How does "Photos" on iCloud work on a MacBook Pro?

[mdhaus72]

Hello! I just bought my first MacBook (a 16" Pro) and I have a question about how Photo storage works on the device and iCloud.

I've had tons of Apple phones and iPads over the years. I take a A LOT of photos and videos. Yet on my iPhone, they are only taking up 17.91 GB and on my iPad they are using 6.28 GB. But on my new MacBook, I noticed last night that when I go to "About This Mac" and select the storage tab, it says that the photos category is using 122.08 GB of space. I have a 1 TB model and what's also weird is that it says that I have 893.53 GB available out of 994.66. That suggests that I'm only using 101.13 GB of space in total on the drive, which obviously doesn't make sense since that number is smaller than just the Photos alone. So what I'm wondering if is that monitoring system is even accurate.

Does the MacBook automatically download full-size resolution copies of all photos on your iCloud account instead of compressing the folder like what happens on the iPhone and iPad? If so, is there a way for me to turn that option off? Or perhaps a way to simply keep everything in the cloud and not have it download anything at all? I was thinking that might be a good option, as I could always just visit the iCloud website when I need to import video files, etc. that are stored there. Thanks for the help!

 

[hans1972]

Does the MacBook automatically download full-size resolution copies of all photos on your iCloud account instead of compressing the folder like what happens on the iPhone and iPad? If so, is there a way for me to turn that option off? Thanks for the help!

From the menu: Photos | Preferences | iCloud | iCloud Photos | Optimise Mac Storage

Or something like that.

 

[mdhaus72]

From the menu: Photos | Preferences | iCloud | iCloud Photos | Optimise Mac Storage

Or something like that.

OK. Thanks. I'll check that when I get home. Will it then automatically decrease the size of what is stored on the machine...even items already there?

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Yes, as it will offload the high quality versions.

 

[Mike Boreham]

OK. Thanks. I'll check that when I get home. Will it then automatically decrease the size of what is stored on the machine...even items already there?

The wording for "Optimise...." says "If your mac is low on space, full res photos and videos are automatically replaced with device sized versions". Checking "Optimise" is giving permission to macOS to replace full size with thumbnail signposts if necessary, not an instruction to do it. Don't expect to see an instant reduction in space when you check it. No one knows Apple criteria for "low on space".

 

[mdhaus72]

The wording for "Optimise...." says "If your mac is low on space, full res photos and videos are automatically replaced with device sized versions". Checking "Optimise" is giving permission to macOS to replace full size with thumbnail signposts if necessary, not an instruction to do it. Don't expect to see an instant reduction in space when you check it. No one knows Apple criteria for "low on space".

I guess I'm confused then....Why is the MacBook saying that I have 122 GB of photos on the machine, while both my iPhone and iPad are saying they have 17.91 GB and 6.28 GB respectively. Neither of those devices are running low on storage - I have a 1 TB iPhone 13 Pro Max and a latest model 12.9" iPad Pro with 2 TB of space. Are there any other solutions?

 

[wilberforce]

iOS does not report photos storage the same way as MacOS.
iOS does not report all the photos that it is caching, and identifies them as “unused” storage.
On my iPad, it reports my photos as only occupying 150 MB, but if I turn off wifi I can still see full resolution of all my photos which are about 40 GB.
Also in storage, especially APFS, one plus one does not equal two (due to cloning) and the definition of “unused“ varies.
You will drive yourself crazy trying to make the storage add up like an accountant would.

 

[mdhaus72]

So in the Photos app, if I go into Preferences, then iCloud, and then turn off iCloud synching for Photos, will it then delete those photos from the MacBook and give me my space back? I'm assuming that all of my photos will still remain in iCloud if I do that? Is that an option to get that space back? That way, I'm thinking that I could just log in to the iCloud site when I want to grab something on my MacBook.

 

[wilberforce]

Just use the optimize option for Photos. Seriously, it is the easiest and best way. Mike Boreham explained it well.

 

[Mike Boreham]

So in the Photos app, if I go into Preferences, then iCloud, and then turn off iCloud synching for Photos, will it then delete those photos from the MacBook and give me my space back? I'm assuming that all of my photos will still remain in iCloud if I do that? Is that an option to get that space back? That way, I'm thinking that I could just log in to the iCloud site when I want to grab something on my MacBook.

Yes if you turn off iCloud Photos on any device, the photos will be deleted on that device and remain on iCloud, viewable on iCloud.com.

(Actually when you turn off iCloud Photos, you get a choice, delete from this device or keep on device).

 

[mdhaus72]

Yes if you turn off iCloud Photos on any device, the photos will be deleted on that device and remain on iCloud, viewable on iCloud.com.

(Actually when you turn off iCloud Photos, you get a choice, delete from this device or keep on device).

Great. Thank you! I just wanted to make sure that I wouldn't be deleting my entire Photo collection!

 

[hans1972]

I guess I'm confused then....Why is the MacBook saying that I have 122 GB of photos on the machine, while both my iPhone and iPad are saying they have 17.91 GB and 6.28 GB respectively. Neither of those devices are running low on storage - I have a 1 TB iPhone 13 Pro Max and a latest model 12.9" iPad Pro with 2 TB of space. Are there any other solutions?

Because "Optimise" doesn't mean reduce the size of your photo library now, it means reducing it if you're running out of space.

And it doesn't mean reduce the size of all the photos or videos.

Apple will reduce the quality for some of the photos and videos, based on a secret algorithm, so that it frees up enough space. Which means the size can vary from device to device and even from one day to another.