Deleting iPhoto Pictures!

[WVUAppleSeed]

Hey everyone,

Recently when I start to import my photos in to iPhoto it says there isn't enough space for it. I know that every picture I import in to iPhoto makes a copy for iPhoto, so...

is there an easy way to delete photos I don't need anymore from iPhoto and from my hard drive in order to clear up space? I can't even find the folder where the iPhoto photos are.

Hope you can help!

 

[John Doe 57]

Hey everyone,

Recently when I start to import my photos in to iPhoto it says there isn't enough space for it. I know that every picture I import in to iPhoto makes a copy for iPhoto, so...

is there an easy way to delete photos I don't need anymore from iPhoto and from my hard drive in order to clear up space? I can't even find the folder where the iPhoto photos are.

Hope you can help!

1. Find your iPhoto Library (normally in your Username/Home folder).

2. Right-click or control click on the iPhoto library icon so that a menu will appear.

3. Select "Show Package Contents."

4. Go to your "originals folder" and find your pictures to delete.

 

[JediMeister]

Not a very good idea to be poking around inside the actual package itself...Any and all deletion of images should be done while in the iPhoto application just to ensure you clean everything up in one get go. Select one image or a group of images using the Shift or modifier keys, go to the Photos menu, send 'em to the iPhoto trash, and then go to the iPhoto menu to empty the iPhoto trash. If you just delete something from Originals, it may still have files in Modified and Data. Deleting in iPhoto gets rid of the all 3 sets of files.

 

[skybolt]

Yes, DO NOT delete from library in finder!!! iPhoto will not know those photos are gone and will continue to look for them. Delete from within the iPhoto app -- making sure you delete to iPhoto's trash, not the regular trash. Then empty your trash and they should be gone.

Users are not meant to be messing about in that library. Just because you CAN get there by showing package contents does not mean you SHOULD be going there. Lots of corruption can ensue! Apple made the file that way so that users, particularly newer users, would not access that file and lose their photos or corrupt them. iPhoto needs that file organized in its own way in order to be able to do its job. Stay out!!!

A much better solution would be to keep your photos on an external drive, thus freeing up a major amount of space on your internal drive. Here's how to do it: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1229. Drives are cheap these days and extremely useful. You could buy a large one, partition it so that you have one partition the size of your internal and use that as a backup drive. The other partition could house your photos, and anything else that takes up a lot of space (music?).

 

[WVUAppleSeed]

Yes, DO NOT delete from library in finder!!! iPhoto will not know those photos are gone and will continue to look for them. Delete from within the iPhoto app -- making sure you delete to iPhoto's trash, not the regular trash. Then empty your trash and they should be gone.

Users are not meant to be messing about in that library. Just because you CAN get there by showing package contents does not mean you SHOULD be going there. Lots of corruption can ensue! Apple made the file that way so that users, particularly newer users, would not access that file and lose their photos or corrupt them. iPhoto needs that file organized in its own way in order to be able to do its job. Stay out!!!

A much better solution would be to keep your photos on an external drive, thus freeing up a major amount of space on your internal drive. Here's how to do it: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1229. Drives are cheap these days and extremely useful. You could buy a large one, partition it so that you have one partition the size of your internal and use that as a backup drive. The other partition could house your photos, and anything else that takes up a lot of space (music?).

Well damn! Thank you so much to everyone. I do have an external hard drive, but I like having my photos on my MacBook hard drive. I like having them synced to my iPhone and such. I deleted some pics from the library until I got sick of it, and then came back and read this thread and was worried. Hopefully nothing is too f'ed up.

Again, thank you guys for all of your help. I love the Apple community...the best!

 

[skybolt]

Just a suggestion. Since you have an external, how about having a library there for maybe your older photos, and an additional one on your internal for more recent ones (or any criteria you wish to use -- subjects, places, etc.). Then you can carry around your most viewed/most recent photos, and the ones you don't need to see so often will be safe on your external. You can use an app like iPhoto Library Manager to merge the libraries as the one on your internal grows.