Photo Library on Mac
How do I delete my entire Photo Library from my Mac? It's taking up 76GB of space that I want to access.
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.1
Apple Intelligence is now available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac!
How do I delete my entire Photo Library from my Mac? It's taking up 76GB of space that I want to access.
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.1
If you open the Photos app, press CMD key and the comma key this will open the Preferences window. If you click on the General icon it will give you the path to where your library is stored on the laptop.
However, rather than delete the entire library, if you click on the iCloud icon in the Preferences window you can select 'Optimise storage' rather than Download originals. This will allow you to still view your photos on your laptop but will reduce the space used by the library.
If you open the Photos app, press CMD key and the comma key this will open the Preferences window. If you click on the General icon it will give you the path to where your library is stored on the laptop.
However, rather than delete the entire library, if you click on the iCloud icon in the Preferences window you can select 'Optimise storage' rather than Download originals. This will allow you to still view your photos on your laptop but will reduce the space used by the library.
You can simply delete the library using Finder as you would any other file or folder. The library containing your photos is separate from the Photos application. Obviously you will lose all of your photos - presumably you have them backed up in multiple places elsewhere?
Can you please direct me to that? I don't see the library on Finder. It's a new laptop; have iCloud and all photos are there AND my phone -- AND on my laptop, but I'm already getting "storage full" messages since I have 76GB of photos.
You're welcome.
I would strongly recommend that you keep a full back up of your photos somewhere. iCloud Photos should only be thought of as a syncing service not a backup service. There have been a few instances on this forum where a problem has arisen and photos have been deleted on one device which is then instantly synced across all devices and the individual has not been able to recover their photos. Even if you maintain a local backup of your iPhone data this will not include your photos if you have iCloud Photos switched on.
Very helpful. Thank you so much!
Photo Library on Mac