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Will deleting albums on Mac OS Catalina v.10.15.7 delete the photos in them?

I have albums created by Photos which I don't want - are the photos in these albums also in Photos?

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Oct 1, 2020 2:27 PM

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Posted on Oct 1, 2020 2:38 PM

Album are just referencing the photos they are using. The albums are not holding copies. You can use the same photo in many albums without using extra storage. When you delete an album, the photos will remain in the Photos Library.


There s one exception: Shared albums are working differently. When you share a photo in a shared album, a copy of the photo will be created for the shared album. This copy is no longer linked to the original in the library. When you delete the photo from the library, it will remaining the shared album. When you adjust the original in the library, the copy in the shared album will not be updated. They are different images.



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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 1, 2020 2:38 PM in response to froglind

Album are just referencing the photos they are using. The albums are not holding copies. You can use the same photo in many albums without using extra storage. When you delete an album, the photos will remain in the Photos Library.


There s one exception: Shared albums are working differently. When you share a photo in a shared album, a copy of the photo will be created for the shared album. This copy is no longer linked to the original in the library. When you delete the photo from the library, it will remaining the shared album. When you adjust the original in the library, the copy in the shared album will not be updated. They are different images.



Will deleting albums on Mac OS Catalina v.10.15.7 delete the photos in them?

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