Photo app on a Mac

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Josh 100 Author

Level 1

22 points

Photo app on a Mac

Hi

I am having a problem with space on my hard drive.

Part of the problem seems to be that I have several iPhoto and Photo files.

In Finder they are shown as follows

Pictures folder, 91.72GB

opening that,

iphoto library 44.69GB

iphoto Library (original 2), 37 bytes.

Photos Library (original3) 46.76GB.

and iphoto Library (original) Zero bytes slightly greyed out.

Then at the same level as Pictures, I have

Pictures (original2), 115.95GB

Pictures (original 3), 259.5MB

Pictures (original4), 91.69GB and

Pictures (original) 259.5MB slightly greyed out.

The greyed out sites will not open.

Could these be duplicates. So far I have tried searching for these photos in my Photo app when I open it up and checking individual photos thay are there. But with the number of photos I have it is impossible to manually check them all.

I am wondering if this came about when Apple changed from iPhoto to Photo and I migrated to the new app.

Is there any way I can perhaps amalgamate the files and then see if there are any duplicates.

Or what else should I be looking at.

Thanks in advance.

Josh

iMac, macOS Sierra (10.12.6)

Posted on Nov 29, 2017 4:07 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

200,645 points

Nov 29, 2017 5:59 AM in response to Josh 100

Only the first one has the camera on it.

That is then the Pictures folder you should be using and where your Photos Library should be. Do the Photos Preferences > General point to this folder?

I use Time Machine backups to bring each one up to date.

The multiplied folders may have been created by a Time Machine restore that went wrong. Instead of replacing the original Pictures and Documents folders additional folders have been added. And there seems to be a permissions/file ownership problem as well as the grayed out icons are showing, perhaps folders you copied from your second Mac.

I suspect the folders that do not have the system icon for Pictures and Documents are your original folders you had before you added the new folders from Time Machine.

I would use an external drive to copy your multiple Pictures folders and Document folders to this drive for safe keeping. Make sure, this external drive is correctly formatted for photo libraries - the format should be MacOS Extended (Journaled.) Then remove the other libraries from your system drive and look in the saved libraries on your external drive for missing items, that you need to add to your current, main Photos Library.

Photos has no tool to merge libraries, other than uploading all libraries to iCloud Photo Library, where they will be merged.

A useful tool to browse all libraries and move items between Photos Libraries is Power Photos. You could open one Library in Photos and view another one in Power Photos, to compare them. The full, paid version can merge libraries and avoid duplicates. Only, it cannot keep originals and edited versions paired. You would have to restore both as separate images.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

200,645 points

Nov 29, 2017 4:39 AM in response to Josh 100

This is weird, Josh.

Where exactly are you seeing the many Pictures folder? Are you viewing your Home folder with the house icon in the Finder, when you are seeing so many Pictures folder, or are you seeing this using a search?

Do all "Pictures" folder show as system Picture folders with the special Pictures folder icon with the camera?

Which folder is holding your current Photos Library? You can see this, if you launch Photos and open the Preferences:

Photos > Preferences > General. At the top of this pane you should see the library location. Does this point to the first Pictures folder?

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

200,645 points

Nov 29, 2017 7:06 AM in response to Josh 100

Then I would try to consolidate everything in the library you are currently using, the one in Pictures (Original 2). But once you have everything consolidated, I would move the main library into the designated Pictures folder.

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Answer 4

Josh 100 Author

Level 1

22 points

Nov 29, 2017 5:07 AM in response to léonie

Hi Leonie

Thanks for a very quick response.

I am looking in Finder.

On the home page, with house, where I have Pictures, Pictures (original2), Pictures (original3), Pictures (original4) and finally a partielly greyed out Pictures (original)

Only the first one has the camera on it.

As you can see I have this problem not just in pictures. I also have other files which appear to be duplicated with one with the same name and (original). But Pictures worries the most as there would seem to be an enormous amount of GB taken up with them. I am in the process of running WhatSize to establish how many duplicates I have.

I do have 2 macs in different houses and when we go from one to the other I use Time Machine backups to bring each one up to date.

I have been avoiding this for some time now but it has come to a head as I am running out of space on both the hard drive in the Mac's and on the drive in Time Machine. This has driven me to look at my options.

Josh.