iCloud limit exceeded after moving Photos library to external drive

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Level 1

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iCloud limit exceeded after moving Photos library to external drive

My Photos library is stored in iCloud (with a full copy in my Mac). I recently moved the Photos library on my Mac to an external drive to save disk space. I restarted Photos from that new location and designated it as System Library. When I went into Preferences to say I want to use the iCloud library, I get the message that I don't have enough iCloud disk space. This makes sense, as the same photos I have before I moved the Photos library locally, are still stored in there and count for the disk space used.

However, I can't proceed unless I upgrade to a more expensive plan. Which doesn't make sense. Why can't iCloud recognise the fact that this is the same Photos library, that has only been moved locally ? When I access the iCloud library on my iPhone, all is still working well and synced to iCloud.

Any suggestions ?

thanks

iMac with Retina 5K display, macOS High Sierra (10.13.1)

Posted on Nov 12, 2017 12:56 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

léonie

Level 10

194,629 points

Nov 12, 2017 3:07 AM in response to bcambre

It is unfortunately so. if there is the least doubt, that the library is identical to the version in iCloud, Photos will upload the complete library again to merge it into the library in iCloud. If you move the library to an external drive, the syncing with iCloud will be interrupted during the move. If you enable the library again for iCloud after moving it, it will retreated as a new library.

If you are sure, that all your photos are already in iCloud, you can simply create a new, empty library on the external and make this your iCloud Photo Library (Create additional photo libraries - Apple Support). The library will download back from iCloud to the empty library. This will be faster than uploading again and merging, save some upload bandwidth, and you do not need to sign up for additional cloud storage.

The only drawback will be, that the projects will not download from iCloud. Save the library you copied over as a backup until you are sure, that the library downloaded correctly.

See this user tip: Why is iCloud uploading my entire iCloud Photo library again after I moved its location?

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