Photos in iCloud - Remove duplicates

shanzob wrote:

... The hard drive was used for time machine before - however i deleted all the time machine files but did not format it. Why does using a drive that previously a time machine drive cause an issue? Does formatting the drive solve the issue? I might just reformat it anyway and start again.

Volumes with Time Machine Backups are having a special protection. This will cause problems with the file ownership and permissions when Photos is trying to update the Photos Library.

Formatting the drive should solve this problem: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

Which system version is installed on your Mac? iPhoto and Aperture supported image and video formats, that are no longer compatible with Photos 5.0 on Catalina or later.

Such items can make the upload to iCloud hang. Also, if your Aperture Libraries have used referenced files, you should consolidate them into the library.

You may want to look out for status messages below the Library showing items "unable to upload" or "on this Mac only". Such items need to be removed from the library and converted to a more compatible format. Particularly old video codecs can be problematic, or sound files that you imported to Aperture as sound tracks for slideshows. Check the status of your library in Photos for macOS - Apple Support

Leave the mac on 24/7 connected to power, Photos app open and (importantly) with sleep disabled. Proper intenet (no hotspot)

I use the caffeine app to keep the mac awake.

Try that for a couple of days, and see how it is getting on.

Don't be tempted to try to kick it into action by turning iCloud on/off or similar. That will restart the sync from the begining.

The external drive shouldn't cause a problem** - even though they are slow compared with an SSD, they are very much quicker than the sync process.

**as long as it is a corrrect format for a photos library. It needs to be APFS, or MacOS extended - not have been used for time machine, and not networked (no wifi or ethernet). It should also be possible to check the ignore ownership checkbox.

HI

If iCloud is synced with your mac library, then when you remove your images from your mac they are also removed from iCloud. iCloud is a sync service, not a backup service.

So run an appropriate dupliacate remover (see below) and duplicates will be removed from both your mac and iCloud - as long as you've not turned iCloud photos off)

Regarding an app:

Do NOT use a general file duplicate finder not designed to work with the photos library. They will damage your photos library and likely cause loss of your photos.

I personally use PowerPhotos (I also use this for copying images and data between libraries)
https://www.fatcatsoftware.com/powerphotos/


Another suitable app recommended by experts here is PhotoSweeper (I have no personal experience of this one)

https://overmacs.com/

Both are paid apps. PhotoSweeper is the lowest cost and can recognise duplicates based on content, but PowerPhotos provides a lot of functionality in addition to the duplicate detection.

Hi

No, you don't need to do that.

First : if you let the last library sync with iCloud complete, then it already has all the images downloaded. That is what iCloud does. Whatever is in your system library is synced with the cloud- but also the other way: Everything in the cloud is synced with your system library. Have a look in photos - every thing should already be there. If you are using optimise mac storage, then of course the full size originals are only in the cloud. In that case the duplicate removal software can work.

So then what you could do is sync your icloud with a new empty library on your external drive, and have that as the system library with all the photos synced and dowloaded for the de-dup software to work on. If you want to go that way, get back and I can post the steps.

Time machine structures the permissions in a way that is incompatible with....

Never mind - what leonie said below 🙃 (Above now) 🙂