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:
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:
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