Accidentally deleted Photos Library.photoslibrary in Macbook: Is my original library safe?

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Accidentally deleted Photos Library.photoslibrary in Macbook: Is my original library safe?

I was trying to clear space in my Macbook and dragged my Photos Library.photoslibrary into my iCloud drive. Halfway through the transfer period, I decided not to do it and cancelled the transfer. Then I dragged that (incomplete) Photos Library.photoslibrary into the trash and started to permanently delete it. But now I'm worried that since this incomplete duplicate Photos Library has the same name as my original Photos library, that I might be deleting my original Photos library.

Or is the original Photos library untouched and I'm only deleting the duplicate?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 15.2

Posted on Feb 18, 2025 6:22 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

MrHoffman

Level 10

159,225 points

Feb 20, 2025 2:34 PM in response to katherinequestions

katherinequestions wrote:

Oh, I forgot to mention that the Photos Library is synced with iCloud though! does that make a dfference?

Yes, very much.

Log into iCloud.com and see if your full-res photos are available there.

With iCloud.com active, what is stored locally is a cache, and not the full copy. It can have fewer photos, or lower-resolution photos, or both.

I would get Time Machine backups going soonest, too. Backups are the only way to mark data as being valuable.

Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support

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Answer 2

Feb 20, 2025 9:44 AM in response to katherinequestions

katherinequestions wrote: …Photos Library is synced with iCloud though!

Look at iCloud.com and make sure that all your pictures are OK. I'd be cautious about deleting these files without assurance that iCloud has OK copies.

I think that you have said that he dock no longer has the Photos icon in it, but there is something else-- is that right? We may need to fix that…

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Answer 3

Feb 19, 2025 7:23 AM in response to katherinequestions

It's hard to tell what you mean: If you drag a file from one folder to another on your Mac, it disappears in the first and reappears in the last. So if you dragged your Photos Library from Pictures to iCloud Drive, then it should have immediately disappeared from Pictures and shown up in iCloud Drive (which is just another folder on your Mac) with the cloud having a strike though it like "New Library" here:

The cloud with the strike through it means that the Library is not being copied to iCloud.com, because that doesn't work, and a Library can't be used in the iCloud Drive folder on your Mac.

Dragging a Photos Library to the trash has caused other problems, as well.

So I don't know what Library could be "incomplete," or why. Where did you drag it to the trash from?

You say: "Or is the original Photos library untouched and I'm only deleting the duplicate?" but I don't understand when you created a duplicate. Do you see Photos Library in your Pictures folder?

Let us know what's going on…

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Answer 4

MrHoffman

Level 10

159,225 points

Feb 19, 2025 6:18 PM in response to katherinequestions

katherinequestions wrote:

No

Ah, okay. You picked the difficult path, then.

First step, get a backup. Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support

You’re probably going to have to copy all of your photos elsewhere, and then create s new photo library, and then re-import all manually.

But (and only after the backup completes!) you can try a repair: Change your Apple Account country or region - Apple Support

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Answer 5

Feb 19, 2025 4:23 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thanks for your response!

So I dragged my Photos Library to iCloud, then I stopped that transfer halfway through. This left me with a Photos Library (half transferred) in iCloud with the grey strikethru icon, as well as my original Photos Library still in my Mac. Then I dragged the iCloud strikethru Photos Library into the trash. I just want to make sure that 1) permanently deleting this iCloud strikethru Photos Library won't affect my original Photos library and 2) I didn't mess anything up in my original Library by stopping the transfer halfway - as in, by stopping the transfer at 50% completion, did 50% of my images get moved to the iCloud library, and 50% stayed in my original Library? If I'd stopped the transfer at 75% of the way through, would that mean 75% of my photos went to the new location, and 25% stayed in the original?

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