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Clearing out large files

I am trying to clear out space on my hard drive and see that I have a large file that is a migrated iPhoto Library. Can I delete that now? Are my photos secure in the cloud?

iMac Pro

Posted on Dec 25, 2020 2:05 PM

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Posted on Dec 25, 2020 2:20 PM

Only you can say if your photos are secure in the cloud. If all your photos are visible in photos, AND you are syncing with iCloud, then they should all be there. To double check, log on at www.icloud.com

and see what is there in photos.


Also bear in mind that iCloud is not a backup. If you unintentionally delete photos they will be deleted everywhere. Please make sure you have a proper backup in addition (time machine is ideal for this).


Finally - if all that is done, then it is safe to delete the old migrated library. However, you won't get as much space back as you think, because that library is now sharing the original image files with the photos library via file system links. So when you delete it you will only get back the space taken by the database - which is a relatively small amount of space compared with the original files.

1 reply
Question marked as Best reply

Dec 25, 2020 2:20 PM in response to LKReeves

Only you can say if your photos are secure in the cloud. If all your photos are visible in photos, AND you are syncing with iCloud, then they should all be there. To double check, log on at www.icloud.com

and see what is there in photos.


Also bear in mind that iCloud is not a backup. If you unintentionally delete photos they will be deleted everywhere. Please make sure you have a proper backup in addition (time machine is ideal for this).


Finally - if all that is done, then it is safe to delete the old migrated library. However, you won't get as much space back as you think, because that library is now sharing the original image files with the photos library via file system links. So when you delete it you will only get back the space taken by the database - which is a relatively small amount of space compared with the original files.

Clearing out large files

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