Bobby T

Q: Photos Library 20 GB Larger on HD than in iCloud

Between yesterday and today my Photos library ballooned to 20 GB larger than my photos library occupies on iCloud.

 

The ONLY change to my photo library within the past month is one single photo I took this morning.

 

Yesterday afternoon I had around 50 GB free space on my system (I'm 100% certain of this).

 

When I woke my computer up this morning I had < 5 GB remaining and a Photos alert recommending I turn on library optimization.

 

When I went to check the size of my Photos library folder it was close to 80 GB.  I then went into my iCloud system preference to check, it indicates the size of my iCloud Photos library is 35 GB.

 

Upon running Photos to try and see if somehow a ton of Photos magically appeared within the library the size of the library dropped down immediately to 55 GB.

 

I just finished an attempt to repair the library, the end result is my library is at 56 GB.

 

If I go into preferences it indicates my library is in sync with iCloud.  As mentioned above the only change to my account within the past 30 days or so was one photo I took of a document this morning.  There is nothing particularly special about this image, I have verified it is 2.1 MB in size.

 

 

Anybody have any idea where this ghost data is coming from and how to remove it?

Posted on Sep 2, 2016 10:18 AM

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Q: Photos Library 20 GB Larger on HD than in iCloud

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  • by Winston Churchill,

    Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Sep 2, 2016 10:26 AM in response to Bobby T
    Level 10 (103,346 points)
    Apple TV
    Sep 2, 2016 10:26 AM in response to Bobby T

    I have no idea about the rest of the stuff you are saying but it's quite normal for the library on your Mac to be larger than the one in the cloud, mine is a little over 20 GB larger.

  • by léonie,Apple recommended

    léonie léonie Sep 2, 2016 10:59 AM in response to Bobby T
    Level 10 (105,518 points)
    iLife
    Sep 2, 2016 10:59 AM in response to Bobby T

    Anybody have any idea where this ghost data is coming from and how to remove it?

    As Winston Churchill said, the library in iCloud is smaller than the library on the Mac.

    Not all data will sync to iCloud, for example th projects (books, calendars) are only stored locally, also the faces thumbnails do not sync to iCloud or the caches for syncing with iTunes.

     

    My library in iCloud has 163 GB, the library on the Mac has 209 GB.