Dumb newish MacBook Pro user here with major storage issues from LR

kristinak63635969 wrote:

“…(CleanMyMac) that says, "Heavy memory usage, CleanMyMac has found that you're running out of both physical and virtual memory. Consider quitting some apps." I don't feel like I'm running much when it says this so it's super frustrating.”

Those particular CleanMyMac warnings sound like they are only about RAM (memory for processing), not storage. If the only warnings you are getting are from CleanMyMac, then I suspect it is using outdated methods to measure memory and you should not be concerned. The best way to understand whether you have enough RAM is to open Activity Monitor (in the Utilities folder) and specifically look at Memory Pressure, which evaluates the memory system as a whole. If Memory Pressure is green, everything is OK, no matter what the numbers say for memory used etc. If CleanMyMac is using old ways, it will panic if it sees low free RAM, but in current versions of macOS (and I think Windows too), low free RAM is not necesssarily cause for alarm. If there is so much demand for RAM that the system really can’t cope, you will see Memory Pressure go orange or red: If you see that frequently, then there is a real problem.

Your 16GB of RAM should be enough for most things; my MacBook Pro has the same amount and I spend a lot of time in Lightroom Classic.

kristinak63635969 wrote:

“Under Storage it says I have 82.3GB available of 500GB...I don't know if that's a lot or not? I thought it was going to be enough when I purchased this Mac but now with these problems I don't know what's wrong. The preview file using up 169 seems like a lot so hopefully getting rid of that will help. I upload my photos to my external hard drive from my SD cards so hopefully that means none of them are going on my internal hard drive.”

500GB internal storage is pretty good, and 82.3GB free is acceptable (might not be enough if opening very large Photoshop files). Many Mac users make the mistake of buying the base storage (128GB or 256GB) for Lightroom or Photoshop, and they run out of space real quick. Buying at least 500GB is wise. Some don’t need that much space because they are religious about keeping old projects off the laptop, but others install many apps and have enough important stuff to fill up the drive.

kristinak63635969 wrote:

“Again, sorry for this dumb response”

Remember, there are no dumb questions! That’s why we’re answering… 🙂

>Maybe some of my storage/memory issues aren't related to LR at all.  Like I said in my original post, I don't know a ton about Mac's.  It seems like Icloud is my problem.  I also don't understand the connection between my Iphone and my Mac and if that's possibly playing a role in my memory issues.  Periodically I have a pop-up warning from a program I recently purchased due to this problem (CleanMyMac) that says, "Heavy memory usage, CleanMyMac has found that you're running out of both physical and virtual memory.  Consider quitting some apps."  I don't feel like I'm running much when it says this so it's super frustrating. 

Don't mean to alarm you but you probably should get rid of CleanMyMac! At best it is harmless but it is mostly crapware. It is actually not easy to get rid of completely. Do not believe ANY of the warnings you get from it. They're mostly nonsense or tries to scare you. It is more likely to completely mess up your system than it is to actually remedy any problem. The warning you saw there is meaningless and except if your machine suddenly becomes really slow with spinning beachballs for minutes at a time, you're probably not actually running out of memory. Also note that the memory it is talking about is not hard drive space. It is internal working memory - i.e. the 16GB of RAM in your machine. 

>Under Storage it says I have 82.3GB available of 500GB...I

That's not much but at the same time not really a problem. The internal SSD hard drive should have at least 20% empty space in general for optimal speed. So freeing up some more space is probably a good idea. One thing to be aware of is that if you click on the apple icon in the top left of your screen, do "about this mac" and then click on storage you can see an overview of what is taking up space. Clicking on manage you get some options to reduce disk usage. In general, you want to ONLY choose the Optimize storage and empty trash automatically options. Then next you can click on review files and you will see which files and folders on your hard disk are taking up a lot of space. I especially like using the "File browser" in this view as it sorts folders and files that take most space up high. Of course you need to know for sure what you can actually delete before deleting it so caree must be taken.

That said, your Lightroom Catalog including previews appears to only really be taking up around 200GB. The operating system and other files usually will only take arounbd 50GB so something else is taking up a lot of space. Might make sense to chase down what it is.

>They are in my Icloud/Downloads folder:  

That is very strange. Are you sure that these are the actual catalogs you are using? Control click on the little icon in front of your catalog name in the Lightroom Classic window and it should show you where your catalog file is actually located. Storing these in the icloud folder will sync these to the cloud and that might not be what you were intending. The default location for the Lightroom Catalog is in your personal pictures folder in your home folder. 

Also, if your previews.lrdata folder is 170 GB, you must have a lot of images or your previews are really large. I have a bout 100k images in my catalog but my previews folder is only 100GB. There is no need to use and keep 1:1 previews in most cases. The preference for the default size of previews is in Catalog Settings (Lightroom Classic Menu) in the File Handling menu. Best is to set the size to Auto and preview quality to medium.

If your hard drive is almost out of space, how big is your hard drive? You didn't tell us.

Which drive are the photos on? You didn't tell us.

Usually, the reason for running out of space is not the Catalog or the previews, it is the photos. Those should go on an external drive.

Great post Conrad extreamly relevant and informative in this situation.

Lightroom Catalog-v10 Previews.lrdata (currently using up 169.3GB) – Previews for the catalog below. OK to throw this out at any time. However, it will grow again over time, because Lightroom Classic will always be generating current previews of the images that you view or work on in the catalog.

Lightroom Catalog-v10.lrcat (currently using up 1.2GB) — This is probably your current Lightroom Classic version 10 catalog with all of your work in it. If that’s true, this must be kept and backed up.

Lightroom Catalog.lrcat (currently using up 927.9MB) – This might be the old Lightroom Classic version 9 catalog you used to use before upgrading to version 10 (but of course I don’t know for sure, you’d have to confirm this). If you are absolutely sure this is the same catalog that got upgraded to version 10 above, then this is an old one that can be deleted.

Storage space issues are going to be more or less comparable between Mac and Windows. The basic rule is to keep a lot of free space on internal storage (the one the system is installed on), regardless of how much external storage you have. How much is “a lot”? For photography and video editing, try to keep at least 50 gigabytes (GB) of free space on internal storage at all times; I actually aim for over 100GB free.

The reasons for this:

• macOS and Windows constantly need to set up temporary files for various reasons, and those files can sometimes be several GB in size each. For example, if there is only 2GB free on internal storage and macOS wants to create a 3GB temporary file, the system will say it’s out of room. 
• Lightroom Classic and Photoshop, like other photo editors, can need a lot of temporary room to work too. Lightroom Classic will grow that Previews file which is currently almost 170GB. The bigger the document you edit in Photoshop, the more free space should be available for mandatory temporary files that can be quite large.
• If you have a recent laptop with solid state storage (SSD) which is normally very fast, you must not let it get too full, because an SSD slows down dramatically if there isn’t much space available. 

Free space is like the size of your art studio. If that room gets so crowded that you can only work on a tiny desk in one corner, the kinds of projects you can work on become severely limited. There has to be a lot of room to spread out the things that need to be worked on.

Delete the Previews.lrdata folder, and JUST that folder.

It holds the Preview that LrC used to show you your images. LrC will Automatically recreate it the next time you open LrC.

Delete it with LrC Closed.

Forgot to mention I use a Synology external hard drive.