I've been trying to import my gmail into my Apple Mail account. I haven't used Apple Mail is a long while. Anyway, it fails to import, many times. It says there's not enough room in my user directory. Well, it turns out that what's taking up the most space in my user directory is my photoslibrary file.
I've got Photos to be stored in iCloud. So, why is this huge file here on my Mac?
Thanks,
Peter
Mac mini, macOS 15.2
You probably have your Mac's Photos app set to retain full-resolution photos. You can change this to smaller photos to conserve space on your Mac. Be aware too that if you delete photos from your Mac's Photos app it will also be deleted from your iCloud photos collection.
Apple has instructions on how to set optimised photos in the document Optimize storage in Photos on Mac
After you make this setting change be patient because changing from full-resolution size to the smaller sized photos will most likely take some time.
If that still does not realise enough space on your Mac consider moving your Mac's photo library to an external storage drive. Apple has instructions in Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac.
You probably have your Mac's Photos app set to retain full-resolution photos. You can change this to smaller photos to conserve space on your Mac. Be aware too that if you delete photos from your Mac's Photos app it will also be deleted from your iCloud photos collection.
Apple has instructions on how to set optimised photos in the document Optimize storage in Photos on Mac
After you make this setting change be patient because changing from full-resolution size to the smaller sized photos will most likely take some time.
If that still does not realise enough space on your Mac consider moving your Mac's photo library to an external storage drive. Apple has instructions in Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac.
First off, is that external drive formatted Mac OS X Extended, Journaled or apfs? It needs to be
Second: you can designate the moved library as your System Library in the Photos preferences
Photos Menu ->
Thank you, David.
Yes, I simply moved my library from my main Mac drive to an attached storage drive. I have a Time Machine backup drive and a separate storage drive for my Mac Mini. I only have 512gB on my Mini, so this is a big deal.
Now, in terms of backing up, should I just rely on iCloud to be my backup of my photos' library?
Thanks again,
Peter
So, I've got my library now on my external storage drive. But, why doesn't the Photos app respect my choice of iCloud here? It does nothing when I click on iCloud. It just gives me this message.
Having my photos in iCloud and not on my Mac.
