Replace iCloud photos with library on Mac Photos.app

You are welcome. You should be able to delete all from the Recently Deleted album without waiting for the 30 day recover period. Have you given it some time to see if it works? If it doesn't clear after a day, try contacting iCloud Support for assistance.

You may have to try twice.

iCloud Support

Ugg. I have seen this happen too many times. I've ultimately gone to off device backups and manual synchs to replace iCloud for all but contacts and settings synching.

But, that is not what you asked. If you are certain you don't need the 14K photos, you can turn off synching on everything again, and go to iCloud.com and delete the photos there. You can also view them there.

Another alternative, is to make a new library with one of the backups, rename it and change it to the system photo library as that is the only one that gets synched. You'll add to the 14k on iCloud.com, but they "shouldn't" download again. (You can only have one system photo library)

So, what is happening is that when you turn iCloud Photo Library back on again, the photo remaining in iCloud are downloading to your Mac.

The easiest way to rectify this situation is to turn on iCloud Photo Library again on your wife's iOS device, then go to the All Photos View, click on Select, and start selecting the Moments. That is going to be the fastest way to delete these photos from iCloud without having to wait for 30 days.

Trying to delete them from iCloud.com is excruciatingly slow. Deleting them from the iOS device allows you to select Moment after Moment, which selects all the photos in that Moment. Select a bunch, then click on the Trashcan. Then repeat until all of the photos are deleted from the device.

Then go to your Recently Deleted album on the device and click on Select, then on Delete All.

Those two actions should cause all photos to be deleted from the iCloud Photo Library. It might take a bit of time, but you can check the progress by going to iCloud.com and checking the Photos app there.

Once everything is cleared out, you can then turn on iCloud Photo Library again on your Mac, and the photos there will upload to iCloud.

Cheers,

GB

If you want to delete from the computer, reopen Photos with the option/alt key held down and create a new system Library. Let all the photos sync and then delete them. Once that is done and iCloud.com/Photos is empty, reopen Photos with the option/alt key held down and set the existing Library as the system Library. You can then delete the temporary Library.

You are welcome. How is it disabled?

Try Settings/Your Name/iCloud and slide off syncing. Wait a few minutes and then resync. This will start the sync from the beginning.

Try going to System Preferences/iCloud and stop syncing by unchecking the box. Wait a couple of minutes, then check syncing.

Last resort - have you tried signing out of iCloud and then sign back in?

Try Settings/Your Name/iCloud and slide off syncing. Wait a few minutes and then slide syncing on. If that doesn't work, then try log out/in.