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I have an older Macbook 10.13.6. It has optimized storage enabled, iCloud is enabled on my Macbook, iPhone and iPad. But I'm unclear why my iCloud Photos take up 80GB of space but my Macbook Photos Library only shows 26GB of space. It seems like all my photos aren't in my Photos Library.
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.13
iCloud Photos syncs photos from all connected devices, in this case your Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Your iCloud photos library will be all cumulated photos from all devices with iCloud Photos enabled. iCloud Photos are not stored locally on your Mac.
Hope this helps!
iCloud Photos syncs photos from all connected devices, in this case your Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Your iCloud photos library will be all cumulated photos from all devices with iCloud Photos enabled. iCloud Photos are not stored locally on your Mac.
Hope this helps!
You say you have "optimized storage enabled." Photos optimizes storage by keeping only smaller, screen sized images on your local hard drive, so they take up less space. When you choose "Edit" or "Print," the full sized images are quickly downloaded from iCloud-- usually so quickly that you can't tell that they weren't already there. It will keep full sized pictures on the Mac until space becomes limited and it needs the room.
iCloud is a syncing service-- it keeps all the same pictures on your Mac, your iPhone, and your iPad. If you take a picture on your phone, it is uploaded to iCloud and then downloaded to the Mac and iPad. If you delete a picture on your Mac, it is deleted on the other devices, too.
The Mac also keeps some extra files, like thumbnails and such, to speed things up.
Why more GB used on iCloud Photos than on local Macbook Photos library
