Photos - Can't figure out how to turn off iCloud or ensure that I have all originals on my mac.

[punkwood]

I'm am trying to turn off iCloud syncing and ensure that all of my photos are local and that they are the originals. Attached are my current settings (on 12.7.6). The first is from the photos app, the second is from the system settings, the third is a banner showing at the top of the photos section of icloud.com (it seems there are too many places that icloud is options are scattered about, it is confusing). Lastly is the email I received after turning syncing off in iCloud.com

Now, looking at my photos app, it seems my full library is in there. But are they originals? Or, as this email I received implies, do I need to download my photos from the cloud now? The email seems to be specific to downloading the photos to iOS devices though, which I don't intend to do. If not, are the ones in my photos app the originals? And how do I know?

I don't want to wake up 29 days from now to a photo library lost. Any assistance would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Madonepro]

I would turn iCloud back on, select download originals, and leave it at that. If you don't want to use iCloud, once you have selected download originals, open up the Photos App, go to Library, then select All Photos on the title bar, the command A, and drag to a folder, maybe call it Photo's, and once all the photos have been copied over, have a look to ensure they are the originals. You can then put that folder wherever you like.

If you actually want to use the photos app, I would do the first suggestion above.

It's highly likely you have exceeded the 'data allowance' that you have. So if you know you have not paid any extra for iCloud, it's quite probable, you have exceed the free 5GB amount with that volume of photos and videos.

 

[punkwood]

Thank you. Some clarifying questions:

I would turn iCloud back on

Do you mean turn iCloud back on in the photos app? Or also in my system settings and in icloud.com?

select download originals, and leave it at that.

Once I select this, will I see it downloading originals, or will it seem as if nothing happened?

If you actually want to use the photos app, I would do the first suggestion above.

I would like to continue using the photos app. So by the first suggestion do you mean just turn iCloud on, select download originals and leave it at that? I am not sure how I want to use iCloud at the moment, I just know that I want to start fresh and know that what I have on my harddrive is all of my originals, and not have to wonder about what is or isn't in the cloud. Then I have a ton of photo rearranging to do. Once all is clean and the way I want it, I may then start using iCloud again to sync them. But at the moment I am unsure what versions of what photos are where.

It's highly likely you have exceeded the 'data allowance' that you have. So if you know you have not paid any extra for iCloud, it's quite probable, you have exceed the free 5GB amount with that volume of photos and videos.

Where does this come into play? It seems like it shouldn't be relevant for what I initially want to do, which is simply have all of the original versions of photos (with no duplicates of optimized versions) on my HD. Although I do see how this will be relevant if/when I decide to sync again.

I also really do not want my photos to sync to my iPhone, and it seems that syncing must go both ways. I cannot just have photos I take on my phone go to my photos app, the photos app must also go to my phone.

 

[Madonepro]

can I suggest you visit this link.https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/icloud/mm7e90c1ba48/icloud

 

[Brian33]

@punkwood , I understand your concern! I would be wondering whether I had all the originals, also.

In your Photos.app settings, how long a time period did you have BOTH "iCloud Photos" checked AND "Download Originals to this Mac" selected (turned on)? Minutes? Days? Weeks?

If you were previously using Photos.app setting "Optimize Mac Storage" and then changed it to "Download Originals", then unchecked "iCloud Photos" soon after, I would wonder if there had been enough time for all files to be downloaded. On the other hand, if you had "Download Originals" turned on for weeks before unchecking "iCloud Photos", I would be less concerned (but I'd still wonder...).

I think your question is an important one. There should be a way to know for sure that all originals were downloaded, but I don't know of one.

@Madonepro 's idea of dragging ALL items from the Library view in Photos.app into a folder SHOULD put one file into the folder for each photo or video. You could then verify that the folder contained 9370 photos + 324 videos = 9694 files in total (according to your email). This may take awhile!

To attempt to decide if they were originals or thumbnails, you could sort by size and look at the smallest ones. If some were "significantly" smaller, they might be thumbnails. But I don't really know how small (or large) thumbnail files would be, so again, it's still difficult to know for sure.

(Side note: know that if you drag items from Photos.app into a folder, the folder should contain all the originals, but it will NOT preserve any edits (e.g., cropping, rotating, color adjusting, etc.) that you have done. Thus this isn't a very good backup strategy if you care about your edits. Another way of "getting" all your photos is to use the Photos.app menu item "File-->Export--> and from there you can choose "Export x Photos" to get edited versions, or "Export Unmodified Originals for x Photos" to ignore edits. (I forgot to mention you first need to go to the Library section on the left side, then hit Cmd-A to select All.) You can have them numbered sequentially which may be helpful.)

I'll think about it some more. If I come up with any other ideas, I'll let you know.

 

[Honza1]

I am not sure what is so challenging here...
If you choose iCloud Photos AND check the checkbox "Download originals to this Mac", you will have originals on your Mac. I do.
On iOS the option to have originals or smaller versions is "Optimize iPhone Storage"(smaller) and "Download and keep originals" (originals).
BTW: did you look inside the Photos Library for folder "Originals"? And did you look inside that? These originals, depending what format you have chosen, are either jpg or heic image and if you take live photos, also mov file with the same name.

If you choose iCloud photos on your Mac and iPhone, photos will sync both ways. I have iCloud photos on 2 macs, iPad, and iPhone and, as far as I can say, I have all the same photos everywhere synced relatively quickly. Use it all the time among the devices.
For sensible Photos libraries (I have 65GB) this seems to work fine. Those with much larger ones have bit more of challenge ;-)

 

[punkwood]

I am not sure what is so challenging here...
If you choose iCloud Photos AND check the checkbox "Download originals to this Mac", you will have originals on your Mac. I do.
On iOS the option to have originals or smaller versions is "Optimize iPhone Storage"(smaller) and "Download and keep originals" (originals).
BTW: did you look inside the Photos Library for folder "Originals"? And did you look inside that? These originals, depending what format you have chosen, are either jpg or heic image and if you take live photos, also mov file with the same name.

If you choose iCloud photos on your Mac and iPhone, photos will sync both ways. I have iCloud photos on 2 macs, iPad, and iPhone and, as far as I can say, I have all the same photos everywhere synced relatively quickly. Use it all the time among the devices.
For sensible Photos libraries (I have 65GB) this seems to work fine. Those with much larger ones have bit more of challenge ;-)

Turning everything on and having it all sync up and downloading originals is well and good. lt is all of the confusing messaging that begins to appear when you want to turn it all off, especially as I am unsure how long I had certain options turned off or on for, what is in the cloud and what isn't and so forth.

However, it seems that turning it all on, letting the originals download and starting from there is the way to go. The thing is nothing happens when I choose to download originals, which makes me think I already have them all downloaded.

 

[Honza1]

Turning everything on and having it all sync up and downloading originals is well and good. lt is all of the confusing messaging that begins to appear when you want to turn it all off, especially as I am unsure how long I had certain options turned off or on for, what is in the cloud and what isn't and so forth.

However, it seems that turning it all on, letting the originals download and starting from there is the way to go. The thing is nothing happens when I choose to download originals, which makes me think I already have them all downloaded.

It's likely you have all downloaded. But, sync photos seems to be low priority process and make take serious time. I am not sure if there is any progress bar for it. I would watch the size of the photos library (in Finder) and number of photos (in Photos) and if nothing changes over few hours, assume all is done. Stupid method, but should be reasnably reliable.