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

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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

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,290 points

Nov 27, 2013 3:22 PM in response to Tigervision

Sorry, but I can't confirm that - now admittedly I used two photos not 25, but after merging the events all the photos were sent to the System Trash and removed from the iPhoto Masters folder.

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Answer 2

Tigervision Author

Level 1

25 points

Nov 27, 2013 3:44 PM in response to Yer_Man

Hmmmm... And here I thought I can provide you with useful info for once ;)

So you deleted photos. Then merged events. Then emptied iPhoto trash?

I have noticed very rarely it does work. Most of the time it does not.

Yesterday in apple store I deleted 4 pics. Merged events. Those 4 pics didn't make to system trash.

When I did on another event, without merging events, the pics made it to system trash.

I would be curious if you made a bogus library and tried it again.

In any case. It is not consistent and we should empty iPhoto trash before merging events.

At least give consideration to this work flow.

Thanks.

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,290 points

Nov 27, 2013 10:34 PM in response to Tigervision

I would be curious if you made a bogus library and tried it again.

What's a "bogus Library"?

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Answer 4

Tigervision Author

Level 1

25 points

Nov 27, 2013 10:38 PM in response to Yer_Man

Oh, I just meant a new test library that you can delete afterwards. So you don't use your 'real library'.

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Answer 5

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,290 points

Nov 27, 2013 10:49 PM in response to Tigervision

Okay I just created a new Library.

I imported 25 screenshots in one go, made a single event.

I imported another 25 screenshots and that made a second event.

I deleted 5 shots from the first event.

I merged the two events.

I emptied the iPhoto trash.

In the system trash there's a folder with the 5 shots.

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Answer 6

Tigervision Author

Level 1

25 points

Nov 27, 2013 11:22 PM in response to Yer_Man

Hmmmm.... Weird. Just did it in the apple store too.

And I know it has done it on my Mac.

Thanks for going through the trouble TD.

Well. Maybe we can keep an eye on this and report back if anyone notices this phenomenon.

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Answer 7

Nov 28, 2013 9:41 PM in response to Tigervision

The limitation on trash in iphoto seems to have been removed under Mavericks/iPhoto 9.5. I was able to successfully delete over 9000 photos in one go. iPhoto used to crash when you attempted to delete more than 200 or so photos at once. :-)

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Answer 8

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,290 points

Nov 28, 2013 11:27 PM in response to Bruce2125

It now works if you have Item Counts turned off, most of the time...

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Answer 9

Tigervision Author

Level 1

25 points

Nov 29, 2013 8:02 AM in response to Yer_Man

Bruce... did you check your system trash to make sure all 9K pics went there?

TD, what is Item counts? and how do you turn it off?

😉

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Answer 10

Old Toad

Level 10

207,373 points

Nov 29, 2013 9:16 AM in response to Tigervision

Can you duplicate that problem again, in your current library and also in an new, test library?

OT

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Answer 11

Tigervision Author

Level 1

25 points

Nov 29, 2013 9:35 AM in response to Old Toad

OT... yes.

It happens occasionally in my library... sometimes I only am deleting 30 pics.

But it is pretty stable if I do NOT merge events first.

And my library has probably only 5K of pictures.

(I have several libraries).

But the interesting thing is it also happened on a new mac in apple store with new iphoto/mavericks.

So I think it is inconsistent, but a definate possibility.

Can't explain why it worked fine for TD when he tested above.

In any case, keep an eye on it and would be curious what you guys find out in the future and if this ever happens to you.

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Answer 12

Old Toad

Level 10

207,373 points

Nov 29, 2013 10:12 AM in response to Tigervision

But the interesting thing is it also happened on a new mac in apple store with new iphoto/mavericks.

I was able to confirm that bug. Here's the test I ran twice:

1 - imported folder of 37 photos into existing iPhoto library.

2 - moved the first 21 of those photos to the iPhoto Trash but did not emptyl

3 - dragged the new event onto an older event to merge the two.

5 - emptied the iPhoto Trash bin.

6 - checked the Trash bin in the Dock and it was empty.

7 - checked the latest folder in the Masters folder of the library and all 37 originals were there.

I repeated the same test with a new library but imported two new folders of pictures with the same result.

If the library is merged before emptying the iPhoto Trash bin the originals are not deleted from the Masters folder. However, the Preview and Thumbnail copies are deleted. It's just the Masters that are not deleted.

I'll report the issue to Apple via http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphoto.html as should you.

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Answer 13

léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Nov 29, 2013 10:37 AM in response to Old Toad

Tigervision and OT - you are right: I am getting the same weird result following OT's procedure. Import into a new event, delete some photos, then merge this event with another event.

After emptying the iPhoto Trash the System trash remains empty. Testing with a brandnew, empty iPhoto library the originals of the trashed photos are still in the iPhoto library.

And rebuilding the library did not recover the stray originals.

iPhoto 9.5, MacOS X 10.9

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