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User profile for user: gchamaa
gchamaa Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

How do I sync my iCloud photos to my photos library that is on my external usb drive?

My photos library is 250 Gigs and growing.

My Macbook Pro hard drive is only 500 gigs so I ran out of space for the pictures.


I have already moved my PhotosLibrary over to my USB drive.

I have already opened my Photos App and selected that library and made it my System library.

So far so good. All works.


But when i go to the iCloud tab in the Preferences in the Photos App, and select

"iCloud Photos -> Download originals to this mac", I get the following message:


"Your full-resolution photos and videos stored in iCloud may not fit on this Mac."

"Optimize Storage" (button)



My USB external drive is not used for my Time Machine Backup,

My USB Drive IS formatted as Mac Os (extended) Journaled.


I don't want to optimize storage.

I want the originals on my external drive.

And I want my Photo library that is on my external drive to accept syncing with iCloud.


Please help me figure out what I missed. Thank you

Posted on May 19, 2022 10:03 AM

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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
197,089 points

Posted on May 19, 2022 10:29 AM

Sorry, the screenshot you posted is not visible.


You may want to check, if your Mac is really viewing the Photos Library on your external USB drive, when you try to enable iCloud Photos and "Download Originals".

You can see, which library is currently selected as your system Photos Library, when you launch Photos and open the Photos > Preferences > General. At the top of this panel the path to your Photos Library is shown. Is it pointing to the library on your external USB drive?


The error message ""Your full-resolution photos and videos stored in iCloud may not fit on this Mac."

"Optimize Storage" (button)" may appear, if there is not enough free storage on your external volume to hold all photos currently in iCloud in addition to the photos in the library you want to upload to iCloud. Photos is estimating the storage required based on the worst case assumption that all photos in your library are different from the photos already in iCloud. If you move a library and want to enable iCloud Photos again, you will need twice the storage - the size of the library you want to upload plus the size of the library in iCloud.

You have three options -

  1. Start the syncing of the moved library with "Optimize Storage" and turn it off again, once Photos has merged the library into the existing iCloud Photos Library.
  2. If you are very sure, that all your photos are already in iCloud, you could delete the moved library, create a new empty library, then make the empty library your System Photos Library, enable iCloud Photos for the empty library and wait for the photos to download from iCloud to the new library. This will be much faster than uploading and merging the existing library into iCloud Photos, and you will not need twice the storage to enable "download originals".
  3. Or use an USB drive with twice the storage. In the long run you will need it anyway, as you keep taking pictures. And if you ever need to repair the library or upgrade to a new system version, it will be better to have plenty of free storage on the volume with your library. I am always keeping enough storage free to hold a copy of the library.


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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
197,089 points

May 19, 2022 10:29 AM in response to gchamaa

Sorry, the screenshot you posted is not visible.


You may want to check, if your Mac is really viewing the Photos Library on your external USB drive, when you try to enable iCloud Photos and "Download Originals".

You can see, which library is currently selected as your system Photos Library, when you launch Photos and open the Photos > Preferences > General. At the top of this panel the path to your Photos Library is shown. Is it pointing to the library on your external USB drive?


The error message ""Your full-resolution photos and videos stored in iCloud may not fit on this Mac."

"Optimize Storage" (button)" may appear, if there is not enough free storage on your external volume to hold all photos currently in iCloud in addition to the photos in the library you want to upload to iCloud. Photos is estimating the storage required based on the worst case assumption that all photos in your library are different from the photos already in iCloud. If you move a library and want to enable iCloud Photos again, you will need twice the storage - the size of the library you want to upload plus the size of the library in iCloud.

You have three options -

  1. Start the syncing of the moved library with "Optimize Storage" and turn it off again, once Photos has merged the library into the existing iCloud Photos Library.
  2. If you are very sure, that all your photos are already in iCloud, you could delete the moved library, create a new empty library, then make the empty library your System Photos Library, enable iCloud Photos for the empty library and wait for the photos to download from iCloud to the new library. This will be much faster than uploading and merging the existing library into iCloud Photos, and you will not need twice the storage to enable "download originals".
  3. Or use an USB drive with twice the storage. In the long run you will need it anyway, as you keep taking pictures. And if you ever need to repair the library or upgrade to a new system version, it will be better to have plenty of free storage on the volume with your library. I am always keeping enough storage free to hold a copy of the library.


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User profile for user: gchamaa
gchamaa Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

May 19, 2022 2:32 PM in response to léonie

@léonie Thank you very much for an excellent response and set of solutions to this problem. I had looked everywhere for an answer and did not find anything that said that I needed to have that amount of space equal to the photolibrary plus the amount on icloud. And you also explained the reason why, which made sense.


That said, I actually did have an extra empty 267 gigs on my USB drive but apparently that was not enough. So i deleted an extra 50 gigs. And as soon as I did that, i tried syncing and I was able to get through the flow and it allowed me to choose "Download images to my mac" which points to my external drive. After doing this, Photos is saying that it is "updating" and it has been doing this for the last few hours. My guess is that it is re-syncing the entire 250 gigs which should take a whole day at least. But I am optimistic that when this is done, that all future syncing will be just as fast as previous syncs.


I will update this thread when that is done and confirm that everything is working.


Thank you again for an AMAZING response!!!

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User profile for user: TonyCollinet
TonyCollinet
User level: Level 7
23,909 points

May 19, 2022 2:54 PM in response to gchamaa

Hi


Yes it will be doing a full resync of the whole library. Always a consequence of moving a library, switching libraries, or even just turning iCloud off then on again.


And it will probably take much longer than a day. Syncing photos to iCloud is slow. For reference, my 5000 item 50GB took 48 hours full time, and yours is 5 times the size of that.


Leave your mac on with the photos app open, and sleep disabled 24/7 until it completes. Status can be checked at the bottom of the all photos view, but it is normal for the status not to change for long periods of time.

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User profile for user: gchamaa
gchamaa Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

May 22, 2022 8:50 AM in response to léonie

Updating this thread 3 days later.


It took about 2.5 days for icloud to sync with my photos library that is now on my external usb drive. My Photos app showed the message "Uploading 34,000 photos and videos". It was about 250 gigs. After it was done. I took new pictures with my phone and it updated immediately. Therefore, the problem is solved. The solution that you suggested was perfect. Thanks again.


The main take away is:


Photos is estimating the storage required based on the worst case assumption that all photos in your library are different from the photos already in iCloud. If you move a library and want to enable iCloud Photos again, you will need twice the storage - the size of the library you want to upload plus the size of the library in iCloud.


Thanks again for that important piece of information.

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How do I sync my iCloud photos to my photos library that is on my external usb drive?

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