icloud photo library size and photos

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Level 1

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icloud photo library size and photos

I've got an iMac and macbook, both of which are set up in system preferences to download all photos locally and not optimise mac storage in photos. According to icloud system preferences, I am using 82.92G for photos. On my macbook a 'du -sh' of Photos.photolibrary is 44G and on my iMac it's 100G.

my iPhone also reports icloud usage for photos is 82.9G

Why the difference in numbers and which is the "correct" value. For reference, the iMac is the oldest, having migrated from iPhoto, and the macbook has always run Photos. As far as I was aware, all of the applicatoins have access to the same local photo library, or do I need to do something to force the full download on the mac devices?

Thanks for any help.

BTW, both macs are running Mojave

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Jun 10, 2019 2:38 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

197,321 points

Jun 11, 2019 4:39 AM in response to apjimmy

My local copy of the Photos Library is usually one fourth larger in size than the total in iCloud. There are additional thumbnails, faces thumbnails, categories, and folders with caches created by some processes syncing with the library.

You can check this by ctrl-clicking or right-clicking the Photos Library. Use the command "Show Package Contents". Now you will see a new finder window showing you the sub folders of the Photo Library package. Be very careful not to modify anything - just look. The folder "Masters" should have all original image files downloaded from iCloud. All other folders are working copies to store details about the albums and edited versions, the syncing with the cloud or other applications, and to speed up the browsing.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

197,321 points

Jun 10, 2019 8:04 AM in response to apjimmy

Without "Optimize Storage" the library in iCloud should be smaller than the library on your mac, once all photos have been downloaded in full resolution from iCloud.

For example - my library has 192GB in iCloud, but 239GB on both my MacBook Pros.

Are the numbers of photos you are seeing the same on all devices? On your Mac you can see the number of photos and videos at the bottom of the Moments.

And you may want to check the status of the syncing. This is also shown at the bottom of the Moments view. About the status bar in Photos for macOS - Apple Support

If Photos is showing "Updated just now"; it does not mean, that all photos have been downloaded already in the full resolution, just that all edits and metadata have been synced. I found that Photos is a bit slow to download all photos, unless I force the download by viewing the photos enlarged. A whate thumbnail is an indication, that the original image file has not yet been downloaded from iCloud.

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Answer 3

apjimmy Author

Level 1

11 points

Jun 11, 2019 1:21 AM in response to léonie

I suppose I'm wondering why it's larger on the Mac than in iCloud if the photos are the same. I would understand if I edited on the Mac and the original wasn't uploaded with the edited. However, if they are different on other people's systems then I don't need to worry that I have too much locally and not all photos have been uploaded to iCloud which was my main worry. I just want to make sure everything is backed up.

Thanks for your reply.

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icloud photo library size and photos

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