On every other service I can have the photos in the cloud and not have to have them on my device. However with Photos on Mac it downloads them every time even if I turn on "optimise storage", which I thought wouldn't download them, but it does still. All I want to happen is for them to be in the cloud, and only download one by one when I want them. However right now it keeps downloading them all and filling up the SSD on the Mac too full, so my choice is to turn off iCloud Photos... which isn't a solution, or have a full SSD. This wouldn't be a problem if Apple had removable drives, but they don't.
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How do you stop photos from downloading with icloud turned on?
- Thread starter scaramoosh
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I don't think you have any control over it. With "optimize Mac storage" turned on, it is designed to download full-resolution versions, until your mac is "low on space." At least that's my interpretation of the description in Photos' Preferences. I don't know what algorithm or threshold macOS uses to determine if you are "low" -- presumably it leaves either a certain percentage free or a certain number of gigabytes free on your volume.
You say it is "filling up the SSD on the Mac too full". I'm curious about how much space it leaves and how big your SSD is...
You say it is "filling up the SSD on the Mac too full". I'm curious about how much space it leaves and how big your SSD is...