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NJMetsHero

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 10, 2009
232
0
I'm cleaning out my hard drive and deleting all old files I don't need. I'm not sure if deleting original files will remove them from iTunes or iPhoto. Is I "right click" on a single file in the Trash bin, the option to empty trash comes up. Will that empty all trash or just the one file. I don't want to accidentally delete everything in there before I'm sure I don't need them.

So basically? Do you need the original files in random folders on your computer for those same files to continue to exist in iTunes/iPhoto/etc, and is there a way to delete a single item at a time from the Trash bin?
 
is there a way to delete a single item at a time from the Trash bin?
No. Or, rather, you have to do it manually: Create a temporary folder somewhere other than the trash, drag everything you don't want to delete yet into it, empty the trash, then put the temporary folder (and/or its contents) in the trash.

As for iTunes and iPhoto, it depends on how you're deleting them. In iTunes, if you delete a file from the library (deleting one from a playlist only removes it from the playlist, it's still in the main library), iTunes will ask you if you want to move the original file to the trash or not. If you tell it to, the file is in the trash but of course is still taking up space until you empty the trash. If you don't, the file is still hiding in the iTunes library folder, though iTunes itself won't show it. These are kinda annoying, since there's no easy way I know of to check for them if you accidentally didn't have it toss one.

iPhoto is different; it has its own internal trash can that works similarly to the main one--stuff you delete goes in that trash, but is still there until you tell iPhoto to empty ITS trash from within the application.

That's what you were asking, right?
 
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