My husband's start up drive was getting low on space. I began searching for places to get rid of unneeded items. I came across some folders within HIS personal home folder -- CALLED PICTURES 1, PICTURES 2 and so on........each of them had an I-PHOTO library within them and were using up a lot of space. How would these have been created? He is a NOVICE with his Mac.......and so I want to avoid him doing this again.
Which folder has this icon:
That is the primary Pictures folder that the system created. Rename the iPhoto Library in each of the other two Pictures folder to iPhoto Library_2 and iPhoto Library_3. Move them into the Pictures folder with the camera icon above.
Delete the other two Pictures folders.
Now launch iPhoto with the Option key depressed and open the iPhoto Library. See how many photos are in it.
Next launch again with the Option key depressed and open the next library, iPhoto Library_2 and check its contents. Do the same with iPhoto Library_3.
If all of the libraries have photos that you want to keep download iPhoto Library Manager and launch. Add the three libraries to its left hand pane with the Add Library button. Then select the one of the three libraries in the left hand pane and go to the File ➙ Merge Libraries menu option. In the next window select all three of the libraries in the left window and New Library in the right window.
Click to view full size
The result will be a new library with a name of your choosing with all of the photos of the other 3 libraries. If you set iPLM's preferences correctly there will be no duplicates in the new library:
Click to view full size
Once you've checked the new library to make sure it's working satisfactorily and all photos are present and accounted for, you can delete those original three libraries.
OT
Which folder has this icon:
That is the primary Pictures folder that the system created. Rename the iPhoto Library in each of the other two Pictures folder to iPhoto Library_2 and iPhoto Library_3. Move them into the Pictures folder with the camera icon above.
Delete the other two Pictures folders.
Now launch iPhoto with the Option key depressed and open the iPhoto Library. See how many photos are in it.
Next launch again with the Option key depressed and open the next library, iPhoto Library_2 and check its contents. Do the same with iPhoto Library_3.
If all of the libraries have photos that you want to keep download iPhoto Library Manager and launch. Add the three libraries to its left hand pane with the Add Library button. Then select the one of the three libraries in the left hand pane and go to the File ➙ Merge Libraries menu option. In the next window select all three of the libraries in the left window and New Library in the right window.
Click to view full size
The result will be a new library with a name of your choosing with all of the photos of the other 3 libraries. If you set iPLM's preferences correctly there will be no duplicates in the new library:
Click to view full size
Once you've checked the new library to make sure it's working satisfactorily and all photos are present and accounted for, you can delete those original three libraries.
OT
Thank you very much for the comprehensive reply. Most of this stuff just seems to be duplicated photos..... how would he have unknowingly created these extra folders?
One more thing that I noticed and wanted to know about. I saw in my husband's home folder along with the extra PICTURES folders, there was also a "ZIP" folder with the icon of a zipper going up it. Where did this come from and what is it used for?
A Zip folder is a folder that has been compressed to save space.
Where it cam from? Someone zipped it. Double click on it to open it.
Regards
TD
THANKS! I opened the zip folder and it went through it's zipping process only to create another PICTURE folder. Could this be the culprit of having several of these PICTURE FOLDERS in my husband's personal folder? He has no knowledge or recollection of ANY of this........ therefore I am just trying to ask HOW AND WHY so that he won't inadvertently do this again. SMILING THANKFULLY...........
how would he have unknowingly created these extra folders?
At the risk of being ostracized by my fellow males: he's a man.
Now you see, I had to laugh right out loud! Let's just say that he was basically computer "illiterate" and used to walk a wide berth around my PC because he was so fearful of it all! Then he made the brave move to "get up to speed" and researched products and decided on a MAC. I was so impressed that my next move also involved a Mac. So he is kind of self-taught -- and tapped on my shoulder a lot! Most of his time on it is just spent with photographing and downloading them to I-PHOTO. So he just jumped in and starting using it, not always understanding what he was doing.......or asking any questions. And now.........suddenly he comes to me and says he HAS LITTLE SPACE LEFT ON HIS START UP DRIVE. SO I start snooping around to see where space is taken and find all these PICTURE folders. He is BLANK when I ask him about it. HENCE, my posting to the MAC GEEKS and wanting to see what you all suppose he did that CREATED this situation so he can NOT DO IT AGAIN......good grief, he had several PICTURE FOLDERS that seemed to just be copies of I-PHOTO and taking up GIGS AND MORE GIGS....no wonder he was down to nothing!
Be gentle with him.
I guess that I need to sit down and go through the i-photo tutorial to understand it better.
I still am looking for a response from old toad or terence devlin about WHAT HE COULD HAVE DONE inadvertently while working within i-photo TO HAVE CREATED THESE EXTRA FOLDERS??
Pretty please.......
He must have accidentally selected the Pictures folder and typed Command+D. Or accidentally typed Command+D while the Pictures folder was selected. More likely it's the latter.
AH HA......... thank you so much!
WIth reference to the ZIP folder that I found, when opened it just zips and keeps recreating another PICTURE folder......... should I delete the ZIP FOLDER ??
Yes, delete the zip file/folder.
O.T. -- you are so helpful! Do you think this "mysterious" zip file/folder (as my husband calls it) may be a culprit in the situation in his folder with multiple i-photo libraries being created in the many PICTURE folders? Where would he have encountered this ZIP to even get the process started? HE is in utter denial! I am beginning to think an alien came and took command of his MAC !
Now that you mention it, yes. He probably clicked on it without knowing and created another Pictures folder.
taking up space
