How To Delete Photos From Library On Mac



Deleting photos from Mac is easy, but there are some confusions. For example, does deleting photos in Photos or iPhoto removes the photos from hard drive space on Mac? Is there a convenient way to delete photos to release disk space on Mac?

  • In this way, you could also use the third-party software to recover photos on Mac. Part 2: Can I Delete the Migrated iPhoto Library. After you have migrated iPhoto pictures to Photos app, you can delete an old iPhoto library on Mac directly. There is no need to create a backup before deleting iPhoto library pictures.
  • When prompted, click the Delete button to confirm it. If you want to skip the confirmation dialog, select the album, and press the CMD + Delete keys at the same time. Note: The Photos app will store the deleted pictures or album on Mac for 30 days.
  • To delete Photos library on Mac: Step 1 Go to Finder. Step 2 Open your system disk Users Pictures. Step 3 Drag the Photos Library you want to delete to the Trash.

How to Delete Duplicate iPhoto Library Photos on Mac Quickly. Step 1: Launch Mac Cleaner. Free download and install Mac Cleaner software. Launch this duplicate photo finder on your Mac computer. Then you can click 'Scan' in the default 'System Status' page to see the current condition of your Mac. If you want to delete photos from Mac desktop without actually deleting them from iPhoto Library, then open 'System Preferences' on your Mac. Click 'Desktop and Screen Saver' button and then click 'Desktop' tab and then drag the new photo to the image of the desktop. You can create a new folder for your desktop pictures.

This post will explain everything you want to know about deleting photos on Mac and introduce a convenient way to clean up Mac hard drive to release sapce - FonePaw MacMaster, which can delete photos cache, duplicate photos, photos or videos of large size and more to free up Mac space.

How to Delete Photos from Photos/iPhoto on Mac

Apple discontinued iPhoto for Mac OS X since 2014. Most users have migrated from iPhoto to Photos app. After importing your photos into the Photos app, don't forget to delete the old iPhoto library to regain your storage space.

Deleting photos from Photos on Mac is similar to deleting them from iPhoto. Since there are more users using Photos app on macOS, here is how to delete photos from Photos on Mac.

Delete photo(s) on Mac

Step 1 Open Photos.

Step 2 Select the photo(s) you want to delete. To delete multiple photos, press Shift and select the photos.

Step 3 To delete the selected pictures/videos, press the Delete button on the keyboard or right click Select XX Photos.

Step 4 Click Delete to confirm the deletion.

Note: Select photos and press Command + Delete. This will enable macOS to directly delete the photos without asking for your confirmation.

Another point to note is that deleting photos or videos from Albums doesn't necessarily mean that the photos are deleted from Photos library or the Mac hard drive. When you select a image in a album and press Delete button, the photo is merely removed from the album but still remain in the Photos library. To delete a photo from both the album and the Photos library, use Command + Delete or the Delete option in the right-click menu.

Permanently delete photos on Mac

Photos for macOS has Recently Deleted library to save the deleted photos for 30 days before the photos are permanently deleted. This is thoughtful and allows you to undelete the deleted photos if you are regret. But if you need to regain the free disk space from the deleted photos right away, you don't want to wait 30 days. Here is how to permanently delete photos on Photos from Mac.

Step 1 On Photos, go to Recently Deleted.

Step 2 Tick the photos you want to delete for good.

Step 3 Click Delete XX Items.

Delete Photos library on Mac

When MacBook Air/Pro is having low disk space, some users choose to delete the Photos library to reclaim disk space. If the photos are important to you, make sure you have uploaded the photos to iCloud Photos Library or saved them in a external hard drive before cleaning up the entire library. To delete Photos library on Mac:

Step 1 Go to Finder.

Step 2 Open your system disk > Users > Pictures.

Step 3 Drag the Photos Library you want to delete to the Trash.

Step 4 Empty the Trash.

Some users reported after deleting the Photos library, there is no significant change in the storage when checking About this Mac. If this happen to you, too, don't worry. It takes time for the macOS to delete the entire Photos library. Give it some time and check the storage later. You'll see the free space is regained.


How to Delete Photos from Mac Hard Drive

Deleting pictures from Photos only remove the pictures in the Masters folder of Photos Library. There are more pictures in the disk drive that are not imported into Photos. To delete photos from Mac, you can go through all the folders that have images and videos and delete those that you don't need. Or you can use FonePaw MacMaster, which can detect duplicate images and large photos/videos on Mac to free up your disk space. If you need more free space, MacMaster can also clean system junks such as cache, logs, mail attchments, app data, etc. to give you more free space.

Remove duplicate photos on Mac

Step 1 Run MacMaster.

Step 2 Select Similar Image Finder.

Step 3 Select a location to search for duplicate photos. To delete duplicate photos in the whole hard drive, select your system drive.

Step 4 Click Scan. After scanning, select all the duplicated photos you want to delete and click Clean.

Step 5 The photos will be deleted from the disk.

Delete photos/videos of large size

One of the most effective way to free up space on Mac is to delete photos or videos that are large in size. MacMaster can help you with that.

Step 1 Click Large & Old Files.

Step 2 Click Scan.

Step 3 All the large files on your Mac, including photos and videos will be found.

Step 4 Select those you don't need and click Clean to remove them.

Clean photo cache of Photos/iPhoto Library

Photos or iPhoto library create caches over time. You can delete the photo cache with MacMaster.

Step 1 Open MacMaster.

Step 2 Click Photo Cache > Scan.

Step 3 Select all items and click Clean.

That's how to delete photos on Mac. If you have any question, let us know in the comments.

With the upgrade to Photos, many Mac users have been left with a duplicate iPhoto library on their Macs. Here’s how to delete iPhoto library and clear out some clutter.

iPhoto used to be the standard photo editor and photo management system on Macs, at least for the average computer user. Like it or not, however, that all changed when Apple first introduced the software, nearly a year ago. If your Mac came from Apple with Photos already installed, you don’t need to worry about old iPhoto libraries.

A Mac that was upgraded to a new version of OS X that added the Photos app, however, can end up with what look like duplicates of their photo libraries. The first time you start up Photos after upgrading, your Mac will copy over your photo library into the new software (if you explicitly set up more than one old iPhoto library, you’ll have to copy them over yourself). It doesn’t go back and delete the old one, though.

Here’s where things get a little bit confusing: you don’t actually have two copies of your photos. Thanks to the way OS X (the software that powers your Mac, like Windows powers a PC) works, your pictures aren’t actually stored in those libraries. Instead, they’re stored somewhere else on your hard drive, and each library has what Apple calls a “hard link” to the pictures. As a result, each library can access the photos, but store separate information about them. You can delete either library safely; only if you were to delete both libraries would you lose access to your pictures.

While having a second copy of your photo library doesn’t take up that much extra space on your computer, it can still be confusing – first of all, each library reports that it’s a certain size, which can make it difficult to figure out how much room is left on your Mac. Additionally, if you need to back things up, it can be hard to figure out where your files are.

Still with us? Let’s recap:

  • if you upgrade your Mac from iPhoto to Photos, you’ll get a second photo library
  • if you had multiple iPhoto libraries (you would know if you did), you’ll need to copy them into Photos manually
  • the libraries each link to a single copy of your photos, rather than storing each photo twice
  • it can appear that your libraries are taking up more space than they are, thanks to the way hard links work
  • you can safely delete either photo library – only if you delete both of them will you lose access to your photos

How to delete iPhoto library on your Mac

Now that you understand why you might want to delete an old iPhoto library, and why you don’t necessarily have to, let’s talk about how to actually do it.

Before you do anything like this on your Mac – that is, delete something potentially important – you should back up your software with something like Time Machine.

How To Delete Photos From Iphoto Library On Macbook

Read: How to Backup Your Mac with Time Machine

That way, if you accidentally delete something important, or something else goes wrong, you can always roll things back to how they were when you started. This is really easy, and there’s nothing to be concerned about; it’s just good practice to back things up (and keep them backed up) before you muck about in your computer.

First, you’ll need to open a Finder window: you can do this by clicking on the Finder icon (it looks like a square face) on the dock, or by clicking on your Mac’s desktop background and hitting ⌘+N (Command + N) on your keyboard.

Next, look at the left-hand column in the new window. You’ll see a list of locations around your Mac; find the one that says Pictures and click on it. You’ll be taken to that directory, which contains libraries for Apple’s image-related apps (Photos, iPhoto, Photo Booth, etc).

Apple Photos Delete Albums

In the list of files on the right, scroll down and look for your iPhoto library – it’ll be a little iPhoto icon, and the name will read, unsurprisingly, iPhoto Library. Don’t worry about accidentally deleting your Photo Booth or Photos libraries; you’ll be able to see which one is which.

To actually delete the library, you can do one of three things:

  1. Click on the iPhoto Library listing, and without letting go of your mouse or trackpad button, drag it until it’s over top the Trash icon on your dock. Once you’re on top of the Trash, let go.
  2. You can select (click on) the iPhoto Library, then right-click on your mouse or Trackpad (Apple will call this Secondary Click in your Mouse or Trackpad settings). A new menu will pop up; find the entry that says Move to Trash and click on it.
  3. Finally, you can also delete your iPhoto Library by clicking on it and hitting ⌘+Delete (Command + Delete) on your keyboard.

Read: How to uninstall apps on Mac OS X

Now that you’ve gotten rid of your iPhoto library, it makes sense to completely uninstall iPhoto – that way you won’t accidentally create a new iPhoto Library and have to repeat all these steps. It’s as simple as opening up your Applications folder, and deleting iPhoto (using one of the three steps we just discussed). For a more in-depth look at how to uninstall apps on your Mac, be sure to check out our guide above!

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