Mar 09, 2020 iMazing 2.11 debuts a new way for users to manage and transfer iPhone and iPad photos from their Mac. After connecting their iPhone or iPad and their computer via USB or Wi-FI, the entire photo library becomes available within seconds, streamed straight from the device. Mar 18, 2020 If you're sure that you've exported all of the photos and videos that you want to keep from the source library, you can delete it to save disk space on your Mac. First, open the Finder and find the source library that you want to delete. By default, photo libraries are stored in your Pictures folder.

Aug 15, 2018 It did use quite a bit of bandwidth but it wasn't as much as a whole library upload would take, so I'm fairly certain that it was really actually synchronising the local and iCloud libraries. Now if only I knew the specific setting that had to be deleted to fix this.
Sep 23, 2018 On iOS, I’d like to be able to say: use no more than 10 GB (I have a 64GB phone) for iCloud Photo Library. What else should Apple add to iCloud Photos in iOS 13? Let me know in the comments.

16 13 likes 14,348 views Last modified Sep 13, 2016 10:46 PM

Photos for Mac has two modes of importing photos, managed (the default) and referenced. This is determined by the Photos > Preference > General > Importing. If you disable 'Copy items into the Photos Library', Photos will not store copies in its library but reference the photos in their original location. That can help to save storage by keeping the original photos on an external drive. See this Help page: https://help.apple.com/photos/mac/1.0/?lang=en#/pht12e7a8015

Aperture users migrating to Photos might be tempted to set up a referenced Library in Photos, since referenced libraries worked well in Aperture.

Unfortunately, the support for referenced photos is still poor in Photos. It is a little better than in iPhoto, but still cannot be recommended in Photos for several reasons:

There is no tool to relocate the originals to a different drive, if you need to move them to a drive with more storage or you need to replace the drive, because it is failing.
If you delete referenced photos from the library, you cannot delete the original as well automatically. It will be left behind and you have to track it down individually or have to consolidate the photos into the library before deleting them.
Worst of all, there is no versatile tool to reconnect the referenced original files to the versions in the Photos Library, if Photos has lost the connection. Photos will just complain about a missing file and ask you to search for it, without any information about the missing file.
And if you want to use iCloud Photo Library you cannot use referenced files, because they are not supported in iCloud Photo Library.

Therefore, risking a referenced library will mean a lot of work for reestablishing the connection between originals and the versions in the Photo Library, if you ever need to move the library, or need to replace the drive, or restore the library from a backup, and sooner ar later this will be necessary, since any drive will fail sooner or later.

And you have to manage the originals on your own. This should only be done by experienced users, not beginners just starting to use Photos. It is easy to make mistakes and accidentally delete the precious originals.

If you want your Mac's photos to wirelessly sync to all your other iOS devices and computers, you want to set up iCloud Photo Library: Apple's photo sync service lets you back up your images on all your devices, as well as access them — online or offline — on said devices. If you're willing to pay for the extra iCloud storage space, you can store an incredible amount of photos and videos, all accessible at the touch of a button or multi-touch screen.

Here's how to set it up on your Mac and get everything configured to your liking!

How to set up iCloud Photo Library on your Mac

Launch the Photos app on your Mac.
Select the Photos menu in the upper left corner of your screen.
Go to Preferences.
Click on the iCloud tab.
Source: iMore
Check 'iCloud Photos.' This will begin uploading any and all images you have stored in the Photos app to iCloud.
Source: iMore

How to optimize your photo and video storage

View Icloud Photos Mac

If you routinely shoot 4K video or high-quality images on your iPhone, iPad, or DSLR, you may run out of storage space fast. (I have a 1TB iMac, but also have almost a terabyte of 4K video stored in iCloud — it gets unwieldy, fast!) This is especially true if you have a Mac laptop with limited hard drive space: It's nice to look at your iPhone's gorgeous Portrait mode photos, but not necessarily always practical to store all of them locally.

Thankfully, Apple offers an Optimize Storage option, which lets you store full-resolution photos and videos of only your most recently shot and accessed imagery; all older photos and videos are available to download via iCloud and are stored as low-resolution previews on your device to save space. You can switch between optimizing your Mac's photos storage or storing your full library locally: Here's how!

Note: If you plan on using Optimize Storage, we suggest having at least one device that stores your entire library locally (usually a Mac with a large local or external hard drive), so you have multiple backups of your photographs and video.

Launch the Photos app on your Mac.
Click Photos in the App menu in the upper left corner of your screen.
Select Preferences from the drop-down menu.
Source: iMore
Click the iCloud tab.
Click Optimize Mac Storage.
Source: iMore

Full-resolution versions of your photos and videos will be uploaded to iCloud.

How to share photos with iCloud Photo Library

Apple's photo service doesn't just provide online backups and sync for your images and video: The company also offers a free sharing service that allows you to send shared albums to friends and family (or create a publicly-shared website). Here's how to turn it on for your Mac.

Icloud Photo Library For Mac Release Date 2016

Questions?

Let us know in the comments below.

Updated January 2020: Updated for macOS Catalina. Serenity Caldwell worked on a previous version of this post

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Icloud Photo Library For Mac Release Date 2017

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