traveboy

Q: Deleting duplicates in Photos. I have 18,780 photos and 1,465 videos.

I have spent so much time trying to organize my photos/videos and am desperate for some help. I have gone to the apple store, researched, etc....I will list my questions below and add some pictures of my problems. Thank you in advance!

 

I have a Macbook Air and am using Photos for all of my pictures. I have so many pictures that it seems unreasonable to manually delete each and every picture and I cannot find the duplicates but I am certain there are a lot. I had my photos all uploaded to icloud with the "optimize storage option" but changed it yesterday to "download originals to this mac" so that PowerPhotos could actually access my pictures (Now I am wishing I would have done that first).

 

Here are some of my questions and things I have done to try and fix the issue:

-I have deleted the "recently deleted" photos in Photos

-I have emptied my recycling bin

-I frequently back my computer up to an external hard drive

-I pay the $2.99 a month for extra icloud space (but I have no clue if I am even utilizing the appropriate features of this storage option)

-Downloaded PowerPhotos yesterday but have not been successful in finding all the duplicates.

-I barely have any storage left on my computer and am unclear what the "other" category is under storage

-There are so many uploads from my phone into Photos that wont appear because they are unable to import for some reason. It stinks to wonder what those may have been and not know what is causing it.

-I had a very organized photo library when I was using Iphoto and now I am extremely un-organized and all my pictures are in different locations, etc. I have read so many instructions on how and I still cant figure out what the most ideal way of organizing into albums (and how specific and/or vague I should be). I know you can do keywords or titles but I cant figure out which is the best method without taking up so much time.


Icloud photo and video storage.png

Computer Storage.png

Current picture of downloading originals to mac.png

Import from phone.png

Unreadable Files.png

MACBOOK AIR (11-INCH, EARLY 2015), OS X El Capitan (10.11.5)

Posted on May 29, 2016 1:12 AM

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Q: Deleting duplicates in Photos. I have 18,780 photos and 1,465 videos.

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  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie May 29, 2016 1:47 AM in response to traveboy
    Level 10 (105,761 points)
    iLife
    May 29, 2016 1:47 AM in response to traveboy

    The "Other" category is looking large, but it is a normal amount of "Other" items. 

    Read this support document:

    OS X: What is "other" space in About This Mac? - Apple Support

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202867

     

    It may be mostly system files and the support files installed by applications - sounds, videos, fonts, templates, documents installed in the Library folders..  For example, I have plenty of audio and video software installed, (Logic, MainSage, Final Cut) and the support files for these application alone need 100GB.

    My Other looks like this in "About this Mac" just because of the video software and Audio software I am using.

    Screen Shot 2016-05-29 at 10.32.06GMT.png

    Check the size of the folder "Library" at the top level of your system drive and the size of the folder "Library" in your home folder. How large are these Library folders?

     

     

    You have only roughly 10GB of free storage, but 80GB of Photos in iCloud.  You should not risk to enable "Download Originals to this Mac" right now. This means that additional 80 GB of photos will be stored on Mac, bur where should that be possible?  it will not work, if you keep the Photos Library on your system drive. Consider to buy a small, portable external drive and move your Photos Library to the external drive.  Then can your system and the apps use the internal SSD.

  • by traveboy,

    traveboy traveboy May 29, 2016 2:26 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Photos for Mac
    May 29, 2016 2:26 AM in response to léonie

    Thank you. I am not sure exactly what you meant by size of folder library in system drive and home folder. I did notice a handfull of Quicktime movies (videos from my camcorder of my family) - 1 video was 1.12 GB and several were between 400-800 MB. I do have another external hard drive where I could store the photos but I get nervous about the process. Is it as simple as dragging them onto the drive and deleting them from the computer? I have so many files I would not be able to look through and make sure everything was transferred. I need basic computer training for dummies because this is all so confusing to me. Would there be a way someone could look at my computer and tell me things that would be safe to delete to make more space? 

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie May 29, 2016 3:09 AM in response to traveboy
    Level 10 (105,761 points)
    iLife
    May 29, 2016 3:09 AM in response to traveboy

    Thank you. I am not sure exactly what you meant by size of folder library in system drive and home folder.

    Can you see your system drive as a disk icon on your Desktop?  Then click this icon to open a folder showing you all folders on the system drive like "Users" and "Applications". For example (My system drive is called SiriusHD).

    There should be a folder called "Library" on the system drive. Screen Shot 2016-05-29 at 11.54.30GMT.jpg

    Select the "Library" Folder and enter the key combination ⌘I for "File > Get Info". you will see the Info panel for the selected folder, showing you the size. That may take a while. Also look at the subfolder "Application Support" of Library.  The size can be surprisingly large with all the files installed by applications in that folder.

     

    There is a second Library folder in your User Library.

    Your user library may still be hidden.To reveal the hidden User Library:

    • Bring the Finder forward by clicking on the Desktop or the Finder icon in the Dock.
    • Select your user/home folder (with the house icon in the Finder sidebar)
    • With that Finder window open as the frontmost  window, press the key combination ⌘J to bring up the View options.
    • In the View options panel enable ’Show Library Folder’. That will make your user library folder visible in your Home folder.
    • Now open your Home folder from the sidebar and look for "Library".


  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie May 29, 2016 3:26 AM in response to traveboy
    Level 10 (105,761 points)
    iLife
    May 29, 2016 3:26 AM in response to traveboy
    I do have another external hard drive where I could store the photos but I get nervous about the process. Is it as simple as dragging them onto the drive and deleting them from the computer? I have so many files I would not be able to look through and make sure everything was transferred.

    Yes, to copy your photos to an external drive you can drag your Photos Library to the drive.

    But the file system on the drive needs to be MacOS Extended (Journaled) . If the drive has a different file system you need to reform it. But formatting will erase the drive. So you have to save any documents and data elsewhere, before you erase the drive by reformatting.  This page describes how to format a drive to store an Aperture Library there. The same procedure will work for a Photos Library:  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201909

     

    • Drag your Photos Library from he Pictures folder to the external drive.  Once the copy has finished,  double-click the copy on the external drive to open it in Photos.
    • Open Photos > Preferences > General and enable the copy as the System Photo Library.  "Use as System Photo Library" should be grayed out.
    • Then open Photos > Preferences > iCloud and enable iCloud Photo Library. This may warn you that Photos not yet  downloaded from iCloud will be removed from your Mac, but they will download again from iCloud.
  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie May 29, 2016 3:30 AM in response to traveboy
    Level 10 (105,761 points)
    iLife
    May 29, 2016 3:30 AM in response to traveboy
    I need basic computer training for dummies because this is all so confusing to me. Would there be a way someone could look at my computer and tell me things that would be safe to delete to make more space?

    Is there an Apple Store in your vicinity, where you could visit some classes for basic training?

    I do not know, what is available in your vicinity.

     

    Usually there is nothing safe to delete from your Mac, that you did not copy there yourself and where you know what it is. Stay away from tools like "MacKeeper" or "CleanMyMac".  They have proven to be dangerous by deleting too much.