shakey80

Q: When I delete photos from Photos, why don't I gain any storage space? (Yes, I emptied the "Recently Deleted" photos.")

I needed space on my Macbook Pro, so moved over 9000 photos to an external HD.  After deleting them from Photos, I emptied the hidden "Recently Deleted" folder.  I don't see them in my Trash, but I don't see any change in my HD space (the Mac, not the external HD).  I have about 18 GB (out of 250 GB) free, and Photos told me that I had about 46 GB before the transfer. I just checked the About This Mac window and it says that 58 GB is allotted to photos.  Obviously some of those are probably in my Docs folder or something, but how do I get rid of the bulk of them?

 

Is there yet another secret folder that I need to delete?

 

INFO: 

Yosemite 10.10.4

Photos 1.0.1

 

Help, please!

 

Jen

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4), 250 GB hard drive; 4 GB RAM

Posted on Aug 16, 2015 4:08 PM

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Q: When I delete photos from Photos, why don't I gain any storage space? (Yes, I emptied the "Recently Deleted" photos.")

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  • Helpful answers

  • by LarryHN,Solvedanswer

    LarryHN LarryHN Aug 16, 2015 4:58 PM in response to shakey80
    Level 10 (85,648 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 16, 2015 4:58 PM in response to shakey80

    do you still have your iPhoto library that was the source of the Photos library? If so then you must delete from there too or delete the entire iphoto library is you are absolutely sure you longer want or need it

     

    LN

  • by shakey80,

    shakey80 shakey80 Aug 16, 2015 5:18 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 16, 2015 5:18 PM in response to LarryHN

    Ta da!  Thank you! 

     

    Why the iPhoto Library doesn't become the Photos Library, I don't understand, but thank you for your quick answer.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Aug 16, 2015 5:24 PM in response to shakey80
    Level 10 (85,648 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 16, 2015 5:24 PM in response to shakey80

    two separate libraries as documented - you can migrate an iphoto library to Photos but that does not change the iphoto library  and both programs can continue to be used - both libraries use hard links to share the masters and previews as of the time of the migration - all hard links must be deleted before the disk space is available so you either have to delete in both libraries of delete one library

     

     

    Photos saves disk space by sharing images with your iPhoto or Aperture libraries - Apple Support

     

    LN

  • by Mary T. Carter,

    Mary T. Carter Mary T. Carter Sep 29, 2015 12:11 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 29, 2015 12:11 PM in response to LarryHN

    It's a shame that if you delete a photo in Photos that it does not delete it in the iPhoto Library as well. If they are linked, why did Apple not allow this to happen. I've been deleting lots of photos to recover disk space and I'll never remember all of those that I deleted to go back to iPhoto to delete them. I certainly cannot delete my iPhoto Library as I will no longer have any photos (at least that is the way Apple explained it to me when I first migrated to Photos).

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Sep 29, 2015 3:15 PM in response to Mary T. Carter
    Level 10 (85,648 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 29, 2015 3:15 PM in response to Mary T. Carter

    Mary T. Carter wrote:

     

    It's a shame that if you delete a photo in Photos that it does not delete it in the iPhoto Library as well. If they are linked, why did Apple not allow this to happen. I've been deleting lots of photos to recover disk space and I'll never remember all of those that I deleted to go back to iPhoto to delete them. I certainly cannot delete my iPhoto Library as I will no longer have any photos (at least that is the way Apple explained it to me when I first migrated to Photos).

     

     

    no - what would be a shame would be if you delete a photo in one program and it did delete in a totally unrelated and different program without notice which would be a major mess - the photos are not "linked" each library is "hard linked" to the same source file and the source file is not removed until all hard links are deleted thereby allowing maximum flexibility for users and developers while saving a great deal of storage

     

    And yes you certainly CAN delete your iPhoto library as Apple has said and as was posted here and as has been done by many people who are done with it - deleting it only affects iPhoto exactly the same as deleting from Photos only affects Photos - there is absolutely no linkage between the two in any way

     

    And if anyone from Apple told you differently then you need to report them to their manager as they have no idea in the world what they are talking about and they are spreading totally false information

     

     

    and it is also very  unfortunate that you have chosen to ThreadJack another user's correctly solved thread with this way off base post which will confuse future readers

     

     

    LN

  • by Mary T. Carter,

    Mary T. Carter Mary T. Carter Oct 1, 2015 2:07 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 1, 2015 2:07 PM in response to LarryHN

    So you are saying both the iPhoto and Photos programs are linked to a separate database (source file) and that if I delete my iPhoto library it will not affect my photos in the Photos program and I will still have that database (source file) on my Laptop?

     

    I migrated right after Photos was released and perhaps the Apple Rep that I talked to may have been confused. There was a lot of confusion when it was first released.

     

    I was a little taken aback with your attitude towards me. Quite unusual for Apple people to be that way, especially someone with your experience who seems to like to help people.