User profile for user: alexjake_
alexjake_ Author
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How does photo app's "Download originals" vs "Optimise Mac" options actually work?

Hi! I have a photo library of 2.3TB stored on my 6TB iCloud account. (Yes.. I know...)

I have a 2019 iMac with 1TB storage. I like having a local copy of all my photos so I have a 6TB drive which I regularly connect for it to sync/download the photos from iCloud which I've predominantly taken on my iPhone. However the external drive workflow is quite slow and annoying to plug in etc.


If I switch to having my system photo library on my iMac's local hard drive, how do the two options "download originals" or "optimise Mac" actually work? (Fully understanding I would compromise on having a full hard copy of all my photos, in lieu of performance & convenience )


  • Optimise Mac: Knowing that my library is at least 1.3TB bigger than my hard drive, if I choose "optimise Mac", will it download only the thumbnails ? Or will it download as many originals as it can until it realises there isn't enough storage?
  • Download Originals: And practically same question for the "download originals" option. Will it download as many originals as it can until it fills my hard drive, or, is it clever enough to work out that I don't have enough space and fail before it even starts to download anything?


Thanks!


iMac 27″

Posted on Apr 10, 2024 7:22 AM

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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
200,777 points

Posted on Apr 10, 2024 7:54 AM

Photos usually will not allow you to enable "Download originals", if there is not enough local storage.

If you can enable "Download originals" it may take a long time for all originals to be stored locally.


When you enable iCloud Photos with "optimize Mac Storage" for an empty Photos Library, initial no originals will be downloaded. As far as I can tell from my experience with Photos, the originals will be downloaded, whenever you open a photon start to add adjustments or use it in any other way that requires the original to be downloaded. Photos will keep downloaded originals stored locally, until it needs to free storage. Then it will remove originals, that have not been used for a long time. On my Mac with the least storage (only 256GB) the optimize feature ensured that always 20GB have been left free, so the system could work.




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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
200,777 points

Apr 10, 2024 7:54 AM in response to alexjake_

Photos usually will not allow you to enable "Download originals", if there is not enough local storage.

If you can enable "Download originals" it may take a long time for all originals to be stored locally.


When you enable iCloud Photos with "optimize Mac Storage" for an empty Photos Library, initial no originals will be downloaded. As far as I can tell from my experience with Photos, the originals will be downloaded, whenever you open a photon start to add adjustments or use it in any other way that requires the original to be downloaded. Photos will keep downloaded originals stored locally, until it needs to free storage. Then it will remove originals, that have not been used for a long time. On my Mac with the least storage (only 256GB) the optimize feature ensured that always 20GB have been left free, so the system could work.




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How does photo app's "Download originals" vs "Optimise Mac" options actually work?

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