What happens if... (iPhoto question)

Hello Everyone,

I'm new to the Mac Forums and the Mac OS in general so i'm sorry if this is common knowledge or has been answered before. My question is:

If I delete a photo in Pictures that i've previously imported to iPhoto, will I lose the imported picture as well? I only want the picture to be in iPhoto, but i'm afraid that if I delete the original photo that I will lose all my organized pictures in iPhoto.

Hi:
I believe you will. The image in iPhoto is really a link to the original.
(I stand to be corrected).

I deleted a photo I didn't really want that I had in iPhoto (from Pictures), and the iPhoto version seems to be fine!

The reason i'm asking is because I had imported over 2000 pictures from my work computer's old hard drive, but now that i've organized what I need (only about 300 pictures) in iPhoto, i'd like to just delete the rest to clear up space.

Has anyone else tried this? I really don't know how to organize pictures without iPhoto. Everything in Pictures is a mess.

MBA2012 said:

I deleted a photo I didn't really want that I had in iPhoto (from Pictures), and the iPhoto version seems to be fine!

The reason i'm asking is because I had imported over 2000 pictures from my work computer's old hard drive, but now that i've organized what I need (only about 300 pictures) in iPhoto, i'd like to just delete the rest to clear up space.

Has anyone else tried this? I really don't know how to organize pictures without iPhoto. Everything in Pictures is a mess.

Click to expand...

I highly recommend iPhoto the Missing Manual. Outstanding book.
Amazon.com: iPhoto '11: The Missing Manual (Missing Manuals) (English and English Edition) (9781449393236): David Pogue, Lesa Snider: Books

If I delete a photo in Pictures that i've previously imported to iPhoto, will I lose the imported picture as well?

Click to expand...

It will depend whether you have the "Copy items to iPhoto Library" option ticked in iPhoto Preferences>Advanced.

When you download from a camera, iPhoto does this automatically, but when you import from Finder or an external drive, it will only copy if you tick the option. Then, when you double click on a picture in the iPhoto window, it will look for this photo in Finder, or on the external drive.

If you have deleted the original, or disconnected the external, then iPhoto can't display it and you'll get a question or exclamation mark.