I have 275GB of photos on my iMac and I'm running out of storage, but most of the photos are ones I never put into a folder to save. Is there an easy way to get rid of the 1000s of photos that are NOT in a folder without going through them one by one in the Imports folder?
iMac 24″, macOS 11.6
If you mean that you want to permanently delete the photos (including from iCloud and all other devices where iCloud Photos is turned on):
First create a smart album -- Photos File menu > New Smart Album with the Condition: Album - is not - Any.
That will create a new album and it will automatically include all of your photos that are not in any album.
Then go to that album and select the photos (one by one, or by using shift-click or command-click) then press the delete key and then confirm the deletion.
If you mean that you want to permanently delete the photos (including from iCloud and all other devices where iCloud Photos is turned on):
First create a smart album -- Photos File menu > New Smart Album with the Condition: Album - is not - Any.
That will create a new album and it will automatically include all of your photos that are not in any album.
Then go to that album and select the photos (one by one, or by using shift-click or command-click) then press the delete key and then confirm the deletion.
Fizberry wrote:
...but most of the photos are ones I never put into a folder to save.
This may be a misunderstanding. Imported photos are automatically saved in your Photos Library, whether you add them to an album or not. Albums are not storing photos. They are just grouping related photos by referencing them in the library. You only need to add photos to albums, if you want to organise them and keep related photos in one place for easy access.
if you want to delete thousands of redundant photos, I would delete them in small groups. Do not move more than thousand photos to Recently Deleted. You may not be able to empty the Recently Deleted Album, it is is too full. Add small numbers of photos to Recently Deleted, check them, if there is an important photo among them, that you want to keep, then empty Recently Deleted, before you trash more photos.
To prevent yourself from deleting important photos you could refine the smart album suggested by Fox Fifth and add an additional rule: Photo > Is Not > Favourite
Combine the two rules "Match All".
Yes, I want to delete all the photos that I chose NOT to put into any album (because they were crappy, blurry, etc).
This seems like a good idea. I could go into each of my albums, select all, select favorite, and then afterwards use the rule you suggested because th ones I never put into an album will not be marked as favorite.
Also be aware that the above mentioned smart album will include all photos that are not in an album -- not just imported photos.
I don't see where I can choose "any". How do I do that?
It worked! Goodbye 8000 terrible photos! Thanks everyone!
Until you find that one of those 8000 was one you really wanted. 8^)
Get rid of unuseds photos?
