William Huisking1

Q: can I delete previews folder in iPhoto? What is the Effect/

I am trying to save some memory and see the 3 types of file folders: Thumbnails, Previews, & Masters. I have tried to read some of the forums on this subject but none make it crystal clear what Previews exactly does and what I consequences/effects will occur if I delete it. Its a very significant amount of space and I need to save some space on my SSD of 232GB.

Thanks in advance for any guidance....
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MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), Mac OS X (10.7.5), plus IOS 6plus

Posted on May 27, 2016 10:08 AM

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Q: can I delete previews folder in iPhoto? What is the Effect/

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  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie May 27, 2016 10:31 AM in response to William Huisking1
    Level 10 (107,932 points)
    iCloud
    May 27, 2016 10:31 AM in response to William Huisking1

    Previews are smaller JPEGs of the edited versions of your photos created in your System Photo Library for sharing with other applications using the Media Browser.

     

    And I am seeing in this folder all editing results returned by photo editing extensions.

    When I tried to delete previews from this folder, the Photos for Mac app just recreated them. I would not rely on that, however, that Photos can fix it, if you willfully modify the library.  It will do no good to try to remove the previews. It will just slow Photos down,

     

    if you need to save storage on your SSD move the Photos Library to a portable external drive. That will give you plenty of storage for your photos.

  • by LarryHN,Solvedanswer

    LarryHN LarryHN May 27, 2016 11:02 AM in response to William Huisking1
    Level 10 (85,103 points)
    Photos for Mac
    May 27, 2016 11:02 AM in response to William Huisking1

    Do not remove anything - the instructions posted in these forum hundreds of time are Very simple and abundantly clear - NEVER make any changes to the structure of content of the iPhoto (or Aperture of Photos) library - there are no user serviceable parts in it

     

    the SQLite database is very complex and unless you are a SQL expert you can not make any changes - any changes you make are likely to cause problems and dataloss

     

    You need to move your iPhoto library to an external disk - it must be formatted Mac OS extended (journaled), connected with a fast wired connection like FireWire, Thunderbolt or USB, always available prior to launching iPHoto and not be used as a TimeMachine backup volume

     

    Quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library to the EHD then hold down the option key while launching iPhoto and select the new locations

     

     

    LN

  • by Terence Devlin,Helpful

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin May 27, 2016 11:04 AM in response to William Huisking1
    Level 10 (139,572 points)
    iLife
    May 27, 2016 11:04 AM in response to William Huisking1

    I'll join the chorus: never make any changes to the iPhoto Library with any app except iPhoto. You risk massive dataloss if you do.

     

    If space is an issue move the Library:

     

    Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

     

    1. Quit iPhoto

     

    2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.

     

    3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.

     

    4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.

     

    Regards

     

     

    TD

  • by William Huisking1,

    William Huisking1 William Huisking1 May 27, 2016 11:07 AM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 27, 2016 11:07 AM in response to Terence Devlin

    I do appreciate your suggestion and understand fully NOT to touch the sub folders or files. That being said, perhaps I can ask a question.
    If I do this, while I travel, I often take pictures, video etc and put them into iPhoto. Is there a simple way to name my large original file (i.e iPhotomaster) and then while traveling use my laptop to collect new photos etc. When I return home, is there an easy way to take the photos (events) and move them to my original "Iphotomaster" file? This will help me - if this makes sense.

    Thank you for your quick response.

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  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin May 27, 2016 11:34 AM in response to William Huisking1
    Level 10 (139,572 points)
    iLife
    May 27, 2016 11:34 AM in response to William Huisking1

    You want to move the pictures from one Library to another? You can do this easily with iPhoto Library Manager

     

    https://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/