Iphoto to Photos Migration Duplicates

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Level 1

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Iphoto to Photos Migration Duplicates

I am having problems with duplicate photos on my Macbook. It seems that when iPhoto changed to Photos, I ended up with 2 copies of my library – well, at least I think they are exact copies, I can’t scan through each of the almost 300 gb libraries to check and say for sure that they are entirely or even partially the same.

I’d just buy something like Duplicate Annihilator, but I think some or all of they got renamed in the Photos library. I was under the impression that the software can't distinguish between copy names like "Photo 0001" and "Photo 0001(1)".

Is anyone else having this problem with the Photos app and/or have advice for how to determine what are/are not copies?

Posted on Aug 1, 2015 9:57 PM

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Answer 1

LarryHN

Level 10

106,142 points

Aug 1, 2015 10:06 PM in response to goodyj

Please explain and give a step by step workflow of how you migrated and exactly where you are seeing two copies of each photo (in Moments?)

Done correctly your Photos library is exactly the same as your iPhoto library with no additions or deletions

LN

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Answer 2

goodyj Author

Level 1

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Aug 2, 2015 12:07 AM in response to LarryHN

I updated my OS and was informed that iPhoto was replaced with Photo. I now have both libraries on my drive and they are about the same size. The Photo library is a a bit larger, so it makes sense as I have added photos since the update.

I need to see if I can delete the iPhoto library and free up the space on my drive.

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

200,717 points

Aug 2, 2015 12:23 AM in response to goodyj

I need to see if I can delete the iPhoto library and free up the space on my drive.

You could delete the iPhoto Library, but it would not free much space. When Photos migrates an iPhoto Library it creates a new library that is linked to your iPhoto Library. The photos and the previews of the photos are shared by hard links. Both libraries will have originally about the same size, but the photos inside are actually only stored once. A hard linked file has the same size as the original, but is using the same blocks on the disk. You do not need additional storage for the migrated items in the Photos Library.

See these documents:

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

Six Colors: The (hard) link between Photos and iPhoto

You will gain about 10% of storage back, when you delete the iPhoto Library - for the thumbnails and faces. But before you delete the iPhoto Library make a full backup copy of the library on an external drive. You may need it for trouble shooting later, if you should need to migrate the library again. Some migration problems can only be fixed, if you solve them in iPhoto and migrate the library again. If you have books in your iPhoto Library or calendars, that you need to finish, you will want to do that in iPhoto, because Photos has different templates and sizes.

Also, Photos cannot (yet) add locations or batch change titles. You may want to do that in iPhoto for the time being.

You need iPhoto 9.6.1 to be able to use it on MacOS X 10.10.4. If you did not yet update, see this link: Get iPhoto 9.6.1 if you didn't update before OS... | Apple Support Communities).

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