Will deleting a picture in Photos, delete the original in Finder?

If I delete a picture from Photos, will it delete the picture from the original Finder file folder?

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014), iOS 8.4

Posted on Jul 27, 2015 1:41 PM

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10 replies

Jul 28, 2015 11:38 AM in response to hill8302

It depends on whether you have a managed or referenced library.

User uploaded file

If you have a managed library and delete a photo from the library the master file that was copied into the library during the initial import will also be deleted. However, if you left the source file that you originally imported somewhere on the hard drive it will not be deleted. If you're like most users with a managed library you've deleted the "source" file after importing it so don't have to worry about it.


If you have a referenced library and delete a photo from the library the referenced, source file that resides elsewhere on the hard drive will not be deleted.

Jul 28, 2015 6:00 PM in response to hill8302

Many


Importing is a two step process as is deleting


The path to the originals must remain the same which make replacing defective hardware or upgrading hardware or moving to a new system difficult or impossible


It is very easy for user error to occur causing problems


and in version 1.0 (and maybe later) was reported to use more storage in the main library than if you copied the photos - that may or may not be resolved in version 1.0.1


and there are no advantages - only disadvantages


LN

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Will deleting a picture in Photos, delete the original in Finder?

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