User profile for user: Buadhai
Buadhai Author
User level: Level 1
90 points

How do I stop photographs from going to the Photos library?

I don't use the Photos app and I don't want any photos going in to the Photos library.


How do I stop this?


The Photos library package (~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary) is over 22GB.


I'd like it to be zero and to never have photos added to this library.


However, I do want to use My Photo Stream because I want to have photos taken with either my iPhone or iPad to appear on both devices, but I don't want them to end up on my Mac.


How do I do that?


(Why do I want to do this? Because my photographs are automatically uploaded to my Mac using DropBox Camera Uploads. From there, I move them into folders and sort them the way I want them sorted. My photographs are backed up to Google Photos.)

Posted on Sep 26, 2017 12:27 AM

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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
200,645 points

Posted on Sep 26, 2017 1:58 AM

Launch Photos once and disable Photos > Preferences > iCloud: My Photos Stream


As long as My Photo Stream has been enabled for your Photos Library, it will automatically import from My Photo Stream.


Then delete the Photos Library from the Pictures folder, if you are sure, that you saved each and every photo in it somewhere else.

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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
200,645 points

Sep 26, 2017 1:58 AM in response to Buadhai

Launch Photos once and disable Photos > Preferences > iCloud: My Photos Stream


As long as My Photo Stream has been enabled for your Photos Library, it will automatically import from My Photo Stream.


Then delete the Photos Library from the Pictures folder, if you are sure, that you saved each and every photo in it somewhere else.

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How do I stop photographs from going to the Photos library?

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