Optimize Photos

[maxoakland]

I'm in the process of moving photos out of my iCloud Photos account and onto an external hard drive. Thanks everyone for the tip!

This is still a little puzzling, though.

In iCloud, I probably have about 400GB of photos. When I go to the Settings>General>Storage, when iCloud Photos is optimized, it shows 29GB. But when I "get info" from the actual Photos file on the computer, it shows that the file is about 330GB.

So, somewhere there is a discrepancy between 29GB and 330GB and what is being reported when iCloud Photos is optimized.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to address this? It also shows that the purgeable storage is like 400GB or something really high, particularly given the fact that it is only a 1TB drive.

I have no clue but I’m curious

 

[gilby101]

In iCloud, I probably have about 400GB of photos. When I go to the Settings>General>Storage, when iCloud Photos is optimized, it shows 29GB. But when I "get info" from the actual Photos file on the computer, it shows that the file is about 330GB.

So, somewhere there is a discrepancy between 29GB and 330GB and what is being reported when iCloud Photos is optimized.

Think of it like this:

1) You have 330GB of photos when stored as full sized originals - this is what Finder is reporting to you.
2) Because you have optimised your photos they are only using 29GB of local disk space.

This normal for Finder - File Info always shows two numbers for a file/folder/library - the size of of the content if it were all laid out before you and the disk space actually occupied.

As well as differences due to iCloud, different numbers are reported when parts of a files are compressed or empty.

Finder tries to be too clever! When you start looking at details it is so confusing. We are supposed not to look too hard and then worry about it.

It also shows that the purgeable storage is like 400GB or something really high, particularly given the fact that it is only a 1TB drive

Potentially multiple reasons.

One is that Time Machine (of other backup program) will have created snapshots of your disk before each backup. When moving stuff around (for example, between your disk and the cloud) these snapshots will consume space until they are purged - usually after 24 hours.

If it is still high after a few days, you need to investigate.

 

[jclin10]

Does that mean that it should resolve itself after a period of time?

 

[gilby101]

Does that mean that it should resolve itself after a period of time?

Yes, if the purgeable space is due to TM snapshots. And purgeable space (from whatever cause) will always be released if macOS sees a need for the disk space.