Can you delete a RAW file from a RAW+JPEG photo in the iCloud Photo Library?

[RTF]

That is my problem!
I've 5-10GB of wasted iCloud storage space used by RAW files I'm not able to delete.

As many modern camera's my camera is able to shoot a photo in RAW+JPEG. So I've got an easy to share file (JPEG) and a RAW file which I can improve.

Tried the folowing:

• Uploaded a RAW+JPEG photo (2 files imported, 1 photo visible in Photos symbol 'J' is visible)
• Then I try to delete the RAW file because it uses more space than the JPEG.
• Can't find a way to do that
• Delete the photo (also in recently deleted)
• Upload the single JPEG
• But then after a minute or so I am again able to select te RAW file of that photo (yes, the one I deleted and did NOT import again)

How can I get rid of these RAW files?

 

[RTF]

Let me explain:
I used to import RAW+JPEG in iPhoto. A few photos in an album are worthy to enhance in Photoshop/Aperture. Then I'd save them as a JPEG.

Every few weeks/months I clean up the RAW files in iPhoto using a smart album which selects my RAW files. This reduces the size of my iPhoto library drasticly.

(I have also a backup of the RAW files on my Synology NAS)

But now in Photos I can't delete the RAW files of a RAW+JPEG photo (please, if you have the time, test it for yourself and let me know if it's just me).`

I use RAW+JPEG so I can quickly share photos as JPEG. I allways have all the photos of a vacation at hand and only enhance some of the good photos to excellent photos.

 

[RTF]

Can someone replicate this issue?

 

[maflynn]

Can someone replicate this issue?

Deleting RAW files is not something that many photographers do. I mean after they cull the images for keepers, the RAWs are kept. Think of them as the old negatives from film days. You want the masters inn case you need to work on the images again.

I never really understood the logic behind the use of RAW+JPG usage and I believe its not fully embraced, so you may not get too many responses. I understand your usage from you post but to be honest your work flow is not that of a typical photographer - I'm not knocking it, just stating that its a little different.

 

[RTF]

I keep all my originals on my NAS.

The issue remains that precious iCloud storage is used by files I can't delete.

 

[nerdbert]

I just came back from a vacation and realised that all the photos I imported into my iPad are now Raw+Jpeg in Apple Photos. That also explains why the hotel's wifi was almost unusable (for everyone!) whenever I uploaded a batch to iCloud.

While I agree that it is desirable to keep the raw files I don't think Apple Photos or iCloud is the best place to do so. The raw files are around 30 MB and add up to 7GB. I'm sure most of them will never be touched again.
Has anyone come up with a solution since this thread was started? I could export and re-import everything, but this is time consuming and I'm sure there will be quirks which I'll have to fix afterwards.

 

[Toutou]

The Photos library file is not a file. In fact, it's a folder that can be navigated (you can try right clicking it, then "Show package contents"). There are some other folders in it, one of those is the "Masters" folder. This folder contains the original files, both the JPGs and the RAWs. You should be able to delete the RAWs manually and keep the JPGs.
I'm not 100% sure about this, as I shoot RAW only and I don't have any linked JPG+RAW in my library, it's possible that Photos won't like it and will tell you that files are missing, so if you're gonna try it, try it on a random single file first (delete the RAW, keep the JPG, see how it looks in Photos).
Just a tip, please, don't screw your library up.

 

[4254126]

Anyone have a hint? Have the same problem... have a couple of JPEG+RAW and want to keep only the older JPEG in iCloud (I edit RAW outside of photos). But every time I delete both, empty Recently Deleted, let it all sync over iCloud (even waited for a couple of days) and re-import just the JPEG from another folder the RAW versions re-appear!

 

[Stable Entropy]

I'm facing this exact same problem now . Incredibly frustrating. Do the phantom RAWs perpetually take up iCloud space without a way to delete? I don't want to test/introduce more into more into my Photo Library. :/

 

[4254126]

I finally solved the situation. I spoke to Apple Support and got taken to quite a senior support member who I was in close contact with for a few weeks.

Long story short: Apple (Care support) can't do anything with you as the problem lies with iCloud. They support members can only see (after permission) allocated storage, how many files were synced and if your personal iCloud database is corrupted. They can NOT delete backups or delete the 40-day cache visible in iCloud.com. This is why below is the only way it works.

What helped? Delete the pictures that have the RAW versions, empty recently deleted and make sure that these changes are synced to iCloud (best bet is iCloud.com). Then search the library folder of the photos to make sure the RAW/NEF pictures are really gone. And now (this is no joke): Wait about 40-50 days (longer is better) for these pictures to eventually delete from iCloud and the iCloud cache. They seem to be stuck in some sort of loop and keep coming back. I waited this period of time, then used "repair Photos library", let it sync with iCloud, re-added just the JPG pictures and it worked. The RAW files didn't come back and had successfully been deleted from iCloud!

 

[Stable Entropy]

Wow, very interesting!

I called Apple Support myself last night and just finished talking to them once again today. Early on, I got elevated two reps up—this rep hasn't heard from the issue, but totally confirmed what I was seeing. We ran a variety of tests...in the end the rep wrote up a report to Engineering and we sent along a sysdiagnose of Photos.app. I was told that I'll be contacted again once Engineering has a chance to look at the issue (in a few days).

Through some further testing I've found the following:
- The phantom RAW in the cloud does not seem to take up space in your iCloud storage quota which is good
- If you import the JPG using Files.app on iOS, than phantom RAW file does not seem get automatically re-downloaded when you go back to your Mac. I have to do more testing on this front and double-verify, but this seems to be the case. (Nonetheless, I'll probably not rely on this method).

What your saying seems to ring true, especially with the text in the "Recently Deleted" folder which says "Photos and videos show the days remaining before deletion. After that time, items will be permanently deleted. This may take up to 40 days." So that's 40 days after it's been emptied from "Recently Deleted".

Hopefully Apple fixes the issue or even better adds the ability to delete the RAW or JPG component of a RAW+JPG pair. RAW is not just being used for third-party cameras these days, but also on iPhone. The Today section of the App Store even publicized this feature of many of these apps. Will be sending that request into https://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html right after I finish typing up this post. I don't really want to have to use Google Photos or Lightroom CC.

Thanks for taking the time to reply @sir-hd. Truly appreciate it. Will keep updating this thread with what I experience.

 

[WinterWolf90]

They like to group these two images into one for whatever reason. Even in photos if you import both of the files at the same time I have had a hard time separating them and I have to import them in separate batches, but now I just shoot raw and it fixes that problem.