This is so slow, is it my best option? I've also run into issues where it will say with the new library that it has moved or corrupt? The only way I've been able to fix (repair didn't work) is to delete and start again. So I've been creating a new photos library each year and waiting for the whole things to upload to the cloud, moving the photos library to the external drive and deleting off the mac. However, the photos library grows too big. So I temporarily place on desktop and then upload, it goes fast. The photos app does NOT like importing my large chunks of pictures from the external drive (Western Digital 2 TB). However, I'm halfway there and storage is becoming an issue. I'm in the process of painstakingly uploading my 450 gb of photos onto the cloud and love the backup, and functionality to see all of our pictures over the years. I recently purchased a new Mac Mini with the M1, love it! Went with the 256 GB storage as I have the 2TB cloud plan. Hi there! Great article and very helpful. Any questions?ĭo you have any questions about what Optimized Storage is or how to use the tools? Let me know, and I'll help you out. If you're in the market for a new Mac, consider our favorite MacBooks for the year. How to optimize your photo and video storage on your Mac.You can upgrade your iCloud storage to a larger plan if you are running out. You may find you don't have enough iCloud storage to keep your entire photo library in iCloud. Photos and videos tend to take up a lot of space. Your photos will also remain on your Mac's hard drive until it starts to get full, at which point, photos, and videos - starting with the oldest - will be removed from your Mac and only stored in iCloud.

Even if you don't want to store all of your files and documents in iCloud, you can keep your photos safe while freeing up space on your hard drive. Photos on the Mac optimizes storage by letting you store full-resolution photos and videos in iCloud instead of on your internal hard drive.

Reduce Clutter How to optimize your photo storage if you have iCloud Photo Library

How to clean up mac storage