'Delete' in Photos does literally nothing

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Level 1

8 points

'Delete' in Photos does literally nothing

Bear with me - I understand that there are different ways to delete photos: delete, command+delete, right click > delete 1 photo, image > delete 1 photo.

No matter which way I choose (or which album I'm in), when I try to delete a photo, it asks if I want to remove it from all my devices (I confirm) and then the photo doesn't move. It stays in it's original place AND shows up in recently deleted album. So then I try permanently deleting it from the recently deleted album (that works) but the original photo is still in it's original place.

Help?

MacBook

Posted on Dec 12, 2019 9:01 PM

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Answer 1

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léonie

Level 10

194,935 points

Dec 12, 2019 10:07 PM in response to rightsideout

How are you importing the phots to Photos? Are you importing the photos as referenced files? If Photos is not copying the the photos into the library, but referencing them in the original location, Phots will not delete the original files, when you delete the photo from Photos. It will just remove the version from the Photos Library.

In that case you have to delete the referenced files manually, before you delete the version from the Photos Library.

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Answer 2

rightsideout Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 13, 2019 5:41 AM in response to léonie

Leonie, you're so smart, how did I not find that solution anywhere despite all my searches!

The photos were being imported from a timecapsule and I'm not actually sure which settings my mom chose when she imported them. So when I entered the scene, the photos were just in Photos and I couldn't figure out the delete problem.

Thank you so much!

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'Delete' in Photos does literally nothing

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