I want to ut my photo library in iCloud Drive

Question

Level 1

86 points

I want to ut my photo library in iCloud Drive

I have a 64GB iPhone 6 and a 128GB MacBook Air partnered with a 60GB photo library stored in iCloud Photo Library. I also have a 200GB iCloud Storage plan with 150GB remaining...so I want to upload my photo library to iCloud Drive without using space on my computer. I want that single folder of all my photos in the Cloud and nowhere else but my backup drives, while I trim the copies that are still on my computer and iPhone to the few gigabytes that I want readily available without internet access and in full quality. In short, I want to put 60GB of photos in a folder in iCloud Drive and have that one folder not be stored directly on my Mac. I have over 6TB of storage in my house, and it is getting really full so I want to keep my photos in the cloud instead of using up my last few gigabytes of storage on my home system--I also want it anywhere I go that has internet access, even on my iPhone that has iCloud Drive. Any suggestions?

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Apr 24, 2016 3:08 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Old Toad

Level 10

210,633 points

Apr 25, 2016 10:23 AM in response to HarrisonMG

That's not what the iCloud Drive is for and it won't work with a library. For sharing/syncing your Photos library to all your devices and have it accessible by browser online at iCloud.com use the iCloud Photo Library feature.

For you mobile devices that won't have enough room to hold all of them elect to have optimized versions of the photos on them.

iCloud Photo Library FAQ - Apple Support

Use Photos and iCloud Photo Library on multiple Mac computers - Apple Support

iCloud Drive FAQ - Apple Support

Reply

Answer 2

HarrisonMG Author

Level 1

86 points

Apr 25, 2016 11:41 AM in response to Old Toad

That's not what I was going for--I want to use iCloud as external storage for my computer without having the data of one folder be stored on my computer; I have more storage in iCloud than on my computer and want to use it where my computer is pretty much full.

I already have my photos uploaded to the cloud, but only about 1/4 of those do I want stored in full resolution on my devices. The rest, I do not want stored on my devices at all, and I do not want to waste space on my own external storage devices--I want to make use of the 150GB of storage that I a doing nothing with in iCloud Drive. All I want is a folder full of files in iCloud Drive that does not stay downloaded to my computer. If it takes up too much space for my computer, will it only store it in iCloud then? Or must it stay on my computer if it can also be in the cloud?

Reply

Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

210,633 points

Apr 25, 2016 11:51 AM in response to HarrisonMG

There are no iCloud features that allow off Mac storage without having the files on the hard drive also.

And there is no cloud storage system that can store an iPhoto or Photos library and return it in working order. None have the correct volume formatting that is compatible with the libraries.

Reply

Answer 4

LACAllen

Level 8

43,500 points

Apr 25, 2016 8:53 PM in response to HarrisonMG

It's understood what you want.

iCloud does not do this. Neither does Dropbox, Gdrive and so on.

You want off-device storage with cloud retrieval only.

This plan seems to get you that. Keep in mind, you are restoring an image file from their backup system... not browsing a gallery of images that are offline.

Maybe Smugmug is an option for you. Or Flickr. Those are photo storage services that do not rely on syncing. You upload to them. Not as convenient, but maybe more suited for you.

Reply