This library exceeds your available iCloud storage

[ivnj]

This library exceeds your available iCloud storage

When check marking photos in icloud in system preferences it says library exceeds.

But I deleted all the photos from iCloud and have 18gb space left now as a result. And I have no photos on the internal hard drive.

So no reason to be exceeding anything. Does not make any sense.

 

[ivnj]

Any ideas?

 

[chrfr]

Have you deleted the photos from your "Recently Deleted" folder?

 

[ivnj]

Recently deleted from iCloud or my laptop?

 

[ivnj]

In photos I have no recently deleted section.

 

[Brian33]

If there's nothing in your Mac's Photos library, I'd create a brand new Photos library, then try syncing to iCloud again.

To create a new one hold "Option" key while starting the Photos application. You do not have to delete the old one; you can do that later once you're happy with the new one. Only one can be the "System Photos Library" at a time, but you can switch between them each time you launch Photos.

 

[ivnj]

I did that already still no go. Maybe I will just wipe the hard drive and installing Sur when it comes out.

 

[brianmowrey]

Well, basic place to start is a New User test. If it replicates in New User, something is messed up in your iCloud

 

[brianmowrey]

After saying which, I realized I don't even know how one gets iCloud support these days. Seems that on getsupport.apple.com you are meant to navigate from Macs > Desktops > Apple ID & iCloud > My Topic is Not Listed > "Unable to use iCloud storage" or whatever you want to type, then the chat and phone support options will populate.

 

[ivnj]

Thanks for all the help I fixed it. I figured it out. I made 2 partitions on the main internal drive. I did a time machine backup. I downloaded Mojave again and reinstalled the Mojave onto the Second partition. Then restored from the time machine backup on my external drive I of the bad os. I heard the 2020 005 security update good up a lot of things. There was a article about it on another website. I goto users and groups in system preferences and make a new account and nothing happens. It does not show in the users and groups or on the login screen. Only in the users folder in the Macintosh HD. So I cannot even switch users to test as brainmowery suggested. After reinstalling the OS and doing migrate when asked after installing the OS it restored everything and looks exactly as before. But its a fresh OS with no issues and security update installed. It reinstalled all my files and stuff but did leave the system fresh. It did not copy over the system or updates. So now I can make new users. And I checked photos in iCloud in system preferences and it just asked me to select a library to use for that purpose. Open photos with option key held down. Then select library to use. Then goto Photos and Preferences and say Use as System Photo Library. Then quit and go back to iCloud in system preferences. And checkmark Photos. Put in password and its all good. Stays checked and no error about Library Exceeding.

 

[brianmowrey]

Hmm, well, glad it’s working now. Installing to a new partition doesn’t fully get around the Security Update. Your new install is using the same updated firmware version as the old. But if something went wrong with the update in the OS realm, that would explain the problem. In either case it should be safe to try the update again if you want to, because you already “have” it in your firmware anyway.

Question: What do your appleid keychains look like in Keychain Access?

User creation and user password reset also broke for my machine, which had been running Mojave, after the security update. Same behavior - pops a folder into /Users/ but doesn't provision an actual user. Reinstall fixed it, and it’s still working after a month (I’m on Catalina now but tested User creation in the newest version of Mojave on my other drive). Additionally, the update seemingle broke my Keychains, especially for iCloud. They all duplicate like crazy, and the passwords show as encrypted strings of text. Nothing has fixed that, so I’m left to guess that the problem is somehow in firmware.

*edit: attached how my appleid related keychains look if I sign into iCloud now:

 

[ivnj]

I am sorry I am not familiar with keychains. What is exactly wrong or different?

 

[brianmowrey]

I am sorry I am not familiar with keychains. What is exactly wrong or different?

In the Keychain Access app, the com.apple. entries should be a lot more tidy.

But I wouldn't encourage anyone to worry about keychains if they didn't want to get into the weeds. If you have any further iCloud issues later on, it might be something to look into at that point.

 

[ivnj]

In the Keychain Access app, the com.apple. entries should be a lot more tidy.

But I wouldn't encourage anyone to worry about keychains if they didn't want to get into the weeds. If you have any further iCloud issues later on, it might be something to look into at that point.

Tidy how?

 

[brianmowrey]

Without having another machine to test with, I don't want to dig myself into a hole and say what "normal" currently looks like. It used to be ~6-12 entries for appleid even when I was logged into two different iCloud accounts in syspref (one just for mail), but I hadn't looked in a while. After the update it's 20+ entries for one iCloud account in syspref just for mail, and the entries duplicate upon logout/login. Something's wrong on my machine, but I no longer know what's normal, and there's no documentation. So yeah it's not worth worrying about unless iCloud problems return for you...