Can I start a new iCloud Photos System Library before the old huge one has deleted?

Question

Level 1

6 points

Can I start a new iCloud Photos System Library before the old huge one has deleted?

A couple years ago I tried to use iCloud Photos Library and it copied 56 thousand photos. I turned it off, but have just discovered they are all still there! I am traveling and want to start a new, clean, lean, iCloud Photos Library to safely copy all of my new photos for a month. I tried to relink to the old set of photos, but even if I delete them all with "Cancel", "Delete All Photos", they are not erased for 30 days. (?) Can I delete them all at once somehow? Can I create a new Photos System Library on my Mac, and then create a new iCloud Photos Library without it adding all 55 thousand of the old ones? Or do I have to relink to the 56 thou photos in iCloud and starting deleting them (a couple hundred at a time perhaps)? Thoughts?

iMac with Retina 5K display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4), 16GB RAM

Posted on Mar 30, 2016 4:24 PM

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Answer 1

jonty_b

Level 2

189 points

Mar 30, 2016 4:27 PM in response to Thomas DCIT

Hi,

You should be able to manually avoid the 30 day wait by removing all the photos from the "recently deleted" album.

Hope this helps!

Jonty 🙂

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Answer 2

Old Toad

Level 10

216,112 points

Mar 31, 2016 10:16 AM in response to Thomas DCIT

See Step 2 and 3:

Deleting Photos from a Photos 1.5 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.

NOTE 1: If you're using Photos 1.2 or earlier use the File ➙ Show Recently Deleted menu option.

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 2: deleting a photo from an album, slideshow, book, etc., with the Delete key only deletes the photo from that item. There is no key combination that will delete a photo from a project and move it directly to the Recently Deleted smart album.

NOTE 3: Deleting a photo from a Moment or Collection (the Photos window) or the All Photos window deletes ALL occurences of that photo in the library.

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Answer 3

Thomas DCIT Author

Level 1

6 points

Mar 31, 2016 10:33 AM in response to Old Toad

I was hoping to avoid having to delete 50,000 photos a few hundred at a time. I tried this (Bold, underlined and Italics below). But it never completed, probably because it was too large, and/or my computer kept going to sleep.

The goal is to create a new cleaner. leaner, iCloud Systems Library by tomorrow in time for my long trip.

Many thanks for the detailed reply.

How do I remove all iCloud Photo Library content from iCloud and my devices?

To turn off your iCloud Photo Library, follow these steps:

On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, go to Settings > iCloud > Storage > Manage Storage > iCloud Photo Library, then select Disable and Delete.
On your Mac, go to Apple menu > System Preferences > iCloud. Click Manage, select Photo Library, then select Disable and delete.

Photos and videos will be stored in your account for 30 days. To download your photos and videos on your iOS device, go to Settings > iCloud > Photos and select Download and Keep Originals. On your Mac, open Photos, choose Photos > Preferences, then select Download Originals to this Mac. You can also select the photos and videos that you want to download from iCloud.com.

[from: Get help with your iCloud Photo Library - Apple Support ]

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