Managing photos

[Nomad1]

Hi There.
Ive slowly realised that the way ive stored photos on my laptops over the years is very disorganised so i am trying to get a grip on that partly just to be organised but also to reduce space.
Ive been through what i have on the laptop but also what is on icloud to organise folders, delete duplicates and delete unwanted stuff. So in each there is a large space reduction.
However, when i go to the Photos app i see some albums ive created over time. These contain photos that ive deleted from icloud etc... so i am curious where those files are actually stored? I cant find them anywhere on file, only in the photos app... Part of me was tempted to delete all albums there as i have the photos on file either in documents or icloud. Then i was unsure if deleting from Photos would delete the file as well.

So, 2 questions-
Does deleting something from the photos app delete the file?
If so, where can i find where the actual file sits?

regards,
Damon

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

Photo organization can be a very daunting task, especially with years of files scattered over many locations and applications. The first thing here would be to make sure you have a Time Machine or other backup of you photos/data. That way, you can safely delete any as you move through the reorganization.

-Which model Mac?
-Which version of OS X/macOS?
-Which version of Photos?
-Are you using iCloud Photos or Photo Stream currently?
-How many devices are your photos spread across?
-How/where are the photos stored now - Pictures folder, iCloud Drive, Photos app, Desktop folder, iPhone/iPad, etc.?

In the Photos app, it depends on what action you take. You can select a photo in an album and remove it from the album, which keeps it in Photos, or delete the photo, which deletes it from the album and Photos. Deleted photos in Photos go to the Photos > Recently Deleted "trash" first, where they can be recovered or deleted permanently now or automatically in 30 days.

The photos in the Photos app are stored in the Photos Library "package" file in your Pictures folder. It is NOT recommended to manipulate that file driectly...only add/remove photos/videos using the Photos app. If you delete files any other way from the Photos Library, you can cause issues such as photos with missing/black thumbnails, etc.

C

 

[irishmikedavis]

I've yet to find the software that works for me. I'm currently looking at Amazon Photos. It's the structure that I have an issue with. I would like to organize my photos into folders/albums and sub-folders. For instance:

Vacations
--Italy
--Mexico
--Greece

Or

Family
--Son Joey
---Events
----Christmas
---Children
----Autumn
----Nikki

I'll keep trying. If anyone has any thought on this, ideas are appreciated. Unfortunately, I wasn't tagging photos all along so now I have about 14,000 I have to go through and try to tag and organize. Offhand, can you batch-tag? Like, highlight various photos and then tag them all as Mexico, or whatever?

 

[TreeTreeTreeee]

There is a neat program called
A Better Finder Rename, which can extract exif data from your image files and rename them. I have used this program to rename my files by date and time down to the second. Having done so, I am able to organize photos by date/time and then by event when they occurred.
It is not a free program, but is well worth the relatively low cost versus the detailed task involved.

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