Converting pics & Aplibraries to Photos Library end up only a few MB

Question

Converting pics & Aplibraries to Photos Library end up only a few MB

I have collections of photos in folders or in aplibrary which I am converting into Photos library. Despite the fact that the original folder or apibrary is multiple GB the resultant Photos library is only a bunch of MB. I have tried this several ways. In one I opened the package for the aplibrary and imported all of the masters. In another, I had original [CR2] photos in a folder itself. And am using Avalanche to do a conversion. Accessing of Aplibrary masters results in 2 GB as a photo library[the original was 98 GB]. A Photos library out of photos in a folder ends up with 198MB when the folder itself is 15GB. And Avalanche conversion came up with 2.6MB in Photos from an ApLibrary of 15GB. What is going on?

Mac Studio, macOS 15.5

Posted on Jul 8, 2025 11:51 AM

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,576 points

Jul 8, 2025 3:11 PM in response to Victoria Herring

For help with Avalanche I would - as with all 3rd party apps - suggest you reach out to the makers of that app.

Other than that:

It's more than 10 years since Aperture was discontinued and removed from sale, and most everyone who migrated from Aperture - wherever they went - did that a long time ago. And, given that was a one time thing and not a repeated task, you're relying on hazy memories. So all I can suggest are some things that might be a factor.

Where are these libraries stored? On a network share? On an external disk? If on an external, what format is that?

I have tried this several ways. In one I opened the package for the aplibrary and imported all of the masters.

How many files are you talking about? Raws? Jpegs? What import settings are you using. If you're importing Masters like this it's the same as importing any files from the Finder rather than migrating a library.

In another, I had original [CR2] photos in a folder itself.

Same questions.

It's worth noting that if you're simply importing files from the Finder then Avalanche has no role in this. It's designed to migrate intact libraries from one format to another.

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