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sunfast

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 14, 2005
2,135
53
Well, I've edited most of the photos in my iPhoto library which is of course making it swell a lot. I can't use iPhoto diet as it doesn't work with iPhoto 6 so how do I go about removing this bloat? I know it's not advisable to dig around your iPhoto library if you don't know exactly how it works. And I don't.

So, in summary, how do I cut out the originals I don't need without ruining everything?
 

JFreak

macrumors 68040
Jul 11, 2003
3,151
9
Tampere, Finland
sunfast said:
So, in summary, how do I cut out the originals I don't need without ruining everything?

Someone might have written a script for it, but you only have to delete "originals" folders within the iphoto library main folder. That's where iphoto keeps a copy after you have rotated/edited the pic.
 

sunfast

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 14, 2005
2,135
53
Nice one. But if I haven't edited the picture, would that be lost by deleting the originals?
 

wwooden

macrumors 68020
Jul 26, 2004
2,028
187
Burlington, VT
No, a picture only gets added to the "originals" after an edited version is made. I made a script with Automator, but I wouldn't trust my work on someone else's computer. It's pretty easy to make, just make sure that you put a filter in to not delete the movie files, if you took any with your camera, those are put in the "originals" folder so just emptying the entire thing is not good.
 

sunfast

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 14, 2005
2,135
53
wwooden said:
No, a picture only gets added to the "originals" after an edited version is made. I made a script with Automator, but I wouldn't trust my work on someone else's computer. It's pretty easy to make, just make sure that you put a filter in to not delete the movie files, if you took any with your camera, those are put in the "originals" folder so just emptying the entire thing is not good.

Thanks for the tip! Just to check (and this sounds a bit daft) but will iPhoto be cool with me just deleting my originals folder pics? It won't give me an error like "missing originals" or something like that?
 

bigboy99

macrumors 6502
Nov 12, 2005
407
0
Sarasota, FL
wwooden said:
No, a picture only gets added to the "originals" after an edited version is made. I made a script with Automator, but I wouldn't trust my work on someone else's computer. It's pretty easy to make, just make sure that you put a filter in to not delete the movie files, if you took any with your camera, those are put in the "originals" folder so just emptying the entire thing is not good.

If you dump the "originals" folder you can no longer use the Revert to Original menu command. I've used iPhoto Buddy to find dups, but don't know if it works with v6.
 

m-dogg

macrumors 65816
Mar 15, 2004
1,338
4
Connecticut
wwooden said:
No, a picture only gets added to the "originals" after an edited version is made. I made a script with Automator, but I wouldn't trust my work on someone else's computer. It's pretty easy to make, just make sure that you put a filter in to not delete the movie files, if you took any with your camera, those are put in the "originals" folder so just emptying the entire thing is not good.

Are you sure about this? My overall iPhoto library is 12.69 GB. My originals folder is 11.23 GB.

I have ~6700 pics in iPhoto

I think all of my originals go into the original folder, and then if I modify them a copy of them also goes into the modified folder. so really, you should only be deleting a file in the original folder if it is also in the modified folder.
 

wwooden

macrumors 68020
Jul 26, 2004
2,028
187
Burlington, VT
I realized after posting my first post that iPhoto 6 changes around how the photos are stored. In the previous versions, iPhoto would create a folder for each new roll, and then when a picture is modified, it creates a "originals" folder and puts the original in there. In iPhoto 6, all pictures are put into the "originals" folder right off, then modified photos put into the "modified" folder, makes much more sense. This means my script would only work with versions upto iPhoto 5.

I'm not sure what the easiest way to remove duplicate photos would be now, or removing originals that have a duplicate modified photo.
 

theBB

macrumors 68020
Jan 3, 2006
2,453
3
wwooden said:
No, a picture only gets added to the "originals" after an edited version is made.
That's simply not true. I don't know how it was before iPhoto '06, but i can tell you for sure iPhoto '06 adds the edited versions to the "Modified" folder when you edit the pictures, the originals (edited and never edited pics) are always in Originals. Do not delete that folder unless you know that is exactly what you want.
 

sunfast

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 14, 2005
2,135
53
I DID delete originals but mercifully checked iPhoto before emptying the trash. :eek:

Thank god I checked!
 

bigboy99

macrumors 6502
Nov 12, 2005
407
0
Sarasota, FL
m-dogg said:
Are you sure about this? I think all of my originals go into the original folder, and then if I modify them a copy of them also goes into the modified folder. so really, you should only be deleting a file in the original folder if it is also in the modified folder.

IPhoto v5 keeps all photos in the library, and when you modify one, the mod stays in the library and the original is added to the originals folder for possible future revertion.
 

sunfast

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 14, 2005
2,135
53
Sooooo - back to the original question is there anything to do except trawling through to find originals that have been modified and deleting them?
 

bigboy99

macrumors 6502
Nov 12, 2005
407
0
Sarasota, FL
By looking in the Originals folder you can quickly see the ones that have been modified. Go back one folder level to the library and delete the file of the same name/number. Tedious, but I think it's the only way.
 

wwooden

macrumors 68020
Jul 26, 2004
2,028
187
Burlington, VT
bigboy99 said:
By looking in the Originals folder you can quickly see the ones that have been modified. Go back one folder level to the library and delete the file of the same name/number. Tedious, but I think it's the only way.

You could probably create an automator flow that would do that. It first goes through the "originals" folder, then through the "modified" folder and finds any photos that are the same. I guess it would be up to the user to decide which one would be removed, the original or the modified version of the photo.
 

Janicek

macrumors newbie
Jul 14, 2006
2
0
DO NOT delete your Originals folder in your iPhoto library. I did this a few nights ago, emptied my trash and all of my original/non-modified photos were gone. :mad: Thankfully I had a backup (sans a few weeks worth of photos).

I found Duplicate Annihilator and it seems to work for removing dupes.
 

spriter

macrumors 65816
May 13, 2004
1,460
586
I had the same problem and found this on the official iPhoto Discussions. I forget the thread or I'd credit who wrote it but...

Paste the following into terminal:

mkdir ~/.Trash/iPhoto-Originals
cd ~/"Pictures/iPhoto Library/Modified/"
find . -type f -exec mv "../Originals/{}" ~/.Trash/iPhoto-Originals/ \;

Basically, if a picture exists in the Modified folder, then there must be a backup of it in the Originals folder. Thus, for each picture in the Modified folder, this script will move its corresponding Original to the trash.

NOTE: iPhoto still thinks these images have "backup" Originals, and will still present you with the option to "Revert to Original." Not to worry, if you try to revert to an original which has been erased by this technique, nothing happens.

NOTE 2: You may see a bunch of "No such file or directory" errors. That's OK - when you import a movie, a generated thumbnail also gets thrown into the Modified folder. The error comes because it thinks this generated thumbnail has an original image, but it doesn't. Furthermore, the movie is untouched.

You get a folder in the trash with the pics that have newer modified versions so you can easily check all is well before giving them the final chop.

Worked great for me and saved alot of space. Again, I did not write this so any credit goes to the folks on Apple Discussions who came up with it.
 
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