running out of storage

Hi all,

I have a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013) and I am almost out of storage, of which most of it is taken up by my photo library. I synced my photos with icloud storage so that I could free up some space, however my photo library hasn't been deleted off of my macbook and I am unsure as to whether deleting it would cause it to be deleted on icloud. I've backed it up on an external hard drive as well, but I'd rather be 100% sure that my library would be preserved on icloud if I delete from my macbook than have to import all of my photos again.

Could someone please advise? Thanks!

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013), iOS 10.2

Posted on Nov 18, 2017 5:34 AM

Posted on Nov 18, 2017 7:12 AM

When you sync your Photos Library with iCloud Photo Library, then Photos on your Mac will always show the same photos as in iCloud. It is primarily a syncing service to be able to access the same photos on all devices. If you enable the Photos > Preferences > iCloud > Optimize Storage, the Photos Library will get smaller over time.

Photos will replace the full size originals of your Photos by smaller, optimized versions for browsing. You will need an internet collection to work with the photos that been optimized. But the process is automatic. It will take some time, until the library will start shrinking. Is "Optimize Storage" already enabled?

Do not delete the Photos library. The Photos.app needs it, even if the photos have been uploaded to iCloud.

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