iCloud Photo Library vs. Photo's library

Photo Library (downloaded from iCloud Photo): ~15GB

BACKUP (two files):

Photo's Library.photoslibrary: ~133GB

Has the download from iCloud finished? For such a large library it may take a week, to download all photos back to your Mac.

Check the status line at the bottom of the Photos view in Photos, see: Check the status of your library in Photos for macOS - Apple Support

Does it say, "updated just now"?

Check the Photos > Preferences > iCloud:

If "Optimize Storage" is enabled, as Larry suspects, the original image files will not download from iCloud, and the smaller, optimized versions may only need a tenth of the original library size.

Disable optimize storage, if it is on.

Then create an album in photos, that is holding all photos and videos - a standard album, not a smart album. Ctrl-click this album in the sidebar and enable "Download originals to this Mac". This will prompt photos to download the originals, if it has not already done so. This option is only available in Photos 3.0 in High Sierra.

Does the size of the library increase?

Hi Léonie

I have been searching the forums and have asked the same question to Old Toad.. Looks like you're also an expert in this field 🙂
I'm moving to mac from PC and when I bring my photos to my mac it changes the creation date to the day I copied the flies across (ie today). So when they are displayed in Photos, they all display as today's photos. (creation date = today. modified date = when the photo was taken).
Is there a way to overwrite the creation date with the modified date - so the the photos app will correctly display these in date order? I guess I'm looking for a batch change the creation date to the modified date.... ?

I just want all my old photos that I have just copied (hence today as creation date) to be correctly displayed when I import them into the photos app.

Thanks a lot
Michael

also, going forward bear in mind that Dropbox is not an appropriate location for an iPhoto or Photos library, or back up. The disk formats used on their servers carry a significant risk of database corruption.

it changes the creation date to the day I copied the flies across (ie today). So when they are displayed in Photos, they all display as today's photos. (creation date = today. modified date = when the photo was taken).

You problem is at the Windows end. You need to export these images from whatever manager you use over there with the Exif info intact. This records the date the photo was taken, and is attached to the photograph. Photos only uses file data when the exif date is missing.

Hi Terence,

Ive just had time to check this - and all the EXIF info is on the network drive that the photos are on.
date taken , camera model etc. I can't see this from the Mac, but I can see it from the Windows PC .

How can I see the exif info on the Mac ?

Any other suggestions to get this working ?

Thanks to all that have helped so far

what are your iCloud settings? Best guess is that you have it set to optimize photos but without complete information one can only make guesses -- is the photo count correct?

LN

You are welcome 🙂

It is very good, that you thought of comparing your original library to your restored library . Better safe than sorry!

Thank you