Photos-App optimize storage

[Quarkii]

Hey guys!

A few days ago I deleted my photo library because it took up 400GB despite having optimized storage activated. After that I started the Photos-App and created a new library, also with the optimized storage setting. In total I have 1TB of photos and videos in iCloud. Today I checked the Photos-App and it said that synchronization had to be stopped because there was not enough storage available. I now have 1GB of free storage on my Mac. That is not the point of "optimizing storage" and I have never experienced that in the last few months on my Mac or on my iPhone either. What can I do to prevent this from happening? The Mac's storage cannot be freed up as quickly as I need it to, for example when large amounts of data are being transferred or videos are being rendered. This makes the process miserably slow.

Thank you!

 

[StevenB14]

I created a new volume in disk utility for my photo library. My library isn’t as big as yours and I put a quota on my volume of 50GB and then created a new library on that volume. Turned optimise on and so far it’s been fine.

May be worth exploring this as an option? I came across this suggestion on this post:

Post in thread 'Any way to reduce photos library size on a MacBook Air?'
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...y-size-on-a-macbook-air.2423433/post-33056118

 

[Quarkii]

Thanks for your answer!

I already read about that function - but I have one thought about it:

Actually I have set my library to "optimized storage". But it's loading and loading until the drive is full. The problem is that the drive is full and can therefore no longer be synchronized. When I take new photos with the iPhone now, they are no longer displayed on the Mac in the Photos app because there is no synchronization due to insufficient space on my drive. This error would also occur again on the volume with 50GB. I don't understand how this problem can even occur. A few months ago under macOS 14 I never had this problem and so the “optimized storage” option doesn’t make any sense.

How do I get this problem solved? I'm even not able to see new pictures on my Mac taken with my iPhone. Only way to solve this is to delete the library and make a new one. Day by day...

 

[StevenB14]

I guess I'm now looking for the same answer because my 50GB volume just hit the same issue. I'm starting to think that I'm just not going to bother with the Mac photos app day to day and use the iCloud web version. Will possibly put my photo library on an external drive and take a full backup of the photos there.

 

[Quarkii]

Seems that it’s a new bug maybe?!