Is it okay to delete Photos Library?

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Level 1

4 points

Is it okay to delete Photos Library?

I'm struggling for space on my Mac and have sifted through iPhoto and deleted lots of photos only to find EVERYTHING is still on Photos. I don't use Photos and read that it's best not to delete it because it's part of the system. Is it okay to delete the Photos folder kept in Pictures? When I open the 'Photos Library' it just opens the Photos app. I can't find any clear answers and I guess I'm just paranoid about deleting things from my laptop so I'm sorry if you've had to answer this lots, I'm just pretty confused and worried I'll delete something important that is a necessity. Basically I'd just like to understand it a little more

Thanks for any help! I'm using a Macbook Pro and haven't updated due to the lack of space so am using the OS X Yosemite still if that's good to know.

EDIT: I usually use iPhoto

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), null

Posted on Oct 18, 2016 6:46 AM

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Answer 1

LarryHN

Level 10

106,142 points

Oct 18, 2016 6:51 AM in response to jennyjenken

If you are not using Photos then you can delete the Photos library - it has no connectioon to the iPhto library

However you need to think about what you are doing since iPhoto is dead and will totally quit working someday with some update - and Photos although new and different, has different work flows and a learning curve it is much better in nearly every way than Photos - this would be a good time to learn to use it and switch

LN

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

200,651 points

Oct 18, 2016 10:28 AM in response to jennyjenken

The photos in your iPhoto Library and the Photos Library are probably linked by hard links (see: Six Colors: The (hard) link between Photos and iPhoto). This is saving a lot of storage. But this is the reason, that deleting photos from iPhoto will not release storage, unless you delete the same photos from the Photos Library. So, by all means, go ahead and delete the Photos Library, if you do not have any photos in Photos that you do not have in iPhoto.

Deleting the Photos.app itself would be futile, since the size is just about 60MB, because most of the functionality is built directly into macOS.

You will need Photos for Mac, if you ever want to order Print products from Apple. iPhoto can no longer be used to order books, prints, or calendars.

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