Photo libraries and pictures in the Pictures folder

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Level 1

4 points

Photo libraries and pictures in the Pictures folder

I had 3 photo libraries (one i photos) on my mac, which I merged today using Power Photos software as I only have the free 5GB icloud storage. Now in my pictures folder I have one Photo library folder but still have numerous single pictures (jpg). I have imported all the single pictures to my Photo library folder - are all my pictures now stored in my photo library folder and am I safe to remove all the single pictures or is the photo library just a way of organizing your photos and the originals need to be in the pictures folder as well?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 12.3

Posted on May 8, 2022 12:00 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

TonyCollinet

Level 7

23,954 points

May 8, 2022 12:12 AM in response to debjmak

Hi

As long as you have the "Copy items...." option checked as shown below, then the single pictures are now in the library, and can be removed.

Please though make sure you are backing up your library (eg using time machine).

And some people choose to have a version of the individual images stored outside of the library as a backup. I do this as part of my backup strategey and regularly export my new pictures from photos to a folder structure (eg once/month), stored on an external drive. This is in addition to a backup of the library using time machine.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

197,273 points

May 8, 2022 12:12 AM in response to debjmak

It will depend on Photos > Preferences > General: importing.

there are two different ways of importing. If the preferences had been set to “copy items into the library” when you imported the photos, you can delete the items outside the library. If you used the option to reference them in the original location, you must not delete them. In that case select them in Photos and use the command “File > Consolidate” to copy them into the library, before you delete the single file outside.

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