I have about 40GB of images from a month in Europe. I just went through them with HoudahGeo adding location and altitude. I update the images using EXIF/XMP Export. I notice that every time I do an export for a group of files, the amount of free disk space drops, even though the program should just be updating the current images. After the output the images do not seem to be larger. The total drop in free space appears to be about 40 GB, as though a new image is being written and the old one is not being deleted, but I cannot find where any new files have appeared. Is this normal? And is there any way to reclaim the extra space?
HoudahGeo gobbling up disk space
HoudahGeo needs to create temporary copies of the files as well as temporary JSON files that hold the metadata to be written.
The temporary copies should be deleted immediately. The JSON files can stay a bit longer.
All temporary files should be removed when you quit HoudahGeo.
Can you locate the files that stay behind?
No. I did not find them. When would the temp files be created? I do see files created in the directory containing the pictures I am processing. These do disappear as soon as the file writing completes.
I am noticing other funny things with disk space growing when it shouldn’t. It is possible something in the system is eating up space that coincides with your processing. I am still investigating that.
I am noticing other funny things with disk space growing when it shouldn’t. It is possible something in the system is eating up space that coincides with your processing. I am still investigating that.
Are you sure the problem occurs during EXIF/XMP export?
HoudahGeo may also create temporary files when browsing media libraries or previewing photos.
Where are your images located? How do you access them?
E.g. when you use HoudahGeo to browse the Lightroom library, it needs to create temporary files to extract preview images from the proprietary files that Lightroom uses to store previews.
HoudahGeo ask the system for a temporary folder named "HoudahGeo_Temporary". This is created in a random location. E.g. "/var/folders/cd/sz1s11l48xl3my0059bm_hx80000gn/T/"
When you quit HoudahGeo, that folder is deleted.
Does disk space recover when you quit HoudahGeo?
Do check disk space in several locations. macOS shows different guesses in different locations: Finder, System Settings… > Storage, and Disk Utility.
It could be Member #585 Time Machine backups.