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Photos is Empty But Still Using 30GB of Disk Space

I have moved my photo library to an external drive months ago, and 'manage storage' is still showing Photos as using 30GB despite the local library being empty and the system library on an SD card has been ejected and removed.


Below is the screenshot of the 'Manage Storage' usage:


Then going to the Photos App, there is nothing in the local library:


And this is the only library available:


For simplicity, I have removed the SD card that holds the current system library.


I have also checked the size of the 'Pictures' folder listed for the user in finder, and it is only 334MB.


Hardware: MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)

OS: macOS Big Sur 11.3.1


I have seen other threads that suggest deleting recently deleted photos, but there are none, so this option is not showing in Photos.


Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.3

Posted on Jun 1, 2021 4:24 AM

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8 replies

Jun 2, 2021 12:03 AM in response to léonie

Hi Léonie,


There's currently no other volumes attached to the machine, so it should only be picking up what's on the local volume.


Checking the storage from the 'About this Mac' takes us from the frying pan into the fire. There's just under 60GB of the 121GB total allocated to 'Other'. From what I've read on the apple support pages, these are system files and cannot be changed.



Still confused about the 30GB showing as photos, as the only library on the local volume is empty, and no other volume is attached. Surely it can't utilise 30GB of system files?

Jun 1, 2021 11:22 PM in response to Roybzer

On macOS 11, the "Photos" item in "Manage Storage" is showing you the size of the content of your System Photo Library, it does not tell you the total of all all photos on your Mac. See:

See used and available storage space on your Mac - Apple Support

So you may be seeing the content of your system photos library listed, even if it is not on your system volume, and only the storage used by the media files inside, not the storage used for auxiliary files in the Photos Library, which may be even larger.

You wrote: Taken on notice. I'll look at an alternative. I've been wanting to setup network attached storage... but the SD card was significantly cheaper.

Putting your Photos Library on a NAS will be even more risky and may not work at all. The only supported method of moving your Photos Library to an external storage is an external drive, with a wired connection.If it is the system Photos Library, you have to plug in the external drive and keep it connected as long as you are logged into your user account, as the system library needs to be available for the background processes. Prepare the external volume strictly as described in the linked article, that Tony posted: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201517


Finding out the storage used by image files on the system volume is a bit complicated, particularly, if we are using iCloud Photos and "Optimise Storage". For example, on my Mac with the smallest internal SSD I am seeing this:

  • System Information > Manage Storage : Photos : Photos contains photos and Videos using 8.92 GB of Storage.
  • The Finder is showing 29.47 GB as the size of the System Photos Library in the Pictures folder.
  • When looking at the storage used by photos in Photos, I am seeing in the Info for the Library item: 5.093 Photos, 348 Videos,172.47 GB


I suggest, you should just look at the size of your Pictures folder, to see how much storage the photos are using on your Mac, if you are only keeping all photo libraries in your Pictures folder.

Jun 2, 2021 12:37 AM in response to Roybzer

Right, it is not intuitive and confusing, that Photos is showing us storage used in volumes, that are not attached.

But per definition, Photos 6 is only showing the storage used for photos in the system Photos Library - wherever it is stored, even if the drive is off-line. I tested this by copying additional libraries into my Pictures folder, and the storage shown for Photos did in the "Manage Storage" did not change at all.

The huge amount of "Other" is mainly storage used temporarily by the system for caches, log files, etc. This storage is managed solely by the system, dynamically, as space permits. On my other Macs with plenty of free storage the "other" has a size of 400GB, on my smallest Mac it is "only" showing 80GB. When I am using more storage for documents and data, the size of "Other" will drop automatically. You have read this correctly in the support document - we cannot manage the "Other" ourselves. If there are files that can be purged, usually a restart will help, or restarting in safe mode.



Jun 1, 2021 9:05 PM in response to TonyCollinet

Thanks Tony,


Taken on notice. I'll look at an alternative. I've been wanting to setup network attached storage... but the SD card was significantly cheaper.


Out of interest, what's the difference between an HDD or SSD failure or SD card failure with regards to photo losses? I'd imagine you'd be screwed either way? I saw in the link that Apple don't suggest using an SD card for the Photos library, but I couldn't really see a reason why.

Photos is Empty But Still Using 30GB of Disk Space

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