Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

I was processing RAW images from a Canon 5DSR on both Mac and IBM computers with 8 GB ram with no problems, the 5DSR is a 50mp camera so 8 GB will do it however 16 or 32 will make things go faster and smoother. If you have filled your HD then a external drive will work just fine, I have an SSD external because they are much faster than the conventional drive and less acceptable to damage. Most cameras will export directly to the drive if you have the right cable, or you can plug the drive into your computer and transfer from the card directly to the external drive, no need to save to computer first.

Good luck with that Mac, my iMac has to be completely disassembled to add RAM and my MacBook Pro will not upgrade beyond 16gb which it currently has and runs Photoshop and large Raw files just fine.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

First you don’t need a new computer. 8GB is sufficient to edit provided you don’t waste memory and limit editing to one or two at a time. A larger screen and more RAM could make editing more efficient but it does not sound like you need that.

As already stated, you seem to be confusing RAM with hard drive capability. The error you are getting is not because of the 8GB or RAM.

The reason you can’t upload photos is your hard drive is full. That is a completely different thing from the RAM.

Think of the ram as like the file drawer on your desk you can easily reach it and snag a file quickly. The hard drive is your 4-drawer file cabinet on the other side of the room. You have to get up and walk over there to get files form it or to return files form the desk drawer. If you desk drawer is too small you end up making more trips to the 4-drawer cabinet. That is similar to how the computer RAM and Hard drive work. To little RAM the computer will have to swap RAM space with the hard drive and that is time consuming. But you can edit one or two photos without having that problem. Don’t try to open 50.

Hope that helps.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Last year, I swapped out a 1TB 5400 RPM drive and 8 GB RAM from my Late 2013 21.5” iMac for a 2TB SSD and 16 GB RAM. It was nerve wracking, but TOTALLY worth it. It’s like having a new machine.

Yes, it was major surgery and definitely not for the uninitiated. If curious, watch the videos at macsales.com, or read the Dozuki guides at iFixit.com.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

That's a rather small hard drive. The sooner you can attach a new relatively inexpensive external drive, the better your situation will become. Swapping to a 2TB drive will be useful, but balance the cost of adding more space inside this computer vs just adding an external storage attachment.

If LR is your largest user of disk, double-check your software type. For the 'classic' software, try an emergency step #1: go inside the \Lightroom folder where the LRCAT file is located. Find the \Backup subfolder and delete all the back-ups except the one with the most-recent date-stamp. Look at your parameters too inside LR 'classic' and change the back-up frequency to once per week, if not already set to this value.

tjw47 Loc: Michigan

hard drives have zero memory. hard drives have disk space.
If you need more disk space buy an external hard drive.

Jrhoffman75 Loc: Conway, New Hampshire

You can install a larger SSD in your MacBook Air.

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/macbook-air/2013-2014-2015

johneccles Loc: Leyland UK

RAM has nothing to do with "there is not enough memory in the hard drive" you will have to sort that problem out with a disc cleaner as you may have lots of junk on it.
8 gb Ram should be enough for photo editing but IF your MAC can take more, install some extra up to the maximum and you will certainly notice some difference especially when developing RAW.

Capn_Dave

Just wondering how many people can give the same answer?

ggab Loc: ?

While I am a windows user, I keep my pictures on a 4TB external drive.
This keeps my primary drive nearly empty.

Before my pictures are sent to the cloud, I copy them from the memory card to the external drive. All post processing is done with files on the external drive.
Over night, my external drive is backed up to the cloud.

If you are running out of hard drive space:
1- Get an external Hard Drive.
2- I am not familiar with how lightroom stores your pictures, however I am sure you can change the default location. I would suggest you change the default location to an external drive.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

First store your photos on an external hard drive. Keep your programs on the main hard drive. Keep a portion, at least 20-25% of your hard drive free to use as swapspace. That is temporary storage that programs use when the file is too large to keep in memory at one time while processing. Now, that swap space can be minimized by adding RAM to your computer. I process large RAW files and my MacBook Pro has 32 GB of RAM. This is enough memory to keep everything in memory at once. This allows for much faster processing because the computer is not always moving data [think parts of the image] onto and off of the hard drive and into RAM.

ggab Loc: ?

Many

BlueMorel Loc: Southwest Michigan

Recently I thought I was going to have to bite the bullet and buy a new external drive because my 500Gb one was getting full. When I examined my files I found out that the largest part was storage of my windows backup. So look to see if you have old backup files on your computer or unnecessary other files. I ended up deleting all but the last two and freed up a lot of space. I still have an awful lot of files on both my computer and backup that I will probably never need again, but I hate to throw things away.

And 8gb is ok to run LR, but 16 gb will make you a lot happier with your speed.

AzShooter1 Loc: Surprise, Az.

Depending on the software you are using, 8 GB of RAM will work fine to do both RAW and JPEG files. Photoshop does not use more than 8 GB for it's files. I've tried on my computer with 32 GB.

Now since your problem is disk space get yourself a 1 or 2 GB external hard drive. When you load pictures onto your computer must store all your photo to the new hard drive.

wishaw

Bill gates said '640K of ram was enough for anybody' or didn't he

jbk224 Loc: Long Island, NY

I suggest purchasing a 2TB SSD HD. Samsung's T5 is at a good price for this specific item. Yes to transferring all photos to the external drive. While I don't use LR, I assume you can set up your files as 'referenced' so they do not have to reside in the program on the internal drive. Only your 'catalog' will reside on your internal drive. Yes to only shoot in RAW (assuming you are not under any immediate deadline to upload images). The Nikon RAW file has a jpeg imbedded that can easily be used if desired. The only thing I do not agree with here is the insistence that 32 GB is needed for LR. Of course the more RAM the better, but it is not needed to properly run LR based on your needs. Your 8GB should work out fine. 16 or 32 GB will not make your LR processing run faster. If you start to edit video, like a pro, you may then be limited in speed. Otherwise, you should be fine. Your MacBook Air should be more than adequate. New Apple laptops now come base 16GB. More is available and costly. On another note, your 128GB HD is small and more so when you add up your applications and normal mail, attachments, "Photos', and documents. Also Apple's iCloud environment, if fully implemented, can be adding to your HD's usage. You will need to better understand and manage your computer's resources.