iPhoto ‘09: Time Machine backs up entire upgraded library

Watch out Time Machine users who have upgraded to iPhoto ‘09.  Seems that if you let iPhoto manage your library (meaning you have iPhoto copy all your photos into the default ~/Pictures/iPhoto Library), after the upgrade Time Machine will backup your entire photo library again.  All of it….photos and data files.

I suspect this is due to the fact that Apple is doing special things with the iPhoto Library package.  Because you can browse your Time Machine backups from within iPhoto itself (you don’t need to browse through Finder), Apple probably wanted to get a good full backup of the entire library.

For me it was a 40GB backup that I didn’t want.  So I just went into the Time Machine interface, deleted all backups of iPhoto Libraries, and then let iPhoto backup the new upgraded library again.  This of course means that if you wanted to go back in time to say 3 months ago and get a photo you deleted, that you probably couldn’t, but I was ok with that.

If your library isn’t that large, then I wouldn’t worry about the extra space being taken up on your Time Machine drive.