On mac OS, is it safe to delete "Photos Library.photoslibrary" in the pictures folder? It was 200mb large, then i browsed through some old photos and videos from a trip in the photos app that are usually in icloud and it had to download some before viewing. now this file is 19GB large lol. so it seems like it downloaded them locally to view full quality. im not going to look at those photos and videos regularly again, so how do i delete or reduce the size of this file that is clearly a temp cache of those photos on my mac without deleting the photos on icloud?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
safe to delete 'Photos Library.photoslibrary' file? reduce size?
- Thread starter kofman13
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Be aware that the icon named "Photos library" IS NOT "a file".
Rather, it's a kind of "hidden folder" that contains all your photos.
You can see this if you RIGHT CLICK on the icon and choose "show package contents".
(the internal folder "masters" contains all your imported pics)
Yes, you can delete it if you wish, but ALL YOUR PICS INSIDE WILL BE GONE if you do that.
So, the question:
Do you really want to do this?
Rather, it's a kind of "hidden folder" that contains all your photos.
You can see this if you RIGHT CLICK on the icon and choose "show package contents".
(the internal folder "masters" contains all your imported pics)
Yes, you can delete it if you wish, but ALL YOUR PICS INSIDE WILL BE GONE if you do that.
So, the question:
Do you really want to do this?
Probably can't delete it without having adverse effects. If you do delete it, I would disable iCloud Photos on the Mac first, or the file will likely just get recreated again (or it could delete the photos from the cloud).
Alternatively, go into Photo Preferences, click the iCloud tab, and then select 'Optimize Mac Storage'. MacOS will then replace the full-res versions with smaller sized ones when more disk space is needed for other things. (The full-res versions will remain in the cloud.)
Alternatively, go into Photo Preferences, click the iCloud tab, and then select 'Optimize Mac Storage'. MacOS will then replace the full-res versions with smaller sized ones when more disk space is needed for other things. (The full-res versions will remain in the cloud.)