Q: Am I able to delete the "migrated photo library" after I convert from iPhoto to Photos?
I've recently converted to the new Photos app in OSX and have noticed there is a large library with the iPhotos library logo (52.1Gb). I'm wondering if I can safely delete this without losing any pictures from my Photos library. or if not, what is its purpose and why is it so large?
Here are some screenshots of an OmniDiskSweeper sweep of my home drive and of finder:
Any help is greatly appreciated as I have very limited disk space!
MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)
Posted on May 1, 2015 10:44 AM
The Photos Library and the Migrated iPhoto Library are sharing the image files by hard links.
You would not gain any additional disk space by deleting the "iPhotos library.migratedphotolibrary", but would lose the opportunity to use your library again with iPhoto or to repeat the migration, if you should discover that some photos did not migrate correctly. The reported size of the library is misleading. The filesystem counts them twice, because hardiness look like regular files.
See these documents:
- Photos saves disk space by sharing images with your iPhoto or Aperture libraries - Apple Support
- Six Colors: The (hard) link between Photos and iPhoto
Wait with deleting the iPhoto library until you are very sure, that each and every photo migrated correctly, and you are happy with the workflow in Photos.
Are you using iCloud Photo Library? Otherwise the Photos Library and the Migrated iPhoto Library should have approximately the same size.
Posted on May 1, 2015 11:05 AM


