DELETING RAW FILES IN PHOTOS OS X

Has anyone found a solution to deleting RAW IMAGES that are ALREADY in PHOTOS?

They are coupled with the .jpeg photos so when you separate the RAW from the .jpeg (through creating a new smart album) and then try to just delete RAW, both versions get deleted (i.e the entire photo is deleted).

Photos can now read sidecar files with metadata (on Sierra). My method to delete the RAW files from the pair is to

• export both the RAW and the JPEG with File > Export > Export unmodified original and make sure that the option "Write IPTC as XMP" is checked. This will write three files, the RAW, The JPEG, and the sidecar file with the metadata (locations, titles, keywords, descriptions).
• If the JPEG version has adjustment, I lift the adjustment from the JPEG in Edit mode with ⇧⌘C.
• Then I delete the photo from Photos and empty "recently deleted". The image has to vanish from Photos and iCloud completely before reimporting.
• Now I move the exported RAW file to a backup folder, just in case I want them later.
• Then import the JPEG with the sidecar file with File > Import. The sidecar file will not highlight in the Import panel, but photos will read it, if it is in the same folder with the same filename as the JPEG.
• Then I paste the adjustments onto the JPEG in Edit Mode with ⇧⌘V.

The JPEg will be the nearly same as before - the same metadata, all adjustments that have been applied before.

If you do not need to save adjustments as well, you can use the export and reimport method for many photos at once.

Yeah, crusader14...that's a bug in Photos...one of dozens I've reported since this half-baked product was prematurely born. Some I've reported have been fixed, this one has not yet been addressed.

When you create a smart album to show "Photo -> Is -> RAW" (as was wisely suggested), the ONLY photos that will show up in the Smart Album are RAW photos for which you have gone into Edit mode and selected "Use RAW as Original," which of course makes it pretty useless.

Try it yourself...create the Smart Album, look at what's in it (and note how many photos show up), then go into Edit for a single RAW+JPEG photo, swap the "Use RAW/JPEG as Original" and check your Smart Album again. Exactly that one photo will have changed in the SA.

I know this doesn't answer the question of "how to delete only the RAW [or JPEG] version" of a photo (for which I have found no answer, but had previously submitted to apple.com/feedback as a bug), but at least now you know why all your RAW photos don't show up in the Smart Album.

Craig

Nice workaround, leonie, to save the metadata when doing the export/re-import. It's obviously not ideal, but I'm afraid it's the best option we have until Apple fixes this significant oversight.

Thanks for sharing!

Craig

Hi gvocca,

Unfortunately, the way Smart Albums work is that it (stupidly) only counts a photo as RAW if "Use RAW as original" has been set for the photo, which is done by going into edit mode and selecting that option under the "Image" menu. This status is indicated by the little square box in the upper right of the thumbnail photo having an "R" instead of a "J".

If it's set as a "J" (ie. "Use JPEG as original") then the Smart Album stupidly won't show the RAW version in its results, despite a RAW version existing. To prove it to yourself, just create a "show all my RAW photos" Smart Album, then go to one of your RAW+JPEG photos and toggle it back and forth using the "Use XXX as Original", and you'll see it appear and disappear from the Smart Album.

I reported this as a bug to Apple over 6 months ago, and as of today it still has not been fixed, as with many other bugs and shortcomings I've reported about Photos.

I strongly encourage other people to go to apple.com/feedback and report this and any other Photos bugs you find (such as the fact that there's no way to delete *only* the RAW or JPEG version of a photo). If enough people complain, perhaps we can finally get some action on them.

Thanks,

Craig

I strongly encourage other people to go to apple.com/feedback and report this and any other Photos bugs you find (such as the fact that there's no way to delete *only* the RAW or JPEG version of a photo). If enough people complain, perhaps we can finally get some action on them.

It has been this way even in Apple's professional application Aperture. 😠 And none of the many feedbacks sent by Aperture users made Apple reconsider and provide better tools to manage RAW&JPEG pairs. There is no way to split a RAW&JPEG pair. Either import only the JPEGs, and keep the RAWS stored separately outside the library on a separate drive, until they are needed, or keep both in the library. I duplicate my RAW&JPEG pairs, so I can set copy to the RAW as the original and one copy to the JPEG. This way they will be found in searches.

I never respond... brilliant and simple. I should have thought of this but sometimes you just don't go back to the basics. Got it the first time I used it and have tried a number of ways to search for RAW files.

I wasn't sure if I had a JPEG version so I exported a copy before I deleted the RAW file.

I wish all answers were so on point.

File -> New SmartAalbum

Photo -> Is -> Raw

Will find all your Raws.

I tried the original suggestion in my 40000 pic library imported from Aperture. Found 7000 RAW files, and deleted them. However, it seems I not only deleted the RAW, but also the jpeg in the pair. That was not my intention, I just wanted to shrink my library.

Anyone else with this experience? Was it wrong to just select all and delete them? Is there a way to specify that you only want the RAW gone and keep the jpeg?

exactly what steps did you take to delete the RAW photos?

And is the JPEG a separate photos imported from you camera (shooting RAW plus JPEG - which I do not recommend) or its the JPEG the processed RAW image that Aperture created when you impoted?

LN

Hi Larry,

I have been shooting RAW+JPEG, but now I only shoot RAW. Almost all the RAW files in my library are (or were, but I can restore from a backup) part of a RAW+JPEG pair from the camera.

All files come from Aperture, I have not imported any photos directly into Photos. In Aperture these photos were both inported, with the RAW as the "original". I assumed that Photos imported both and stacked them in the same way.

What I did was:

1: create a smart album with "Photo is not favourite" and "Photo is RAW"

2: go to that album, select all, press command-backspace

3: go to edit --> show recently deleted , select all, click "delete all"-button in upper right corner

I find Photos a bit lacking, and Aperture is a blind end, so I bought Capture One 8. Great program, but expensive. My plan is to use Photos for syncing with my iCloud drive (and my iPhone), sharing, and ordering products from the Apple Store. Would like to shrink the library primary to be able to have it on my 240 GB SSD, and secondary to get away with a smaller iCloud drive.

Tried this solution to get the Raw pics out of my new imported files (JPEG+ RAW on SD Card)...but can't find the raw file :-(

When trying to import again the RAW files, Photo asks me if I want to replace the files on my Photo Library!

So I resume:

-Import works

-"Raw" doesn't show up

-Smart Album can not find new files neither (like Crusader14).

Solution?

Nima

It looks like on mine, the smart album is picking up any that were loaded as just RAW (.CR2 file on Canon) but not those loaded as RAW + JPEG. I've switched over to shooting just RAW, which I was going to do anyway, so going forward that's ok. But, I guess I'm going to have to clear the others manually and move forward from here with just RAW. Maybe I can clear the old ones through Finder? I haven't tried it yet to see if it works without losing the jpg though. I just wanted to put my two cents in as to perhaps why it appears some RAW files show and others don't.

Unfortunately the trick to create the SmartAlbum doesn't work. It selects only the photos that are RAW only, al least that's what I see in my case.