Photo library too big on Mac: safe ways to shrink it

Part of: Mac storage full? Find what is using it and free up space safely (Storage full)

If your Photos library is huge, that is usually because it holds the original of every photo and video you have taken. You can shrink it, but do it from inside the Photos app, and back up first. Photos is one place where deleting files by hand can lose things you cannot get back.

Check the size

Your library is usually in the Pictures folder. This command only reads:

du -sh ~/Pictures

It prints the total for the folder. If you keep your library elsewhere, for example on an external drive, point the command at that location instead. It is normal for this number to be the largest on a Mac with a long photo history.

Why you should not use Finder here

The Photos library looks like one file, but it is a package with a database, your originals, edits and thumbnails, all linked together. Photos expects to be the only thing that changes it. If you remove files inside it from Finder, the database can lose track of them, and you can end up with missing photos, broken edits or a library that needs repair.

Safe, Risky, Never

• Safe: deleting photos and videos you do not want inside the Photos app, and emptying its Recently Deleted album, once you are sure.
• Risky: removing originals you may want later, or relying on a single copy in iCloud. Know where your other copy is.
• Never: opening the library package and deleting files inside it, or deleting the library to save space. This can lose photos permanently.

What breaks if you get it wrong: photos and edits disappear, the library may need repair, and removed items cannot be recovered after the Trash or Recently Deleted is emptied.

Back up first

Before you change a large library, make sure you have another copy of the photos you care about. That can be Time Machine, an external drive or iCloud. A second copy is what turns a mistake from a disaster into an inconvenience.

Safe ways to shrink it

1. Delete what you do not need, inside Photos. Screenshots, blurry shots, duplicates of the same picture and long videos you have already used.
2. Check large videos first. A few long videos can use more space than thousands of photos.
3. Empty Recently Deleted. Items stay there for a while after you delete them, and use space until they are gone. This is the same idea as the Trash; see why moving files to the Trash does not free up space.
4. Consider iCloud Photos with optimised storage. Photos can keep the full-size originals in iCloud and smaller versions on your Mac. That has costs and trade-offs, such as needing a connection to see the original, so read Apple’s description before you switch. This guide does not give steps for it.
5. Move the library to an external drive. It can make room on your Mac, but the drive must be connected when you use Photos, so only do it if that works for you.

Duplicates and edits

Photos keeps your original and also any edited version, so an edited picture can use more than one file’s worth of space. Burst shots, screenshots and near-identical pictures also add up. Photos has its own ways of showing duplicates, and it is safer to use them than to look for matching files in Finder. Finding duplicate files explains why name matching is not enough, and that holds even more inside a library you must not edit by hand.

Whatever you decide, work in small batches. Delete a group, look at the result, check your other copy exists, and only then continue. A shrinking library is a good result, but a library that still holds every photo you care about is the real goal.

What DiskJoy does with Photos

DiskJoy is our product. It treats the Photos library as protected: it does not offer anything inside it for cleaning. A scan only reads file sizes and dates and changes nothing, and DiskJoy is pre-alpha with cleanup not available yet. It can show you how big the rest of your disk is, so you know whether Photos is really your problem. Download DiskJoy for Mac to see where your space is.

Check whether Photos is the real cause

People often blame Photos when the space is somewhere else. Compare du -sh ~/Pictures with the other big folders. What is taking up space on my Mac? shows how to read them side by side, and find large files on a Mac helps with the rest.

Next step

Back to the complete guide to freeing up space on a Mac.