iTJMacattack

Q: How to delete pictures permanently from Photos app in my entire mac?

Within the Photos app for OS X you cannot delete a picture permanently from your Mac.

 

(I have imported my existing iPhoto library when I migrated to Photos on 10.10.3)

 

When I delete a picture from Photos. Photos then puts the picture in a trash bin that is hidden in the File button on the task bar - "Show Recently Deleted". When you select this it then shows all of your deleted pictures you selected in Photos. If you then select to "Delete All" it asks you again are your sure and you click ok. Photos then cannot see these photos. BUT IT DID NOT DELETE THEM FROM YOUR MAC!

 

I then opened iPhoto, found the photos that I deleted inside the Photos app and viola they are still there, (these are not thumbnails!) these are the exact picture. HOW DO YOU VERIFY? In iPhoto if you select the picture then go to File - "Reveal in Finder" it will show that the picture you THOUGHT you deleted in Photos, is still there in the Master folder in your library!!

FYI there is no way in Photos to find the file location, very sneaky because the app is not deleting these files. This very frustrating coming from Apple who is pushing thinner profiles so SSD's with very limited storage, to give you the assumption that you are actually deleting these photos and videos when in fact you are not.

 

Question again is...

How to delete pictures permanently from Photos app in my entire Mac?

Does anyone have a solution other than don't use Photos.

 

This question was asked and solved already but I have verified that "Delete All" in the hidden trash can in Photos does in fact not delete from your disk space! Have a video on my YouTube Channel iTJMacattack that shows this issue - for proof.

 

Please real help and a solution!!

 

Thanks,

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Apr 12, 2015 9:28 AM

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Q: How to delete pictures permanently from Photos app in my entire mac?

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  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Sep 17, 2016 11:50 AM in response to Linmukai
    Level 10 (141,304 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 17, 2016 11:50 AM in response to Linmukai

    Deleting Photos from a Photos 1.5 Library

     

    1 - regardless of where you are in the library, i.e. Moments, Collections, albums, smart albums or projects, select the photo(s) you want to delete and use the key combination of Command+Delete to move the photos to the Recently Deleted smart album.

     

    2 - click on the Recently Deleted smart albums in the sidebar.

     

    Photos001.jpg

    NOTE 1:  If you're using Photos 1.2 or earlier use the File âž™ Show Recently Deleted menu option.

     

    3 - in the Recently Deleted album you can opt to let the photo automatically delete after the 30 day waiting period is up, delete them immediately or restore them to the library.

     

    Photos002.jpg

     

    NOTE 2: deleting a photo from an album, slideshow, book, etc., with the Delete key only deletes the photo from that item.  There is no key combination that will delete a photo from a project and move it directly to the Recently Deleted smart album.

     

    NOTE 3: Deleting a photo from a Moment or Collection (the Photos window) or the All Photos window deletes ALL occurences of that photo in the library.

    OTsig.png

  • by jshire,

    jshire jshire Sep 17, 2016 12:20 PM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (17 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 17, 2016 12:20 PM in response to Old Toad

    thanks for taking the time to reply to the previous poster - however, this is the same method that lots of folks have already mentioned & for a large number of users it does not work. It appears to delete the photos but the size of the photo library remains the same. My earlier post mentions the bug that is causing this.

  • by jshire,

    jshire jshire Sep 17, 2016 1:24 PM in response to jshire
    Level 1 (17 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 17, 2016 1:24 PM in response to jshire

    i'll try again, but please understand that I really have deleted photos from the photo app correctly - command-delete & then delete all from the recently deleted folder.  Earlier I found the rogue iphotos sub folder that seemed to free up some space (reminded: I had already deleted iphoto some time ago - this odd iphoto sub folder was not in any iphoto folder & appeared only to have 10mb of data in it - but when deleting from trash it suddenly said it has 13,000 files in it & then the free space appeared).  However:

     

    i've now spent some more hours deleting all the photos from my photos library & then from the 'recently deleted' folder, but the photos are still there in the 'all photos' folder in photo & indeed in the 'masters' folder. So, with all the photos deleted from albums etc. there is still 100gb of data in the photo library.  I did read on one thread that one has to also delete them from the 'all photos' folder but then also saw that some folks said either not to do that or that doing so would not free up the space either.  There has to be a solution to this !

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Sep 17, 2016 5:21 PM in response to jshire
    Level 10 (141,304 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 17, 2016 5:21 PM in response to jshire

    Run this test:

    1 - get a test jpeg file and name it something really unique like "photosdeletetestfile.jpg". 

    2 - import the file into your Photos library from the Desktop

    3 - verify the photo is in the library and then delete the file from the Desktop.

    4 - delete the file from the library as I've posted and empty the Recently Deleted album.

    5 - download and run Find Any File to search for the file with the file name "photosdeletetestfile.jpg".  FAF can search areas that Spotlight can't like invisible folders, system folders and packages.

    6 - look in the search results window and see if there's a file with that name that's been found.  Check where it is and its size.

    If you do find a file then create a new, empty test library and run the same test.  Do you get the same results?

  • by jshire,

    jshire jshire Sep 17, 2016 10:53 PM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (17 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 17, 2016 10:53 PM in response to Old Toad

    thanks for the reply.

     

    so, I tried what you suggested & find my file didn't locate the test image. So, even though I found various references online yesterday telling folks NOT to delete images from the 'all photos' folder in photo I can only assume that info was incorrect & that is where they should be deleted from & not, as mentioned elsewhere, 'only from albums you have created'.

     

    To be extra sure: when deleting images from photo you should delete them from any albums one has created with them in & also from the 'all photos' folder & doing so will prevent one from re-importing the same images that one has stored on an external hard drive (I have them stored there in standard folders - not in a photo app library) - yes ?

     

    thanks

  • by Levente Orban,

    Levente Orban Levente Orban Sep 18, 2016 8:40 AM in response to sbunns
    Level 1 (14 points)
    iCloud
    Sep 18, 2016 8:40 AM in response to sbunns

    Does this procedure delete photos that have been transferred to iCloud Photos?

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Sep 18, 2016 9:23 AM in response to jshire
    Level 10 (141,304 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 18, 2016 9:23 AM in response to jshire

    To be extra sure: when deleting images from photo you should delete them from any albums one has created with them in & also from the 'all photos' folder & doing so will prevent one from re-importing the same images that one has stored on an external hard drive (I have them stored there in standard folders - not in a photo app library) - yes ?

     

    thanks

    Not necessary.  If you follow step one of my first post:

    1 - regardless of where you are in the library, i.e. Moments, Collections, albums, smart albums or projects, select the photo(s) you want to delete and use the key combination of Command+Delete to move the photos to the Recently Deleted smart album.

    that will remove the photo from all albums, All Photos and Photos.

  • by jshire,

    jshire jshire Sep 18, 2016 10:30 AM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (17 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 18, 2016 10:30 AM in response to Old Toad

    sorry, but that is incorrect - removing photos from albums, projects etc does not delete them from 'all photos' or 'photos' as those are both masters & everything else one does with images only places pointers to the masters. As mentioned repeatedly the correct command-delete / delete from recently deleted procedure has been followed but doing so from albums, projects etc does not remove them from 'all photos' or 'photos' - thats clear even in the slightly confusing official apple documentation for the app.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Sep 18, 2016 10:39 AM in response to jshire
    Level 10 (85,032 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 18, 2016 10:39 AM in response to jshire
    sorry, but that is incorrect - removing photos from albums, projects etc does not delete them from 'all photos' or 'photos'

     

     

    Sorry but you are wrong and Old Toad is correct as is very well documented and tested - His post is totally accurate

    1 - regardless of where you are in the library, i.e. Moments, Collections, albums, smart albums or projects, select the photo(s) you want to delete and use the key combination of Command+Delete to move the photos to the Recently Deleted smart album.

    that will remove the photo from all albums, All Photos and Photos.

    If you simply read the post and follow the directions it does exactly what it says it does - if it is not working for you then you either have a corrupted library or you are not doing it as directed

     

    To repair a corrupted library backup your Photos library and hold down the option and command keys while launching Photos and repair the database - if you are using iCloud Photo Library this will trigger a new total upload to ICPL

     

     

    LN

  • by jshire,

    jshire jshire Sep 18, 2016 11:31 AM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (17 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 18, 2016 11:31 AM in response to LarryHN

    look, I really don't want to offend anyone & I have read the post carefully & hundreds of others & I have followed the correct deletion procedures.

     

    I have repaired the database &, if I had the time, I could send you links to hundreds of websites & forum posts that also state that deleting a photo (with the command-delete / delete from recently deleted process) from an album only deletes the pointer & not the master image itself.

     

    with a fully functioning, non-corrupted photo library I have now deleted every image from the albums section & from the 'recently deleted' folder & every one of them is still in both 'all photos' & 'photos'. I have even spoken to Apple who also confirm that the command-delete process when done on an image in an album does not delete the master or free up any space.

     

    I have no wish to argue any further over this. Clearly, whatever the reason, for lots of users this 'correct' deletion procedure isn't working in el captain.

  • by kvdv,

    kvdv kvdv Sep 22, 2016 12:51 PM in response to jshire
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 22, 2016 12:51 PM in response to jshire

    I deleted all photos, then did a delete all in the Recently Deleted bin, and the library immediately showed as empty.

    Then, at first,  the Masters directory was still 35 GB large, aaargghh.....     but.. after some a few minutes I re-checked and it was only 45 MB large.

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Sep 22, 2016 2:00 PM in response to kvdv
    Level 10 (141,304 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 22, 2016 2:00 PM in response to kvdv
    Then, at first,  the Masters directory was still 35 GB large, aaargghh.....     but.. after some a few minutes I re-checked and it was only 45 MB large.

    I may have missed something here but that's an increase in size, not a decrease.  Was that a typo?

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Sep 22, 2016 2:04 PM in response to Old Toad
    Level 10 (85,032 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 22, 2016 2:04 PM in response to Old Toad

    35GB to 45MB  --  35,000,000,000 to 45,000,000 bytes - just a three order of magnitude decrease

     

    LN

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Sep 22, 2016 2:33 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 10 (141,304 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 22, 2016 2:33 PM in response to LarryHN

    DUH!  MB instead of GB.  Missed that.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Sep 22, 2016 2:46 PM in response to Old Toad
    Level 10 (85,032 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 22, 2016 2:46 PM in response to Old Toad

    I did too for a brief time - sometimes I read too fast and my expectations modifies my reality 

     

    LN

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