Photos: Completely remove pictures from all devices and the cloud to rebuild using new library?

TonyCollinet wrote:

Hi

...

All the original file names are stored in the photos database, and you can always get back the original unmodified files using file>export unmodified original (which also is faster than the normal export, which recompresses all the files) - with the names as they were when imported.

That is the big problem, Tony. To get the originals back, with the original metadata and the original file name, we have to be able to run Photos, and Photos has to be able to open the library. This may not be possible, if things should go really bad:

• If a Photos Library has become badly damaged, Photos may not be able to repair it and open the library.
• If we have to revert to a previous system version, because of problems with the current system version, Photos will not be able to open the modified library and we will be stuck with the renamed originals.
• If we want to move from a Mac to a different computer model, we will not be able to run Photos at all.

I think we really should take precautions and be prepared for such an emergency and keep an archive of the original image files, to save the original filenames and metadata.

I am doing what Nixt is doing now: Importing the photos by copying them into the library and keeping copies of the originals on an external volume, which I regularly back up.

The original filenames are holding important information - a code fore the camera make and a running number, so we can sort them by camera and chronologically, based on the filename. The new filenames are useless for all such purposes. if we ever have to recreate a Photos library from the renamed originals, it will be a lot of work.

Hi

You cannot do what you want to do. If you try, you will spend a lot of time doing it, risk losing your data if you get something wrong, and just end up back in the same place.

Catalina and later stores the original files in the original folder under the "renamed" format. This is for improved compatibility with iCloud, and there is no way to "force" it not to rename them. This should not matter to the end user. The library structure is NOT intended for access by the user - that is why it is hidden by default.

All the original file names are stored in the photos database, and you can always get back the original unmodified files using file>export unmodified original (which also is faster than the normal export, which recompresses all the files) - with the names as they were when imported.

If this is not acceptable for you, then probably you will need to choose a different photo management app.

1 - I am referring to the not renaming in the originals folder, not the deletion of images.

2 - I understood you to be objecting to the renaming of files in the originals folder. Photos would not (or at least should not) rename files stored on your hard drive outside of the library. If that has happened something has gone badly wrong.

If you are happy for the files in the library/originals folder to be renamed, then you are good to go. In that case, to delete and start from new you can simply delete the libraries. However, I'm not sure how to do that on a phone/ipad.

You might be better off deleting ALL photos on your synced Mac, and waiting for that deletion (and removal from recently deleted) to be replicated to all devices.

Photos from version 5 changed the way photos are stored INSIDE the photos library.photoslibrary, renaming them in there so they are guaranteed to have unique file names. It has never renamed files that are stored outside of the photos library, so if that has happened either you have made a mistake, or the app has gone badly wrong.

Regarding deletion, as I said above - if all libraries are synced, then deleting them from your mac library will delete them from iCloud, and all your synced devices.

Make sure your copy of the photos files is securely saved somewhere else (and backed up) first.

I'll bow out now, in case you just want a second opinion 🙃

That is simply how photos works since Catalina - there is no way of changing that behaviour. Could apple have done it differently - sure, but it doesn't matter. This is how they have done it.

The only additional feedback I can give you...

When you delete the content of your library, and then re-import those photos, the copy that is put into the library *will* be renamed again. You will have a library just like you have now. Renamed photos in the "originals" folder, and original names stored in a folder where they are now, external to the library. No linkage between the two sets.

I'm not sure how that helps you. You can always export originals and get the original names back, whenever you like.

Am I still misunderstanding what you are expecting to achieve?

I do the same, keep copies of the originals separate from photos

Nixt has exported his complete library to regenerate originals - that makes perfect sense. But if I am not misunderstanding, now what he wants to do is delete everything in the library that he has just exported, then re-import again from what he has exported.

This makes no sense to me, he will end up in exactly the same position after a lot of effort to delete everything, sync the deletions, then reimport, and resync the regenerated library.

I am not sure about Nix's intentions, but you are right, that deleting and reimporting the originals will just be a waste of time. Inside a Photos 5 or later library they will always be renamed. Photos 4 on Mojave has been the last system that allowed us to store our originals unmodified in a Photo Library, like iPhoto and Aperture before. It may have been an attempt to make the syncing of Photos with iCloud across several devices and different platforms and different system versions easier, but it is also applying to Photos Libraries, that are not syncing with iCloud.

There isn't a way. If you want it to be open I think you have to re-create the post.