keeshuizing
Level 1 (4 points)
Mac OS X

Q: How to really delete photos in Photos?

I deleted some photos (movies actually) in Photos to free some disk space. The size of the Photos library shrinks, but I don't get more space in my hard disk and the size of the iPhoto library does not shrink. I can not open the iPhotHow can I really get the photos from my disk?

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3), 8GB internal

Posted on Apr 15, 2015 1:43 AM

by Terence Devlin,Solvedanswer
Terence Devlin Terence Devlin
Level 10 (139,582 points)
iLife
A:

Go to the App Store and check out the Purchases List. If iPhoto is there then it will be v9.6.1

 

If it is there, then drag your existing iPhoto app (not the library, just the app) to the trash

 

Install the App from the App Store.

 

Sometimes iPhoto is not visible on the Purchases List. it may be hidden. See this article for details on how to unhide it.

 

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4928

 

One question often asked: Will I lose my Photos if I reinstall?

 

iPhoto the application and the iPhoto Library are two different parts of the iPhoto programme. So, reinstalling the app should not affect the Library. BUT you should always have a back up before doing this kind of work. Always.

Posted on Apr 16, 2015 1:44 PM

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keeshuizing

Q: How to really delete photos in Photos?

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  • by léonie,Helpful

    léonie léonie Apr 16, 2015 1:17 PM in response to keeshuizing
    Level 10 (108,148 points)
    iCloud
    Apr 16, 2015 1:17 PM in response to keeshuizing

    iPhoto and Photos are sharing the image files by hard links. As long a photo is still in one of your photo libraries, either in your iPhoto Library or Photos library, the shared file on the disk will not be deleted, when you delete a hard link from one of the libraries. (Photos saves disk space by sharing images with your iPhoto or Aperture libraries - Apple Support)

     

    You will have to delete the photo in your iPhoto Library as well, to actually free space. Either install the update to iPhoto 9.6.1, so you can launch iPhoto, or move your iPhoto Library to a different disk and delete it from your system drive.

  • by keeshuizing,

    keeshuizing keeshuizing Apr 16, 2015 1:24 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 16, 2015 1:24 PM in response to léonie

    Thank you for your answer. This explains why deleting doesn't free space. I already tried to open the iPhoto Library, but I can't, since my iPhoto is too old. I tried to update iPhoto, but App Store says: "This item is not available in the Dutch store". What's going on here? Has Apple broken iPhoto and forgotten to give an update to the foreign customers? Or is there a trick to go get it from the American store?

  • by Terence Devlin,Solvedanswer

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Apr 16, 2015 1:44 PM in response to keeshuizing
    Level 10 (139,582 points)
    iLife
    Apr 16, 2015 1:44 PM in response to keeshuizing

    Go to the App Store and check out the Purchases List. If iPhoto is there then it will be v9.6.1

     

    If it is there, then drag your existing iPhoto app (not the library, just the app) to the trash

     

    Install the App from the App Store.

     

    Sometimes iPhoto is not visible on the Purchases List. it may be hidden. See this article for details on how to unhide it.

     

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4928

     

    One question often asked: Will I lose my Photos if I reinstall?

     

    iPhoto the application and the iPhoto Library are two different parts of the iPhoto programme. So, reinstalling the app should not affect the Library. BUT you should always have a back up before doing this kind of work. Always.

  • by William Lloyd,

    William Lloyd William Lloyd Apr 16, 2015 1:26 PM in response to keeshuizing
    Level 7 (21,183 points)
    Apr 16, 2015 1:26 PM in response to keeshuizing

    When you delete a photo in Photos, it goes to a "deleted items" area where it is parked for 30-40 days. It's like a "hidden trash."

     

    Go to File->Show Recently Deleted and you can permanently delete them.

  • by keeshuizing,

    keeshuizing keeshuizing Apr 16, 2015 1:30 PM in response to William Lloyd
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 16, 2015 1:30 PM in response to William Lloyd

    Thanks for your answer, but I figured that out already. Also in iPhoto deleted images first went to a purgatory place, there called Trash, before really being deleted.

  • by keeshuizing,

    keeshuizing keeshuizing Apr 16, 2015 3:09 PM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 16, 2015 3:09 PM in response to Terence Devlin

    Thanks for your answer. I managed to find iPhoto in my "purchases". I clicked "Update" and the button turned to gray, but nothing happened, for an hour. An Update click of another app did work. So maybe iPhone is indeed not available in the Dutch store?

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Apr 16, 2015 3:10 PM in response to keeshuizing
    Level 10 (139,582 points)
    iLife
    Apr 16, 2015 3:10 PM in response to keeshuizing

    See line 2, in my instructions above.

  • by keeshuizing,

    keeshuizing keeshuizing Apr 16, 2015 3:22 PM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 16, 2015 3:22 PM in response to Terence Devlin

    This explains it: http://www.macrumors.com/2015/04/10/iphoto-aperture-removed-mac-app-store/

    iPhoto is not available anymore. So I am stuck with an old version that can not access the updated library. This is not nice of Apple. What should I do now? Throw away the iPhoto Library?

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Apr 16, 2015 3:23 PM in response to keeshuizing
    Level 10 (139,582 points)
    iLife
    Apr 16, 2015 3:23 PM in response to keeshuizing

    <sigh>

  • by keeshuizing,

    keeshuizing keeshuizing Apr 17, 2015 4:18 AM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 17, 2015 4:18 AM in response to Terence Devlin

    Well, thanks. I hadn't seen your previous post before I posted mine.

    Deleting the app did the trick (why reinstalling does work and updating does not, I don't understand, but that's another topic).

    So now I can really delete my photos.

  • by lblocher,

    lblocher lblocher Dec 9, 2015 7:54 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 9, 2015 7:54 PM in response to léonie

    Thank you so much for this answer! I've spent months trying to reduce disk space to no avail. I've been to the genius bar, on the phone with their tech support, and searched in the support forums. I've moved thousands of photos and videos to a cloud drive (not apple) AND an extra copy on an external hard drive, and then deleted these in Photos. But nothing ever moved the needle more than a tenth of a GB until yesterday when I saw this! I was able to open iPhoto and clean out the same albums (2200+ files), and wanted to do a happy dance when I saw I'd FINALLY freed up 20 GB off my drive! Thanks again for this tidbit that Apple employees themselves have failed to disclose in multiple sessions.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Dec 9, 2015 10:17 PM in response to lblocher
    Level 10 (108,148 points)
    iCloud
    Dec 9, 2015 10:17 PM in response to lblocher

    You're welcome!

  • by chridago,

    chridago chridago Dec 10, 2015 3:37 AM in response to keeshuizing
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 10, 2015 3:37 AM in response to keeshuizing

    I've bee following all the above mentioned steps, however, I still wasn't able to free up any disk space.

     

    Here's what I did:

    In order to migrate the iPhoto library to Photos I first had to copy the iPhoto library to an external drive due to space reasons...(I immediately deleted the iPhoto library on my macbook itself after backing it up to the external drive, but didn't get any more free harddrive space). After doing so, I migrated the library to Photos and deleted the the iPhoto library which I copied to the external drive. Also, I deleted the iPhoto app on my macbook.

     

    Now I'm stuck with the problem that my macbook shows not a single byte of more free space on its harddrive even though there is no iPhoto nor Photos library on the harddrive itself anymore, but only on the external drive.

     

    Does anyone have any clues on how to actually free up the space on my macbook so I'll be able to copy the Photos library from the external drive back to my harddrive?

     

    Thanks in advance!

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Dec 10, 2015 4:19 AM in response to chridago
    Level 10 (139,582 points)
    iLife
    Dec 10, 2015 4:19 AM in response to chridago

    Download Grand Perspective, his will tell you what (and where) is using up your drive.

     

    http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net

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