iPhoto Database Taking forever to Backup

[kizer]

I'm not sure why, but just recently I'm noticing the newest version of iPhoto which I think is 9.3.1 takes forever to copy to my unRAID share. Its only a 33.6GB file. At the same time I noticed it takes a bit longer to copy to my Macs Desktop too. So I'm wondering if the file structure or something has changed making it unbearably slower.

 

For instance its telling me:

189Meg out of 33.6GB - About a Day

 

I'm running unRAID 4.7 with SMB using a iMac with Lion.

 

Before the upgrade to iPhoto I think it took nearly 20minutes to copy, but the file was a bit less around 27GB.

[kizer]

Interesting enough just a few minutes after posting this the speed jumped.

 

290Meg out of 33.6GB - 22 Hours

 

I did some research around on the net and there are several people complaining overall about the speed, but it appears to be widespread with iPhoto. Of course I don't know what version they are running  unless it has something to do with the overall file size of the Library.

 

I've considered using the option to not copy my photos into iPhoto, but just use a referenced link instead. I'm sure that would greatly reduce the speed of the backup, but I wonder how it would affect the speed of loading images instead.

[kizer]

Feeling really retarded right now. All day ended up being 25 Minutes over all. I still think it has something to do with the file changes in the new iPhoto since it never acted like this before, but what do I know. I've only been using a Mac for a few months now.

[sureguy]

So Apple is taking a page from Windows XP regarding accurately guesstimating the amount of time it'll take to copy files?  I've never noticed a problem copying files with Finder, wonder why iPhoto behaves that way?

[kizer]

Don't know. I copied out of Finder and Wow it told me a day and I was "Say What?"

It was super creeping and then all of the sudden it picked up after 15 minutes. So I don't know if its something in the new iPhoto release thats causing it to roll so slow or if my My Mac is going bonkers.

 

I did do a few test copies and it was lightning fast.

[mrow]

An iPhoto database has thousands and thousands of little files for things like thumbnails and such. As I'm sure you know a lot of small files take a lot longer to transfer than fewer big files. I bet what happens is Finder is thinking the whole database is all small files like that and calculates the time based on that. Then when it gets to what is actually the bulk of the database, the large image files, it speeds is substantially.

 

Because the latest version of iPhoto supports the new MacBook Pro with retina display, that doubled the number of thumbnails and other such small files it now needs to keep in the database. One for standard displays and one for retina displays.

[kizer]

I didn't even account for Retina Displays. Thanks for the heads up.