MD_Gene

Q: Want to Use the iCloud Drive for Photos

We had or photos stored on a portable disk drive.  We had thought that the disk was just a back up, keeping the photos and documents out of harms way should something bad happen to the Mac HD.  We increased our iCloud space to 50GB.  I copied the photos from the portable drive to iCloud but now, I do NOT know how to tell Photos to start using the folder that is on the iCloud Drive.  Any and all help is appreciated.

Posted on Sep 27, 2016 3:32 PM

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Q: Want to Use the iCloud Drive for Photos

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  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Sep 27, 2016 3:38 PM in response to MD_Gene
    Level 9 (50,876 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 27, 2016 3:38 PM in response to MD_Gene

    It won't, put them into the library and (optionally) upload it to the iCloud Photo Library

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Sep 27, 2016 8:22 PM in response to MD_Gene
    Level 10 (85,113 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 27, 2016 8:22 PM in response to MD_Gene

    Your Photos library can not be on iCLoud Drive - it must be on a local disk formatted Mac OS extended (journaled)

     

    What exactly are you trying to accomplish?

     

    LN

  • by MD_Gene,

    MD_Gene MD_Gene Sep 28, 2016 5:15 AM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 28, 2016 5:15 AM in response to LarryHN

    I am hoping to have the photos accessible yet be in a safe place.  Using the iCloud Drive would accomplish that.  Thanks for your help.

  • by léonie,Apple recommended

    léonie léonie Sep 28, 2016 5:45 AM in response to MD_Gene
    Level 10 (107,942 points)
    iCloud
    Sep 28, 2016 5:45 AM in response to MD_Gene

    As Larry said, the Photos Library cannot be on iCloud Drive. Apple said so here:

        Updating from iPhoto to Photos for OS X - Apple Support

     If you store your Photos library in a location that's part of a cloud service (for example, Dropbox, Box, or Google Drive), your library might be damaged by the syncing process. As a result, you could lose photos.

    To see your photos on all your devices, you can use iCloud Photo Library. To back up your library, you can use Time Machine.

    If you want the photos in iCloud, let iCloud Photo Library upload the photos  to iCloud.

     

    • Put the library back onto your external drive and double click it to open in Photos.
    • Then enable iCloud Photo Library in the Photos Preferences > iCloud, but do not enable "Optimize Storage". (https://help.apple.com/photos/mac/1.2/?lang=en#/phtf5e48489c)
    • Let the library upload.
    • Then create a new, empty library Photo Library on your system drive (https://help.apple.com/photos/mac/1.2/?lang=en#/pht6d60b524) and enable this library as your iCloud Photo Library, this time with "Optimize Storage". The full resolution image originals will not download to this new library, only optimized smaller versions.

    Now you have a full backup of the library on your external drive, a full copy in iCloud with all original files, and a smaller, optimized version on your system drive to access the library in iCloud.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Sep 28, 2016 6:53 AM in response to MD_Gene
    Level 10 (85,113 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 28, 2016 6:53 AM in response to MD_Gene

    So iCloud Photo Library is probably the correct choice - it is not a backup but a sync service and keeps all connected devices identical - any change (addition, deletion or edit) made anyplace is made everyplace and you can access via any connected device or via iCloud.com

     

    LN