iPhoto & Photos library

[agirlnamedfia]

I recently moved my entire iPhoto library to Photos and now I have two photolibary files: one for iPhoto and one for Photos. Both are 70+ GB. My MacBook only has a 250GB hard drive and is 9 years old, I'd like to free up some disk space.

I know that for some files Photos links back to the iPhoto library so I can't just delete it, but I've checked and that doesn't always seem to be the case. Some files have been copied and those doubles are taking up a lot of space.

What's the best way to resolve things? What will happen to the file in Photos if I delete it in iPhoto? Should I go through my entire Photos library manually and transfer the files that are linked, so I can delete the iPhoto library? I'm not sure how to proceed...

 

[Dave Braine]

I know that for some files Photos links back to the iPhoto library

That shouldn't be the case. If you have told Photos to import from your iPhoto Library, all your pictures should now be in Photos.

 

[NoBoMac]

It really is only 70GB.

What happens when you convert an iPhotos library is that the Photos library gets a hardlink to the iPhoto image. The original file is in the iPhotos library, Photos has a pointer to the iPhoto image. To the system and user, looks like two different files, but in reality, just one.

Creating a hard link has the effect of giving one file multiple names (e.g. different names in different directories) all of which independently connect to the same data on the disk, none of which depends on any of the others.

Delete the wrong thing, can mess up your whole library, so, tread lightly if wanting to mess around in there.

https://www.macworld.com/article/31...-you-delete-your-outdated-iphoto-library.html

Only time you actually get a duplicate of the same file is if you move the library to some other location/disk (eg. move to an external drive). When you do the move/copy, the file might be copied twice.

ADD: here is an example from my library. Picture appears in two places, but is actually the same file.

find . -inum 43779
./iPhoto Library.migratedphotolibrary/Masters/2008/Thanksgiving 2008/IMG_0115.JPG
./Photos Library.photoslibrary/Masters/2008/Thanksgiving 2008/IMG_0115.JPG