Storage difference between iPhoto and Photos?

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Level 1

4 points

Storage difference between iPhoto and Photos?

I am currently using OS X Yosemite (10.10.4) and iPhoto is version 9.6.1/Photos is version 1.0.1

I have 44.85GB being used by iPhoto Library, and 31.62 being used by Photos.

Started out by deleting albums and photos in iPhoto to then realize that I needed to do this in Photos. Went there and adjusted through albums (under iPhoto album) to see no difference and realized that I had to delete individual photos. Ugh. Have deleted from there and dropped both numbers (the Photos one started out at about 45, the iPhoto at about 48.

What's going on though that I have such a discrepancy? I'm trying to clear some space and have a lot of duplicate photos anyway, so it's just a time consuming job. Want to make sure what I'm doing is now the right thing.

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Jul 27, 2015 9:53 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Jul 27, 2015 10:17 PM in response to salgalruns

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

Photos vs iPhoto- Features and Capabilities | Apple Support Communities

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Answer 2

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Jul 27, 2015 11:04 PM in response to salgalruns

Assuming you are no longer using iPhoto To clear up space you probably need to make a good backup of your iPhoto library and then delete it - normally it is best not to delete it but in you case until you do you are going to have un-needed storage being consumed by it (the images are not removed until all hard links are deleted so you now have to do every delete in two different software packages - not a great thing) - but the backup is critical in case you need or want the iphoto library in the future

LN

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Answer 3

salgalruns Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 28, 2015 11:58 AM in response to Kappy

The table is quite cool, although I don't know enough about it to compare with the current upgrades.

As for the first article, I can see where Photos is a migrated version of iPhoto, but that still doesn't compensate for the difference in storage space - wouldn't that mean they would basically show about the same amount since they should be the same data?

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Answer 4

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Jul 28, 2015 3:28 PM in response to salgalruns

No

Overhead is different in the two programs and the iPhoto library may (probably) has some legacy items in it like iPod or Apple TV caches that do not get transfer to Photos

and again once you start deleting thing from the Photo library but not from the iPhoto library you will have a growing difference

LN

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Answer 5

salgalruns Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 29, 2015 10:48 AM in response to LarryHN

That's what I ended up doing - so now the difference? Does this mean I need to go BACK to iPhoto and do the same thing? I've read mixed reviews about whether or not to just delete iPhoto - I've moved everything in Photos out of the "iPhotos" album into their own, so not really relying on iPhotos anymore.

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