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All pictures in Photos on Mac syncing with Photos on iPhone and taking up too much space

Since I downloaded Photos on my MacBook Pro, all the pictures that I had in iPhotos are now showing up on Photos on my laptop AND my iPhone. I used to be able to choose which iPhoto albums to sync with my iPhone and would prefer to do that again. It is taking up way too much space to have them all synced to my phone. Any idea how to choose which pictures I want available on my phone???

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4), null

Posted on May 4, 2015 2:01 PM

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9 replies

May 4, 2015 2:12 PM in response to ButterflyKay

I used to be able to choose which iPhoto albums to sync with my iPhone and would prefer to do that again. It is taking up way too much space to have them all synced to my phone. Any idea how to choose which pictures I want available on my phone???

How are you syncing? Have you enabled iCloud Photo Library on both your Mac and your iPhone? Then all photos in the System Photos Library will sync to your iPhone. If you want to be selective, create a second Photos Library. One main System Library, that will sync with iCloud, and another library to hold all other photos. Only one Photos Library can be the designated System Photo Library that will sync with iCloud and is visible in the Media Browser. The option to make a library System Library is in the Photos Preferences > General pane.

May 4, 2015 2:14 PM in response to ButterflyKay

You can't. If you turn on iCloud Photo Library on your Mac and your phone, all of the photos will be on both and on iCloud.com; you can reduce the storage space required on your phone by going to Settings > Photos & Camera > Optimize iPhone Storage. More information: iCloud Photo Library FAQ - Apple Support

There is a way to use multiple Photo libraries -- a small one for iCloud and a larger non-iCloud connected one -- but there are significant difficulties and disadvantages to doing that.

May 4, 2015 2:21 PM in response to FoxFifth

iCloud Photo Library is off on my iPhone. All of the pictures that I had in iPhoto on laptop moved to Photos on laptop when I updated last month. On my phone they show up under Albums and say "From My Mac" so I cannot remove them.


I don't sync using iCloud - I would plug my phone in to my laptop and transfer them that way, then delete the pictures from my phone & sync the albums from iPhoto to my iPhone. Now that isn't an option.

May 4, 2015 2:22 PM in response to léonie

iCloud Photo Library is off on my iPhone. All of the pictures that I had in iPhoto on laptop moved to Photos on laptop when I updated last month. On my phone they show up under Albums and say "From My Mac" so I cannot remove them.


I don't sync using iCloud - I would plug my phone in to my laptop and transfer them that way, then delete the pictures from my phone & sync the albums from iPhoto to my iPhone. Now that isn't an option.

May 4, 2015 3:00 PM in response to léonie

Before the migration to Photos on laptop, I would go to iTunes, Photos, Sync Photos, Selected Albums, and then choose the albums from iPhoto to sync to phone.


Since I had the problem with all of the photos syncing to iPhone, I un-checked Sync, but they were all still showing up on iPhone.


I just looked at iTunes and saw this message:

User uploaded file


When I looked last week, the "copy from _______" was not an option. Now I am able to choose the iPhoto albums that I want to sync just as I was before.


I still don't know why they were syncing when I didn't have that option selected, but it appears Apple has fixed the issue I was having.


I guess I will continue to use iPhoto rather than Photos on my laptop to avoid this issue again.


Thank you for your help!!!!

May 4, 2015 3:48 PM in response to ButterflyKay

I still don't know why they were syncing when I didn't have that option selected, but it appears Apple has fixed the issue I was having.

If you do not enable the "Sync" option, the photos will not sync at all, and that means, that the photos that have been synced previously will not be erased, until you enable that option. If you want to erase previously synced photos, check the "sync" option, but don't select any albums to sync.

All pictures in Photos on Mac syncing with Photos on iPhone and taking up too much space

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