Question regarding Photos

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I started to download photos from my wife's iPhone today. When I went to the imports area there were all these photos which I had previously downloaded so I started to delete them one by one and stopped as I was also deleting them from Albums I had created. Am I doing something wrong or is this the way the Photos works. I currently have close to 12000 photos in my Photo library and do not want to do something stupid(which I am good at ) before I continue.
 
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When you delete a photo from Photos, it will also remove the photo from all the different Albums it is inside.




Bob -

Sent from my 12.9” iPad Pro 1stGen using Mac-Forums
 

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@timkins,

Just so you know:

The library is structured thus:

Photos - shows all your pictures

You can put pictures into Albums

You can put Albums into Folders. (you can't put pictures into Folders, only Albums)

When you put pictures into Albums, you are, in effect, creating a link to the picture, you are not duplicating the picture nor doubling the storage space taken up.

If you delete a picture from an Album, you simply break the link. You do not delete the original.

But if you delete the original picture, it deletes it from the Album because the Album only contained a link to the original.

I hope that kind of makes sense - as a basic guide.

Ian
 
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Thanks for the info, I am glad I stopped after 4 photos and decided to check.
 
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I have been thinking of the way the photos are handled. Does that mean that if I delete the photos from imports,/0r if I delete them from an album it automatically deletes them from the album/imports they are in? Doesn't that double the number of photos I have on the computer? Is there a way of retaining all of the photo's in the Albums and deleting the photos in the imports? Then what really confuses me is the heading all photos. They are all there also. Does the same thing happen here? Is this normal? I am so confused!!!
 

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@timkins,

I understand your anxiety and confusion.

I could try to answer your questions one by one; and I'm sure you have more. But a more practical way, I think is to ask you to read the following article which explains just about everything you need to know:

https://www.imore.com/photos-mac

Once you've read that and hopefully absorbed most of it:) , you may want to cast your eye on these, although they say much the same:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT206186
https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac-software/how-use-photos-mac-3610122/

Then - please come back with specific additional questions arising from your reading. It's so much easier to address a specific question than a general comment.

Do come back to us anyway. We are here to help.

Ian
 
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I went to the suggested site and it is going to take me weeks to digest all of that information. Part of my confusion is that I have had a Mac for about 3-4 years after being a Windows person for the previous 8 or 9 years and the transition has been difficult at times. Add to that fact that I just started with icloud. On advice from several people I never used the cloud before a couple of weeks ago after locking my computer while trying to upgrade to the newest operating system and fearing that I had lost all of my photos I started using the cloud. My main question is; if I delete a photo from the IMPORTS area, does it delete the photo from the albums area? The answer to that will maybe help me to digest the suggested articles. Thank you for the help and GENTLE guidance you have provided.
 

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if I delete a photo from the IMPORTS area, does it delete the photo from the albums area?

Yes. If by "imports area", you mean the "area" where the pictures go once imported. That is your main library.

As I said, you may create an Album, give it a name, and put pictures in it. If you delete or alter the contents of an Album, this will have no effect on the pictures in your "area" - but if you delete a picture from the "area", it will be deleted from all Albums.

BTW, Apple has anticipated a user error. If you delete by accident, the deleted pictures are put in the "Recently Deleted Folder" - you will see this Folder in your Sidebar on the left. They can be recovered from there, or permanently deleted from there.

I'm not certain whether there is a time limit on the recently deleted - it may be 30 days, not sure.

Hope that helps.

As to the links I gave you, the first is, by far, the most comprehensive. You can ignore the others if you find it too much:)

Ian
 

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