Remove photos from Mac SSD but keep in iCloud

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Level 1

7 points

Remove photos from Mac SSD but keep in iCloud

I've just installed Catalina on my work computer and noticed that it has slowly just filled my drive with all my iCloud photos! Now how do I get them off again without wiping the originals in iCloud? in system prefs under Apple ID I have unchecked Photos and Optimise Mac Storage is ticked. But it's only freed up 150Gb out of the 700Gb it took. And every so often I can see it going down again. I need the space for exporting work from After Effects and its cancelling out my exports saying that there's not enough storage.

Posted on Aug 6, 2021 8:37 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

TonyCollinet

Level 7

23,954 points

Aug 7, 2021 12:41 AM in response to Saimurai

Hi

Do you just want to remove ALL photos off your work Mac? If so, then you can just delete the entire library out of the pictures folder using finder. This won't impact iCloud because only deletions done within the photos app are replicated to iCloud. However turn off iCloud photos in photos preferences anyway just to be safe.

If there are photos in the library you want to keep, then as long as you have turned off iCloud in Photos preferences and system preferences, you can delete within the photos app without the deletions being synced to iCloud.

If you want to feel extra safe about that then take a backup of your library on your personal mac first. You should have a regular backup of that in any case.

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Answer 2

Saimurai Author

Level 1

7 points

Aug 7, 2021 4:42 PM in response to TonyCollinet

Thanks for that, I backed up first on an external just in case, made sure that I'd unchecked photos in the iCloud in sys prefs and that optimise was checked, then went to the app library->show package contents->originals and deleted those. So far its looking good, photos are still on other devices and the space is freed up. Brill job Thanks.

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Answer 3

Aug 8, 2021 1:14 AM in response to Saimurai

You should not go into the library package contents and manually change anything in there. It is not intended for user access - which is why it is hidden by default.

Now that you've deleted the originals, you may as well delete the whole library. It is unlikely to ever work properly, and can only cause confusion in the future. It may also still display thumbnails and previews of your personal photos.

Once deleted, you can create a new empty library for that mac by holding down the option key while starting photos.

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Remove photos from Mac SSD but keep in iCloud

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