iTJMacattack

Q: How to delete pictures permanently from Photos app in my entire mac?

Within the Photos app for OS X you cannot delete a picture permanently from your Mac.

 

(I have imported my existing iPhoto library when I migrated to Photos on 10.10.3)

 

When I delete a picture from Photos. Photos then puts the picture in a trash bin that is hidden in the File button on the task bar - "Show Recently Deleted". When you select this it then shows all of your deleted pictures you selected in Photos. If you then select to "Delete All" it asks you again are your sure and you click ok. Photos then cannot see these photos. BUT IT DID NOT DELETE THEM FROM YOUR MAC!

 

I then opened iPhoto, found the photos that I deleted inside the Photos app and viola they are still there, (these are not thumbnails!) these are the exact picture. HOW DO YOU VERIFY? In iPhoto if you select the picture then go to File - "Reveal in Finder" it will show that the picture you THOUGHT you deleted in Photos, is still there in the Master folder in your library!!

FYI there is no way in Photos to find the file location, very sneaky because the app is not deleting these files. This very frustrating coming from Apple who is pushing thinner profiles so SSD's with very limited storage, to give you the assumption that you are actually deleting these photos and videos when in fact you are not.

 

Question again is...

How to delete pictures permanently from Photos app in my entire Mac?

Does anyone have a solution other than don't use Photos.

 

This question was asked and solved already but I have verified that "Delete All" in the hidden trash can in Photos does in fact not delete from your disk space! Have a video on my YouTube Channel iTJMacattack that shows this issue - for proof.

 

Please real help and a solution!!

 

Thanks,

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Apr 12, 2015 9:28 AM

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Q: How to delete pictures permanently from Photos app in my entire mac?

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  • by per19,

    per19 per19 Jun 20, 2015 12:45 PM in response to sbunns
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 20, 2015 12:45 PM in response to sbunns

    Deleted from the hard drive forever they're not - apparently. I don't know about the masters folder and so forth, but I just deleted a bunch of photos and the storage didn't change a single MB on my Mac. And, yes I did it in exactly the way you described. So something's wrong here - or badly explained by Apple.

  • by sbunns,

    sbunns sbunns Jun 20, 2015 9:51 PM in response to per19
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jun 20, 2015 9:51 PM in response to per19

    Hi per19,

     

    I'm sorry these steps don't seem to be working for you.  I decided to do a test on my computer to see if deleting a picture from my Photo app works for me.  And it appears it works well on my end.  I've included a screenshot here for you to see what I mean.  The orange circle highlights the size of my Photo Library before I deleted a 2.9 MB picture from my Photos app.  The red circle highlights the size of my Photo Library after I followed the posted steps to permanently delete one picture.  You'll notice the difference between the two values equals the size of the picture which was permanently deleted out of my Photos app (and subsequently my hard drive), highlighted in green.

     

    The "Masters" folder I was referring to is a hidden folder within your Photo Library where all your pictures are actually stored.  The Photo Library (usually found in your Mac's Pictures folder) contains all the pictures and data that your Photos app will interpret and display on your screen when you open your Photos app.  I've taken "before and after" screenshots of my Masters folder to show (in the first screenshot) where the picture resided before I deleted it, and to show (in the second screenshot) that it is no longer there after I deleted it within the Photos app. 

     

    You can also see that the Photo Library is self-organized by year, month, and day.  However, I don't recommend poking around in there, and you should never delete anything from the Photo Library or you may corrupt your Photo Library and never see your photos again.  Stick to making your additions, edits, and deletions using the Photos app itself.  I just thought you might like to see how the the picture I deleted is physically gone from the hard drive.

     

    Delete_Photo2.jpg

     

    So, as for your storage not changing a single MB on your Mac, I'm not sure what's going on.  Perhaps the pictures you deleted were only kilobytes in size and they didn't add up to a MB?  The picture I deleted was originally taken with my iPhone and as you can see it is almost 3 MB.  So, (as an example) if you're deleting maybe 50 pictures taken from an iPhone, you should definitely see a difference of around 145MB.  When checking the size of your Photo Library, make sure to look at the long string of numbers to compare sizes, because the larger GB size may not be affected if it's only 50 pictures.  I know in my case I only deleted one picture, so it's not the best example, but you can see that between the red and orange highlighted images above that the long string of numbers is different, but the 29.92 GB number hasn't been impacted enough by the 2.9 MB deletion to change.

     

    I'm sorry I'm not much more help beyond showing an example of how it should work.  Maybe you could delete a few more pictures and check your (long string of) numbers again, just to be sure.  Perhaps you overlooked something.  Or maybe your Photos app really loves your pictures and can't part with them! 

  • by per19,

    per19 per19 Jun 21, 2015 1:27 PM in response to sbunns
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 21, 2015 1:27 PM in response to sbunns

    Thank you for that thorough explanation. Followed it to the point (meaning I looked at the library before and after I deleted the pictures) and it worked fine. I even brought up the HD info before and after I deleted some other photos - worked there as well. So I don't know what was going on yesterday - but apparently all is well (was thinking that maybe it had something to do with me deleting photos that exists in both iPhoto library and new merged Photos library - that they only were deleted from Photos and not iPhoto - but it doesn't seem to be that way. Going to put the iPhoto library on an external hd, I think). Thank you again.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Jun 21, 2015 2:27 PM in response to per19
    Level 10 (84,585 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Jun 21, 2015 2:27 PM in response to per19
    that they only were deleted from Photos and not iPhoto

    That is correct - nothing done in either program affects the other program (in fact nothing done in either programs affects any files outside their library)

     

    Going to put the iPhoto library on an external hd, I think)

    That is fine but it will break the hard links so if you ever move it back to the internal drive it will use full disk space there

     

    LN

  • by Luckymick,

    Luckymick Luckymick Jul 18, 2015 5:59 PM in response to FoxFifth
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 18, 2015 5:59 PM in response to FoxFifth

    HELP HELP HELP HELP  OMG I just spent days and days trying to clean out duplicates, go through all my photos and delete the non keepers and renaming and dating pix with who's there and dates to find that I'm no closer to my goal of clean, reduced, edited, renamed savable final photos with no junk so I can organize them for gifting, making videos for family members, printing some etc.... I have thousands and I feel like I'm going in circles... I should never have downloaded the friggin Photos app since it just 'migrated' or whatever the photos I had did and now they aren't in the iPhoto place... the list shows half my photos in light ink and they are not accessible now... so I'm so confused.... CAN ANYONE TELL ME HOW TO ACCOMPLISH MY GOAL....so many many hours and days lost...... I feel so STUPID

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Jul 18, 2015 10:20 PM in response to Luckymick
    Level 10 (84,585 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Jul 18, 2015 10:20 PM in response to Luckymick

    Please start a new thread rather than ThreadJack an existing on on a totally different subject and include details of your system and a coherent statement  of the problem and exactly what you have done without editorials - just clear facts and steps you have taken

     

    LN

  • by iferg64,

    iferg64 iferg64 Jul 28, 2015 10:21 PM in response to iTJMacattack
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 28, 2015 10:21 PM in response to iTJMacattack

    Here is my experience for what it's worth - pretty much the same as yours and not resolved. I exported all my photos from Photos to Lightroom (10,000 photos) with the intention of giving up Photos altogether. in the process many photos I had previously deleted were reinstated (to my great frustration). I then learnt about the relationship between my old iPhoto Library and my Photos Library so I deleted my iPhoto Library. Then with all my photos safely in Lightroom and backed up externally, I "permanently" deleted them all from inside Photos using the same process as you. My Photos Library went down in size from about 150GB to 50GB (about the size of my Lightroom library). The Photos app is showing no photos - it is empty (including in "recently deleted").  So why is the Library 50GB? I went into the "package" and found all my photos still in the Masters folder. I have no idea how to safely get rid of them.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Jul 28, 2015 10:49 PM in response to iferg64
    Level 10 (84,585 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Jul 28, 2015 10:49 PM in response to iferg64

    if you are not going to use Photos then simply trash the Photos library and empty the trash

     

    If tha tis not what you want then start a new thread with the specifies of y0our system and you exact question

     

    LN

  • by mllejules,

    mllejules mllejules Aug 14, 2015 6:12 PM in response to sbunns
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 14, 2015 6:12 PM in response to sbunns

    I am having the opposite problem. I know about going to the Photos library and showing package contents. I deleted the photos I don't want directly from there. And I emptied my trash. But every time I open the Photos app, they are still there. I went back and deleted the thumbnails of them and the previews, and trashed those, but the photos are still there, clickable, viewable, zoomable. How is this possible? They must be hiding somewhere else!

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Aug 14, 2015 7:49 PM in response to mllejules
    Level 10 (84,585 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 14, 2015 7:49 PM in response to mllejules
    I know about going to the Photos library and showing package contents. I deleted the photos I don't want directly from there.

    If you know about that then you must also  know that you have destroyed your photos library beyond repair and will now have to start over with a new library - you must NEVER use the finder to make any changes inside the Photos library - with what you have done you do not have a working Photos library and will have to start over from scratch

     

    LN

  • by sbunns,

    sbunns sbunns Aug 15, 2015 8:10 AM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Aug 15, 2015 8:10 AM in response to LarryHN

    LN is right, as always!   Don't delete anything from your Photo Library.  In my above post, I was only illustrating proof that the photos are wiped from your computer, people.  It doesn't mean you should go into the Photo Library and remove anything.  The library is much more complex than just pictures in a folder.  In my post above, I specifically say not to go poking around in there.  Like Larry mentioned, if you've deleted anything from the Library, then you've probably corrupted your Photo Library and you'll need to start over from scratch.

  • by mllejules,

    mllejules mllejules Aug 15, 2015 9:34 AM in response to sbunns
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 15, 2015 9:34 AM in response to sbunns

    I didn't know this, of course, or I wouldn't have done it. Thanks for the advice.

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Aug 15, 2015 10:43 AM in response to iTJMacattack
    Level 10 (141,085 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 15, 2015 10:43 AM in response to iTJMacattack
    Choosing to immediately delete all via the button on that page does in fact permanently delete them all.

    Where are you seeing the files still on the hard drive?  I learned that photos imported into a Photos library have a copy added to my Users/Home/Library/Applications Support/iLifeAssetManagement/assets/sub folder.  It does not get removed from there when the photo is deleted from the Photos library. 

     

    As a test I closed Photos, moved the contents of the iLifeAssetManagement folder to the Trash Bin in the dock and relaunched Photos.  There appears to be no adverse affect on the library.

     

    If you decide to cull out that folder be sure to have a current backup of the library just in case.

    OTsig.png

  • by Luckymick,

    Luckymick Luckymick Aug 15, 2015 10:57 AM in response to sbunns
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 15, 2015 10:57 AM in response to sbunns

    I have deleted from finder  in iPhoto and it is screwed up as you and others said.... but I have no idea how to 'start over from scratch'  I am on MacBook Pro late 2011  using Yosemite 10.10.4

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Aug 15, 2015 11:06 AM in response to Luckymick
    Level 10 (84,585 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 15, 2015 11:06 AM in response to Luckymick

    Luckymick wrote:

     

    I have deleted from finder  in iPhoto and it is screwed up as you and others said.... but I have no idea how to 'start over from scratch'  I am on MacBook Pro late 2011  using Yosemite 10.10.4

    Best solution is to restore your backup from before you did this

     

    other than that right click on the iPhoto library and show package contents - coy the masters folder to the desktop - hold down the option key while launching iPhoto and create a new library - drag each folder form the masters folder to the iphoto icon in the dock to import the photos

     

    Once you have a working library and are pleased then you can trash the bad library and empty the trash

     

    LN

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