Emptying iPhoto trash ( with +7000 photos)

I have noticed that my 5 year old macbook has been struggling recently, so I have been trying to clean up my hard drive to prolong its operating life.

I have recently found out that iPhoto has a trash bin that needs to be manually emptied. I usually am pretty observant, so I am not sure how I haven't noticed this over the course of my last two apple computers.

The trash has now accumulated over 7000 photos, and I am sure as you could guess, when it tries to take on such a big task (as deleting all of these files) the application crashes. Is there a source file I can delete manually in the package contents of the iPhoto app?

Thanks for your help!

A warm welcome to the forum.

What you can do is click on the trash icon in iPhoto. This will bring up all 7000 photos!

You can empty these in batches instead of all at once. For example, click on photo , then holding down the Shift key, scroll down and click on, say, photo 100. Then on the top right of the screen, click on "delete selected". This will trash those 100. Then repeat for the others. Obviously, you will probably want to select 200 or 300 at a time and then delete. Experiment with the numbers.

Bear in mind that the deleted photos will now appear in your Mac's trash. So, every now & again, empty this trash otherwise you could find yourself with the same problem again.

If this doesn't work for you, and it should, post back. There is an excellent app called OnyX which can be used to delete all trashes.

Ian

I have recently found out that iPhoto has a trash bin that needs to be manually emptied. I usually am pretty observant, so I am not sure how I haven't noticed this over the course of my last two apple computers.

Click to expand...

Lots of folks have been known to overlook the iPhoto Trash, or like you, not aware that it exists. Member IWT showed you an excellent way to empty the Trash little by little until it's cleaned out completely. Let us know if you have any further difficulty.

Thanks Ian, this would be the obvious solution—however, I do not see a "delete selected" option. And selecting several photos and pressing delete or fn+delete or any other combination goes nowhere. The only option I have come across is the "empty trash".

I may be running an older version of iPhoto than you, which does not have this button.

Any other ideas would be appreciated!

Here is what I'm working with:

IWT said:

A warm welcome to the forum.

If this doesn't work for you, and it should, post back. There is an excellent app called OnyX which can be used to delete all trashes.

Ian

Click to expand...

Also, thanks for the welcome to the formum!

I will try the OnyX app as well now.

@zedbailey

You more than likely know this already, but OnyX is OS specific, so make sure you download the version of OnyX for whatever OS you are currently running. And download direct from their own site:
Titanium Software - OnyX

If this is your first time using it, it's probably best to click on the Automation Tab and tick all the boxes. It does a good job of housekeeping. Depending on your version of iPhoto, it should clear out all Trashes, but I can't guarantee that this will include iPhoto.

I'm sorry you're having so much bother.

Ian

See oldtoad's post here.

Good find bobtomay!
(So much easier with later versions of iPhoto)

Ian

Hey all,

I was about to download a version of Onyx, and I thought I would give the empty trash option (which seemed to be the only option for this version of iPhoto) one more try. Someone rang the door bell and I was gone for who-knows-how-long and the spinning wheel of death must have just span until the deed was done— without crashing this time!

I am relieved to have them all gone, and I greatly appreciate all of your advice!

All the best,

Z