How much disk space do I need?
Your library needs space for generated previews and any browser-ready video files that PhotoStructure creates. If you ask PhotoStructure to organize your photos and videos by copying them into the library, budget for that copy of your originals too.
See also:
How big are photos and videos?
Digital photo and video file sizes vary greatly between cameras.
1 gigabyte (8 billion bits) will store:
- thousands of pictures from a digital camera from 10 years ago
- about 100 JPEGs from a recent full-frame SLR
- about 20 RAW photos from a recent full-frame SLR
- less than a minute of 4K 60 fps video
How do I safely store my files?
The secret is to have more than one copy. Read more about safe file storage here.
How much additional disk space does PhotoStructure need?
PhotoStructure builds preview images for fast browsing. It may also create browser-ready copies of videos. As a starting estimate, allow about 2GB per 1,000 photos and videos.
For 250,000 assets, that estimate works out to about 0.5TB. A video-heavy library can use much more because browser-ready video files are larger than image previews.
For a better estimate, sync a representative sample of 1,000 files and measure the library afterward. Scale that result by your asset count, then leave free space for growth and temporary files during imports. If PhotoStructure copies originals into the library, add the size of those originals separately.
How can I minimize the disk space that PhotoStructure uses?
With PhotoStructure v2026.7 or later, open your /settings page and find
Preview sizes. Lower Photo size or Video size to cap the largest
generated files. These controls have the greatest effect on disk use. Each step
roughly doubles the top preview’s pixel count, although compressed file sizes
depend on the contents of your photos and videos.
Open More details and move In-between previews toward Fewer or Off to save more space. Off keeps only the thumbnail ladders and selected maximum. This can make PhotoStructure download a larger preview than a small screen needs, so browsing may use more network data or take longer.
Save the settings when you are done.
PhotoStructure rebuilds the affected previews in the background. You do not need to shut it down or run a manual library rebuild. Existing previews keep working until their replacements are ready, so a large library may take time to settle at its new disk usage.
If generated video files dominate your library, the advanced
transcodeVideos setting can disable them. Use that setting only when your
original videos already play in every browser you use. Otherwise, videos may
fail to play.
How are preview sizes chosen?
The Photo size and Video size settings choose the largest display each set of previews should cover. PhotoStructure fits every original or crop inside the selected dimensions, keeps its proportions, and never enlarges it.
The 720p, 1080p, and 1440p choices cover both landscape and portrait displays. The 4K, 5K, 6K, and 8K choices target landscape displays. For example, a 3:2 photo at the 4K setting fits inside 4096×2160, producing a 3240×2160 landscape preview or a 1440×2160 portrait preview.
PhotoStructure always creates thumbnails that fit inside 60×60, 120×120, 240×240, and 480×480 boxes. It keeps both full-frame and cropped-square versions of those thumbnails.
In-between previews controls the intermediate display sizes between the thumbnails and the selected maximum:
- Off keeps the thumbnail sizes and selected maximum, with no intermediate display previews.
- Fewer and Default keep a modest set of intermediate sizes.
- More and Most give the browser closer matches for smaller screens and windows. They use more preview disk but can load faster and transfer less data while browsing.
In-between previews is the smaller disk lever. The Fewer display ladder uses about 20% less pixel area than Default. Most can approach twice the default. Actual bytes vary with image content and proportions. The total savings may be smaller when browser-ready video files dominate the library.
For manual configuration, the same controls are photoPreviewFitInside,
videoPreviewFitInside, and inBetweenPreviewStep in settings.toml. The fit
settings accept one or two WIDTHxHEIGHT boxes. The step accepts 0 or a value
of at least 1.5. Their defaults are 4096x2160,
1920x1080,1080x1920, and 2.5.
Photo and video sizes are separate because their costs differ. Photo size controls generated image previews. Video size controls poster images and browser-ready playback files when PhotoStructure needs to create them. A video that already plays in the browser may still stream directly at its original resolution. PhotoStructure never modifies the original file.
