image files. It imports all originals, rather than using a referenced library. I sort photos into albums, and group albums by years and season (such as 2019-1 spring, 2019-2 summer, 2019-3 autumn, and 2019-4 winter)

I would think that having multiple Photos libraries would be more of a pain, and would also reduce some of the effectiveness of Photos for certain things (like facial recognition).

It sounds like this is more of a workflow question than pure library management. The questions are, what is your image intake and editing workflow, and are you doing a mix of photo and video or pure photos? What makes your current setup a "pain to manage" - is it purely a storage space issue, or is there a performance issue with the library?

For me, Photos is a horrid image culling program (relatively slow to load images, and there is no way to view multiple photos enlarged at the same time for comparison). I also find it limited as an editor. I only shoot RAW, and instead import all images into Capture One Pro. I do my culling, sorting, and editing there. Then I export photos and convert to HEIC; those photos are then imported into Photos. It's a bit more work, but I mirror the sorting structure in Capture One and Photos so that I can always easily go back to the "digital negative" if needed. Photos is used purely as a viewing and sharing platform for finished photos and albums.

Capture One makes management of multiple catalogs fairly easy, too. I archive data to a Drobo, but it's slower to work off of than my internal SSD. However, my SSD fills up very quickly with all of the RAW files. After completing albums, I export the completed albums as a catalog file from my SSD and then import them into the Capture One archival catalog on my Drobo. I'm then free to wipe them off of my SSD, keeping it clear for new images. I don't believe that similar operations can be performed with Photos.

It is a workflow management issue... It is a mix of pictures and video files. I directly make small adjustments in photo, it does what I need.

I guess I will need to start from my photo 1 and make my way up to the 1.5TB and sort the hell out of this! also... merge my smaller libraries into the big master one.

 

[BigMcGuire]

I have a 98GB Apple Photos library with 60,000 photos and videos (1800 are videos) in iCloud. I find this library becoming cumbersome because whenever I get a new iPhone - it takes a few days to download all the photos again via iCloud and weeks and weeks to do the faces/organization/etc...

Last year I moved from Google Photos to iCloud Photo Storage. Found out Google duplicated most of my photos and I spent half a year deleting all the duplicates by hand (going from over 100k photos to 60k).

I still am culling my unwanted photos. Any significant change to my photos database results in significant CPU usage and time spent syncing that to my iPad and my iPhone. Like, I just deleted 8,000 photos and my iPhone still shows the same GB storage usage (though photo count shows correct).

That said, I LOVE being able to take photos / save photos on any 3 devices and have it instantly available on all the other devices.

---------------------------------------------------------

I tried Adobe Lightroom one time - paid the subscription - spent a day at 100% CPU while it tried to import all my photos - and decided to stick with iCloud Photos for now. I don't want to pay Adobe but it looks like the only alternative.

For you? Dang. Had I continued my photography hobby, I'd be in the same boat as you.

Like you, I never sorted - used albums in Google Photos but that didn't transfer to Apple so I have no albums, no tags, just sorted by date taken - and even a few thousand photos lost their date taken in the transfer.

Sorry for no solution but -- watching thread with much anticipation. I'd probably put into 1 database, pay $9.99 for 2TB and try to get it in iCloud. Then optimize storage on iPhone/iPad if you had those after you've spent time culling it.

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Because those libraries are a mix of photoshoot, family pictures, friends and different events. This is why it’s a pain to find a specific picture when it is not well organized and there is only 1 person to blame...
[automerge]1571325754[/automerge]



It is a workflow management issue... It is a mix of pictures and video files. I directly make small adjustments in photo, it does what I need.

I guess I will need to start from my photo 1 and make my way up to the 1.5TB and sort the hell out of this! also... merge my smaller libraries into the big master one.

Yep, that's what I'd do. I spent most of last year and this year spending some free weekends just manually going through my "mess" - I am just deleting duplicates and photos I don't want - creating albums here and there (I only have 20 albums so far). Eventually I hope to create albums and mass tag over the next few years.

My family wants my photos - I am the family photographer.

 

[conamor]

I got that issue to where it duplicated and also imported different iphones photos and videos without checking the delete after import... So it is a bit messy. I'll simply take it easy, photo by photo, delete the dupes and remove the non-keepers, the shots where the pose was like this and this one like that and you still keep it because it is a cute picture, anyway...

Conclusion: 1 Library, deletion of dupes and non-keepers, create some album and maybe use tags so I can find myself better.

 

[Ray2]

Some thoughts:

What do you want, what’s important, what’s not.

I'm assuming you’re NOT using a referenced library.

I'm assuming, given that the size of your library is 1.5tb, it resides on an external. And it’s not an ssd. Do yourself a humongous favor and replace that spinner with an ssd. Minimum usb 3 or C bus, Thunderbolt is so much nicer.

Others should please chime in: I'm thinking:

1. Keep your existing libraries, for now.
2. Tackle the duplicate files issue.

Download PhotoSweeper X. Pay the money. This app does an excellent job of finding duplicate files. It can scan folders, photo libraries and scan and analyze multiple sources simultaneously. Nice UI. PM me if you get stuck with settings. I have never used it on a Photos library. I assume the above holds true. I think it’s much better than it’s competitors.

1. Combine your libraries. Below is a start

Need to Merge Photos Libraries? Here Are Your Options | CityMac

If you struggle with multiple Photos libraries, never fear—you can merge them. Read more...

www.citymac.com

1. Check for duplicates again, in the single library (a just in case rationale)

1. Go back to “What do you want, what’s important, what’s not. “ That’s your organization. Set up folders and albums accordingly. You can create new folders, put folders in folders and images in folders. You can drag and drop folders in the sidebar to organize.

1. You can drag and drop images amongst folders. Just make sure when you don’t want an image in a folder, you “Remove from Album”, not “Delete Photo”. Set up Temp folders for those images that require more time. Allows you to keep moving.

1. View images that are not in Albums. Below is a start.

https://www.macworld.com/article/31...he-media-not-in-an-album-in-apple-photos.html

Do they need to go to an Album? Get deleted? You will very likely never view them if they’re not in an
Album. By now there should be no duplicates.

I think after all that, you should be in reasonably decent shape.

Remember, I’m a Lightroom user. My Photos library is referenced. Good luck.

 

[Ledgem]

I guess I will need to start from my photo 1 and make my way up to the 1.5TB and sort the hell out of this! also... merge my smaller libraries into the big master one.

I'd create an organization system moving forward, and once you have a good system, work backwards.

I have a few other little tips that might be of help, or may not, depending on how you go about sorting your photos.

1) For removal of duplicates, as someone already mentioned, PhotoSweeper sounds promising. I don't use it but it's on my "to buy and use" list, because I'm certain I have duplicates of old photos. If you're purely using Photos for all aspects of photo management, I could imagine how PhotoSweeper might also be useful in the culling process (as it doesn't just find duplicates, but claims to also find "similars").

2) In addition to allowing you to manually tag people in Photos, Photos does allow you to further train faces. In Photos look on the left bar, under Library there's the People tab. If you've already labeled some people then they should show up; double-click on them to bring up all photos that they have been identified in. If you haven't done this before, Photos will likely have a message at the top of the screen that says "there are additional photos for review." Review mode brings up a number of photos that the individual has been identified in, and you can approve or reject certain photos. If you've done this recently then that message may not appear, but if you scroll to the bottom then you'll see "Confirm additional photos," which acts similarly but brings up an entire photo instead of small crops. It's pretty satisfying to do, and while I admit I don't usually navigate photos by tagged people, it's a useful feature when you're trying to find photos of someone.

3) Don't forget that custom albums can be used for help with sorting. For me, I have two: because I use the geotag feature heavily (and also find photos based on location fairly regularly), I have a custom album that identifies all photos that have no location data. I then work through that album to manually geotag things that aren't tagged. I also use tags for certain things, and have a custom album that pulls in photos meeting certain conditions (file name) that lack the tag, so that I can tag them.

Admittedly these things can be daunting; don't let your past get in the way of your future. I admit I have two albums that are just two totally unsorted years (from the time when I was transitioning to a new photo workflow). I still haven't culled or sorted them properly. I'm generally busy enough with my current photos, so I haven't gotten to them yet even though it's now been a few years. Eventually I'll get to them, but... it's not critical. It was more important that I worked on photos that were incoming, and developed a good system for myself.

 

[conamor]

Some thoughts:

What do you want, what’s important, what’s not.

I'm assuming you’re NOT using a referenced library.

I'm assuming, given that the size of your library is 1.5tb, it resides on an external. And it’s not an ssd. Do yourself a humongous favor and replace that spinner with an ssd. Minimum usb 3 or C bus, Thunderbolt is so much nicer.

Others should please chime in: I'm thinking:

1. Keep your existing libraries, for now.
2. Tackle the duplicate files issue.

Download PhotoSweeper X. Pay the money. This app does an excellent job of finding duplicate files. It can scan folders, photo libraries and scan and analyze multiple sources simultaneously. Nice UI. PM me if you get stuck with settings. I have never used it on a Photos library. I assume the above holds true. I think it’s much better than it’s competitors.

1. Combine your libraries. Below is a start

Need to Merge Photos Libraries? Here Are Your Options | CityMac

If you struggle with multiple Photos libraries, never fear—you can merge them. Read more...

www.citymac.com

1. Check for duplicates again, in the single library (a just in case rationale)

1. Go back to “What do you want, what’s important, what’s not. “ That’s your organization. Set up folders and albums accordingly. You can create new folders, put folders in folders and images in folders. You can drag and drop folders in the sidebar to organize.

1. You can drag and drop images amongst folders. Just make sure when you don’t want an image in a folder, you “Remove from Album”, not “Delete Photo”. Set up Temp folders for those images that require more time. Allows you to keep moving.

1. View images that are not in Albums. Below is a start.

https://www.macworld.com/article/31...he-media-not-in-an-album-in-apple-photos.html

Do they need to go to an Album? Get deleted? You will very likely never view them if they’re not in an
Album. By now there should be no duplicates.

I think after all that, you should be in reasonably decent shape.

Remember, I’m a Lightroom user. My Photos library is referenced. Good luck.

You are correct. I am probably using a managed library. It resides on an external LaCie Rugged thunderbolt mechanical drive.

Should I be changing anything at the moment?

Regarding the duplicate, I have used PowerPhotos but I find it not stable and a bit slow, ok my library is big...

I suppose I could give a try to PhotoSweeper X. Then Ill tackle the sorting.

Thanks for everyone's input!

 

[BJMRamage]

this thread is a great read-through. I still use Aperture (I know...dead) and think I will shift to Capture1 for editing RAW....might then save out top JPGs for Photos (and keep iPhone pics there too).

I have years of iPhoto, Aperture, and need to sort out a ton images.

 

[steve123]

Aperture is not quite dead yet ...

Aperture For Catalina

gentlemencoders.com

How to run Aperture and iPhoto on macOS Catalina

After saying goodbye to my perpetual copy of Photoshop CS6, I took the plunge and updated my Mac to macOS Catalina this Wednesday. The…

medium.com

 

[NaimNut]

I have a LRCC account with 1TB Cloud Storage containing about 25 000 photos & 500 videos and linked/downloaded to an X5 SSD drive.

Works on my Mac, iPhone & Apple TV but thought I would give Apple Photos a try since i have iCloud storage.

So far there is no comparison. LRCC all the way. Seems faster, more intuitive, and flawless syncing across all my Apple devices.

I'll give Photos a chance over the next few weeks but i think LR is the way to go for photo Cloud Storage & Syncing. imo