iCloud Photos not Showing on Mac but show on iPhone

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Level 1

8 points

iCloud Photos not Showing on Mac but show on iPhone

I have thousands of photos and videos on my iphone going back more than 10 years. They are set to backup to my icloud and all works well. I have the same iCloud account signed in on my Mac but in the photos app iCloud is not checked. So there is no sync between photos and iCloud on the Mac. In the photo app library , there are only about 15 images visible, compated to the thousands in the photos app on my phone.

I was thinking to check / turn on iCloud in the photos app on the Mac, but I am concerned that these 15 images might replace the thousands of images that are already synced to my icloud account from my phone.

Any suggestions how I can see the phone images on my Mac?

Would be so grateful for any advice...

Many thanks :-)

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 15.4

Posted on May 5, 2025 2:23 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Richard.Taylor

Level 6

18,181 points

May 5, 2025 10:15 AM in response to francouk

iCloud Photos keeps all the devices' Libraries the same. So if you turn on iCloud on your Mac, the Mac's pictures will be added to iCloud and to your phone, and the pictures at iCloud will be added to your Mac. Nothing will be erased.

You will need to have enough room in your Mac's storage for all those pictures, otherwise weird things can happen. If you don't have enough room, you can turn on "Optimize Storage," and only smaller versions will be transferred to the Mac. I don't use Optimize on my Mac, because I want backups to include full sized information.

Handling Photos on the Mac is way better than on the phone!

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iCloud Photos not Showing on Mac but show on iPhone

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