sinanfromtucson
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Photos vs Iphoto

I have Photos and iPhoto app on my macbook pro.  I have two questions:  It seems all my pictures (albums etc.) are in Photos so would deleting the iPhoto app be a problem (ie., loosing pictures in Photos) and assuming I don't delete iPhoto, how do I set it up so Photos is my default app for all imported pictures?  Thanks.

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Aug 11, 2015 2:41 AM

by Winston Churchill,Solvedanswer
Winston Churchill Winston Churchill
Level 10 (104,511 points)
Apple TV
A:
The iPhoto I was referring to was the library which happens to be 151GB in size.  The photos library I have which I am using since upgrade to OS X Yosemite is 156GB in size

That's OK, that's how hard links work, together the two libraries take up approximately 156 GB. If you deleted the 151 GB iPhoto library, you would still be using around 156 GB.

 

No, personally I wouldn't remove the old iPhoto library (it takes up an insignificant amount of space), Photos is an application in it's infancy and things can go wrong, if I later find I lost a photo in the migration, I'd be glad I kept the iPhoto library to recover it from.

Posted on Aug 11, 2015 6:12 AM

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sinanfromtucson

Q: Photos vs Iphoto

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  • by Winston Churchill,Helpful

    Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Aug 11, 2015 4:06 AM in response to sinanfromtucson
    Level 10 (104,511 points)
    Apple TV
    Aug 11, 2015 4:06 AM in response to sinanfromtucson

    You could delete iPhoto, but since it takes up very little space, due to using hard links, you may want to keep it around for some time just in case something hasn't migrated properly and you need to go back and recover something. As for using Photos as your main library, just make sure that Photos > Preferences > General is set to use the library as the system library.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Aug 11, 2015 4:16 AM in response to sinanfromtucson
    Level 10 (108,906 points)
    iCloud
    Aug 11, 2015 4:16 AM in response to sinanfromtucson

    When you connect a camera or an iPhone, iPad, etc., and launch Photos, the connected device will show in the sidebar.

     

    Select the camera in the sidebar in the Import panel and click the option "Open Photos for this device" below the Toolbar.  Then Photos will launch for all new imports.

    Screen Shot 2015-08-11 at 13.12.29CEST.png

  • by sinanfromtucson,

    sinanfromtucson sinanfromtucson Aug 11, 2015 6:01 AM in response to Winston Churchill
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 11, 2015 6:01 AM in response to Winston Churchill

    Thank you Winston for your answer.  It helped some (hard links especially) but I think I did not ask the question clearly enough.  The iPhoto I was referring to was the library which happens to be 151GB in size.  The photos library I have which I am using since upgrade to OS X Yosemite is 156GB in size (due to addition of new photos since upgrade).  So would you recommend deleting the iPhoto library which is taking up a lot of disk space and also I think causing slow running of my Mac.

  • by Winston Churchill,Solvedanswer

    Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Aug 11, 2015 6:12 AM in response to sinanfromtucson
    Level 10 (104,511 points)
    Apple TV
    Aug 11, 2015 6:12 AM in response to sinanfromtucson
    The iPhoto I was referring to was the library which happens to be 151GB in size.  The photos library I have which I am using since upgrade to OS X Yosemite is 156GB in size

    That's OK, that's how hard links work, together the two libraries take up approximately 156 GB. If you deleted the 151 GB iPhoto library, you would still be using around 156 GB.

     

    No, personally I wouldn't remove the old iPhoto library (it takes up an insignificant amount of space), Photos is an application in it's infancy and things can go wrong, if I later find I lost a photo in the migration, I'd be glad I kept the iPhoto library to recover it from.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Aug 11, 2015 6:25 AM in response to sinanfromtucson
    Level 10 (108,906 points)
    iCloud
    Aug 11, 2015 6:25 AM in response to sinanfromtucson
    The photos library I have which I am using since upgrade to OS X Yosemite is 156GB in size (due to addition of new photos since upgrade).  So would you recommend deleting the iPhoto library which is taking up a lot of disk space and also I think causing slow running of my Mac.

    The iPhoto Library and the Photos Library just look like they were taking up twice the size of the original library, but they are sharing the image files.  Deleting one of the libraries will not free much space.

     

    Have  a look at these links: Photos saves disk space by sharing images with your iPhoto or Aperture libraries - Apple Support

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

     

    You may need the iPhoto Library.  We have seen some problems with Photos Libraries that could only be fixed by repeating the migration from iPhoto to Photos.  If you delete the iPhoto Library keep a backup copy on an external drive.  Some corruptions of the library may go unnoticed for a long time, and you may only see them, when you try to edit the photos in question.

     

    How much free storage do you have?  Do you still have at least 20 GB of free storage or is it critically low?

  • by sinanfromtucson,

    sinanfromtucson sinanfromtucson Aug 11, 2015 6:23 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 11, 2015 6:23 AM in response to léonie

    Thank you for the clarification and links.  Very useful.