Does photos store everything in the cloud?

[powerbook911]

I'm setting up my new Mac. Can I simply let iCloud download everything from the cloud, or will it be missing some things?

Should I instead copy the photos library from the old Mac to ensure I have everything (photos and phone videos) going back to my return to Mac in 2004 are in there.

Thanks so much.

 

[casperes1996]

If you have iCloud Photo Library enabled on the other Mac, and it says it's updated, it should contain the whole library. If you only have Photo Stream or something, it won't have anything older than 14 days in the cloud

 

[Starfia]

If you have "iCloud Photos" checked on the old Mac in Photos' preferences, then Photos should be able to access your entire photo library.

(To be more technically clear: the point of iCloud Photos is to store your whole library in the cloud – Photos then accesses that library. Photos are only stored on your Mac or iOS at full quality if you also check "Download Originals To This Mac" in Photos' preferences.)