Deleting photos from mac, but not icloud

it is not possible to delete photos from your Photos Library and keep them iCloud, because iCloud is syncing the Mac with iCloud. The photos in your local copy of the photos library will always be kept identical to the iCloud Photos Library in iCloud.

To save storage on your Mac, enable "Optimise Mac Storage" in the Photos > Preferences > iCloud. iCloud will remove automatically high resolution originals to free storage, when the Mac is low on storage, and replace it by a smaller, optimised version and keep the high resolution original only in iCloud, but do not delete any photos yourself, that you want to keep. (Use iCloud Photos to store photos in iCloud - Apple Support)

Thank you both for your replies. The best case scenario for me is to have them on iCloud only. I don't ever view them on my laptop at all.

My laptop does have optimized image only. Hi-res is on iCloud, but I have so many images, that even the optimized only is taking up exactly half of my laptop's storage space, and I have zero space left. Since I don't view images on my laptop, I just want that half of my storage space back.

I'm just afraid to wipe anything off of my laptop, and it possibly delete what is on iCloud. I'd like it all to remain on iCloud only.

It will depend on how much storage you can afford for your Photos on your Mac.

Optimise storage is a slow process. Photos will try to keep as many photos locally on your Mac as the space permits, It will slowly remove more and more originals over time, if you are needing storage for other purposes.

If you need to free much storage instantly, you can force the optimisation by deleting your current Photos Library from your Mac (keep a copy of it on an external volume, just in case), then create a new, empty library and let it sync with iCloud. The new library will be initially as small as possible. See: How to force Photos for Mac to Optimise the Storage Immediately

Hi - Your other option is to completely move the library to external storage with the disadvantage that you must have the external storage connected whenever you want to use photos.

The external storage must be connected to your mac (not a network drive) and must be formatted APFS or MacOS extended (journaled), and not be used for time machine. It should not be on a memory stick, SD or similar. It stands to reason that if you want any sort of reasonable performance it should be a fast drive with a fast connection.

See

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201517

I need this exact answer as well please. Did you figure it out?