# Moving iPhoto Library Extremely Slow



## ep83 (Sep 27, 2009)

I would like to relocate my iPhoto library to another location, but OS X reports that copying it (approximately 40 GB) to another partition on the internal drive will take 27 hours.  Thinking that the time will eventually go down, I left it for 2 hours, but, unfortunately, the time was correctly subtracted to 25 hours.  This issue also occurred when backing up my data to prepare for Snow Leopard Installation (I eventually ended up going with an older Time Machine backup).  It doesn't just happen when moving to another partition-- if i move to another volume using FW800 or USB2 to target partitions of NTFS (using Paragon NTFS) or HFS+, it still takes a ridiculously long time to copy.  Any one have any ideas as to what may be occurring?

I am running an Early 2008 MBP with Snow Leopard.  2.5GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, 5400RPM HDD.


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## pa67 (Mar 20, 2010)

the same problem! using time machine + time capsule with os 10.6.2. on wlan - works excellently! but when trying to make an extra backup to an external harddrive (fat32, used also with pc:s), the copying of the iPhoto Library is extremely slow, the size is 46Gb and the system estimates 20-40 hours. Could anybody tell what could be the problem? Is it the Library itself? or the file system fat32 on the harddrive??



ep83 said:


> I would like to relocate my iPhoto library to another location, but OS X reports that copying it (approximately 40 GB) to another partition on the internal drive will take 27 hours.  Thinking that the time will eventually go down, I left it for 2 hours, but, unfortunately, the time was correctly subtracted to 25 hours.  This issue also occurred when backing up my data to prepare for Snow Leopard Installation (I eventually ended up going with an older Time Machine backup).  It doesn't just happen when moving to another partition-- if i move to another volume using FW800 or USB2 to target partitions of NTFS (using Paragon NTFS) or HFS+, it still takes a ridiculously long time to copy.  Any one have any ideas as to what may be occurring?
> 
> I am running an Early 2008 MBP with Snow Leopard.  2.5GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, 5400RPM HDD.


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## djackmac (Mar 20, 2010)

pa67 said:


> the same problem! using time machine + time capsule with os 10.6.2. on wlan - works excellently! but when trying to make an extra backup to an external harddrive (fat32, used also with pc:s), the copying of the iPhoto Library is extremely slow, the size is 46Gb and the system estimates 20-40 hours. Could anybody tell what could be the problem? Is it the Library itself? or the file system fat32 on the harddrive??



Yeah, using FAT32 will cause issues. Not to mantion copying 46GB over wireless that time estimate looks about right. If you want it to go any faster try a wired connection for that much data.


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## krus (Jul 10, 2011)

I had exactly same problem. An estimated 28 hours to copy a 130 GB library to external harddrive (hard-wired). The only solution I found was to compress (zip) the library and then copy. This still took about three hours, though.
Rebuilding the library as mentioned here does not seem to reduce copying time (http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/mac/clean-up-iphoto-to-make-it-faster/582). Seems the file structure is just a huge mess, if you ask me.
Anybody knows, if Apperture handles big libraries better?


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## billiehawkins (Jul 29, 2011)

You are right: Zipping the library will usually make it faster, but not by that much. I suggest using a UNIX command like 'cp'


```
cp /Volumes/Path/To/Filename/Source/File /Volumes/Path/To/Filename/Destination/File
```

It seems to eliminate the Finder slowdown. I had to do this to copy my 80GB iTunes Library Folder.


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## parkersmith (Dec 5, 2011)

The last post worked for me, but you have to add -r to the cp command to copy directories. Correct command is as follows:

*cp -r /Volumes/source drive name/Source folder/* /Volumes/Target drive name/target folder*

I was trying to copy a 186Gb library and with finder, it was estimating taking several days. It took 15 minutes just to copy 2Gbs. 

With the cp command, my copy progress has taken ~10 minutes now and has already copied 14Gb. I am copying from an external drive to the internal on my iMac. Using finder from the iMac HD to the external copied normally. The only issue was coping back to the internal iMac HD. 

Thanks for the last tip!


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## billiehawkins (Dec 5, 2011)

billiehawkins said:


> You are right: Zipping the library will usually make it faster, but not by that much. I suggest using a UNIX command like 'cp'
> 
> 
> ```
> ...



Sorry, ParkerSmith Is right, the Library file is treated as a Folder and needs the -r switch to recurse the directories and files within.


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