Not emptying iPhoto’s trash can cost you and more than just wasted disk space. Once upon a time, I had a Mac die and the replacement had issues. Once I got the final replacement iBook, I tried to copy my stuff over to this new Mac — I couldn’t because the iPhoto library was too large.

Even though the new iBook’s hard drive was larger than the original dead unit there just wasn’t enough space for all of my pics.

Why? Well, every time I manually copied (Hint: Always use the Migration Assistant) the library to a new Mac and then ran iPhoto it would load the library + trash, which had never been emptied, as the library. Each fresh copy — from Mac to Mac to Mac — added another copy of the trashed files to the library.

Mix, rinse, repeat…

Worse, simply emptying iPhoto’s trash wasn’t the solution as there were now two copies of the trashed images stored in the library, requiring the items to be manually removed. Fun, wow.

So, here’s the deal. When you delete an image in iPhoto or Aperture (Command + Delete), it hasn’t actually been removed from the library, but placed in the trash where it remains until you manually empty the trash.

To permanently remove photos from iPhoto (and Aperture), you can right click (Control + Click) on Trash in the sidebar and then select Empty Trash from the popup. Or, choose Empty Trash from the iPhoto (Aperture) menu.

Or, if you prefer to keep your hands on the keyboard, you can press Command + Shift + Delete.

Know a nifty Mac OS X or Apple software trick or tip? Share it in the comments below…

via MacFixIt