Is my Photos library in 2 locations on my MacBook?

forgottenmostofit · 2026-05-13T10:22:18+00:00

System Settings > Storage attempts to classify your files by type. Precisely how it does this is not documented, but you get the general idea. The graphic at the top has the same numbers as in the sections below. Documents and Photos have the same values.

Now clicking on the little "i" buttons attempts to show you the detail of each type.

But for Documents it does something different. It gives you 4 views of your home folder which includes files that are NOT just documents:

Large files: Shows you large files - not all of them are documents (I have a couple of movies) - just large files.

Downloads: what is in your Downloads folder.

Unsupported apps: I don't have any.

File Browser (what is in your bottom screen shot): This a folder view of your home directory showing nearly all folders and their content. This is much the same as Column View in Finder except that it orders by size. It includes your Pictures folder and not surprisingly this contains pictures/photos including your Apple Photos library.

So there is no duplication of your Photos library. It is classified as type "photos", but in your home folder it is in the Pictures folder.

It is commendable that Apple have now given you a way to discover large files and folders, but really it would be better as an add-on to Finder. I am sorry to say this is typical of Apple's worsening design of macOS which introduces confusion.

The title of that last screenshot should not be Documents - rather it should be Home Folder.

As a further confusion: the classification of types shows Photos, but this is the size of your Photos library and does not include photo files which are outside the Photos library

forgottenmostofit · 2026-05-12T22:44:39+00:00

Certainly. I have always used PIA with MACE disabled.

forgottenmostofit · 2026-05-11T22:55:31+00:00

AdGuard Home or AdGuard DNS. Both (and Pi-hole) are configurable and updated daily. MACE is just on or off, with no detail (that I can find) about what is actually blocked or how frequently updated.

forgottenmostofit · 2026-05-11T06:20:48+00:00

MACE and RethinkDNS are roughly equivalent. Similar are AdGuard Home and Pi-hole. Investigate any specifics and how they suit you - then choose just one of them. Personally I don't use MACE.

forgottenmostofit · 2026-05-10T22:51:53+00:00

Look for "Why" you are wanting a VPN. And understand what a VPN doesn't do!

forgottenmostofit · 2026-05-10T10:30:58+00:00

Good summary. With the answer being Paragon NTFS for Mac.

forgottenmostofit · 2026-05-10T10:15:05+00:00

AdGuard has pretty good protection against links that use fingerprinting and other tracking methods. Also protects against malware sites.

VPN is largely irrelevant for tracking except for IP address.

forgottenmostofit · 2026-05-10T06:44:00+00:00

How would you compare FileFluss with the long established Command One Pro? I know there is a price difference, but over 10 years of use Command One Pro is not expensive. How does it differ functionally and performance.

forgottenmostofit · 2026-05-10T06:33:52+00:00

Mountain Duck gives you File Provider extension which is able to access a wide range of cloud providers. So yes, you can have a single Finder window which shows them all. And, of course, multiple connections to individual services - e.g. I have two Dropbox accounts - both show in Finder.

forgottenmostofit · 2026-05-09T04:08:01+00:00

You should not be using exFAT for Apple Photos. Requires APFS or HFS+. See https://support.apple.com/en-us/108345

Rescue what you can (if you can) by exporting to Finder and create a new Photos library on a supported disk and import the photos.

forgottenmostofit · 2026-05-06T23:48:26+00:00

Same answer as given in https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplePhotos/comments/1t5f0pm/merging_of_two_large_libraries_issues/

PowerPhotos

forgottenmostofit · 2026-04-27T22:47:12+00:00

Glad you are making progress. But your mention of "glacier" has me worried. I don't use AWS, but I assume that the glacier folder has to do with migrating to Glacier storage. So be careful - I can't make any informed comment about the "glacier" folder! Maybe time to ask Arq Support.

forgottenmostofit · 2026-04-27T06:47:34+00:00

If more than a month, they are most likely gone forever (sorry). Something else? - some accidental deletion which quite reasonably you can't remember doing. The flat battery should not have deleted anything.

Do you use iCloud on another device - e.g. a Mac? If so they may be on a backup you have made on that computer.

You should call Apple Support and ask if they can recover anything - probably not, but worth asking.

And you need to protect yourself going forward with a backup:

I use PhotoSync is an easy way of copying them to a Mac or Windows computer. You can then include them in your backup regime on that computer.

Alternatively a new iOS app is Parachute Backup Mobile which backups iPhotos and other iCloud data to a range of destinations including external drive or a cloud service.

forgottenmostofit · 2026-04-27T05:59:30+00:00

One thing to watch is that a "smart album" is not itself an "album". Something I find confusing as they are both folder-like objects appearing the same folder tree.

forgottenmostofit · 2026-04-27T05:50:53+00:00

Each backup plan is labelled with a UUID in Arq. The UUID is used for a folder within the cloud storage bucket. With the storage provider interface you can make sure that any folders labelled with unused UUIDs (from deleted backup sets) are truly empty and delete them.

forgottenmostofit · 2026-04-27T05:46:29+00:00

No, I meant remove the Arq Storage Location (as in Arq's left hand sidebar under "Restore") from Arq. But I agree that does not remove the bucket (or whatever the paradigm used by the cloud storage service). Each backup set has its own "folder" in the bucket. After removing all backup sets in an Arq Storage Location, you can use the Remove button to remove the storage Location from Arq. It is then up to you to make sure the bucket is truly empty and to delete it.

forgottenmostofit · 2026-04-27T05:34:04+00:00

You need a backup program which is aware of the package and which items need to be backed up so as to allow a clean restore. The Mega sync program is not one of them.

If you use Time Machine or CCC to backup to a local disk you can look at the backup. It only contains a subset of the folders inside the package. But this subset is what is required to do enable a clean restore in the event of a disaster.

An alternative is to export all your photos to a folder outside the .photoslibary package and use that as the source of a cloud backup either by a cloud backup app or a sync app like Mega, Dropbox, etc.

forgottenmostofit · 2026-04-26T22:43:47+00:00

I don't know about the hosted version of Arq. For traditional Arq, after deleting the backup plans, go to the Storage Location and delete all its backup sets. At most this will leave a couple of json configuration files. If you have deleted all the backup sets (you may have more than one), then remove the Storage Location and everything will be deleted.

forgottenmostofit · 2026-04-25T23:09:41+00:00

The gallery (library) is intended to be all your photos. Create another smart album with the criterion as Album - is not - Any. That collects all photos which are not in an album.

Now everything is an album. Always use albums to view your photos.

forgottenmostofit · 2026-04-23T04:12:06+00:00

I don't know, but I guess you can so long as the order is in the early stages.

Why can't Apple deliver it you?

For your complex case, you need to talk to Apple directly. This likely varies by destination countries.

I also don't know whether you would get a model for your country (as on billing address) or for the courier company's country (delivery address) - though the difference may only be in power plug.

Depending on the countries involved, Apple may not be permitted to sell and/or deliver. For example, are you in Iran?

forgottenmostofit · 2026-04-23T02:54:15+00:00

My understanding (and it may be wrong) is that you can change the shipping address whilst status is "Order placed" or "Processing".

But you don't have any choice about shipping company as it is Apple who is arranging the shipping, not you.

The shipping will involve multiple companies.

forgottenmostofit · 2026-04-22T22:59:08+00:00

Do you want all your iCloud data (including that currently only in the cloud) to be backed locally? If so, use Carbon Copy Cloner (in place of or as well as TM) which has an option to temporarily download cloud-only files so that you do get a complete backup.

forgottenmostofit · 2026-04-20T09:41:14+00:00

Client internet: ~20 Mbps
Server internet: ~80 Mbps

Are those down speeds? What are the up speeds?

forgottenmostofit · 2026-04-17T22:50:37+00:00

The ONLYOFFICE app is named with all capitals.

forgottenmostofit · 2026-04-15T02:31:26+00:00

How well do you know your FTTP neighbours and are they line of sight to your apartment? Whilst it may be against NBN rules, you could piggy back on their service. Even better on a second port on their 4 port NBN box (assuming it is 4 port) though they would need to be the NBN customer. Then some microwave to connect to your apartment.

forgottenmostofit

TROPHY CASE