Best way to upload thousands of photos to iCloud from local storage

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Level 1

62 points

Best way to upload thousands of photos to iCloud from local storage

Just bought a ton of iCloud storage and all the photos currently in my iPhone camera roll have gone up to the iCloud.

I am now working on importing thousands of pix from Lightroom.

I just dragged my first batch pf photos into the the desktop Photos app on my MacBookPro. These photos have not uploaded to iCloud, and as a result are not showing up on my other computers or on my iPhone.

How do I add photos to Photos/iCloud so they only upload to iCloud and do not stay locally stored?

Posted on May 11, 2021 9:49 AM

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Answer 1

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TonyCollinet

Level 7

23,861 points

May 11, 2021 10:23 AM in response to nueve_leon

HI

iCloud is a sync service, not a backup service. The entire library is stored on iCloud, and synced to all connected devices. So all stored locally as well as in iCloud.

If photos are not uploading, check the library you are using is set as the system library, and that iCloud is setup correctly (See screenshots - both from photos preferences)

If you want to reduce the space taken by the library on one or more of your devices, then you can enable Optimise Mac/Phone/Ipad storage on those devices. Then full size originals will not be stored on that device - only much smaller previews and thumbnails, dramatically reducing the space required.

It is recommended though that you keep one full library on at least one computer (even if on a connected external drive), so that you can create a backup from this.

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Best way to upload thousands of photos to iCloud from local storage

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