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macbook air storage full due to pictures

hello! So, I've been getting pop up messages on my mac stating that my disc space is almost full, when I checked 51gb of the storage is my photos. I have set up icloud and synced it to all my devices, so I don't know if deleting them off my laptop will remove it off of icloud.


I was thinking to transfer the photos onto an external hard-drive however I'm worried once I do it and delete them off the mac they'll get removed from icloud! I'm not sure what steps I should take!

Posted on Aug 26, 2020 7:34 PM

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Posted on Aug 27, 2020 6:01 PM

You got it right! If you delete the photos on your Mac then they will also be deleted from iCloud and vice versa. iCloud is a synch service and not a separate storage service. I recommend that you transfer the photos to an external drive, as you were planning to do, and then delete all or some of the media on your MacBook Air to create free space. Yes, you will lose those pictures on iCloud as well however you will have them on your external drive for future reference.


Axel F.

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Aug 27, 2020 6:01 PM in response to taranchohan

You got it right! If you delete the photos on your Mac then they will also be deleted from iCloud and vice versa. iCloud is a synch service and not a separate storage service. I recommend that you transfer the photos to an external drive, as you were planning to do, and then delete all or some of the media on your MacBook Air to create free space. Yes, you will lose those pictures on iCloud as well however you will have them on your external drive for future reference.


Axel F.

macbook air storage full due to pictures

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