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Level 1

39 points

Selectively copy photos to iCloud

I have a Mac mini and an iPad and use iCloud Photos, which means - everything I add to Photos app will be uploaded and become available on all devices. So far so good. But when you look at other Apple apps - Notes, Reminders, Contacts - the sidebar of these apps is divided into "iCloud" and "On My Mac". You can selectively decide, which items to keep on the device and which to put on iCloud.

Why does Photos not allow the same flexibility? It seems to be an all-or-nothing decision: Either copy everything imported to iCloud, or don't.

I want to know if there is a middle way that I might have overlooked. I would like to use Photos to manage some photos on the Mac, but without uploading them to iCloud. At the same time, I want the photos I take on the iPad to be always uploaded and available on the Mac as well. I also want to be able to selectively upload photos from the Mac.

Is this possible?

The screenshots show my Photos settings on the Mac:

Posted on Jul 30, 2019 6:54 AM

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

197,111 points

Posted on Jul 30, 2019 9:02 AM

You can have several Photos Libraries. Only one of your Photos Library can sync with iCloud at a time.

I am keeping a smaller Photos Library with the photos and videos, that I want to have on all devices as my iCloud Photos Library, and a large Photos Library with all my photos on an external drive.

That is working rather well. Only my favorites and the photos and videos I am currently working on are in iCloud, so I do not even need to use Optimize Storage. The archive with all photos is regularly cloned to a backup drive.

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Selectively copy photos to iCloud

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