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Tigervision Author

Level 1

25 points

FYI: The WRONG way to delete photos from iphoto - BEWARE

Hi all...

I just want to follow up on something from earlier this year. About deleting photos.

The guru's (DT, OT, LN) taught me and others to try to limit deleting photos to 100 at a time from iphoto trash.

i.e. when you delete pictures, empty your iphoto trash when there are less than 100 pics in it.

Good advice. Thanks guys. I want to give feedback on another issue about deleting photos.

I suspected that iphoto never deleted certain pictures. So you might think you deleted 4000 pictures over the years, but you may have actually only deleted 2500... the other 1500 are hanging out in the masters folder or elsewhere. Turns out, I found out that is absolutely true.

Here is what happens.

If I import say 100 photos into a new event.

Then I go through and delete 25 pictures.

Then I merge that event with another event.

Then I go to trash in iphoto (at any time after that merge) and delete those 25 pictures from iphoto trash.

They will NOT be deleted.

(just empty your system/desktop trash can, and try it... the 25 pictures will not be in the system trash can as they should after deleting them from iphoto trash).

The fatal mistake: MERGING events BEFORE you delete those pictures from iphoto trash!!!!

If you empty the iphoto trash can before merging events, all is well.

I have confirmed this on my Mac. But more importantly, I was in Apple store yesterday and confirmed it with a brand new Mac running Mavericks and the Newest Iphoto. Just try it and you will see.

In sum: you delete photos from Event A. You merge A with Event B to create Event C. Then you empty your iphoto trash (after merging events). Those pictures you sent to iphoto trash from Event A before you merged with B... will NOT be deleted from iphoto and be hidden in your library.

Posted on Nov 27, 2013 3:00 PM

39 replies

Tigervision Author

Level 1

25 points

Nov 29, 2013 12:27 PM in response to LarryHN

Thanks guys. Thought I was starting to go crazy.

Here is why this is so dangerous and scary.

If your computer crashed. And you time machine restore.

All those photos are brought back!!!!!!

All that time you spent taking care to go through the pics and remove unwanted ones. Erased.

Unfortunately. This did happen to me.

1000's of unwanted photos restored.

That is why this is so scary.

And downright dangerous in my opinion.

You're time and work can be erased.

FYI.

Ps. Will definately report to apple. Thanks for reminder.

Tigervision Author

Level 1

25 points

Dec 1, 2013 9:48 PM in response to Tigervision

Was in Apple store today.

Brand new iMac 27" running newest iphoto.

Event A: Deleted 24 pictures.

Event B: Deleted 12 pictures.

Merged B INTO A.

Deleted iphoto trash.

In system trash were the 24 pictures from Event A.

Event B pictures (the event physicaly moved/merged) never made it to the system trash.

Scary to think how many unwanted pictures are sitting in peoples master folders....

I did report to Apple and also included a link to this thread.

Apr 8, 2014 11:01 AM in response to Tigervision

Hello to all,

Any news on this ? I have the same problem, many files weren't deleted from my "masters" folder although deleted from iPhoto (and trash empty), and I can't find a way to fix it despite my searches.

Any hint welcome.

Cheers.

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,396 points

Apr 8, 2014 11:37 AM in response to snellpacha

You have a corrupted Library - and I don't believe that this thread is relevant. This refers to a rather specific set of circumstances.

There are 9 different versions of iPhoto and they run on 9 different versions of the Operating System. The tricks and tips for dealing with issues vary depending on the version of iPhoto and the version of the OS. So to get help you need to give as much information as you can. Include things like:

- What version of iPhoto.

- What version of the Operating System.

- Details. As full a description of the problem as you can. For example, if you have a problem with exporting, then explain by describing how you are trying to export, and so on.

- History: Is this going on long? Has anything been installed or deleted? - Are there error messages?

- What steps have you tried already to solve the issue.

- Anything unusual about your set up? Or how you use iPhoto?

Anything else you can think of that might help someone understand the problem you have.

Old Toad

Level 10

207,649 points

Apr 8, 2014 11:37 AM in response to snellpacha

With the amount of information you've provided it's impossible to offer a potential solution. We can't see your computer so we need to know the details of your problem and setup, i.e.:

what version of iPhoto are you using?
what system version are you running?
what do you see when iPhoto opens?
what fixes have you tried?
where is your library located?
did you apply any updates or upgrades just prior to the problem occurring?
are you running a "managed" or "referenced" library?

what type of Mac?
how much free space on your boot drive?

Apr 8, 2014 4:06 PM in response to Tigervision

I run the latest version of iPhoto (9.5.1) on the latest OSX system (10.9.2) with a managed library.

iPhoto just runs normally but I realised yesterday that some photos I deleted a few days ago in iPhoto (iPhoto and system trash all emptied) still appear in Spotlight search. I found out these pictures were still in the "Masters" folder.

I've tried repairing and even reconstructing the iPhoto database, which worked fine, but the files in the "Masters" folder don't reappear in iPhoto nor do they get deleted from the "Masters" folder.

Any help welcome.

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Apr 8, 2014 7:32 PM in response to snellpacha

How exactly did you delete these photos?

The correct way is to select a photo in an event, press the delete key (or select move to trash) then empty the iPhoto trash and then empty the system trash

Tigervision Author

Level 1

25 points

Apr 8, 2014 8:46 PM in response to LarryHN

LN... Yes.... but if you MERGE an event BEFORE you empty trash.... the photos will not be CONSISTENTLY deleted... sometimes they will... sometimes they won't.

I have tried this on brand new libraries (i.e. in theory, it is not a corrupted library, correct?). It's inconsistent at best.

Also as noted above OT was able to confirm this.

Try it next time you walk into an apple store on any of their computers.... I would be curious to know what you all find/discover.

Thanks.

Apr 9, 2014 3:18 AM in response to LarryHN

That's exactly what I did.

Apr 9, 2014 3:18 AM in response to LarryHN

LarryHN wrote:

How exactly did you delete these photos?

The correct way is to select a photo in an event, press the delete key (or select move to trash) then empty the iPhoto trash and then empty the system trash

LN

That's exactly what I did.

Apr 9, 2014 3:44 AM in response to Tigervision

Tigervision wrote:

LN... Yes.... but if you MERGE an event BEFORE you empty trash.... the photos will not be CONSISTENTLY deleted... sometimes they will... sometimes they won't.

I have tried this on brand new libraries (i.e. in theory, it is not a corrupted library, correct?). It's inconsistent at best.

Also as noted above OT was able to confirm this.

Try it next time you walk into an apple store on any of their computers.... I would be curious to know what you all find/discover.

Thanks.

Do you have any hint on how to exhaustively find and delete these files that are still in the "Masters" folder but not anymore in iPhoto (as they should) ? In some situations they might eat up a lot of hard drive space.

Thanks for any help.

Tigervision Author

Level 1

25 points

Apr 9, 2014 6:02 AM in response to snellpacha

It does eat up a lot of hard drive.

But if there is a fix.... I'll leave that answer up to the experts... DT, OT and LN.

I'm pretty much a novice myself.

I think ILM can do it. Ie. Rebuild the library from scratch??

But I don't recall if that carries over the metadata.

Old Toad

Level 10

207,649 points

Apr 9, 2014 8:28 AM in response to Tigervision

But I don't recall if that carries over the metadata.

See Note 1 below:

Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library

Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.

Click on the Add Library button,

and select the library you want to add from those in the selection window.

Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the Library ➙ Rebuild Library menu option

In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.

Click on the Create button.

Note 1: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments. However, books, calendars, cards and slideshows will be lost.

Note 2: Your current library will be left untouched for further attempts at a fix if so desired.