Force Photos.app to download originals to Mac

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Level 1

11 points

Force Photos.app to download originals to Mac

I've got a MASSIVE Photos Library stored in iCloud. All of my photos and videos add up to about 1.8TB. For years I've had the Photos.app on my iMac set to "Optimize Mac Storage" because my internal HD on my iMac wasn't large enough to store all that data.

I finally got around to moving my Photos Library.photoslibrary to an external HD with plenty of storage, and I've now changed the Photos.app configuration to instead "Download originals to this Mac", but nearly 24 hours later the size of my Photo Library on my external HD is still the exact same size as it was when I copied it to that new location (about 398GB). I've also ensured that the new copy of the Photo Library on my external HD is configured as the new default System Photo Library.

Is there any way to force the Photos.app to begin downloading all of the originals (other than creating a new empty Photos Library and then turning on iCloud syncing).

Any suggestions? Thanks!

Posted on Feb 11, 2022 3:41 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

TonyCollinet

Level 7

23,909 points

Feb 11, 2022 6:03 AM in response to TonyCollinet

Also make sure your external drive is formatted correctly for a photos library:

It must be formatted APFS or MacOS extended (journaled) (preferred for spinning drives). Not case sensitive. If you have not formatted it after purchase it will most likely be ExFat - which is not compatible.

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

It must have the 'ignore ownership" checkbox ticked.

It must be directly connected (No ethernet or wifi)

See

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

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Answer 2

Feb 11, 2022 6:02 AM in response to m021478

Hi

The best way is to sync iCloud to a new empty library:

1 - Create a new EMPTY library on your external (but also see next reply). (Hold down the option key while starting photos, and click "create new". Name it something that is easy to recognise).

2 - Open the new empty library in photos. (it should open after you click "create new" but if not, use the option key start again, and select the new library from the list.)

3 - In photos preferences set it to the system library (click the circled button)

4 - In photos preferences iCloud - turn iCloud on with download originals.

5 - Wait - for photos to download all your images from iCloud into your freshly minted library. It may take some time - possibly days. Leave the mac on with photos open and sleep disabled while it is doing it.

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

197,195 points

Feb 11, 2022 8:33 AM in response to m021478

When you move the existing library to a different drive and make the copy your iCloud Photos Library, Phots will first have to sync this copy with the library in iCloud. Photos will upload all 400GB of your library to iCloud and merge it into the existing library. That may take more than a week and is a waste of time, unless you are having many projects, that you want to save.

Tony's suggestion to start over with a new, empty library will be quicker, because you will avoid the lengthy new upload to iCloud. Your projects will be missing, and some of the manually added faces may be missing, however, so I would keep the copy of the library to save the projects.

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Answer 4

m021478 Author

Level 1

11 points

Feb 11, 2022 9:36 AM in response to TonyCollinet

Some excellent tips here! I was completely unaware of all of the requisites for using an external drive that you pointed out, but fortunately for me, my external drive happened to meet each and every one of them! And as léonie pointed out, I guess it was just a matter of time before Photos finished syncing the newly copied library with iCloud, at which point it would then start pulling the high-res files from the cloud to store on my external (local) HD... which it just now has! I left the house for a few hours and let it do it's thing and upon returning home I discovered the size of my Photos Library is now 621GB. Thank God for Verizon Fios 1GB upload/download speeds!

Forgive my impatience. I guess I just needed to wait a while and let it do its thing. Thanks for the info you shared though! I have a strange feeling that'll come in handy one day down the road.

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Force Photos.app to download originals to Mac

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