What happens to a photo in icloud that I also imported from my iphone to mac

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Level 1

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What happens to a photo in icloud that I also imported from my iphone to mac

I have a large photo library on my mac and did not have it backing up all photos on icloud as my plan wasnt large enough. I did backup my shared albums.

My iphone does backup to icloud and optimize photos.

I have been manually importing my photos from my iphone to my Mac. On my Mac i will do any photo edits and renaming/tagging so they are the versions i want to keep.

Now I want to upgrade my icloud plan and have all of my photos library backed up into icloud.

What will happen to the photos that were taken on the phone and manually imported? Will they be duplicated in icloud or will icloud recognize them? If icloud recognizes them which version do they select to save? the phone or mac version?

Since its a huge library, I am uncomfortable just turning it on and potentially losing all the work done on the mac.

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Nov 29, 2020 4:16 PM

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Answer 1

chuck_3rd

Community Specialist

Dec 7, 2020 7:01 PM in response to innovator123

Thank you for the reply innovator123,

If your Mac wasn't synced previously to iCloud Photos and you turn on iCloud Photos, photos from the Photos app in your Mac would then be synced. If you do have duplicate photos, the best way to remove duplicates is manually within the Photos app. You may find some third-party apps which claim to remove the duplicates. These apps can damage your Photos Library or delete photos you want to keep. You can read more here: Using third-party apps to remove duplicate photos might damage your Photos for macOS library

Have a great day!

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Answer 2

ManJor

Community Specialist

Dec 7, 2020 7:15 AM in response to innovator123

Hey there innovator123,

Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities. We understand that you have manually moved and edited photos from your iPhone to your Mac. We're happy to provide some assistance.

Are these photos still on your iPhone as well if they were manually moved to your Mac?

We recommend checking out this helpful article on how iCloud Photos works:

Set up and use iCloud Photos

If you do have duplicates, you can delete photos you no longer want:

Delete photos on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

We hope this helps.

Have a great day!

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Answer 3

innovator123 Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 7, 2020 4:56 PM in response to ManJor

Hi,

Thanks for replying, but the documentation doesnt deal with the question I am trying to solve. Let me try to explain.

My iphone has been connected to ICloud and so all the photos on my phone are present in the cloud.

I also have been adding photos from my phone to my Photos library on my Macbook Pro. My Macbook does NOT sync with iCloud. So I have the same photo in both places, except often I edit the photo on the Macbook which makes that the version I want to keep.

Now I have upgraded my iCloud plan and want to sync my Macbook and the complete library.

What will happen?

Will I have duplicates in the cloud or will it recognize they are the same photo and only keep one? If it keeps one, how does it choose between the phone and Macbook version?

That is my question.

I have over 30,000 photos in my macbook photos library and 12,000 on my phone. The numbers are too big to selectively delete. and i doubt i will remember which ones i edited/cropped

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Answer 4

innovator123 Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 7, 2020 8:36 PM in response to chuck_3rd

Hi, thanks,

I am still unclear. If the photo is synced from the Mac to iCloud and the original photo is already in Icloud from the phone, will icloud recognize they are the same photo or will there be 2 photos in icloud. If it recognizes, which one will it save, the phone or mac version?

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Answer 5

chuck_3rd

Community Specialist

Dec 7, 2020 7:01 PM in response to innovator123

Thank you for the reply innovator123,

If your Mac wasn't synced previously to iCloud Photos and you turn on iCloud Photos, photos from the Photos app in your Mac would then be synced. If you do have duplicate photos, the best way to remove duplicates is manually within the Photos app. You may find some third-party apps which claim to remove the duplicates. These apps can damage your Photos Library or delete photos you want to keep. You can read more here: Using third-party apps to remove duplicate photos might damage your Photos for macOS library

Have a great day!

Reply

What happens to a photo in icloud that I also imported from my iphone to mac

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