Does this still hold true? I read 7 years ago that the .aae files are the edits of photos (done on a phone perhaps).
If I'm not concerned about losing the edits there's no issue in deleting the .aae files themselves -
Is that correct?
Many Thanks.
Mac mini, macOS 14.3
I did a quick test: .aae sidecar file describes the edits done on iOS devices. If you AirDrop or import all three related files IMG_*.HEIC (original), IMG_*.heic (edited version) and IMG_*.AAE to Photos, it treats them as one image. If the .aae file is missing, Photos imports the original and the edited version as two separate images.
Photos's edit panel allows you to see which editing options were used and then revert just that or all to the original.
Personally I do not care about the .aae files because I always import only the originals and do any editing on the Mac (with Lightroom, GraphicConverter or exiftool).
I did a quick test: .aae sidecar file describes the edits done on iOS devices. If you AirDrop or import all three related files IMG_*.HEIC (original), IMG_*.heic (edited version) and IMG_*.AAE to Photos, it treats them as one image. If the .aae file is missing, Photos imports the original and the edited version as two separate images.
Photos's edit panel allows you to see which editing options were used and then revert just that or all to the original.
Personally I do not care about the .aae files because I always import only the originals and do any editing on the Mac (with Lightroom, GraphicConverter or exiftool).
.aae files - Deleting them will delete the photos edits?
