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MacOS Photos : Not Enough Local Storage

Hi all,

I recently filled the disk of my MacBook Air which made my Photos app display the message 'Not Enough Local Storage' in the app and stopped sync from working. Fair enough.

I've now freed up about 8GB of space on the disk and Photos didn't resume sync after restarting the device. I've also tried removing Photos from my Apple ID in System Preferences and then reenabling it later. This just resulted in the message coming back again.

Has anybody been able to fix this issue?

Thanks

MacBook Air 13", macOS 10.15

Posted on Apr 18, 2020 12:09 AM

Top-ranking reply

BoringStingray Author

Level 1

15 points

Posted on Apr 18, 2020 8:22 PM

Hi léonie,

I did already have enough disk space on my local device but when checking the settings I decided to disable the sync from Photos > Preferences > iCloud and then re-enabled afterwards. This appears to have resolved my issue and is obviously different to where I had previously disabled in my Apple ID.

Thank you for your detailed answer and pointing my in the right direction

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2 replies

Top-ranking reply

BoringStingray Author

Level 1

15 points

Apr 18, 2020 8:22 PM in response to léonie

Hi léonie,

Thank you for your detailed answer and pointing my in the right direction

léonie

Level 10

197,589 points

Apr 18, 2020 12:42 AM in response to BoringStingray

How much free storage do you have on your Mac?

How large is the local Photos Library and how large is the library in iCloud?

For the time being try to enable "Optimise Storage" in the Photos > Preferences > iCloud, if it is not already enabled. That should allow you to download more photos from icloud.

Even with "Optimise Storage" enabled, you will need roughly 25% percent of the storage locally, that the Photos Library is currently using in iCloud. Photos needs to keep the previews, thumbnails, database files locally. Only the high resolution originals can be removed from the local library and stored only in iCloud. 25% is only an estimate, it will depend on the file format and size of the original image files. But the storage you can afford locally for your iPhotos Library limits the size of the library in iCloud. If you can only afford 100 GB for photos locally on your Mac, you should not keep more than 400GB of photos and videos in iCloud Photos.

MacOS Photos : Not Enough Local Storage