Based on what I have read, it definitely does duplicate your library and use extra space.
I just found this
What if my iPhoto library is 500GB and I only have 10GB free on my Mac?
Thanks to some under-the-hood wizardry from Apple, your photos won't duplicate when you import your library from iPhoto/Aperture to Photos. As such, you won't need to have 500GB of extra space.
Photos saves disk space by sharing images with your iPhoto or Aperture libraries
Learn how Photos stores images when you migrate your iPhoto or Aperture library and saves disk space by sharing images.
When you migrate a photo library from iPhoto or Aperture, the Photos app creates a new library structure but doesn't duplicate your images. Instead, Photos saves disk space by creating links to the original and preview versions of your images.
When Finder reports the file size of your Photos library, it includes all your originals and previews. It may look like your remaining iPhoto or Aperture library is taking up twice the space on your hard drive, but it isn't—your images exist only in one location, even though you may have more than one photo library.
After you migrate your iPhoto or Aperture library to Photos, you might feel tempted to delete your original iPhoto or Aperture library. Because the migrated library takes little additional space, you don't need to delete the original library.
You can still use your original photo library with iPhoto 9.6.1 and Aperture 3.6 after you've migrated it to Photos. Any changes you make in iPhoto or Aperture after you migrate to Photos, like image edits or album changes, will be visible only in iPhoto or Aperture.
Last Modified: Apr 8, 2015
Helpful?Yes No
So iPhoto and its library still on your HD
A bit confusing from ?
I'd like to see others try this for those of limited space
Also after the migration ck storage and see what changed
True. I just returned to Aperture. But since it has been removed from the Mac App Store I do not really expect much future support (if any). That means in the long run I will have to transition to another app. Hopefully they will fix the beyond average migration support for Aperture customers in the future. Probably, they were looking at the iphoto users first because they are more numerous. I just recommend not spending too much time using photos now when you plan to use Aperture parallel for a while. Any changes made in Aperture will not show in photos as they use separate libraries. Hopefully will fix this omission rather soon. I feel little tempted to move to Lightroom as Adobe is pushing the subscription road so hard. And I do not want to be dependent on their pricing policy.
searched (yes i did) for a solution, suggested i copy my library to another device or use a backup
well i did a time machine backup to my airport TC yesterday as well as my clone (thank you thank you super duper)
i copied my iPhoto library 2 to my clone drive then selected it (option-opened photos) took about 15 minutes and
BINGO it worked all 8k+ pics and 200 vids in Photos---hung after 15minutes then i figured i turn off screen save and "sleep" and restarted
sooooooo
you might check to see which library your iPhoto is using before you start
this permission crap is crap even when i checked my read/write permission and even unlocking didn't work
also--i think photos has a problem when the screen save comes on i turned it off and turned my energy saver prefs to never turn off display and preventing "sleep" and no screen saver.....POOF worked
also i asked a question earlier about net effect on local storage as per the article it didn't take any space maybe saved me 2gb
i got my transcend jetdrivelite today will format and install tomorrow
then i will make an extra copy of my "iPhoto library 2" then trash it to save more space --but will think hard about doing that
Just an update: for my issue (not being able to open iPhoto library with Photos), the fudge I did worked out alright. If anyone else gets the same problem (on the off-chance), here's a fix:
Locate your iPhoto library, which will be a package file. It defaults to being in your Photos folder, although you may have moved it
Right click on the package and select "get info"
Give the file the extension .photoslibrary
Hence if your iPhoto library is called iPhoto Library (which is the default), it should now read iPhoto Library.photoslibrary underneath "Name & Extension"
You should get a warning asking if you want to change the file extension - select okay
Open the Photos application, holding down the function key (either ? or Alt)
Select the photo library you've just created
Let Photos do its thing
Note: Photos takes what feels like an age to upgrade an iPhoto library into a Photos library. It will appear to hang several times and you may even think its crashed. It probably hasn't - it's just very very slow. Sometimes it speeds up though too. My library took about 4 hours to upgrade, though I'm sure it could take a dozen hours if your library is big enough. The best thing to do is just to close down any unnecessary applications, switch off the wifi, turn off all the energy saver settings and just leave it to do its thing.
@perallin are you able to connect the external drive by USB or something similar?
then open photos prefs designate tis newly created "file" as your system folder and it worked
Not liking that they got rid of events, when you thousands of photos on your computer. You have a way of organizing and viewing your folders. Specific events to bundle images and also place location and face recognition. Their "Album" sucks!!!!! A very disgruntled apple consumer.
The fundamental flaws with iCloud, besides security and file safety, is access and speed. That varies and it is sweeping the problem under the carpet to assume it is always available and alwayscapable of handling the large number of large files, and growing.
There is also the added complexity when trying to work out where your files are and what to do when things go wrong, as they do.
That's my issue with selecting Optimize. Yes it would save me space but then I would only have originals in iCloud. I wouldn't be able to easily back them up using time machine because it would eventually replace the originals with low res. I'll need a second computer that gets the full resolution photos and then I need to have that computer backed up. Uggh
Comments
what is net effect on storage?
my iPhoto is about 78 gb including .avi and .mov video
my late 2013 mbpr has about 18gb free (should have purchased the 512gb ssd)
i'm getting the transcend jet drive lite (128gb) to enhance my storage
i don't have much leighway
so once i set up new photo and choose "optimize" will it then duplicate my iPhoto library??
if all goes well then i should be able to transfer my iPhoto library to external drive----correct??? thus saving me space
just worried that before i can transfer my iPhoto library i'll run out of space
Based on what I have read, it definitely does duplicate your library and use extra space.
I just found this
What if my iPhoto library is 500GB and I only have 10GB free on my Mac?
Thanks to some under-the-hood wizardry from Apple, your photos won't duplicate when you import your library from iPhoto/Aperture to Photos. As such, you won't need to have 500GB of extra space.
http://m.imore.com/photos-os-x-faq
From the above article ---VERY HELPFUL
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204476
THat describes this magic
Photos saves disk space by sharing images with your iPhoto or Aperture libraries
Learn how Photos stores images when you migrate your iPhoto or Aperture library and saves disk space by sharing images.
When you migrate a photo library from iPhoto or Aperture, the Photos app creates a new library structure but doesn't duplicate your images. Instead, Photos saves disk space by creating links to the original and preview versions of your images.
When Finder reports the file size of your Photos library, it includes all your originals and previews. It may look like your remaining iPhoto or Aperture library is taking up twice the space on your hard drive, but it isn't—your images exist only in one location, even though you may have more than one photo library.
After you migrate your iPhoto or Aperture library to Photos, you might feel tempted to delete your original iPhoto or Aperture library. Because the migrated library takes little additional space, you don't need to delete the original library.
You can still use your original photo library with iPhoto 9.6.1 and Aperture 3.6 after you've migrated it to Photos. Any changes you make in iPhoto or Aperture after you migrate to Photos, like image edits or album changes, will be visible only in iPhoto or Aperture.
Last Modified: Apr 8, 2015
Helpful?Yes No
So iPhoto and its library still on your HD
A bit confusing from ?
I'd like to see others try this for those of limited space
Also after the migration ck storage and see what changed
True. I just returned to Aperture. But since it has been removed from the Mac App Store I do not really expect much future support (if any). That means in the long run I will have to transition to another app. Hopefully they will fix the beyond average migration support for Aperture customers in the future. Probably, they were looking at the iphoto users first because they are more numerous. I just recommend not spending too much time using photos now when you plan to use Aperture parallel for a while. Any changes made in Aperture will not show in photos as they use separate libraries. Hopefully will fix this omission rather soon. I feel little tempted to move to Lightroom as Adobe is pushing the subscription road so hard. And I do not want to be dependent on their pricing policy.
had some problems
when i started photos it only uploaded 800 pics of my 8000+ (and videos)
i checked around and didn't realize my iPhoto was using "iPhoto library 2"
photos accessed my primary pic library didn't give me a choice of libraries
after investigating i found a way to manually upload/ choose my library
tried that and after 4% got error "not enough permission" did disk utility to repair my permissions didn't work
(i was directed to this https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204484 terminal didn't help me)
searched (yes i did) for a solution, suggested i copy my library to another device or use a backup
well i did a time machine backup to my airport TC yesterday as well as my clone (thank you thank you super duper)
i copied my iPhoto library 2 to my clone drive then selected it (option-opened photos) took about 15 minutes and
BINGO it worked all 8k+ pics and 200 vids in Photos---hung after 15minutes then i figured i turn off screen save and "sleep" and restarted
sooooooo
you might check to see which library your iPhoto is using before you start
this permission crap is crap even when i checked my read/write permission and even unlocking didn't work
also--i think photos has a problem when the screen save comes on i turned it off and turned my energy saver prefs to never turn off display and preventing "sleep" and no screen saver.....POOF worked
also i asked a question earlier about net effect on local storage as per the article it didn't take any space maybe saved me 2gb
i got my transcend jetdrivelite today will format and install tomorrow
then i will make an extra copy of my "iPhoto library 2" then trash it to save more space --but will think hard about doing that
hope this helps others
this helped me-- http://www.imore.com/how-import-multiple-libraries-photos-os-x
this was on ? support discussions it worked for me now my iPhoto library is uploading after trying everything
from rebuilding, repairing, etc
lumpygumboApr 12, 2015 2:19 PM
Re: Opening Photos first time from iPhoto on external drive - Please help!!in response to lumpygumboSolved
Just an update: for my issue (not being able to open iPhoto library with Photos), the fudge I did worked out alright. If anyone else gets the same problem (on the off-chance), here's a fix:
Locate your iPhoto library, which will be a package file. It defaults to being in your Photos folder, although you may have moved it
Right click on the package and select "get info"
Give the file the extension .photoslibrary
Hence if your iPhoto library is called iPhoto Library (which is the default), it should now read iPhoto Library.photoslibrary underneath "Name & Extension"
You should get a warning asking if you want to change the file extension - select okay
Open the Photos application, holding down the function key (either ? or Alt)
Select the photo library you've just created
Let Photos do its thing
Note: Photos takes what feels like an age to upgrade an iPhoto library into a Photos library. It will appear to hang several times and you may even think its crashed. It probably hasn't - it's just very very slow. Sometimes it speeds up though too. My library took about 4 hours to upgrade, though I'm sure it could take a dozen hours if your library is big enough. The best thing to do is just to close down any unnecessary applications, switch off the wifi, turn off all the energy saver settings and just leave it to do its thing.
@perallin are you able to connect the external drive by USB or something similar?
then open photos prefs designate tis newly created "file" as your system folder and it worked
Not liking that they got rid of events, when you thousands of photos on your computer. You have a way of organizing and viewing your folders. Specific events to bundle images and also place location and face recognition. Their "Album" sucks!!!!! A very disgruntled apple consumer.
The fundamental flaws with iCloud, besides security and file safety, is access and speed. That varies and it is sweeping the problem under the carpet to assume it is always available and always capable of handling the large number of large files, and growing.
There is also the added complexity when trying to work out where your files are and what to do when things go wrong, as they do.
That's my issue with selecting Optimize. Yes it would save me space but then I would only have originals in iCloud. I wouldn't be able to easily back them up using time machine because it would eventually replace the originals with low res. I'll need a second computer that gets the full resolution photos and then I need to have that computer backed up. Uggh