How To Delete Your Whole Photo Library On Mac

To combine Photos libraries, open the source library and export the photos and videos that you want to keep. Then open the destination library (the one that you want to use as your main library) and import the photos and videos.

Choose a photo library

Here's how to open one of the multiple photo libraries that you might have on your Mac or on a connected external drive:

  1. Press and hold the Option key as you open the Photos app.
  2. Select the library that you want to open, then click Choose Library.

Photos uses this library until you open a different one using the same steps.

How to delete photos from iCloud storage. If you have iCloud Photo Library enabled, whatever you delete on your iPhone is automatically removed from iCloud. That means you simply delete you pictures the way we outlined above, and they’ll be gone from the cloud and all your. 2020-4-1  To be completely clear, making a new photo library means none of the existing libraries images will be included in the new picture library, unless specifically added. This allows for completely different and unique collections of images. How to Make a New Photo Library in Photos for Mac OS X. Quit out of Photos app. Inboard, also available from Setapp — along with Gemini — is a handy way to manage your entire picture gallery and images workflow, which should save you hours of time in the future. Here's how to clean up your photo library when the duplicates are gone: Open Inboard app. Drag a photo into the Inboard window, and the app will save the image.

Export photos and videos from the source library

Open the source library, then decide whether you want to export your files as unmodified originals or edited versions:

Edited versions retain their edits when you import them. The advantage is that you don't have to recreate any edits; however, these files become the destination library's originals. This means that you can't revert to their earliest pre-import version.

Unmodified originals don't show any edits that you made when they were in the source library. This gives you flexibility for later editing, but recreating your edits might take substantial work.

How to export edited versions

  1. In the Photos app, select the photos and videos that you want to export. To select multiple items, press and hold the Command key while you click. To select a group of items in order, click the first one, then press and hold the Shift key while you click the last one. This selects all of the items between the two that you clicked.
  2. Choose File > Export > Export [number].
  3. An export dialog appears.
    • In the Photos section, set Photo Kind to JPEG, TIFF, or PNG. JPEG recompresses your photos, which may result in smaller file sizes. TIFF and PNG files are higher fidelity and may result in larger file sizes.
    • In the Videos section, choose a Movie Quality setting. This section appears only if your selected items include videos.
    • In the Info section, select the checkboxes if you want to preserve metadata and location data in the exported files.
    • In the File Naming section, set File Name to Use File Name and set Subfolder Format to either Moment Name or None. Moment Name creates a subfolder for each Moment that's represented in your selected items. This is useful if you'd like to create an Album in the destination library for each Moment. The None option exports all of the files directly into the destination folder.
  4. Click Export. A Finder dialog appears.
  5. Navigate to the location where you want to save the files, such as the Desktop or an external drive. Click New Folder if you create a new folder for your exported items.
  6. Click Export.

How to export unmodified originals

  1. In the Photos app, then select the photos and videos that you want to export. To select multiple items, press and hold the Command key while you click. To select a group of items in order, click the first one, then press and hold the Shift key while you click the last one. This selects all of the items between the two that you clicked.
  2. Choose File > Export > Export Unmodified Original.
  3. An export dialog appears.
    • If your photos include IPTC metadata (such as titles or keywords) that you want to keep, select the Export IPTC as XMP checkbox.
    • Leave the File Name setting on Use File Name.
    • Next to Subfolder Format, choose Moment Name or None. Moment Name creates a subfolder for each Moment that's represented in your selected items. This is useful if you'd like to create an Album in the destination library for each Moment. The None option exports all of the files directly into the destination folder.
  4. Click Export. A Finder dialog appears.
  5. Navigate to the location where you want to save the files, such as the Desktop or an external drive. Click New Folder if you create a new folder for your exported items.
  6. Click Export Originals.

How to import photos and videos into the destination library

Open the destination library, then drag the folder that contains your exported items into the main area that shows your other photos and videos. When a green plus sign appears on your pointer, you can release the folder.

The photos in the folder are sorted into Moments based on their creation dates and locations. The videos are sorted based on the date you exported them from the source library.

If you created subfolders when you exported the items and you want to create an Album for each subfolder, follow these steps:

  1. In the Finder, open a subfolder.
  2. Select all of the photos and videos within the subfolder.
  3. Drag the items onto My Albums in the Photos sidebar.
  4. Name the Album in the highlighted text box that appears in the sidebar.
  5. Repeat for each subfolder.

Save space by deleting the source library

If you're sure that you've exported all of the photos and videos that you want to keep from the source library, you can delete it to save disk space on your Mac.

First, open the Finder and find the source library that you want to delete. By default, photo libraries are stored in your Pictures folder. If you can't find the library, follow the steps to choose a library; the path to the selected library's location appears in the Choose Library window.

Next, move the source library to the Trash. Then choose Finder > Empty Trash to permanently delete the files.

Learn more

You may find your iPhone has a large photo library but you cannot find the trash icon to delete them. Of course, it's irritating because Apple never reminded you those photos cannot be deleted from iPhone directly. Before deleting photo library, I suppose you may want to know what the photo library is.

What's Photo Library on iPhone

Photos in Photo Library are synced from iTunes on computer. On iPhone, you only have the right to view them but you cannot edit them. That's why there is no trash icon for photo library. Lots of users also called photo library, the synced photos. Apple's official way to remove photo library is unsync the photos on iTunes.

How to Delete Photo Library from iPhone Using iTunes

Step 1: Connect your iPhone to the computer where your iPhone was synced photos via USB cable.

Step 2: Then, head into iTunes. At the upper left corner, select the device icon.

Step 3: Tap on 'Photos' from the left sidebar.

Step 4: The 'Sync Photos' will be checked by default. You can uncheck 'Sync Photos' and hit 'Apply' to delete the whole photo library from iPhone.

Step 5: If you just want to delete some specific photos from photo library, you can uncheck the photos you want to delete and hit ‘Apply’ to delete.

Note: If you find 'Sync Photos' is not checked when you go there, that means this is not the iTunes you synced photos before, or the original iTunes library is lost. In other words, this way is not available for you now.

How to Delete Photo Library from iPhone If iTunes is Not Available

How To Delete Your Whole Photo Library On Mac

If you found the original iTunes library is no longer accessible for you, don't you worry. Here are still 2 ways:

  • Use iPhone 'Erase All Contents and Settings' to reset it to factory settings. Of course, it will delete photo library on iPhone. But you will lose everything.
  • Use iTunes alternative - iMyFone iPhone Photo Eraser for Win/Mac, which you can preview and select photos from iPhone photo library. iMyFone iPhone Photo Eraser has powerful feature to permanently delete photos from iPhone and make recovery impossible. To avoid you mistakenly delete photos, you have the chance to view photos in advance.

iMyFone Options to Delete Photo Library

  • Backup & Delete: You can choose to transfer photo library to computer for backup and delete them from iPhone.
  • Permanently Delete You can preview and permanently delete photo library from iPhone/iPad, 100% unrecoverable.
  • You can also find out the previously deleted photos which are still under the risk of recvoery and completely make them gone. No trace of recovery will be left.

All It Takes Are 4 Simple Steps:

Step 1. Connect your device to computer using the USB cable launch iMyFone Umate Pro.

Step 2. Choose Erase Private Data tab and let it scan your iPhone.

Step 3. When it finishes, you can preview and select photos to erase.

4. Click Erase Now button and type 'delete' into the box to confirm and continue.

Note: If you want to backup and delete photo library, you can go to 'Photos' function in '1-Click Free Up Space' mode.

Besides, photos that iMyFone Eraser support include photos taken by Camera, photos saved from apps and photos synced from iTunes. It won't work for iCloud photos as they are stored in iCloud service.

Magical Features of iMyFone iPhone Photo Eraser

However, this tool also offers various other features besides showing you how to delete photo library from iPhone and similar Apple products. It also provides you with easy access to brilliantly useful features.

  • Photo Management
  • You can thoroughly clean all invisible photo cache from iPhone/iPad once. Also, other junk files, like iTunes cache, corrupted files, crash logs and more will be cleaned as well.
  • You can make photo backup on computer and losslessly compress your iPhone photo library to save 75% photo storage. No visible quality of photos will be damaged.
  • Or you can export photo library to computer. You can also choose delete photos after export.
  • Third-party Apps Eraser

How To Delete Your Whole Photo Library On Mac Free

  • You can permanently delete WeChat and WhatsApp messages and attachments. It supports to find out data of multiple WeChat accounts.
  • You can find out previously deleted WeChat data and completley delete them.
  • You can fully destroy private fragments left by 3rd-party apps, like WhatsApp, WeChat, Snapchat, Viber, Kik, Line, etc.
  • Media Management: Videos, movies, audio books, etc. can be backed up to computer and deleted from iPhone in bulk.
How To Delete Your Whole Photo Library On Mac

How To Delete Your Whole Photo Library On Mac Windows 10

  • iOS Data Eraser: You can selectively select private data or deleted files to permanently delete, like messages, call log, contacts, etc.

How To Delete Your Whole Photo Library On Mac Download

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