Random Photos screensaver on brand new Mac

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Level 1

16 points

Random Photos screensaver on brand new Mac

Brand new Mac desktop, Apple M1 chip, 16GB, OS Monterey, 12.2.1

Got Mac home, signed into iCloud, set Screensaver to Photos, random. Same photos keep reappearing while others (for example, entire vacations) NEVER show up.

I read somewhere that the screensaver only gets photos downloaded onto the computer, not off of iCloud. However, the computer is brand new and all I’ve done is sign into iCloud, there are no photos downloaded onto the computer.

So how is it getting the photos that do show up?

And if I do need to download photos from iCloud, how do I do that?

Thank you

iMac 24″, macOS 12.2

Posted on Apr 16, 2022 4:30 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

TonyCollinet

Level 7

23,861 points

Apr 16, 2022 4:41 AM in response to Luisco

Hi

Any photos you have viewed full size, exported, or edited will have been downloaded from iCloud.

Best way to force a download is to select the ones you want to download, and do file>export. Then export them to a folder. Bear in mind that after a while they may be removed again by the optimise process. (I'm assuming you have optimise mac storage set). You may want instead to set your sceensaver to the folder of exported images.

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Answer 2

Apr 16, 2022 8:41 AM in response to Luisco

Hi

Do you have optimised mac storage set in your icloud settings.

If so, then you presumably don't want to download all images because the only reason for picking that setting is because you don't have enough space for all of them.

If you don't have that setting (and instead of "download originals to this mac", then all your images will already be downloaded to the mac (or be in the process of downloading). So what does your preferences icloud pane look like?

Here is mine

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Answer 3

Luisco Author

Level 1

16 points

Apr 16, 2022 8:53 AM in response to TonyCollinet

Thank you, I really appreciate your help. I don't think I need to be too concerned about space on Mac. It's new and I'm retired. I mostly have the computer for email, internet, etc. Not storing much on it I think.

So if I understand you correctly, I can just change the setting to "Download originals to this Mac" and they'll all be on my computer. Where?

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Answer 4

Luisco Author

Level 1

16 points

Apr 16, 2022 5:05 AM in response to TonyCollinet

Thank you Tony. I have almost 17,000 photos. When I try to export all of them I'm given two choices, "export 16, 989 items" or "export unmodified original for 16, 989 items".

If the "unmodified originals" are the ones that have Not already been downloaded then that second option seems the best.

Am I understanding the correctly?

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Answer 5

Apr 16, 2022 9:18 AM in response to Luisco

If you download originals, they'll be on your computer in the photos library, and viewable/editable/manageable in the photos app, just as they are now, but with the masters stored locally as well as in iCloud.

That looks like you only have around 10 to 20GB of photos in iCloud (the yellow section - you can check by hovering your mouse pointer over it). Just to be sure have a quick check of how much free space you have on your system drive (select it in finder, and hit CMD-i)

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Answer 6

Luisco Author

Level 1

16 points

Apr 21, 2022 10:10 AM in response to TonyCollinet

Hello again Tony. I unmarked “Optimise Mac Storage” on both screenshots I sent a few days ago. Photos app started downloading about 1,000 “original” photos, much less than the 17,000 photos I have on iCloud. I’ve noticed now that on the screensaver I get more pics than I used to but still a very reduced number that gets repeated all the time.

I haven’t seen any that I’ve taken with my iPhone in the last 2 or 3 years. Do you have any idea? Do I need to somehow download them from my phone? Thank you.

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Answer 7

Apr 21, 2022 4:43 PM in response to Luisco

Hi

What is the sync status saying at the bottom of the all photos view?

Is it possible your recent iPhone pictures are in HEIC format? Some websites/apps, cannot work with HEIC images. What happens if you force a download of a recent phone image by exporting it - does it then appear?

No, don't download from your phone. Mixing USB transfer with iCloud is a recipie for getting lots of duplicates.

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Random Photos screensaver on brand new Mac

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