A few iCloud Photos ?'s

[jgelin]

Hello all,
So I have been contemplating switching on my iCloud Photo Library for the first time to use the space in the cloud (50GB / 23 used by backups which is including my camera roll) and my phone (64GB /500MB free) more efficiently.
I have around 22GB of photos on my iPhone right now, I would like to put them into the cloud and have more space on my device's physical memory for new pictures and videos. I also have quite a large bit of space on my iMac, where I want my iPhone photos to show up there too as a backup to the HDD.

So here are some of my questions:

1. Am I able to reduce the number of photos that are stored locally by uploading them to the cloud or do I need to have the space still taken up on the phone even though they have been uploaded?
2. How do I pick which photos I want to be local and which to just store in the cloud?
3. Will the photos download to my iMac as a backup in this process through the Photos.app? If so how to I set that up?
4. Will it be 'safe' to turn on iCloud Photo Library for such a size of a library initially?

Thanks in advance, and if there are any other tips you would like to share feel free!
Cheers.

 

[Mr. Buzzcut]

1. On the non backup devices you go to settings and select optimize storage.
2. You don't. They all upload.
3. On the backup Mac, you select to download and store originals in Photos preferences.
4. My photos take up about 4x that space. The initial sync took days but all went well and works fairly trouble free months later.

 

[jgelin]

2. You don't. They all upload.

If I cant choose which are on local memory then do I still not just have 22GB of photos on my device? just in two places?

1. On the non backup devices you go to settings and select optimize storage.

I only have one device from which I am backing up, and that is my iPhone and I want to save space on that device only not my iMac as the library is stored externally; so wouldn't I turn optimize storage on on my iPhone?

I am sorry if I am asking weird questions, I just don't want to go through uploading them only to have no space gained local.

 

[Mr. Buzzcut]

If I cant choose which are on local memory then do I still not just have 22GB of photos on my device? just in two places?

I only have one device from which I am backing up, and that is my iPhone and I want to save space on that device only not my iMac as the library is stored externally; so wouldn't I turn optimize storage on on my iPhone?

I am sorry if I am asking weird questions, I just don't want to go through uploading them only to have no space gained local.

Exactly. Anywhere you don't need the full size file, you select optimize storage. Then it will cache and discard as needed. On the iMac, have it save full image locally using Photos preferences.

 

[jgelin]

Exactly. Anywhere you don't need the full size file, you select optimize storage. Then it will cache and discard as needed. On the iMac, have it save full image locally using Photos preferences.

Ok I started the upload last night. I have about 1,000 left to go. Thank you for all the insight into this. Very helpful!!