Mac 911

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DELETE AN ALBUM IN THE MAC’S PHOTOS APP?

Deletion seems so final, and it’s worthwhile to pause a moment and reflect before clicking any Delete button or selecting any Delete menu item. In Photos for macOS, you’re presented with many opportunities to delete items and collections, but Apple fortunately spells out the effects.

One area that confuses people regularly is how Photos deletes albums—both the regular static kind and “smart” albums that use criteria to select what appears within them. Surely, deleting an album might drop the photos and videos the albums contains into the trash?

Fortunately, it does not. In its internal structure, Photos separates out the actual media files from all the containers and organizing structures it makes available. When you delete any album you’ve created, whether it’s smart or static, Photos only deletes the organizing framework. The original media remains in the library untouched.

Apple even makes an effort to reassure