If my Mac has iCloud Photos on, and I decide to create a new photo library to store older photos not there yet… then make this second photo library my system library and ensure iCloud Photos is turned on again… will it automatically erase the others?

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FeBR2022 Author

Level 1

4 points

If my Mac has iCloud Photos on, and I decide to create a new photo library to store older photos not there yet… then make this second photo library my system library and ensure iCloud Photos is turned on again… will it automatically erase the others?

hello, please, I am new to Photos and iCloud Photos. Would you provide me with this advice?

I have subscribed to more iCloud space, hoping I can upload a lifetime of photos there.

My mac has only a small HDD.

Therefore I want to create multiple photo libraries (each not so large to consume most of my HDD) and use each of them to sync and upload their set of photos to iCloud , one each a time.

questions: If my Mac has iCloud Photos turned on , and I decide to create this new photo library to store older photos which were not there yet… then I make this second photo library my system library and ensure iCloud Photos is turned on again… will it automatically erase the other photos uploaded from the initial Photo Library (the one made no longer the system library)?

Or will it keep all of them in iCloud as I intended? Will I see all of them on my other devices?

I guess not and I’m afraid will erase from Cloud the photos of the initial Photo Library… which makes challenging to actually have splitted photo libraries.

MacBook Air

Posted on Nov 4, 2022 3:33 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Richard.Taylor

Level 6

10,950 points

Nov 4, 2022 8:32 AM in response to FeBR2022

It will erase all the pictures not in your system library. iCloud Photos syncs with your system library-- it subtracts as well as adds to keep them the same.

One solution might be to keep all your photos in one library, and keep different eras in different albums or folders. If you check "Optimize Mac Storage" in Photos>Preferences, then iCloud will keep the full sized images and store only smaller, screen-sized images on your Mac to same hard drive space.

You might also consider an external hard drive to keep a backup of your stuff.

People here are full of good, free advice. Don't hesitate to ask again!

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Answer 2

FeBR2022 Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 5, 2022 7:47 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thank you so much Richard! Got it! I’m interested on sending more and more pictures to iCloud as a backup of my external disks where they are currently stored (pictures from multiple devices such as cameras, GoPro, etc).

Understood that if I want to do it using iCloud Photos , then I need to keep one single Photo Library which will be my System Library at all times (under the risk of them getting erased if I ever choose another library to become system library and have iCloud Photos turned on).

thanks & regards!

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Answer 3

markwmsn

Level 6

15,677 points

Nov 6, 2022 9:56 PM in response to FeBR2022

Actually, connecting a non-empty local library to a non-empty iCloud library has in my experience always resulted in merging the two. In fact, this was for a long time the cleanest way to merge several local libraries into a single library; it even did a respectable job of handling exact duplicates.

I have to heard that this has changed.

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Answer 4

FeBR2022 Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 7, 2022 4:52 PM in response to markwmsn

Hello @markwmsn!

thank for your input!

merging would only be what I am looking for to avoid an ever growing single local library but still keep all of them in Cloud, if in the new non empty library iCloud does not force downloads of original size pictures and videos (my current photo library already has more than 50 gb!)

I suppose I can make some testing on this.

would you think I will loose access in my other devices of original photos from Mac when I disconnect the original photo library?

thanks.

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Answer 5

markwmsn

Level 6

15,677 points

Nov 7, 2022 9:08 PM in response to FeBR2022

If you need to keep the growth of the local libraries under some control, you can set each to "Optimize Mac Storage" when you enable it in turn for iCloud Photo Library. The preview versions of photos and videos merged in from iCloud will still need to download, but not the full-resolution originals. The usual caveats for storage optimizations apply, of course.

If my Mac has iCloud Photos on, and I decide to create a new photo library to store older photos not there yet… then make this second photo library my system library and ensure iCloud Photos is turned on again… will it automatically erase the others?

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