Can't figure out how to delete photos

Question

Level 1

47 points

Can't figure out how to delete photos

I understand deleting photos from an album does not delete them from my library. When I'm browsing the Photos section I have right clicked and deleted a few hundred pictures, but it has not made a dent in storage space. I read that I needed to go to the recently deleted section and delete them from there, but no pictures show up. I'm really frustrated and trying to figure out how to re-claim storage space on my wife's Macbook. I'm a PC user, so pressing delete actually moves the picture to the trash and then emptying that removes it from my computer. I can't figure out how to do that in the Photos app.

I could really use some help because 2 hours of Googling has only given me results from years ago.

Thanks.

iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 8

Posted on Oct 26, 2015 12:53 PM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

200,705 points

Oct 26, 2015 1:06 PM in response to gldoorii

In the Photos.app selecting a photo or multiple photos and pressing command-delete will move the photos to the recently deleted album.

When I'm browsing the Photos section I have right clicked and deleted a few hundred pictures, but it has not made a dent in storage space.

If the photos do not show in Recently Deleted, after right-clicking and selecting "Delete", there may be a problem with the library.

Try to repair the Photos Library as described on this Help page:

https://help.apple.com/photos/mac/1.0/?lang=en#/pht6be18f93

Has the Photos Library on your wife's mac been migrated from an iPhoto Library? In that case the two libraries will be inked by hard links and the storage only released, after the photos have also been deleted from the iPhoto Library, see: Photos saves disk space by sharing images with your iPhoto or Aperture libraries - Apple Support

If she needs to free storage, move the iPhoto Library to a backup drive, if she should have kept it.

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Answer 2

gldoorii Author

Level 1

47 points

Oct 26, 2015 1:20 PM in response to léonie

Yes, she used iPhoto before this and the library is migrated. I noticed that in some folder called Pictures that shows her Photos library file, which takes up 56 GB, it also shows an iPhoto library file that is greyed out and also is about 50+ GB.

She just went through and deleted 2000+ pictures, from around 5000 originally, and some did show up in the recently deleted section, which she deleted, and she recovered 300 MB of space.

I told her to restart her Mac for the **** of it and when we opened Photos and went to the Photos tab I saw pictures still there that I deleted myself. I re-deleted them and told her to finish going through the rest of her 2000+ pictures to make sure everything is gone that she doesn't want. I'm waiting for her to finish that now.

Once she is done I'm going to move her library to an external drive to see what happens

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

216,118 points

Oct 26, 2015 2:37 PM in response to gldoorii

Deleting Photos from a Photos 1.1 Library

1 - regardless of where you are in the library, i.e. Moments, Collections, albums, smart albums or projects, select the photo(s) you want to delete and use the key combination of Command+Delete to move the photos to the Recently Deleted smart album.

2 - click on the Recently Deleted smart albums in the sidebar.

3 - in the Recently Deleted album you can opt to let the photo automatically delete after the 30 day waiting period is up, delete them immediately or restore them to the library.

NOTE: deleting a photo from an album, slideshow, book, etc., with only the Delete key only deletes that photo from that item. Deleting a photo from a Moment or Collection deletes ALL occurences of that photo in the library.

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Answer 4

gldoorii Author

Level 1

47 points

Oct 26, 2015 3:45 PM in response to Old Toad

Thanks, but does deleting pictures from the recently deleted bin/album actually remove/delete them from the hard drive? Other threads say they are still on the computer somewhere. I just can't figure out how she deleted 3000 of the 5000 pictures and it only recovered 987 MB of the 56 GB Photos library.

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Answer 5

Old Toad

Level 10

216,118 points

Oct 26, 2015 4:10 PM in response to gldoorii

Yes, it does delete the photos from the hard drive. However, if your friend also have her iPhoto library that the Photos library was migrated from those photos will still be on the hard drive. Deleting from a Photos library does not delete them from the older iPhoto library.

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Answer 6

gldoorii Author

Level 1

47 points

Oct 26, 2015 5:51 PM in response to Old Toad

Yea I deleted the iPhotos library and that freed up tons of space. It now shows that her 50 GB photos library is only 15 GB, so it must've been the iPhoto library screwing things up. It's all working now. Thanks

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