Q: Are my photo files stored twice when iPhoto imports?
I have many photos that I copied on to my Mac (OS X 10.8.3 - Mountain Lion). Most of them are stored in my Pictures folder. When I opened iPhoto all of them were imported into my iPhoto library. Does this mean that the files exist in my Pictures folder AND my iPhoto library effectively taking up twice as much room on my hard drive? If I delete all of my photo files after they have been imported into my iPhoto library is this safe?
Thank you in advance for any help anyone can offer.
Tom
iPhoto '11, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3), 2,2 GHz Intel Processor; 4 GB Ram
Posted on May 3, 2013 4:54 PM
Yes. If you have iPhoto's preferences set to copy photos into the library durning import ("managed library")
then you will have two copies, one in iPhoto and the one that was in the Pictures folder or where it was imported from. A better way to backup your photos is to use an external HD and use Time Machine to backup your entire boot drive. That gives you a recovery method for any file that you need to get back.
OT
Posted on May 3, 2013 6:03 PM
