New MacOS installation - iCloud settings

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New MacOS installation - iCloud settings

I normally don't have the iCloud Photos setting checked.

I noticed before even opening photos that if I opted to turn this feature off (which I normally do) that when I unticked the option it suggested it would delete >300, then >1000 photos etc - I didn't turn it off in fact, so am I correct that by default Photos app downloads lower quality images/video to begin with, or does it download original quality provided there's enough disk space?

I'm assuming lower quality, but not certain.

As usual these days I find many of the Apple comments somewhat cryptic rather than clear.

Mac mini 2018 or later

Posted on Jun 18, 2022 9:30 AM

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Answer 1

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TonyCollinet

Level 7

24,044 points

Jun 19, 2022 12:05 AM in response to Alley_Cat

HI Alley_Cat

If you run iCloud with "optimise mac storage" selected in the icloud settings, then full size originals can be removed from the mac so that they are only stored in iCloud.

In this case if you turn off iCloud the images will no longer be available on the Mac without downloading them first. This can also be the case if you have recently enabled iCloud, and the system is in the process of syning your local library with the icloud library and there are still items that have not yet been downloaded.

Note - in both cases, the images stored in iCloud will remain safely there.

Do you have space to download all the iCloud images to your mac? If so then do so and you can turn of iCloud without issues.

If not, then you might have to set up a new library on an external drive, and sync that with Icloud, if you want to get the images currently only stored on iCloud to your mac.

However, you say you normally don't use iCloud - so I would also ask the question if the photos not on your mac are ones that you need or not. You can check what is currently in iCloud at www.icloud.com

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Answer 2

Alley_Cat Author

Level 7

20,560 points

Jun 19, 2022 1:55 AM in response to TonyCollinet

Thanks Tony, that's helpful. Unless I missed it during setup I just wish Apple would keep some of these iCloud options off by default rather than assuming you want to use them and starting to download things before you've even started the Photos app.

As I've got many devices I've generally resisted syncing things with iCloud (apart from my main iPhone), partly to keep things separate, partly because the combined media files will take up a lot of space in iCloud.

I think I've just been wary of iCloud for too long preferring to manually control media by transferring images/video to computers/backup destinations using Image Capture or card readers for the DSLR.

It's probably time to utilise the iCloud syncing for the mobile devices as it seems a lot better these days, compared to when I had very poor internet speeds years ago. iCloud Photos also works pretty well in a browser.

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New MacOS installation - iCloud settings

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