can't delete iphoto library

hey all, I'm using mojave 10.14.2 on iMac. I'm cleaning it up and moved my photos and iMovie libraries to external HD. All fine. But, I still had old iPhotos library that was (is) taking up 250GB, and I want it gone now that I have everything on Photos which is on ext HD (and backed up on another HD). I moved the iPhotos library to trash, but trash won't let me delete. Says it's still in use. I restarted computer (several times)/ with no other apps running it still gives me same message. It lets me delete everything else but the iPhotos library.

Any advice?

Thanks

Posted on Jan 7, 2019 4:54 PM

Top-ranking reply

Theoden_King

Level 2

354 points

Posted on Jan 7, 2019 6:35 PM

What I would do:

Take the Photos library out of the trash.
Right-click (or Control-click) the library and choose Show Package Contents from the pop-up menu.
Delete every item inside it separately, until you come to the file or folder that it won't let you delete.
If it's a folder, do the same thing inside, deleting all the contents until you've isolated one single file it won't delete.
Take that file out of the trash and place it in your Home folder (the one with your username that contains the Desktop, Downloads, Pictures folder, etc.)
Go to the terminal and type "sudo rm" followed by a space, followed by the exact name of the file, including its extension. When it asks for your password, enter your login password.

This should completely eliminate it. There may be an easier way, but this is what I've done successfully in the past.

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17 replies

Old Toad

Level 10

215,688 points

Jan 9, 2019 9:58 AM in response to thisoldfish

The Target Disk Mode method should work as Theoden King mentioned.

If you can't get another Mac you might try this.

1 - since there's some background process associated with that library try opening another library.

2 - while the other library is open and working, try deleting the folder. Hopefully the background process will have attached itself to the new library leaving the folder available for deletion.

Jan 9, 2019 9:27 PM in response to thisoldfish

It looks like the 200 GB of photos is a glitch. Notice that it says 843 GB free, out of 1.12 TB. That's less than 200 GB used right there.

You can confirm that by clicking on your hard drive in the Finder and getting Info (Command I). It will tell how much space is available.and how much is used. If you've got 100 GB in just iOS apps, and still 843 GB available, then you definitely don't have 200 GB of photos lying around.

One last idea for getting rid of silly old "Problem" would be to create a new user account, restart, log in to the new account, and try deleting the file from there. You'd have to disable automatic login to keep your regular account from running whatever it runs at startup; and you may have to stash Problem in the Shared folder so the other account can access it. Not sure if it's worth the trouble, and not sure if anything will make the system let go of it, but it's a thought.

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can't delete iphoto library