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Photos duplication with iCloud?

Is it possible that a Photos library stored on an external disk will duplicate itself on the computer hard drive if backed up to iCloud? I have this mysterious "Photos" package on my HD taking up 141 GB.

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Macbook Pro

Posted on Mar 16, 2018 10:35 AM

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5 replies

Mar 20, 2018 7:56 AM in response to léonie

The problem I am facing is that I cannot compare dates. It displays that the Photo Library is found on both, but it actually only appears on the USB Disk. It appears that the computer thinks it is on both, so it won't allow me to move the whole Photo Library over since the ghost photo library is taking up space.

Could that be right?

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Mar 16, 2018 11:05 AM in response to sgquest

Is it possible that a Photos library stored on an external disk will duplicate itself on the computer hard drive if backed up to iCloud?

Tell us more about your external drive and the 130GB USB disk.

Where is your Photos Library stored? Is it on the USB Disk? If you keep the library on an USB disk, Photos may have created a second library on your system drive, because the USB disk is not eligible for an iCloud Library (This is new in this support document since High Sierra. I do not know why)).


See: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

Apple doesn't recommend storing photo libraries on external storage devices like SD cards and USB flash drives, or drives that are shared on a network.

You can't store your library on a disk that's used for Time Machine backups.


Mar 16, 2018 10:44 AM in response to sgquest

1 - iCloud is not a backup, it is a syncing service not a backup service


2 - using iCloud Photo Library does not duplicate anything


3 - the display you posted does not show details like packages and is terribly unreliable and should never be used to make any storage decisions - the finder is a much more reliable way to see what you actually have and to provide data for decisions


LN

Mar 17, 2018 8:10 AM in response to sgquest

Compare the dates

You can see, which library Photos is currently using, if you launch Photos and then look at the preferences panel:

Photos > Preferences > General.

At the top of the panel you will see the Library Location and a button "Show in Finder". Does this reveal a library in your Pictures folder? If yes, what is the size of this library?

Photos duplication with iCloud?

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