iPhoto vs Foto

[Giuanniello]

Hi all,

I just found out that after installing Foto I have two libraries, the original iPhoto one (31,32GB) and the new Foto one (26,22GB), was wondering if I can safely delete the iPhoto one and if there will be all the content given, I suppose, the extra space taken by iPhoto library should be the weird system they use to store originals, modified etc etc

I have several iPhoto libraries (3 to be sharp, one from my old PowerMac, one from my old Canon camera and the actual one), how can I handle them all on Foto so I can use just one app?

Thank you

Giovanni

 

[Weaselboy]

If you have successfully converted the iPhoto library to the new Photos library, yes you can just delete the old iPhoto library. That said, it is not really taking up double the space like you may think. It uses "hard links" so both files are really just pointing to one image file of each photo. There is a good article here that explains it.

What you could do with the other old libraries is convert them into Photos libraries also, then you could option key boot Photos and choose which library you wish to work with.

 

[Giuanniello]

Thank you for you explanation and for your link, I actually remember that choosing a specific library was possible, that will come handy to move also the old libraries on Foto and get rid of all the iPhoto old ones.

Am attaching a print screen here which shows the space occupied by both Foto and iPhoto libraries, I can safely delete the old one here cos this is a backup computer and my full libraries are on another one so that if this does no damage I can save space and make it all more flexible.

Thank you so much!!!

 

[Weaselboy]

Thank you for you explanation and for your link, I actually remember that choosing a specific library was possible, that will come handy to move also the old libraries on Foto and get rid of all the iPhoto old ones.

Am attaching a print screen here which shows the space occupied by both Foto and iPhoto libraries, I can safely delete the old one here cos this is a backup computer and my full libraries are on another one so that if this does no damage I can save space and make it all more flexible.

Thank you so much!!!

View attachment 589473

You can go ahead and delete the old one if you want, but it is not actually using that space like it appears to be because of the way those hard links work. If you check your total disk space used before and after you delete that file, you will see there is not a 6GB change in space available like one would think.

 

[Giuanniello]

Am again struggling about how much disk space is being held by iPhoto/Foto, I am trying and attaching here a print screen of the folder where I backup my stuff, you tell me then if I can delete something or should I leave all as is cos of no space occupancy from the old iPhoto folders.

Oh well, I could try myself into deleting one and check but would like to hear from you again.

Thank you

 

[Weaselboy]

I don't see anything to delete there that will make more room. You have three iPhoto and three Photos libraries, but like I mentioned earlier, those don't really use double the space like it appears due to the hard links used.

I do see you have both a Lightroom and Lightroom 6 library there apparently. What is in those?

 

[Giuanniello]

Hello,

so, Lightroom is the folder where the previews and database is stored, LightRoom6 is the folder which actually contains the pictures until I move them on to an external RAID1 drive, as you can see the catalog takes a loooooot of space because of the previews (I am starting to delete pics a little bit at a time, many are just so similar that it makes no sense to store them and many others are raw files which also make no sense keeping unless it's a pic I think I might some day print or heavily edit which is not really my case since I prefer a well taken shot rather than heavy PP).

So, if I got it right either the Foto library is just linked to the iPhoto one or the other way round, or, better, the pics are only stored in one of the folders and hard linked to the other, got it right?

Thank you, you always so kind into replying


Ciao

 

[Weaselboy]

So, if I got it right either the Foto library is just linked to the iPhoto one or the other way round, or, better, the pics are only stored in one of the folders and hard linked to the other, got it right?

They are not really linked to each other, but rather they are both linked (with hard links) to the actual files on the disk.