Multiple Copies of "Photos" Libraries Created When Converting From "iPhoto"

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Level 1

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Multiple Copies of "Photos" Libraries Created When Converting From "iPhoto"

I had put off converting fronm iPhoto to Photos until just a few months ago. After reading all the official Apple "How To" articles on the conversion and reading maybe dozens of posts on the subject I finally took the plunge and surprisingly everything went OK - I thought.

I had five iPhoto Libraries and after converting them to Photos I discovered that I have two copies of one library and three of two others. After opening all the similar libraries in Photos I verified they all had the same images & even the same file sizes (according to the "Pictures" folder in Finder).

I'm not so much interested in how this happened as how to eliminate the extraneous libraries. I've had an iMac since '07 & have read many threads about how dangerous it was to tamper with files in the Pictures folder - I got the impression that just eliminating one could cause all sorts of complications as the iPhoto Application first and now presumably the Photos App as well could have all sorts of interconnections between files that a major problem could occur by deleting a file in the Finder.

Three of the Libraries are 30GB each - others maybe half as much. I recall from some threads months ago something about the creation of another Library from an earlier one does not necessiarily use up additional storage - the new one somehow just refers to the info in the previous file. I realize I might not have stated this correctly but I believe all the knowledgeable people here will take my meaning.

In any chase, the simple form of my question is if it would be OK to just delete the copies of the identical Library files in the Pictures folder without causing any problems to my future use of Photos.

I am using a late-2017 iMac running Mojave 10.14.6

Thanks in advance.

iMac, OS X 10.11

Posted on May 23, 2020 4:01 PM

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Answer 1

Old Toad

Level 10

210,591 points

May 24, 2020 10:05 AM in response to samson16

Post a screenshot of the contents in the Pictures folder in list view.

How to take a screenshot on your Mac

(⌘⬆︎3) Command-Shift-3 Capture the screen to a file

(⌘⬆︎⌃3) Command-Shift-Control-3 Capture the screen to the Clipboard

(⌘⬆︎4) Command-Shift-4 Capture a selection to a file

(⌘⬆︎⌃4) Command-Shift-Control-4 Capture a selection to the Clipboard

(⌘⬆︎5) Command-Shift-5 Invoke new screen grabber

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Answer 2

Old Toad

Level 10

210,591 points

May 24, 2020 2:08 PM in response to samson16

It looks like you'll have to see if the photos in the Army 2,3,4 libraries are the same and if they are included in the larger Photos library. If they are then they can be deleted. The same goes for the other apparently duplicated libraries.

One good app to view the libraries quickly is the free version of PowerPhotos. The paid version can merge libraries while culling out duplicated photos.

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

163,824 points

May 24, 2020 1:26 AM in response to samson16

Well this is a new wrinkle, one I've not seen on here before.

have read many threads about how dangerous it was to tamper with files in the Pictures folder - I got the impression that just eliminating one could cause all sorts of complications as the iPhoto Application first and now presumably the Photos App as well could have all sorts of interconnections between files that a major problem could occur by deleting a file in the Finder.

That's within the Libraries of the apps, not the Pictures Folder.

Are you sure these are not aliases? What are the file names, including suffixes?

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Answer 4

samson16 Author

Level 1

24 points

May 24, 2020 2:30 PM in response to Old Toad

The four Army Photos Libraries are all the same but are not included in the larger Photos library. The same is true for the other "Duplicate" Libraries.

I intentionally established five iPhoto Libraries when running iPhoto. The categories of the content of each were so diverse and essentially had no "overlap" of images that I found it easier to work with each Library separately - and iPhoto made it very easy to establish additional libraries.

When I decided that I had to move to "Photos" I realized it would probably be simpler to combine all the libraries into one and even purchased the software to do so (it may have been the iPhoto Library Manager app) but in the event, and after reading even more posst about upgrading to Photos (at least one and perhaps even several of yours (by-the-way), , it appeared that keeping the several would cause no great problem. How I ended-up with multiple copies I don't know.

Thanks and I will follow your advice.

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Answer 5

samson16 Author

Level 1

24 points

May 27, 2020 5:03 PM in response to Old Toad

Just wanted to thank you for your help. I deleted all duplicate libraries - not without some trepidation though.

All libraries opened just fine and have spent several days learning about Photos. (I do miss Batch Change from iPhoto though)

I thought all was OK until I noticed a problem with Titles. The text field beneath each thumbnail does have the Title/Name of the image I changed from the iPhoto assigned Filename but added a filename extension: usually .jpg. Also quite a few images have the text in that field in bright text - many others have it in subdued. Oddly, all those in bright text have the Title field of the Info pane with the correct title; all images with subdued text beneath the thumbnail have the "Add Title" field empty.

After some searching on this forum there seems to be some long standing issue about how Photos imports Titles from iPhoto. I have just started to search on this issue and believe someone would have found some solution. The only post I read so far is from 2015. If I can't resolve it I will start a new thread. Again thanks for the help.

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Answer 6

Old Toad

Level 10

210,591 points

May 28, 2020 8:37 AM in response to samson16

Some of the edit function you can Control (right) - click on the image and select "Copy Adjustments", move to the next photo with the forward arrow key and paste the edits into the photo. It works with the Adjust and Filter edits.

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Answer 7

samson16 Author

Level 1

24 points

May 29, 2020 5:44 PM in response to Old Toad

Thanks for the tip. I must have around 15,000 to 20,000 images among all the libraries. Some libraries have very few of the "Add Title" problem; others have almost none. I don't understand the difference & still haven't attempted to count those needing the title added to the "Add Title" field of the" Info" window.

I had hoped someone would have come up with some sort of easy "Batch Change" resolution since 2015 but I don't see it as a real problem - at least ALL my images "migrated" to Photos - something I have had no little concern about since Photos was released and your tip has saved me a lot of time searching the Forum for such a solution that dosen't exist. Plus I am retired and if I do have to do one at a time at least I have the time and with your tip I have a simple and time-saving method method.

I don't mean to prolong this thread unnecessarily but another issue has come up which if I can't figure out I will start a new thread on which would be more specific to the issue but as an iPhoto and Photos expert I thought you might be interested.

After deleting all the copies of my several libraries as you suggested I thought I had opened all that were left to check them. All had opened fine but I may have missed one. When I tried to open it the file for the library in Finder instantly changed from "Migrated iPhoto Library" to "iPhotoLibrary"; the screen then went black with a progress bar and a text which said something like "Migrating iPhoto Library". After the migration was complete the file name in Finder change back to "MigratediPhotoLibrary" and I again had a new copy of the same library with "libraryname 2"i.e., the same library but again another copy with a "2" suffix. Somehow I seem to have found a way to maybe duplicate (?) a library when I onen it.

I need to do a couple reliable backups before I start working on these issues; existing backup drives are old so I plan to upgrade them, do backups, then tackle these issues.

Thanks again

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