Duplication of Photos in iCloud, Library & Photos Library

Question

Duplication of Photos in iCloud, Library & Photos Library

One of the issues that I've been trying to get to grips with is the problem of the Mobile Documents folder in my User Library containing all my Photos. These are already stored in my iCloud and therefore in the Photos Library inside the Pictures folder. At 230GB it's fairly substantial but when combined with the same, duplicate files inside the Mobile Documents folder it's using a whopping 460GB of my hard drive... I also have 200GB of Movie files and another 200GB of Music files so this means that 860GB of my 1TB is dedicated to just three folders - and I'm not even able to back-up my Movie & Music folders on iCloud because the duplication of these folders inside the Mobile Documents folder in my User Library would just lead to a veritable brick-wall situation.

When I try to run any intensive virtual software, which uses disk space as virtual memory, i.e. Final Cut Pro or Photoshop or Pro Tools and my poor wee MacBook Pro just sighs and goes on strike.

How on earth can I distribute my files and folders and get back to an onboard hard drive which will run these apps efficiently - especially as this generation of MBPs won't allow the user to increase the capacity of the onboard hard drive?

I've been using Apple Macs exclusively since 1983, so I've learnt to cope with many, many changes over the years but this current system set-up is just frustration personified...

HELP!

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 12.6

Posted on Nov 25, 2022 2:03 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

197,123 points

Nov 25, 2022 9:39 AM in response to robert from marlow

With the Pictures Folder on iCloud you will have a problem, if your Photos Library is in the Pictures folder. The Photos.app on your Mac cannot work with the Photos Library in a synced folder. It will depend on the System Version, what will happen, if you move a Photos Library onto iCloud Drive. Older versions of MacOS X would would upload the library and the syncing would tear the library to shreds. The most recent versions, macOS 12 and 13 will ignore the library on iCloud Drive and not upload the library, there will be a crossed out cloud behind the library on iCloud Drive and the library will remain local.

You should only be seeing photos in the Mobile Documents folder in some cases:

If you stored image files on iCloud Drive, for example your Pictures folder
If you have used apps that are storing the photos in iCloud, either on an iPhone, iPad, or a Mac. Any App using iCloud will have an App Collection folder on iCloud Drive and is shown in Mobile Documents.
When I list the contents of Mobile Documents with the terminal, I can see all App Collection folders, also those created by iPhone and iPad apps. These folders are named with a filename starting with a number. The images from the Photos Library are not shown in Mobile Documents.


leonie@Adminas-MacBook-Pro Mobile Documents % ls

3L68KQB4HG~com~readdle~CommonDocuments
3L68KQB4HG~com~readdle~Scanner
4R6749AYRE~com~pixelmatorteam~pixelmator
4TNB35NY7G~info~stichling~myTracks
6LVTQB9699~com~seriflabs~affinitydesigner
82J93X7T25~com~apple~mobileiphoto
AP637KM5A4~UBI~088~WW
C7HPP7U8L7~com~taptaptap~CameraPlus
DPA6233TPQ~com~macphun~colorsplashstudio
DPA6233TPQ~com~macphun~fxphotostudiomacpro
DPA6233TPQ~com~macphun~intensify
DPA6233TPQ~com~macphun~snapheal
F3LWYJ7GM7~com~apple~garageband10
F3LWYJ7GM7~com~apple~mobilegarageband
F3LWYJ7GM7~com~apple~musicmemos~ideas
F6266T9T75~com~apple~iMovie
L6879ADFWX~com~newsbar-app
U97D34BCNV~com~phunkware~WritePad
WNF26QR38H~com~kruegersystems~calca~ios
X6B29J8D22~com~savysoda~documents
com~apple~Automator
com~apple~CloudDocs
com~apple~Keynote
com~apple~Notes
com~apple~Numbers
com~apple~Pages
com~apple~Preview
com~apple~QuickTimePlayerX
com~apple~SafariShared~History
com~apple~ScriptEditor2
com~apple~TextEdit
com~apple~TextInput
com~apple~finder
com~apple~iBooks~cloudData
com~apple~iBooks~secureData
com~apple~mail
com~apple~mobilemail
com~apple~shoebox
com~apple~videoapps~cloudcontent~clips
com~apple~videoapps~cloudcontent~clips~private
com~apple~videoapps~cloudcontent~imovieios
com~apple~videoapps~cloudcontent~imovieios~private
iCloud~com~DigiDNA~FileAppCloud
iCloud~com~apple~DocumentsApp
iCloud~com~apple~MobileSMS
iCloud~com~apple~clips
iCloud~com~apple~finderkit~icloudsharing
iCloud~com~apple~iBooks
iCloud~com~apple~iBooks~iTunesU
iCloud~com~apple~itunesu
iCloud~com~apple~messages~icloudsharing
iCloud~com~apple~mobilesafari
iCloud~com~apple~ncplugin~weather
iCloud~com~apple~passd
iCloud~com~apple~shortcuts~runtime
iCloud~com~apple~supportapp
iCloud~com~flixel~cinemagraphpro
iCloud~com~getdropbox~Dropbox
iCloud~com~google~b612
iCloud~com~intelligentipublishing~tipsandtrickslite
iCloud~com~macphun~noiseless
iCloud~com~readdle~Scanner~PDF
iCloud~com~seriflabs~affinityphoto
iCloud~com~seriflabs~affinityshared
iCloud~de~couchfunk~EM
iCloud~is~workflow~my~workflows
iCloud~me~imgbase~intolive
iCloud~me~imgbase~intolivepro

leonie@Adminas-MacBook-Pro Mobile Documents % pwd
~/Library/Mobile Documents

Reply

Answer 2

muguy

Level 10

81,661 points

Nov 25, 2022 9:17 AM in response to robert from marlow

Yes, if you copied your library into iCloud, you'll have created a "duplicate" of the library on your system. I use duplicate loosely as it will be a copy at the time made and not include any changes made since the copy was created.

First, backup your files.

Second, verify that your photo library is where you expect it to be. By default, in the Photos folder in your home directory.

Then, I would delete the pictures you copied into iCloud.

Reply

Answer 3

muguy

Level 10

81,661 points

Nov 25, 2022 4:33 AM in response to robert from marlow

robert from marlow wrote:

One of the issues that I've been trying to get to grips with is the problem of the Mobile Documents folder in my User Library containing all my Photos. These are already stored in my iCloud and therefore in the Photos Library inside the Pictures folder. At 230GB it's fairly substantial but when combined with the same, duplicate files inside the Mobile Documents folder it's using a whopping 460GB of my hard drive...

Have you optimized your photos on your iDevice? Are you backing up the contents of the device to your Mac? My photo library is of similar size but I'm not seeing the duplication in the Mobile Documents folder. I do optimize photos on device and also keep the photos library on an external drive.

I also have 200GB of Movie files and another 200GB of Music files so this means that 860GB of my 1TB is dedicated to just three folders - and I'm not even able to back-up my Movie & Music folders on iCloud because the duplication of these folders inside the Mobile Documents folder in my User Library would just lead to a veritable brick-wall situation.

There should be no duplication in the Mobile Documents folder for anything in iCloud (unless, perhaps, if the items are downloaded onto your device).

Reply

Answer 4

Nov 25, 2022 8:03 AM in response to muguy

Thanks very much for your reply, MuGuy - I've checked and yes, I do optimise the image files on my iPhone. I'm now wondering whether this is all because at some point I put the Pictures folder onto iCloud., So, if it's backing up my Photos folder anyway as part of the OS procedures then it will also duplicate that back-up when it backs-up the Pictures folder and that's why I've got three versions of the same Photo folder... in fact, could there possibly be four identical versions of the Photos folder if there are two on my Hard Drive - one normal, usual Photos folder and one inside the Library/MobileDocuments folder, then there will be two identical duplicates in iCloud. Does that make sense of this nonsense? And therefore the question becomes what should I do to get this waste-of-space down to a manageable level? Delete the Pictures folder from iCloud? Might that work?

Thanks in advance,

Robert

Reply

Answer 5

Nov 27, 2022 12:20 PM in response to léonie

Hi Leonie, many thanks for that comprehensive response... I've gone and done what's been suggested, copying the Photos folder/file from the Mobile Documents folder onto an external drive (as back up JIC!) and then moving that Photos folder/file from the Mobile Documents folder on my MacBookPro Hard Drive to the Bin/Trash, then removing the duplicated Photos folder/file from the Pictures folder on iCloud into the Bin/Trash, restarting and then deleting the Photos folders/files from the Trash... It seems to have worked and I now have full-size, hi-res photos in iCloud and just lo-res copies on the MBP hard drive... size-wise it's hunky-dory... so many thanks for your suggestions - I seem to have recovered a bit of breathing space.

Reply

Answer 6

Nov 27, 2022 12:23 PM in response to muguy

Hi MuGuy,

Many thanks for your insightful response... I've gone and done what's been suggested between you and Leonioe, copying the Photos folder/file from the Mobile Documents folder onto an external drive (as a back-up JIC!) and then moving that Photos folder/file from the Mobile Documents folder on my MacBookPro Hard Drive to the Bin/Trash, then removing the duplicated Photos folder/file from the Pictures folder on iCloud into the Bin/Trash, restarting and then deleting the Photos folders/files from the Trash... It seems to have worked so far and I have full-size, hi-res photos in iCloud and just lo-res copies on the MBP hard drive... size-wise it's all hunky-dory... so many thanks for your suggestions - I seem to have recovered a bit of breathing space.

Reply

Duplication of Photos in iCloud, Library & Photos Library

Similar questions