Download Originals to this Mac - not full res

I think you have "optimise mac storage" selected.

That will only keep full size originals in iCloud. Only previews and thumbnails on the mac. Originals are downloaded when needed (eg for export or editing).

If you want originals on the mac, you need to disable optimise storage. You'll need enough free space on your mac for the full library, PLUS plenty to keep the system running.

Hello Mac-Donald,

Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities. We see you're having some issues downloading full resolution photos from iCloud Photos, and we'd like to help. We also see you came from the article: Set up and use iCloud Photos

From here, we'd recommend updating your Mac: Update macOS on Mac

Also, if you haven't already, try the steps in the following link: Get help with iCloud Photos

Take care.

James, Photos 5 on Catalina is really dragging its feet about downloading originals. Once you use a photos and force a download, the original will stay, but we can never be sure, that all photos have been downloaded, unless we systematically use all photos to force the download. I forced the download by exporting all originals to a folder on an external volume, in small batches, by using a smart album based on a date range.

OK

If you do move to an external volume, follow the instructions in the link below, paying particular attention to the drive format:

It must be formatted APFS or MacOS extended (journaled) (preferred for spinning drives) and not case sensitive.

It Must not be (or have been) used for time machine. (A time machine drive can be used if re-formatted)

It must be able to have the 'ignore ownership" checkbox ticked.

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.

It must also not be a network drive (a direct connection is required - eg USB or Thunderbolt). File sharing services such as iCloud Drive, Drop box, Onedrive etc are not compatible with Photos libraries.

See

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

Mac-Donald wrote:

Léonie, that is correct that once you open a photo which forces it to download, it will stay downloaded, and as you imply, exporting ~20k originals to something external is less than enjoyable.

Thank you for your help.

James

James, yes, it is a lot of work to export the originals, but I would do it anyway. We only need to do it once, and then only export the new imports. It has always been a good practice to keep a separate backup of all originals right after importing them. I would not feel safe without it. Over the years the originals in the library can get corrupted by transmission errors, when moving them between iCloud and the Mac or moving them between drives. Or a drive can slowly start failing. This will result in ugly JPEG corruption or unreadable files. We may not notice for many years that a file has become corrupted, because we are mostly seeing the previews. Photos is rarely showing us the originals at all. Only, when we want to share or edit a photo will we see, if an original has become damaged. And then the first, uncorrupted original version may no longer be saved in our Time Machine backup and we are left with the damaged file. Over the years I had to recover roughly a hundred image files from very old backups, going back to backups as far as 2002.

And Catalina changed the rules and Photos 5 is the first Apple Photo application, to even no longer store the originals exactly as imported. The original image files are hard to track down by their original filename in a Photos 5 library. We need to be able to run Photos, if we want to restore a file from a Photos Library. If we cannot run Photos because of system trouble, or the library has become damaged or Photos cannot open it for other reasons, it is very hard to find a particular image in the library package without the help of Photos. It is much safer to have a backup of our originals as well, created directly after importing the photos.

See: How Photos 5.0 on Catalina Manages original Files and Filenames