This Mac is no longer updating because you do not have enough space to store optimised versions of your photos and videos

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Level 1

4 points

This Mac is no longer updating because you do not have enough space to store optimised versions of your photos and videos

MacBook Air 2015

macOS Sierra 10.12.6

I am in the process of moving my photos from an external hard drive onto my MacBook Air.

I understood an optimised (tiny) version would be retained on the hard drive, with the full-sized image being kept in iCloud.

I upgraded my iCloud storage to 2TB to accommodate this.

The problem is, I can't get all my photos onto the MacBook because it says I don't have enough storage for the optimised versions.

The message on Photos reads:

Your MacStorage is full. Updating Paused. 18,088 items to upload

What should I do next, please?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Oct 3, 2018 1:14 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

léonie

Level 10

194,923 points

Oct 3, 2018 8:59 AM in response to modernwoman

Anne, at this point I would restart your mac to kick off all cloud processes again and then wait.

You seem to have imported too many photos at once. Photos needs time to optimize the photos.

Are the originals of your photos still safely on your external drive? Then you could delete the last albums you imported to Photos - remove at least 50GB of photos from Photos. Do not forget to empty the Recently Deleted album. Wait for the first sync of Photos with iCloud to finish.

Once Photos is showing the initials syncing to be completed, import more photos to Photos.

Do not import too many photos at once - no more than 1000 photos at once. Wait for the photos to get optimized, before you import more photos. Taking it slowly should help Photos to free storage, before you import more photos.

I wish you a speedy recovery! 🙂

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

194,923 points

Oct 3, 2018 4:39 AM in response to modernwoman

How large is the library on your external drive? And how much storage can you afford for your photos on the system drive? The tiny previews will still need a lot of storage.

For example, If the full version of the Photos Library has a size of 500 GB, the fully optimized version of the library will still need at least 50GB to 100GB of local storage (10% to 20 % of the original size). It will depend on the size and format of the originals how much can be saved by optimizing.

How did you move the library to your internal drive? The best way to move it to the internal drive is to upload it to iCloud from the external drive, where you have plenty of free storage, then create a new empty library on your internal system drive, and make this library your iCloud Photo Library with "Optimize Storage" enabled. If the Mac has enough free storage for the optimized versions, it will download the library from iCloud fully optimied, as small as possible.

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Answer 3

modernwoman Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 3, 2018 4:10 AM in response to léonie

Leonie, thank you for the reply. I think I did it totally the wrong way round, placing my trust in Apple's ability to 'fix it' . I imported folders of photos straight into Photos until I was forced to stop, by the error message. I thought the uploading to iCloud would have 'shuffled things round' and made room.

To be fair I have very little of anything else stored on my MacBook Air except photos and videos - I use a Seagate external drive for almost all my documents (I'm a teacher so like the portability).

iOS files take up 25.84Gb, Apps 20.67Gb, documents 6Gb and Music Creation 2.5Gb. Looking at the Storage information Photos occupy 155.31Gb and it tells me there is 61.73Gb available. I certainly would expect the 400GB or so of photos to be acceptable on Photos if optimised.

You recommended uploading to iCloud from the external drive, then create a new empty library....

At that point you lost me. I searched iCloud Help using various terms and can't find the step-by step instructions I need.

This project was something I saved, to keep me occupied post-surgery, during convalescence. Not sure if it's the post-surgery bit that's leaving me confused or I'm just getting too old for this technology!

Your help to get to the next stage would be hugely appreciated.

Thank you, Anne

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