Stopping Photos from uploading to iCloud

Question

Stopping Photos from uploading to iCloud

Apparently Photos on my Desktop Mac is uploading all my pics to iCloud and I really don't need that because iCloud is now full and I don't really want to increase storage space, I want to delete the pics. So I go to Photos settings on my Mac and turn off iCloud Photos and I get a dialogue box that says

Do you want to download a copy of your iCloud Photos to this Mac?

If you don’t download a copy, photos and videos that have not been fully downloaded will be removed from this Mac. These items will still be available on other devices using iCloud.

Why does it want to download a copy of 3,500+ photos when I thought they were on my computer to begin with? I want them deleted in iCloud and not backed up there. I just want my photos on my desktop.

Can anyone help me with this please?

If I download them, will there be 3,500 duplicates or ?"??? Beyond confusing.

Mac Studio, macOS 13.5

Posted on Jan 15, 2024 9:43 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Richard.Taylor

Level 6

18,229 points

Jan 15, 2024 11:10 AM in response to Chris Winkler1

Many people use the choice, under Photos>Settings>iCloud, to "Optimize Mac Storage." This keeps smaller versions of your pictures on the Mac to save space, but downloads full sized images only when you need them. You can see that if you use the Optimize Storage option but then cancel iCloud, you'd be left with only those smaller versions instead of the originals. Photos is warning you to download the originals before losing the full sized pictures.

If you have always had "Download Originals to this Mac" selected in Photos>Settings>iCloud, then you can cancel iCloud without worrying about losing anything.

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Answer 2

Jan 18, 2024 12:10 PM in response to Chris Winkler1

In the Library window, at the very bottom, Photos tells you what it's doing:

If it says that it's syncing, your ought to wait until it's through. If it says Synced, (and you have "Download Originals" checked) then it's safe to disconnect from iCloud.

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Answer 3

Jan 16, 2024 3:07 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

Following up, I believe I have kept it as download originals as they are all larger files in the 3024 x 4032 size, so you are saying I can delete them in iCloud if don't want them there? its most of my 20MB and I really don't access them via iCloud, they stay on my Mac.

Please advise,

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Answer 4

Jan 18, 2024 2:34 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

I finally found that, it says not enough storage, yet I deleted over 3GB the other day & its back up full.

I did a large sample over time & checked the info & all photos in Photos are high res, large size, so how do I stop syncing with iCloud and how do I delete the photos in iCloud? Thank you for your help.

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Answer 5

Jan 15, 2024 11:44 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thanks, so I checked to download the full size version, about how long doest that take? its not showing any activity.

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Stopping Photos from uploading to iCloud

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