SMurphy

Q: Photos won't delete

I am trying to make space on my Mac and it says there are a ton of photos/videos taking up space. I went through the photos and videos in iPhoto and deleted a bunch - I even emptied the iPhoto trash as well. Yet still I came across the videos in MacKeeper when reviewing Video files taking up space. I also notice I still have two iPhoto libraries here. I've been using iPhoto since 2004 so I assume there's a lot of legacy files here. How can I get rid of these videos permanently. There are some that aren't present in iPhoto yet I still see them taking up space.

Screen Shot 2016-06-29 at 1.22.04 PM.png

See above - there are two instances of IMG_2145.MOV - one in the new Photos Library and the other in the old Photos Library. I don't want either! How can I manage this?

 

Screen Shot 2016-06-29 at 1.27.05 PM.png

Posted on Jun 29, 2016 10:34 AM

Close

Q: Photos won't delete

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Appleisboss,

    Appleisboss Appleisboss Jun 29, 2016 10:35 AM in response to SMurphy
    Level 2 (206 points)
    iPhone
    Jun 29, 2016 10:35 AM in response to SMurphy

    Go in your trash and see if the pictures are in your trash folder

  • by Appleisboss,

    Appleisboss Appleisboss Jun 29, 2016 10:37 AM in response to Appleisboss
    Level 2 (206 points)
    iPhone
    Jun 29, 2016 10:37 AM in response to Appleisboss

    I was trying to delete pictures once and this is what I did to permanently delete them! Good luck!

  • by léonie,Helpful

    léonie léonie Jun 29, 2016 11:46 AM in response to SMurphy
    Level 10 (105,680 points)
    iLife
    Jun 29, 2016 11:46 AM in response to SMurphy

    Did you create your new Photos Library by migrating your previous iPhoto Library?  Then the Photos Library is sharing the videos and original image files with your previous iPhoto Library.  Both libraries are storing the media on exactly the same disk blocks (using hard links). This way the storage is only used once. But that is why deleting the media from the Photos library will not free the storage immediately, as long as iPhoto is still using the items. You have to delete the items from both  libraries.  If you migrated all items from iPhoto, you can now delete the iPhoto library completely (make a backup copy on a backup drive, just in case).

     

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

    Also:   Six Colors: The (hard) link between Photos and iPhoto

  • by SMurphy,

    SMurphy SMurphy Jun 29, 2016 11:49 AM in response to léonie
    Level 2 (242 points)
    Apple Music
    Jun 29, 2016 11:49 AM in response to léonie

    Yes, I did merge the photo libraries a while ago. So what you're saying is it's safe to delete the old iPhoto library. I have a backup if something goes awry.

     

    The other part of my question is regarding the Master images. Are these also stored somewhere? I came across a bunch of old photos (of a friend and I that I'm no longer friends with) that I thought I deleted but they were hidden in a folder in my Photo folder (Photo>Masters>...). These aren't deleted as well when I delete from the Photo app?

     

    Thanks for the help!

  • by léonie,Helpful

    léonie léonie Jun 29, 2016 12:20 PM in response to SMurphy
    Level 10 (105,680 points)
    iLife
    Jun 29, 2016 12:20 PM in response to SMurphy

    Sometimes photos are stored in the Photos > Master folder in the Photos Library, that failed to delete, perhaps because of a crash of Photos.

    Usually the photos will appear again, when you repair the library.

     

    Repairing the Photos Library is explained here:   https://help.apple.com/photos/mac/1.0/index.html#/pht6be18f93

  • by SMurphy,

    SMurphy SMurphy Jun 29, 2016 12:20 PM in response to léonie
    Level 2 (242 points)
    Apple Music
    Jun 29, 2016 12:20 PM in response to léonie

    I tried repairing but still didn't delete from the master images. There's also a ton of videos I've found there too that I've deleted eating up hard drive space.

     

    See screenshots below. You can see that the photo is dated Nov 15 2014 yet it's not appearing in my Photo library.

     

    Screen Shot 2016-06-29 at 3.12.42 PM.png

    Screen Shot 2016-06-29 at 3.13.33 PM.png

    Screen-Shot-2016-06-29-at-3.12.57-PM.jpg

  • by Meg St._Clair,

    Meg St._Clair Meg St._Clair Jun 29, 2016 1:06 PM in response to SMurphy
    Level 9 (58,414 points)
    iPhone
    Jun 29, 2016 1:06 PM in response to SMurphy

    SMurphy wrote:

     

    I am trying to make space on my Mac and it says there are a ton of photos/videos taking up space. I went through the photos and videos in iPhoto and deleted a bunch - I even emptied the iPhoto trash as well. Yet still I came across the videos in MacKeeper when reviewing Video files taking up space.

     

     

    You mention that you have MacKeeper on your computer. The first thing you should consider doing is removing it.

     

    See Limnos's answer in this thread:

    How to I completely remove MacKeeper from my MacBook Pro

  • by SMurphy,

    SMurphy SMurphy Jun 29, 2016 1:25 PM in response to Meg St._Clair
    Level 2 (242 points)
    Apple Music
    Jun 29, 2016 1:25 PM in response to Meg St._Clair

    Sorry - it's called CleanMyMac3 by MacPaw. Not MacKeeper...

  • by Meg St._Clair,

    Meg St._Clair Meg St._Clair Jun 29, 2016 1:31 PM in response to SMurphy
    Level 9 (58,414 points)
    iPhone
    Jun 29, 2016 1:31 PM in response to SMurphy

    SMurphy wrote:

     

    Sorry - it's called CleanMyMac3 by MacPaw. Not MacKeeper...

    Same thing. Just as bad for your computer. Delete it.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Jun 29, 2016 1:49 PM in response to SMurphy
    Level 10 (105,680 points)
    iLife
    Jun 29, 2016 1:49 PM in response to SMurphy
    Sorry - it's called CleanMyMac3 by MacPaw. Not MacKeeper...

    That is even worse.  Don't let CleanMyMac 3 touch your Photos Libraries. It is one of the dangerous cleaning apps that will remove files directly from the Masters folder, downgrade the quality of your original image files  by replacing them by the edited versions, making errors when relinking the files,  and corrupt photo libraries this way beyond repair.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Jun 29, 2016 1:51 PM in response to SMurphy
    Level 10 (84,185 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Jun 29, 2016 1:51 PM in response to SMurphy
    Yet still I came across the videos in MacKeeper when reviewing Video files taking up space.

     

     

    That probably is your problem - Mac Keeper is one of the worst Malwear packages in existence - do not run it and get rid of it now - see Do not install MacKeeper

     

     

    Clean up packages like MacKeeper, CleanMyMac and others damage your system and cause major problems - do not use any of them!

     

     

    LN

  • by SMurphy,

    SMurphy SMurphy Jun 30, 2016 1:10 AM in response to léonie
    Level 2 (242 points)
    Apple Music
    Jun 30, 2016 1:10 AM in response to léonie

    Thanks - I think I'm going to do a clean install of OS X and will not be re-installing CleanMyMac. Can't believe I fell for such a scam. Luckily I have backups of everything so it shouldn't be too bad.

     

    Regarding the Master images issue above though - how come Photos doesn't delete those files when I delete the corresponding photos/videos from the application? Do I need to manually delete those images from the Master folder as well?

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Jun 30, 2016 1:55 AM in response to SMurphy
    Level 10 (105,680 points)
    iLife
    Jun 30, 2016 1:55 AM in response to SMurphy
    Do I need to manually delete those images from the Master folder as well?

    Photos should automatically delete the original image files  from the Masters folder, when you delete the photos from Photos and then empty the "Recently Deleted" album.

    If that does not happen, there are four typical reasons. 

    1. Sometimes we think, we deleted the photos, but actually just removed them from an album. Then the photos vanish from the album, but are still inthe library, visible in the moments.
    2. Or photos crashed right after deleting the photos, or could not write to the library because of permission problems, an incompatible file system, or similar.
    3. If the library has been migrated from iPhoto or aperture, it may contain externally edited photos that cannot be accessed any longer.  For example, if you used PhotoShop and saved the edited photo from Photoshop with a new name in its original place, it will not be accessible from Photos.
    4. And if CleanMyMac replaced original files and linked them incorrectly, Photos cannot access them as well.
    5. Or you may have actually imported the photos twice.

     

    If you restore the library from your backup, check if you now can delete the photos using Photos properly.