iPhoto File Organization?

Greetings, I am trying to organize my photos and I am profoundly confused. When I go to the folders USER NAME: PICTURES I see three sub-folders: "iPhoto Library Recovered Photos," a "–2" version of that same folder, and an "iChat Icons" folder. I also see a file "iPhoto Library" that is almost 5gb large.

My questions:
1) Where do my iPhoto pictures actually reside?
2) Which of these files can I trash?
3) If I find pictures (.pct files) in one of the "Recovered" folders, but not showing in iPhoto, will it cause problems if I "import" those files info iPhoto?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Where do my iPhoto pictures actually reside?

Click to expand...

In the iPhoto Library file, so don't Trash that one.

The iChat Icons are for use with Apple's instant messenger, iChat. That was discontinued in 2012, so you can Trash that if you want.

Can't think why you have a Recovered Photos folder though. pct files appear to be a very old Apple picture file format. I wouldn't think any of your photos are in there.

Not sure what your objective is but my suggestion is to use iPhoto to organise pictures into events and albums.
No need to mess around with the physical file structure of iPhoto.
Unless you have requirements that iPhoto can not deliver. Then there are other photo management apps.
( Not an expert in that area, but I am sure other members will chime in on this one. )


Cheers ... McBie