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User profile for user: John Cooney
John Cooney Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

Three different sizes for photo library!?!

Any ideas why this happens...?


When in Photos, if I ask for info it tells me that the size of the photos library is 163.29 GB


If I open the Pictures folder in Home, click on Photos Library and Get Info, it says it is 176.2 GB


When I select About this Mac, then Storage, it tells me that photos take up 212.28 GB


When I click on my HD icon and Get Info it tells me the entire HD in use is 201.63


Should all four of these be different? Why can I not get a clear reading for the size of the Photos Library? Makes me wonder if something is duplicated, or not indexed properly?

MacBook Pro

Posted on Sep 24, 2019 2:29 PM

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User profile for user: Yer_Man
Yer_Man
User level: Level 10
163,602 points

Posted on Sep 24, 2019 3:04 PM 

When in Photos, if I ask for info it tells me that the size of the photos library is 163.29 GB


Photos is reporting the size of the resulting folder if you were to export everything as it is currently edited/processed etc. It's a guess, of course, as the actual result could be profoundly different depending on what export options you choose.


If I open the Pictures folder in Home, click on Photos Library and Get Info, it says it is 176.2 GB


The Finder here is reporting the size of the library installation: thumbnails, masters, previews, ancillary metadata files, databases etc.


There is no conflict between these two pieces of information.


When I select About this Mac, then Storage, it tells me that photos take up 212.28 GB


One of the great mysteries of the current OS is the information from this source. It's notoriously unreliable. As it reports that images take up more than is actually used, you can ignore it.



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User profile for user: Yer_Man
Yer_Man
User level: Level 10
163,602 points

Sep 24, 2019 3:04 PM in response to John Cooney 

When in Photos, if I ask for info it tells me that the size of the photos library is 163.29 GB


Photos is reporting the size of the resulting folder if you were to export everything as it is currently edited/processed etc. It's a guess, of course, as the actual result could be profoundly different depending on what export options you choose.


If I open the Pictures folder in Home, click on Photos Library and Get Info, it says it is 176.2 GB


The Finder here is reporting the size of the library installation: thumbnails, masters, previews, ancillary metadata files, databases etc.


There is no conflict between these two pieces of information.


When I select About this Mac, then Storage, it tells me that photos take up 212.28 GB


One of the great mysteries of the current OS is the information from this source. It's notoriously unreliable. As it reports that images take up more than is actually used, you can ignore it.



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Three different sizes for photo library!?!

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