User profile for user: barbie1957
barbie1957 Author
User level: Level 1
9 points

Photos question-why are they everywhere

I have photos in multiple folders and don’t know why. Contacted Apple support today but hung up when tech gave me wrong info, which she admitted. So if I move a photo / screen shot of a recipe to a recipe folder or album, then go back to the library to delete it, it also deletes it from the recipe folder. Is there something somewhere I need to check or uncheck. I was told photos stay in The library forever. Can you imagine three years from now trying to find something there? Don’t photos use a lot of storage?

MacBook Air 13″, 11.2

Posted on Jul 1, 2021 4:33 PM

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User profile for user: D.I. Johnson
D.I. Johnson
User level: Level 7
34,631 points

Posted on Jul 1, 2021 5:02 PM

Hello, barbie1957.


This sounds like a question of photo management.

My first question is how do you add your photos to your library? Do you import them from the desktop and/or downloads folder or do you import them directly when you sync your phone?


Regardless, make sure that your photos are being copied in the Photos library when you import them. If not, then I would expect the behavior you are seeing.

Open the Photos app.

Click Photos > Preferences... > and look at the General tab. Make sure the Importing: box is checked. If the box is unchecked, then any photos that have been imported will not have been copied in the Photos' application library, only referenced to wherever the file lived at the time it was imported. So.. if you delete the original then it's gone. It was never copied into the app's library.


I'm not sure how you will fix this after the fact. Maybe someone else can offer suggestions?

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User profile for user: D.I. Johnson
D.I. Johnson
User level: Level 7
34,631 points

Jul 1, 2021 5:02 PM in response to barbie1957

Hello, barbie1957.


This sounds like a question of photo management.

My first question is how do you add your photos to your library? Do you import them from the desktop and/or downloads folder or do you import them directly when you sync your phone?


Regardless, make sure that your photos are being copied in the Photos library when you import them. If not, then I would expect the behavior you are seeing.

Open the Photos app.

Click Photos > Preferences... > and look at the General tab. Make sure the Importing: box is checked. If the box is unchecked, then any photos that have been imported will not have been copied in the Photos' application library, only referenced to wherever the file lived at the time it was imported. So.. if you delete the original then it's gone. It was never copied into the app's library.


I'm not sure how you will fix this after the fact. Maybe someone else can offer suggestions?

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User profile for user: barbie1957
barbie1957 Author
User level: Level 1
9 points

Jul 1, 2021 5:20 PM in response to D.I. Johnson

I’ll check the photo preferences. Most photos I’m scanning to a SD card and importing to my laptop. I’m scanning family photo albums. Some photos are screen shots from my phone. I can’t stand all those photos everywhere. I’ll call Apple support again tomorrow and see if I get someone more knowledgeable on this subject because I also have questions on slideshows and memories.

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Photos question-why are they everywhere

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