If I delete photos from the library, will it also delete the same photos from my albums?

If you delete photos from your library, the photos are deleted everywhere, including from albums. If you have iCloud Photos enabled, then deleting photos will delete the photos on all devices sharing that Apple ID, and will also delete the photos from iCloud Photos library.

Yes, the albums are not storing own copies of the photos. Each photo is only stored once, and the albums are just referencing the photos in the library. The same goes for smart albums.

The one exception are Shared albums. Shared albums are independent of the library and are storing own copies (in a lesser quality, optimized for sharing). You can tell that the photos are in the Shared albums are independent copies by sharing a photo, then editing the version in the library. The copy in the shared album will not show the adjustments you applied in the library, it is not updated, when we edit the the photo in the library. But the photos in the standard albums and the smart albums are always updated in album the photo is used, when we add adjustments to a photo. we are seeing the same photo in several places.

Yes they’re deleted from the library. That’s why I wish if I’ve got 3 similar photos of something and I add one of them to an album, an A or something would pop up/be superimposed on that photo. Then, if I look at the library at a later date, if I knew which one was in the album I could then delete the other two. It’s very frustrating if you’re trying to slim down your photo library but can’t do it w/o deleting the ones you’d like to keep for your albums. It’d be great if Apple could help us out in some way.

Thanks.

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