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Can I delete my iPhotos library?


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Can I delete my iPhotos library?
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2021-09-24, 18:37

EDIT: Sorry, iPhoto (singular)...

I have an old iPhoto library sitting in my Pictures area (along with my current Photos library). The iPhoto library is 8.32GB and is showing up as something possible to delete when I do "About This Mac" > Storage > Manage.

I remember, years ago, importing my iPhoto library into the, at the time, new Photos app. But I was never clear on if it was safe to delete the Photos library.

I do have, in my current Photos library, a section of iPhotos Events and pics from years ago (earlier 2000's, up through the introduction of Photos. I certainly don't want to lose that, but if it's been imported into Photos and is now part of that, is there any reason to keep the old iPhoto library around? I'd rather have 8GB+ of space back.

What's the story on this? All of you who migrated to Photos when it came out, and you imported your iPhoto libraries...did you hand onto them too, or are they long gone?

Here's a screenshot of what I'm seeing, if it'll help (the "iPhoto library" entry)...





Earlier, I saw installers for iOS 14.8 and the just-released iOS 15 sitting in that listing above, each about 4-5GB. A few months ago, I had nearly 20GB of old iOS installers. I guess when I do an iOS update I need to check here because it gets stored somewhere and takes up space. I went from using 150GB+ a few months ago to, tonight, just using 109GB. If I can safely delete that old 8GB iPhoto library above, that gets me down to just around 100GB used on a 250GB SSD.
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709
¡Damned!
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
 
2021-09-24, 19:35

Probably. If you want to be super sure, right-click on it and go to 'Show Package Contents'. It'll give you the folder hierarchies w/ dates, originals, etc., then poke through those just to confirm they're already in your Photos library.

I still have a couple myself laying around - old machine backups that I just haven't had the inclination to go through and make sure I have everything available. Some day.

So it goes.
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2021-09-24, 20:39

I did that and it's all just an indecipherable mess. I do see lots of matches. I guess I'll just be safe and hang on to it.

Googling has helped very little, as I'm seeing answers, dating back to ~2015, ranging from "of course you can" to "OMG...whatever you do, DON'T!!!".

So...



It sure seems like I could, you're right, because they've all been migrated to Photos and appear as iPhoto events. And I saw a lot of the same folders when I "showed package contents" with both libraries (iPhoto and Photos).
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turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2021-09-25, 12:21

The fact that the name of the "Kind" changed to "Migrated Photo Library" means those have been imported into the new Photos library. It is safe to delete that one if you want. I have a whole folder filled with various "Old Libraries" in a NAS I have but I'm guessing that isn't something you really want to do.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2021-09-25, 12:51

That's how I was taking that name as well, I've just never done this so I wasn't sure what to believe. Thanks, all.
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