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User profile for user: 4flutterby
4flutterby Author
User level: Level 1
15 points

How do I know which images are the full resolution images downloaded to Photos from iCloud?

I am trying to free up space in my iCloud. I thought working with iCloud would be much simpler than it is. There doesn't seem to be an easy way to bulk download or download to an external hard drive and now my computer memory is full from the downloads coming from the cloud. The only problem is that it still has 27,756 originals to download and I can't figure out which photos in Photos are the full size originals and which are the reduced files sizes to know which I can move to an external hard drive. This really is a pain in the ***. Trying to download from iCloud is SLOW AS MOLASSES so I just figured I would move from computer to external but as I said, I can't figure out which are the originals and which are the reduced file sizes.

Posted on Jul 30, 2021 5:53 PM

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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
195,141 points

Posted on Jul 31, 2021 5:58 AM

How are you downloading the photos from iCloud? Are you using the Photos.app on a Mac or iCloud for Windows?


If you are using a Mac, you have two options:

  • Save the iCloud Photos as a new Photos Library, without "optimise Storage: the easiest way to download your Photos from iCloud to save them on an external volume would be to create a new, empty Photos Library on your external volume. Make this library your System Photos Library and let it sync with iCloud. Keep "Optimize Mac Storage" turned off, so all originals will download from iCloud. This may take several days, just wait and don't interrupt the download. Once Photos has downloaded all files from iCloud, you can switch iCloud Photos back to your library on the internal volume and then start to delete selected photos from the internal library. This will delete them from iCloud as well, as the internal library is syncing again with iCloud..
  • Save only the originals by exporting them: Select large batches of photos in your library and use "File > Export> Export unmodified original" and select a folder on your external drive as the destination for the export. This way you will save the original image files, but not the library organisation. It will be faster than downloading the complete library as a library from iCloud.
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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
195,141 points

Jul 31, 2021 5:58 AM in response to 4flutterby

How are you downloading the photos from iCloud? Are you using the Photos.app on a Mac or iCloud for Windows?


If you are using a Mac, you have two options:

  • Save the iCloud Photos as a new Photos Library, without "optimise Storage: the easiest way to download your Photos from iCloud to save them on an external volume would be to create a new, empty Photos Library on your external volume. Make this library your System Photos Library and let it sync with iCloud. Keep "Optimize Mac Storage" turned off, so all originals will download from iCloud. This may take several days, just wait and don't interrupt the download. Once Photos has downloaded all files from iCloud, you can switch iCloud Photos back to your library on the internal volume and then start to delete selected photos from the internal library. This will delete them from iCloud as well, as the internal library is syncing again with iCloud..
  • Save only the originals by exporting them: Select large batches of photos in your library and use "File > Export> Export unmodified original" and select a folder on your external drive as the destination for the export. This way you will save the original image files, but not the library organisation. It will be faster than downloading the complete library as a library from iCloud.
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User profile for user: tygb
tygb
User level: Level 9
64,604 points

Jul 30, 2021 10:56 PM in response to 4flutterby

See the articlesUpgrade or downgrade your iCloud storage - Apple Support

Manage your iCloud storage - Apple Support

Save space on your MacBook Air - Apple Support

How to free up storage space on your Mac - Apple Support

Find and delete files on your Mac - Apple Support

Photos can’t be transferred directly from iCloud to an external hard drive for that you need to set up iCloud photo library see the article Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Supporthttps://support.apple.com › en-in

And its preferences Change preferences in Photos on Mac - Apple Supporthttps://support.apple.com › en-in › guide › photos › mac  open finder > Go > home > your user name > pictures either drag and drop Photos Library.photoslibrary to an external hard drive , the second method is right click on Photos Library.photoslibrary and click on show package contents in the upcoming column , you can also drag and drop complete masters folder to an external hard drive that is connected .

Also as per the article Back up the library in Photos on Mac - Apple Supporthttps://support.apple.com › en-in › guide › photos › mac

Manually copy your library to an external storage device: Drag the Photos library (by default in the Pictures folder on your Mac) to your storage device to create a copy.See this article also

Photos library - Move your Library to an external storage device


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User profile for user: 4flutterby
4flutterby Author
User level: Level 1
15 points

Jul 31, 2021 12:30 PM in response to tygb

Thank you... initially I copied my Photos album library to the external hard drive and the number of photos started to decrease. (not sure why) So I just created an empty Photos on the external as you suggested. Would you mind telling me the sync settings? Maybe a screen shot so I make sure I do this appropriately so as not to mess this up?

And should I change the settings for my iPad or iPhone?

Just to be clear, when I open Apps on this Mac using iCloud... Photos is turned off and when I click on Photos the option I get is "if you want to stop using iCloud photos and recover iCloud storage, you can disable it on all your devices. You have 30 days to download your photos and videos in the Photos app." and then it has the Turn Off and Delete option.


The option I cannot find is the one that says it will download all full resolution images to the Photos library.

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How do I know which images are the full resolution images downloaded to Photos from iCloud?

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