iPhoto, - good idea to trash Originals folder?

Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Hi



I really love iPhoto for sure. But there is one thing, that

bugs me seriously.



The iPhoto library is growing with every pic you alter.

Say if you alter 100 pics á 1 meg, the iPhoto library grows

exactly 100 meg. Actually you get a 4 gig library with 2 gig Originals,

that you'll never want to use. Bad.



At least there should be a "clean up" or "compress" command, that

will eliminate the "Originals".



My question is: is ist safe to trash the "Original" folder without

messing up the entire "iphoto library" folder?



best

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    Ok, problem solved. I tested it by myself, i trashed all "Originals".

    I performed a finder search befor (>CMD-F>"Originals"), than i trashed all

    "Originals" folders, opened iPhoto et voila: iPhoto worked without a hitch.

    No complaints about some missing folders or files.



    This procedere brought back 2 stunning gigs. Amazing.



    Question to AppleScript geeks. Is there a better, say more elegant

    way, to get rid of these (useless) "Originals"? Maybe an AppleScript

    can do the dirty work?



    best
  • Reply 2 of 7
    Hi Barbara,



    Have a look at



    iPhoto Diet



    http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11668



    It does exactly what you have done manually and a few more things to keep your iPhoto library streamlined.



    I have been using it for a long time and regularly run it to keep my iPhoto library at a decent size.



    Hope this helps



    DigiH
  • Reply 3 of 7
    Quote:

    Originally posted by DigiH

    Hi Barbara,



    Have a look at



    iPhoto Diet



    http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11668



    It does exactly what you have done manually and a few more things to keep your iPhoto library streamlined.



    I have been using it for a long time and regularly run it to keep my iPhoto library at a decent size.



    Hope this helps



    DigiH




    Thank you DigiH,



    perhaps this is the tool i was looking for.



    My sole complaint against it, Diet seems to compare every

    single original with a coresponding modified one. This is a time consuming

    process, i can tell you.

    It works good if the library contains little photos, it is a nightmare

    if your library is huge.



    Anyway. I will use diet to keep up

    the library.
  • Reply 4 of 7
    Hi Barbara,



    Just keep in mind that unless you've archived your originals somewhere else (another hard drive, CD or DVD) they're gone forever. If you ever want to undo a change you made to an image you won't be able to. Also, subsequent edits on a JPEG file tend to degrade the quality of the image, so it's always better to "revert to original" any time you want to change an edit. Anyway, as Dennis Miller said so many times before, "... that's just my opinion, I could be wrong".



    Regards,

    Marc
  • Reply 5 of 7
    Quote:

    Originally posted by mslifkin

    Hi Barbara,



    Just keep in mind that unless you've archived your originals somewhere else (another hard drive, CD or DVD) they're gone forever. If you ever want to undo a change you made to an image you won't be able to. Also, subsequent edits on a JPEG file tend to degrade the quality of the image, so it's always better to "revert to original" any time you want to change an edit. Anyway, as Dennis Miller said so many times before, "... that's just my opinion, I could be wrong".



    Regards,

    Marc




    Hi Marc,



    thank you for pitching in. I appreciate your opinion.

    In my case, if i modify a pic (enhance, crop, rotate etc.)

    in almost all cases (99%) i take the result and want to get

    rid of the original. This is the way i work, no glimpse back



    cheers
  • Reply 6 of 7
    You're welcome; anytime!
  • Reply 7 of 7
    nofeernofeer Posts: 2,427member
    just a comment on "backing up" your iphoto library. my photos are for snapshots 4x6 so i use a medium quality to keep the file size manageable, so iphoto says i have 2400 photos and it takes up say 600mb. that should fit on 1 cdrw/ cd (at least when i backed up same library on my windows unit-yuck)which would take me another year to fill. BUT NOOOOOOO when i use backup 3 to burn it scans 10400 items and needs 2 discs. maybe i can use cdrw and just add new photos to this but it's tedious. with os 9 i just take the file drag to my external burner and bingo. so now i'm looking at an external hd and a dual layer dvd burner. i wonder how much to upgrade my ibook g4 to 16x superdrive???? does backing up all the pieces make it easier to then restore your iphoto library?????
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