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Participant
September 15, 2026
Question

Lightroom Library.lrlibrary size doesn't match Cache preferences breakdown - ~30GB unaccounted for

  • September 15, 2026
  • 3 replies
  • 29 views

I'm using Lightroom (desktop, cloud-based - not Classic) on macOS and have run into a persistent discrepancy between what Finder reports for my Lightroom Library.lrlibrary package and what the Cache preferences screen shows.

Current numbers:

  • Finder reports the package at 54.81GB
  • Preferences > Cache shows only 22.2GB total (App & user data: 21.8GB, Photo cache: 0.4GB)
  • That leaves roughly 32GB unaccounted for

What I've already tried, with the effect on the Finder size:

  • Clicked Clear Cache: package dropped from ~90GB to 55.64GB (Photo cache went from 32.1GB to 0.4GB, so this part behaved as expected)
  • Emptied 6,977 images from the Deleted folder: package dropped from 55.64GB to 54.81GB (only ~0.83GB, far less than I expected given the number of images)
  • Lowered the Cache size limit from 110GB to 10GB: App & user data barely moved (22.6GB to 21.8GB), and the Finder size didn't change

So the ~30GB gap has stayed constant through all of these steps. Neither Photo cache adjustments nor clearing the Deleted folder seem to touch it, and App & user data doesn't account for it either.

My question: what else lives inside the .lrlibrary package that wouldn't show up in the Cache preferences breakdown? I've seen mentions in older threads of a "temporaryedits" folder inside the package taking up significant space separately from the "originals" folder - is this still a thing, and if so, is it safe to clear, or is there a supported way to do so?

Any help identifying what's actually taking up this space would be appreciated. Happy to provide more details or screenshots if useful.

3 replies

Victoria Bampton LR Queen
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 19, 2026

Have you ever signed in with a different Adobe ID? You can end up with caches from different accounts (they’re the ones with long numbers just inside the Lightroom Library file) and I’m not sure if the Preferences dialog only shows the currently-logged-in account data. 

Victoria - The Lightroom Queen
JohanElzenga
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 15, 2026

If you want to know what’s in the Lightroom Library.lrlibrary package, then right-click on it and choose ‘Show Package Contents’. It will open as a folder so you can have a look at what’s inside it.

-- Johan W. Elzenga
mae_4172Author
Participant
September 15, 2026

Thanks! I’ve had a look and its dozens and dozens of folders and sub folders haha. I have a LOT of images in Lightroom Cloud too so its impossible to match it all up unfortunately.

Hoping someone will know what the discrepancy is caused by