ohsnapitslara

Q: iPhoto still taking up disc space after deleting

Hey everyone,

 

I know there are lots of questions out there about the migration of the old iphotos library to the new Photos app, but I haven't been able to find an answer to my problem.

 

In short, I have deleted the iPhoto migrated file, but didn't regain any disc space, and now DiskWave shows a discrepancy between the used space it says I have (186 GB) and the used space that I counted when adding up all single entries (133 GB). This just doesn't make any sense to me and I'd love to get more insight into this whole Photo connection issue and how I could regain some of that disc space.

 

Here's a more detailed description:

I have a relatively old MacBookPro, bought in 2011. I used to run the old OS on it for quite a long time, and have been having trouble with disc space since last fall (I only have 250 GB). Around Christmas I finally updated to the newest OS (El Capitan 10.11.2).

I've put files I don't need on an external drive, as well as saving a backup of the whole computer there.

 

Having read posts about the iPhoto - Photo situation, I've run a DiskWave scan of my computer, showing me what uses up all the space.

This is what it looked like:

 

DiskWave Screenshot Fri.jpg

 

I read some entries about the link between the two libraries and I think I understood the hard link connection. Nevertheless, since iPhoto is not available for my computer anymore and I really can't do anything with it, I decided to make a copy on my external drive just to be sure, and then deleted the migrated file. I've deleted the trash as well, and restarted my computer.

Unfortunately, hardly any gains in disc space (which I guess makes some kind of sense, considering the hard link connection). I ran a DiskWave scan again, and this is what it looks like now:

DiskWave Sat.jpg

 

The photos library is still the same size as before, just slightly altered (64.93 GB). The overall space taken up by me as a user is around 186 GB. But by counting all listed single entries together I only get 133 GB. I understand that DiskWave doesn't always show things correctly, but such a big difference confuses me. I guess the discrepancy has something to do with the iPhoto library, but how does this happen?

 

I am just at a loss here what all this means about my files and what it implies for saving up disc space.

Does that mean I have 67 GB of pictures, or 130 GB, as shown before?

Is this just a fault of the system or do I have to get rid of more pictures?

And do you have any other suggestions for me to save disc space?

I really could've used those 60 GB taken up by the old library... (I already checked for duplicates in my other files, I guess the main problem are photos).

 

Already a big THANK YOU for everyone who can give me any help regarding this issue! I'd really love to get more insights into this problem, as I can currently hardly use my Mac due to the limited space left :/

 

Signed: a confused, frustrated, hopeful and thankful apple user

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.2)

Posted on Feb 27, 2016 4:19 AM

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Q: iPhoto still taking up disc space after deleting

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  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Feb 27, 2016 4:59 AM in response to ohsnapitslara
    Level 10 (107,827 points)
    iCloud
    Feb 27, 2016 4:59 AM in response to ohsnapitslara

    Hard links make it difficult to estimate the storage used correctly.

     

    Hard linked file looks like a regular file for most purposes.  Only the disk blocks, where the files are stored, are shared, and so the two files are using only once the storage.  But the Finder and most applications will show them independently as separate files and count the storage twice.

     

    Your Bibliothek Fotos.library and the Bibliothek iPhotos.migratedlibrary  have been using hard links as you know.  The migration created hard links for all original image files previews in your iPhoto Library. So most of the photos in your Bibliothek Fotos.library are stored in the same blocks as the  corresponding iPhoto files. But the hard linked files are regular files, not aliases  or symbolic links, the combined size of all these files is the same as for the original iPhoto Library. The size of the of the two  library has been correctly shown. And the total file size for all files in your Pictures folder of 130GB has also been correct, but these files have just been stored more efficiently by using common files twice.

    Does that mean I have 67 GB of pictures, or 130 GB, as shown before?

    After you deleted the Bibliothek iPhotos.migratedlibrary, all linked files have been removed, and now you can be sure about the total storage required.  Your photos are just as much storage as is shown as the file size of Bibliothek Fotos.library,  plus what else is stored in Pictures, roughly 67GB.

  • by ohsnapitslara,

    ohsnapitslara ohsnapitslara Feb 27, 2016 5:37 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 27, 2016 5:37 AM in response to léonie

    Dear léonie,

     

    thank you for your answer! That makes the link between the two libraries a bit clearer. But if my photos are only taking up 67 GB now, and took up 130 GB before, how come I didn't get about 60 GB of space when I deleted the migrated file?

    I've read in other threads that deleting the migrated file doesn't give you back so much disk space.

    And now I wonder what makes up the 53 GB that DiskWave doesn't show me (186 GB of used space - 133 GB explained by Diskwave = 53 GB of space that I have no idea what it's used up for). Do you have any clue on what that could be?

     

    Thank you so much for your help!

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Feb 27, 2016 7:24 AM in response to ohsnapitslara
    Level 10 (107,827 points)
    iCloud
    Feb 27, 2016 7:24 AM in response to ohsnapitslara
    and took up 130 GB before, how come I didn't get about 60 GB of space when I deleted the migrated file?

    That is because the iPhoto Library "Bibliothek iPhotos.migratedlibrary" has been storing its image files on the same disk blocks as your new Photos library. You initially had 63GB of photos in the iPhoto Library.  Photos created a second library abut the same size.  It has been stored on the drive using the same disk blocks of the files in iPhoto.  So the new Photos library of 64.93 GB did not use much storage in addition to what iPhoto already used. Together they have been shown as having 130GB,  the file sizes are adding up to that sum, but since most of the identical files have been sharing the storage - always two files using the same space as previously one- , they used actually much less storage, only half the amount.   When you deleted "Bibliothek iPhotos.migratedlibrary", nearly no storage could be released, because your new Photo Library is still using the same blocks.  The storage will be released, when you delete the photos from your Photos library, that have been imported from the iPhoto Library.

    Your photos never used more than roughly the 64.93 GB they are using now.

     

    Have a look at this document:  Six Colors: The (hard) link between Photos and iPhoto

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