bopakoster

Q: Can I delete I-photos library after installation of Photos?

Mac Book Pro,

OS X El Capitan version 10.11.4 (15E65)

 

I still have I-photo and its library but started to use Photos and have given it a new picture-system-library.

Each library uses about 40GB pictures +55GBmovies and have the same content except for a few new pictures in the Photos.library.

Looking in Apple-About-Storage I find this information:

Screendump 2016-05-04 kl. 10.37.43.png

This is confusing me. Should it not be 95x2=190GB Pictures?

What happens if I delete the I-photo library?

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9.4), null

Posted on May 4, 2016 7:26 AM

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Q: Can I delete I-photos library after installation of Photos?

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  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie May 4, 2016 7:23 AM in response to bopakoster
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    May 4, 2016 7:23 AM in response to bopakoster

    When you open an iPhoto Library in Photos it creates a new library. The image files in the new library are created in a very smart way.  Photos created the new files as hard links. A hard linked file is stored in the same place as the original file, so the new file does not need extra storage. But the operating system remembers how many files are stored there, and only if the last linked file has been deleted the storage will be freed. You can delete both files independently, and the other linked file will continue to work. 

    So you can delete the iPhoto Library if you do not need it any longer, but it will not save much storage:

    See these documents:

     

     

    But delete your iPhoto library only after you are sure, that yu do not need it any longer, after checking if all photos migrated safely. I#d keep a backup of the library somewhere.

  • by bopakoster,

    bopakoster bopakoster May 4, 2016 7:36 AM in response to léonie
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    May 4, 2016 7:36 AM in response to léonie

    Thank you. I believe I understand.

    But I did not do it that way.

    I opened Photos and created a new Library and have after that migrated all pictures to and from iCloud. It was a very slow process and I´m not sure that it did not create a copy.


    Can I check what memory I used before this operation in the Time Capsule-backups?

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie May 4, 2016 7:48 AM in response to bopakoster
    Level 10 (106,848 points)
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    May 4, 2016 7:48 AM in response to bopakoster

    If you enter Time Machine and go back in time along the timeline at the right border of the display, you can check the size of the libraries. 

    • Select the Photos Library in the Finder, then launch Time Machine.
    • As you click different times in the timeline you will see the reported size of the library change.

    Screen Shot 2016-05-04 at 16.43.49GMT.jpg

  • by bopakoster,

    bopakoster bopakoster May 4, 2016 10:17 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (4 points)
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    May 4, 2016 10:17 AM in response to léonie

    I did as you suggested,

    Finder showed that Pictures occupied 93,8GB April 28 2016 with just I-photos library and 185,6GB now with both Photos and I-photos libraries on the Flashdisk.

    Do you mean that it still will occupy about 185 GB if I delete Iphoto library?

     

    Dump just now:

    Screendump 2016-05-04 kl. 19.14.57.png

  • by léonie,Solvedanswer

    léonie léonie May 4, 2016 10:23 AM in response to bopakoster
    Level 10 (106,848 points)
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    May 4, 2016 10:23 AM in response to bopakoster
    Do you mean that it still will occupy about 185 GB if I delete Iphoto library?

    Only, if your libraries are still using hard links.  If all photos in your Photos Library have been imported independently and not by letting Photos migrate the iPhoto Library, the storage occupied by the iPhoto Library should be released, once you delete it and empty the Trash.

  • by bopakoster,

    bopakoster bopakoster May 4, 2016 10:28 AM in response to léonie
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    May 4, 2016 10:28 AM in response to léonie

    I don´t remember exactly how I did. Is it any way to check if i have hard linked?

  • by léonie,Helpful

    léonie léonie May 4, 2016 3:08 PM in response to bopakoster
    Level 10 (106,848 points)
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    May 4, 2016 3:08 PM in response to bopakoster

    The Terminal.

    You would have to compare the inodes (the entries in the file table) of the original master files.

     

    But the screenshot in your original post strongly suggests that the two libraries are sharing the storage and are not actually using twice the storage -  only 72GB for "Bilder". Each library has files of the size ~ 85 GB, but because identical image files in both libraries are using the same disk blocks, the total in file size is much less for the images.

    Only the Finder is counting them twice, because the Finder does not know if a files are  hard linked.  For all practical purposed they look and behave like ordinary files.

     

    If two files are hard linked, the inode numbers will be identical, when you list the file with the ls -li  command in the Terminal:

     

    For example, looking into the packages of an new migrated Photos library and the original iPhoto Library.  Everything looks duplicated with the same size:

     

    Screen Shot 2015-07-23 at 17.18.00.png

     

    The Terminal is showing this, when I type "ls -li " into the Terminal and drag one of the master files behind this command:

     

    Hermione:~ dreschle$ ls -li /Users/dreschle/Pictures/Photos\ Library\ 2.photoslibrary/Masters/2015/05/28/20150528-184932/IMG_0966.JPG

    39167952 -rw-r--r--@ 3 dreschle  staff  1283723 25 Mai 12:00 /Users/dreschle/Pictures/Photos Library 2.photoslibrary/Masters/2015/05/28/20150528-184932/IMG_0966.JPG

     

    Hermione:~ dreschle$ ls -li /Users/dreschle/Pictures/iPhoto\ Library.migratedphotolibrary/Masters/2015/05/28/20150528-184932/IMG_0966.JPG

    39167952 -rw-r--r--@ 3 dreschle  staff  1283723 25 Mai 12:00 /Users/dreschle/Pictures/iPhoto Library.migratedphotolibrary/Masters/2015/05/28/20150528-184932/IMG_0966.JPG

     

    In both libraries are the files listed with the identical inode number 39167952 (shown in red in my screenshot) ,  meaning they are linking to the same physical file in the file table.  For the Finder both files are separate, regular files and so it is reporting the size twice.

     

    When I compared the used space on my hard drive right after migrating the test library with 40 photos, the used storage had not been increased much:

    Screen Shot 2015-07-23 at 17.37.51.png

     

  • by bopakoster,

    bopakoster bopakoster May 4, 2016 3:08 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (4 points)
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    May 4, 2016 3:08 PM in response to léonie

    I do thank you for your answers léonie !

    I think I understand most of what you write, I have practiced the terminal on a PC with Ubuntu OS, but I,m a little afraid of doing that on my Mac..

     

    Your last advise I will follow  but right now the free space has increased a little from 5 to 8GB. Is something still ongoing since the implementation of Photos library?

     

    Vielen Dank!

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie May 4, 2016 12:07 PM in response to bopakoster
    Level 10 (106,848 points)
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    May 4, 2016 12:07 PM in response to bopakoster

    Is something still ongoing since the implementation of Photos library?

    That is hard to say for me, since I do not know, how you are using Photos.

    Did you perhaps enable iCloud Photo Library and optimize Storage?  did you sync the library with iTunes, so the iTunes Photo cache changed?

  • by bopakoster,

    bopakoster bopakoster May 4, 2016 12:20 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (4 points)
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    May 4, 2016 12:20 PM in response to léonie

    My settings for iCloud:

    Settings of Photos 2016-05-04 kl. 21.11.13.png

    Do you need translation?

    Regarding I-tunes, I have not changed anything recently but I have a link to about 100 pictures in I-photo for my Mac TV. Guess I have to change it to Photos?

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie May 4, 2016 3:25 PM in response to bopakoster
    Level 10 (106,848 points)
    iLife
    May 4, 2016 3:25 PM in response to bopakoster

    Your Photos Preferences are the same my settings. You don't use the optimize storage option, so there is no reason why the used storage should decrease. Photos will emtpy the trash outomatically after a month, perhaps have photos been removed.

    For your Apple TV ask in the forum for Apple TV, I do not use it.

     

    Syncing with iCloud disables iTunes Photo Sync, so the iPod Photo Cache maxy have been removed.It can be quite large.  iTunes: Understanding the iPod Photo Cache folder

  • by bopakoster,

    bopakoster bopakoster May 9, 2016 11:08 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (4 points)
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    May 9, 2016 11:08 AM in response to léonie

    I have changed the Photos Preference settings now to compress the files on the MacBook.

    The process is very slow, it seems to upload all files (80GB) again to iCloud or vice verse.

    It will be interesting to see how much space that saves?

    Meanwhile I have deleted 84 GB on the iCloud so I don´t need to compress the photos but I´m kind of curious on what that brings in pros and cons