HT204476: Photos saves disk space by sharing images with your iPhoto or Aperture libraries

Learn about Photos saves disk space by sharing images with your iPhoto or Aperture libraries
Mezza

Q: So what happens if I accidentally delete the Migrated Aperture Library?

Just read the Help note on Apple's site about how Photos doesn't actually take up additional space on my hard drive. To be honest, that wasn't clear to me when I was looking around my Pictures directory this morning and I almost deleted the original Aperture Library.

 

What happens if I do?

Posted on Apr 18, 2015 12:29 AM

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Q: So what happens if I accidentally delete the Migrated Aperture Library?

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  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Apr 18, 2015 12:44 AM in response to Mezza
    Level 10 (139,532 points)
    iLife
    Apr 18, 2015 12:44 AM in response to Mezza

    Very little. To delete the actual pictures you'd need to delete both the Aperture and the Photos library.

  • by Alley_Cat,

    Alley_Cat Alley_Cat Apr 18, 2015 12:49 AM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 6 (19,583 points)
    Apr 18, 2015 12:49 AM in response to Terence Devlin

    If you open Photos while holding the alt key will it offer you to open the Aperture library (it does for me for iPhoto), which would presumably migrate that library again afresh.  You may need to browse and search for teh Aperture library if it doesn;t show.

     

    Anyone know?

  • by Mezza,

    Mezza Mezza Apr 18, 2015 2:42 AM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 1 (85 points)
    Apr 18, 2015 2:42 AM in response to Terence Devlin

    Thanks for the reply. Is this something you've tested?

     

    As far as I understand, the Aperture library contains the original originals, and the Photos library contains symlinks to the originals, though when I examine the two libraries using Terminal I can't see any symlinks. I'd prefer it if Apple would provide a way to safely remove the old Aperture library.

  • by Alley_Cat,

    Alley_Cat Alley_Cat Apr 18, 2015 3:49 AM in response to Mezza
    Level 6 (19,583 points)
    Apr 18, 2015 3:49 AM in response to Mezza

    I think I misread your question.

     

    The way In understand it is that the hardlinks when associated with multiple folders result in more than 1 folder referencing the same files - so long as 1 folder is referencing the items the original files do not delete - where are they? - I suspect to the user that is hidden and if you get rid of Aperture library the original files stay somewhere in the file system but remain associated to the Photos library.

     

    I agree for those of us who worry about things like this there's a concern we'll inadvertently delete originals, but I believe TD's advice is correct.

     

    Either way, I would probably make a backup of any library I was about to delete to an external drive plus/minus Time Machine to be on the safe side.

     

    Unless you really need to delete Aperture library might be as well just to leave it and ignore it until you're happy Photos does what you need.