ezrasuncle
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Do I have a duplicate Library?

My iMac hard drive is almost full. After converting to Photos from iPhoto/Aperture, I seem to have duplicate photo libraries and hoping you can help me.

 

In my Pictures folder I have my Photo Library, which is about 400GB and its icon is the new Apple Photos icon. Also in the Pictures library I have a folder called "Photos Library". This is also around 400GB, and inside are more folders such as "Database", "Masks", "Masters", "Previews", "Thumbnails", etc. Is this part of my Photos library or is this something carried over from my conversion and can be deleted? Thanks!

Posted on Jul 21, 2015 5:28 PM

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ezrasuncle

Q: Do I have a duplicate Library?

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  • by mario49,

    mario49 mario49 Jul 23, 2015 1:55 PM in response to ezrasuncle
    Community Specialists
    Jul 23, 2015 1:55 PM in response to ezrasuncle

    Greetings ezrasuncle,

     

    Thanks for the question. If I understand correctly, you migrated your library from iPhoto to Photos and want to know about how they store the photos. I would recommend that you read this article, it may be able to help the issue.

     

    Photos saves disk space by sharing images with your iPhoto or Aperture libraries - Apple Support

    When you migrate a photo library from iPhoto or Aperture, the Photos app creates a new library structure but doesn't duplicate your images. Instead, Photos saves disk space by creating links to the original and preview versions of your images. 

     

    Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
    Take care

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Jul 23, 2015 2:22 PM in response to ezrasuncle
    Level 10 (85,668 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Jul 23, 2015 2:22 PM in response to ezrasuncle

    As Maro explains you do not have duplicate libraries

     

    You can delete the iPhoto library if you want but it will not save much space and is difficult to fix if you want or need it later

     

    How much free space do you have on your main drive (in the finder get info to see)

     

    LN

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Jul 23, 2015 2:30 PM in response to ezrasuncle
    Level 10 (108,894 points)
    iCloud
    Jul 23, 2015 2:30 PM in response to ezrasuncle

    In my Pictures folder I have my Photo Library, which is about 400GB and its icon is the new Apple Photos icon. Also in the Pictures library I have a folder called "Photos Library". This is also around 400GB, and inside are more folders such as "Database", "Masks", "Masters", "Previews", "Thumbnails", etc. Is this part of my Photos library or is this something carried over from my conversion and can be deleted? Thanks!

     

    The Finder is reporting nearly the same size for your original iPhoto Library and the new Photos library. It certainly looks like they are requiring twice the storage of one library. But the image files inside the libraries, the originals and the previews are shared.

    That is the magic of hard links.  It duplicates the files, they look exactly like the original files and are having apparently the same size in the Finder, and you cannot tell from what you are seeing in the Finder which is the original and which is the copy. And applications like Space Gremlin are fooled.  But both files are using the same blocks on the disk, so the space is used only once.  When you trash either a photo from your iPhoto Library or from the migrated Photos Library, you will not see much decrease in used storage.  The storage will only be released, after you delete the image file from both libraries.  MacOS X is counting the references to the linked file, and only when it is no longer used, will the storage be released.

     

    There are some files that are genuine duplicates, for example the faces thumbnails.

    So you will not gain much space by deleting either of the two libraries, as described in the article that Mario49 pointed to. You could delete either of the libraries and the other library would continue to work.  But I would wait, until you are very sure, that the migration was successful , all photos migrated correctly, and there are no issues. In some cases it as necessary to repeat the migration, because some problems required to fix the library by running iPhoto.  So wait a bit and don't burn all bridges.