batwzrd

Q: How do I make Photos start over?

I when Photos came out I switched immediately and, unlike many people, I liked it. It does a better job of auto-enhancing than iPhoto, and the imported library was a close enough match to iPhoto that I could use it without any issues. However, after returning from a long trip overseas and importing 2500 pictures I found out that Photos did not allow for adding locations. This was very important. So, since the switch is one-way, the only way to get back into iPhoto and add the locations was to import all the photos again.

 

A few months later an update of Photos added the ability to set location data, so I thought I would switch back. When I opened Photos it said it was updating the library and I thought all would be fine. All it appears to have done was add an "iPhoto Events" folder. The new album I created for the trip is not there.

 

I have deleted all of the pictures from the first import, which are now duplicates (they are in the Photos trash still) and would like to make Photos start over from nothing; creating a fresh library which I hope will be as good a conversion as the first one. There are a few other pictures I imported into Photos only that I will have to get into iPhoto, but I need to get Photos into a usable state.

 

Also, I have read many times that iPhoto and Photos uses the same originals and it does not copy them when it updates to Photos, yet I have two "libraries"; one for iPhoto and one for Photos. The iPhoto one is 39GB and the other varies from 15GB to 27GB. Supposedly the Photos library is not really taking up that space, but shouldn't they be the same?

Mac mini (Mid 2010), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), 8 GB RAM

Posted on Feb 26, 2016 11:59 AM

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Q: How do I make Photos start over?

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  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Feb 26, 2016 12:13 PM in response to batwzrd
    Level 10 (85,032 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Feb 26, 2016 12:13 PM in response to batwzrd

    A few things

     

    Photos does have the ability to add locations if you getup to date - you need to upgrade to OS X 10.11.3 and Photos 1.3 which has many new features including adding locations and other as well as many bug fixes

     

    And Photos and iPhoto do not use the same originals - they share access to the same originals and initially the same previews using hard links - Photos saves disk space by sharing images with your iPhoto or Aperture libraries - Apple Support  --  no change made in one program affects the other in any way - you can delete either if you want (although generally it is best not to and it will not save much space)

     

    and this makes no sense

     

     

    When I opened Photos it said it was updating the library and I thought all would be fine. All it appears to have done was add an "iPhoto Events" folder. The new album I created for the trip is not there.

    Unless you migrated the iPhoto library again  nothing you did in iPhoto will be there - as noted above no change made in either program affects teh other program

     

    would like to make Photos start over from nothing; creating a fresh library which I hope will be as good a conversion as the first one. There are a few other pictures I imported into Photos only that I will have to get into iPhoto, but I need to get Photos into a usable state.

    TO do this you need to export the new photos from  Photos and then migrate the current iPhoto library by dragging it to the Photos icon in the Dock and import the new photos to it - or just migrate and use PowerPhotos to move the new photos to the new large library

     

    LN

  • by batwzrd,

    batwzrd batwzrd Feb 26, 2016 4:29 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 26, 2016 4:29 PM in response to LarryHN

    LarryHN wrote:

     

    A few things

     

    Photos does have the ability to add locations if you getup to date - you need to upgrade to OS X 10.11.3 and Photos 1.3 which has many new features including adding locations and other as well as many bug fixes

     

    As I stated, the reason I opened Photos again was because Apple had added that feature. Everything is up to date. The first version of Photos did not have that ability.

    And Photos and iPhoto do not use the same originals - they share access to the same originals and initially the same previews using hard links - Photos saves disk space by sharing images with your iPhoto or Aperture libraries - Apple Support  --  no change made in one program affects the other in any way - you can delete either if you want (although generally it is best not to and it will not save much space)

    I have seen that article several times and it really doesn't help because it fails to answer one of the biggest questions: where are my photos? One would assume that all of them originally in iPhoto are in the iPhoto library. But what about the ones I imported into Photos? If you can delete either library, as the article says, without affecting the other, does that mean photos imported into Photos are in the iPhoto library with the rest? Or does the Finder move them if one library is deleted? Or does deleting one library after migration delete the photos as well?

     

    Since you say I need to export the photos and add them to iPhoto I will assume it is the latter. So I export those and add them to iPhoto. Then I drag the iPhoto Library (in the Pictures folder) to the Photos icon. OK, so then do I need to delete the old Photos library or will it be replaced?

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Feb 26, 2016 5:21 PM in response to batwzrd
    Level 10 (85,032 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Feb 26, 2016 5:21 PM in response to batwzrd

    You are overthinking this - Files are not physically in the library - they are just masses of bits on a disk - the disk directory defines them and the iPhoto and Photos database use hard links to them - deleting either library simply removes a set of hard links - the bits that make up the file are not affected

     

    The photos are not 'in' either library - they are hard linked to the library

     

    and I did not say anything about importing anything into the Photos library 

     

    what I said was

     

    TO do this you need to


    1 - export the new photos from  Photos


    2 - then migrate the current iPhoto library by dragging it to the Photos icon in the Dock


    3 - and import the new photos to it  [the migrated library which is now a large Photos library]


    - or  [as an alternative] just migrate and use PowerPhotos to   move the new photos to the new large library

     

     

    LN