Permanently delete photos?

Yes. Use iPhoto. Drag the photos into the iPhoto Trash can in the Source List. They will stay there until you are ready to empty the trash, which you do by selecting the Empty Trash command in the iPhoto menu.

There is one condition under which this will not delete the files from your hard drive. That is, if your iPhoto Preference is set so that iPhoto does NOT copy the files into the iPhoto Library folder when importing. In that case your Originals folder contains only alias files. Emptying the iPhoto trash will remove the alias, but to delete the file from your hard drive you have to locate it and delete it from your filing system.

jmoman

Of course. Assuming you're using iPhoto in the default configuration (Photos are copied to the iPhoto Library Folder on import) then simply move the pics to the iPhoto trash and empty it (iPhoto Menu -> Empty Trash)

This will remove the pics from iPhoto and the HD.

Regards

TD

I've been reading through threads on this topic, and it seems that I have the same problem that others have mentioned in this forum
I'm using iphoto 6.06 and have recently notice that photos that I trashed (in iphoto followed by emptying the iphoto trash) are STILL in the originals folder in my iphoto library. Not all, but a significant number of my recently deleted photos are sitting in the HD taking up space. Any ideas? I have seen multiple comments in the past threads, but nothing that I would consider an answer to what is going on. I have about 3500 photos in my iphoto library
Thanks

Clifford

Use Disk Utility to check your Hd for errors.

Regards

TD

Wow
Here's what I got:

Verifying volume “Macintosh HD”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
%)
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Volume Bit Map needs minor repair
Checking volume information.
Invalid volume free block count
Invalid volume free block count
%@ instead of %@)",2)
17393335
17392802
Volume Header needs minor repair
The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.

Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit


1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair


A few questions:

1. Do errors like these cause the problems that I have with iPhoto, or are the HD errors caused by some problem that iphoto has developed?

2. What can I do to keep this from recurring?

3. I've never done a disc repair since I switched to OS X two years ago. I assume that I should do a major back up before running a disc repair (using my OS X start up disc). I have a 250GB firewire external HD that I use to back up my documents folder, iphoto lib, and iTunes, plus i Cal and address book. What kind of back up would you recommend? Can I just drag my mac HD icon, my user icon??? HELP!!!

4. After I run disc repair, will the non-deleted photos in the Originals folder be gone, or will I have to delete them in the finder (they no longer show up in iphoto, despite their presence in the Originals folder). I'm afraid to do ANYTHING in the iphoto library in the finder, as I understand such adventures can mess up iphoto's database, etc.

I hope these questions don't bother you, but I've noticed from your other posts that you seem to really understand how Macs work 🙂

Thanks for your help!

Claude

Thanks for your kind comments.

1. Do errors like these cause the problems that I have with iPhoto, or are the HD errors caused by some problem that iphoto has developed?

Yes, they cause the problem with iPhoto, because they prevent the script that deletes the originals from running.

2. What can I do to keep this from recurring?

Honestly, I don't know. At any time there are any number of minor glitches on a computer. They just come up from time to time. Personally I check my HD about every six months or so. Sometimes there are minor repairs, sometimes not. I wouldn't panic about it.

After I run disc repair, will the non-deleted photos in the Originals folder be gone,

No they wont. As far as iphoto is concerned those scripts have run and those files are gone.

Here's a way to solve the issue of the unwanted files. Download iPhoto Library Manager and use the rebuild command it has. This will create a new library and move all the files from the old library to it - and leave behind the ones that iPhoto doesn't know about.

Consult the iPhoto Library Manager help for more details.

Regards

TD

Thanks for the advice

Do you know if the iphoto manager program will leave all my albums, edits, labels, etc intact????

Also, any comments on what I should expect from the Disc Utility Repair HD program? What kind of stuff should I back up before running it??

Thanks again for your help

Clifford

The text in blue above is a link to the iPLM site. You'll find all the details there.

Back up your User account, that's what I do anyway. That gets all your data and settings.

Running DU is a straightforward business, only takes a couple of moments.

Regards

TD

I also want to delete photos and have learned much from this thread, but have a another question about deleting: if I delete photos as described above, will ALL versions of the photos (originals and modified/edited versions) be gone?

Thanks!

CopOJoe

Yes.

Regards

TD

Thank you ever so much!