Icloud Photo Library Mac Release

  1. Icloud Photo Library Mac Release 2017
  2. Photolibrary

2020-3-3  iCloud Photos works with the Photos app to keep your photos and videos securely stored in iCloud, and up to date on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, Apple TV, and iCloud.com. How it works iCloud Photos automatically keeps every photo and video you take in iCloud, so you can access your library from any device, anytime you want. Apple is rolling out the first pre-release seed of OS X 10.10.3 to testers and developers today including the all-new Photos app with support for iCloud Photo Library beta. Previously, iCloud.

When people lose their wallet, phone, or computer, it’s often not the money they miss, but the photos. This shouldn’t be the case! With recent developments in accessible and affordable tech, there are lots of easy and convenient solutions to ensure that even if your devices get lost, stolen, or damaged, you still have your photos to enjoy.

It’s likely that you have multiple photo libraries scattered across different devices, which makes managing your files and backups extra difficult. Don’t fear! Below are quick catch-all solutions to reconfigure your mobile device, cloud storage, and computer back into backup harmony.

Secure your photos with Setapp

ICloud Drive. Safely store and access all your files in iCloud Drive. Share any file right from File Explorer. Invite people to collaborate with you using a link and edits will be updated on all your devices. Save space on your PC by keeping your files in iCloud Drive only. Choose the files and folders you want to keep on your PC. This is what I did, but I caveat it with the fact that I have no idea what else this may mess up. I know it will delete all passwords you have stored in keychain, and I read that it could stop access to secured/private notes if you use them.

It’s an all-in-one package with 170+ apps that helps you sync iOS and macOS content, as well as solve many more tasks on Mac.

Where Are Photos Stored On Mac?

Most Mac and iPhone users used to the iPhoto library may be asking, “Where are my photos on my Mac now?” Truth is, with the OS X 10.10.3 (Yosemite) release, the new Photos app has effectively replaced iPhoto for Mac. So the first step now would be to open Photos from your Dock or Launchpad and take a look at Albums to see what you got in there.

Use a Mac to restore your corrupted iCloud Photo Library Try repairing your photo library using a Mac, if one is available to you. Apple’s Mac computers feature a repair tool to restore corrupted databases in the iCloud Photo Library. If you have access to a Mac, you can attempt to repair your iCloud Photo Library using this tool. 2020-4-5  tvOS 9.2 enables several features missing from the initial tvOS release, including long-awaited support for wireless keyboards, dictation, Siri support for App Store searches, app folders on the Home screen, a revamped app switcher, Siri Remote improvements, support for Live Photos and iCloud Photo Library and more. 2015-3-18  Only the Photos (Beta) on a Mac is off-llimits, since no beta tester is allowed to speak about it. Do not risk your main photo libraries by moving them to iCloud Photo Library, before this service is out of Beta state.It is very risky. The Beta release is not stable.

Just so you know, the iPhoto app will still work if you already have it installed on your computer. So in the battle of iPhoto vs Photos, it doesn’t make a huge difference which one you use. What’s important is that, if you use both, you may have different content in separate locations.

Within the Apple ecosystem, iCloud is the default cloud storage system that keeps a version of your all photos online. What’s great is that by using Photos or iPhotos, it automatically uploads the photos you take and stores them on its servers.

iCloud allows your iPhone, Mac, or another Apple Storage device such as an Apple Time Capsule to be an extension of others. But don’t rely on it too heavily as this type of setup is sync-based, which means that if you delete a photo on one device, it’ll be deleted elsewhere.

For that reason, if you’re serious about not losing your precious pictures, here are some quick and convenient ways that might just save the day.

How to backup Mac to iCloud

Let’s start with the bare minimum photo backup job. With pictures in the Photos app being automatically backed up to iCloud, what about photos in other libraries? Or what happens if you don’t use an iOS device to capture your life?

There are quite a few locations where photos might live on your Mac. Take a look at the Pictures folder, hard drive locations, Desktop, and Downloads folder. The key is to have anything you wish to upload to iCloud moved to the iPhoto app.

How to backup photos on Mac to iCloud:

  1. Go through the list of locations above for photos that aren't already in your iPhoto library

  2. Drag and drop the content into the iPhoto app

Now do the reverse. Duplicating iCloud and creating an offline backup will allow you to put your photos on an external hard drive or into other backup systems, thus making it easier to create multiple backups and save you from any disaster.

Unfortunately, photos do take up a large amount of storage on your Mac, which can lead to your computer slowing down. This is just another solid reason for why you should transfer your photos onto an external hard drive.

How to download iCloud photos to Mac:

  1. Open the iPhoto app

  2. Click Photos under the Library heading in the menu bar and select Preferences from the dropdown or use the keyboard shortcut Command + comma

  3. Navigate to the iCloud tab

  4. Check the box next to Download Originals to this Mac

There you have it — every photo that gets sent to the iCloud will download itself onto your Mac as well. And now that your photos are saved on your Mac, you can use Time Machine to transfer them to an external hard drive.

How to backup MacBook photos to external hard drive

Apple clearly recognizes the importance of backing up your photos, and that’s why your Mac comes with its own backup app Time Machine already installed.

The benefit of using Time Machine is that you can automate your backups, which could include apps, music, photos, emails, documents, and system files. To create backups with Time Machine, all you need is an external storage device.

To perform a photo backup using Time Machine:

  1. Set up and connect your external hard drive

  2. Select Use As Backup Disk when prompted by the pop-up window

  3. Time Machine will now begin a backup of your Mac

If you can’t see a pop-up window right away, then open Time Machine from System Preferences and click Select Backup Disk manually.

Depending on how many photos you have, the transfer process could take some time. So give yourself a pat on the back while you wait. Although, you should consider some potential hazards just before you tick this task off the to-do list.

Time Machine could sometimes be fairly superficial and you might encounter some issues if you ever need to recover and restore you Mac. For one, Time Machine requires an Apple specific HFS+ filesystem to store backups, so it won’t back up files that don’t conform to this format. Additionally, the backups Time Machine creates aren’t bootable, which means that you can’t actually restore your device to the exact state you had before.

How to transfer photos from Mac to external hard drive

If you decide not to use Time Machine, there’s a simple workaround for your iPhoto library. To move photos library to external hard drive, you just require a little drag-and-drop magic.

How to backup photos on Mac manually:

  1. Plug in your external hard drive and follow the setup instructions if you have not done so already

  2. Open a Finder window and select your external hard drive from the Locations in the sidebar

  3. Launch the iPhoto app from the Dock and move it just so you can see both the Finder window and the app window

  4. Press Command + A to highlight all photos

  5. Drag and drop the highlighted photos onto the external hard drive window

For those who have more than one iPhoto library, it's important to create backups for all of them. As mentioned above, look in your Pictures folder, all drives, Desktop, and Downloads folder for any rogue images that you want to have backed up.

How to backup a Mac completely

Picture this predicament. You’ve put all of your eggs in one company’s basket, and they have a data breach. Now your files and folders are potentially compromised in the hands of someone else.

This is why you should consider using trustworthy options to store additional backups. A robust backup app like Get Backup Pro offers secure diversified storage. As well as backup, archive, disk cloning, and folder sync software for Mac, you can use Get Backup Pro to quickly create bootable backups so you can get back up in minutes.

The aptly named Get Backup Pro takes securing archives to the next level. Using encryption types AES-128, AES-256, Blowfish, or Triple DES, it gives you an option to protect all your backups with a password.

How to backup a Mac with encryption:

  1. Open Get Backup Pro

  2. Click the plus button to add a new backup project

  3. Enter the project name, such as “Photos,” and hit OK

  4. In Select A Destination, choose your external hard drive

  5. Check the box next to Encryption and select one from the dropdown menu

Additional photo backup and recovery

To complement Get Backup Pro, Disk Drill is recovery software that lets you resurrect deleted or lost files and folders, yes, including your photo library.

Bring back whatever is lost

If you’ve accidentally deleted an important photo, make sure you have Disk Drill installed on Mac. This powerful app will revive anything.

As well as it being another place to store backups of your Mac, Disk Drill has a handy duplicate remover so that you aren't clogging up precious memory space in your drives. Before you get straight into a photo backup, make sure you allow Disk Drill to make changes to your drives in your Security & Privacy System Preferences.

How to create recoverable backup files:

  1. Open Disk Drill

  2. Select Macintosh HD

  3. Hit Recover

  4. Hey presto! Disk Drill will start creating a bootable backup file right away.

Taking the extra time now to protect what’s important will save you from future heartbreak. What’s more is that the apps mentioned above, Disk Drill and Get Backup Pro, are all free to try on Setapp.

Setapp is the app subscription that has your back. As well as offering life-saving tech, it has over 150 apps that will make your Mac-life what you always dreamed.

As Setapp is free during a 7-day trial, you can enjoy browsing through the app categories where you will find plenty of apps that will make you say, “Oh I could really use that!”

As we use desktop and laptop computers, we tend to fill up our hard drives with stuff we've collected over the years. It's like an attic, basement, or garage that slowly fills up over time. Some stuff gets used often, other stuff sits in a box and gets forgotten about. Eventually, though, the clutter becomes too much and you have to start getting rid of things. But how do you sort the import stuff from the trash? That's where Optimized Storage comes in.

Optimized Storage takes files you've been storing in iCloud and moves them off of your computer if your local storage gets too full. It also leaves behind an icon of the item that has been removed so that, when you finally do want to access it again, you don't have to go somewhere different to find it. You can just click on the file and it will download back onto your computer when it's online.

There are four features to Optimized Storage that you can enable separately or all together. You can use Store in iCloud, Optimize Storage, Empty Trash Automatically, and Reduce Clutter.

Thank you to our community and to all of our readers who are working to aid others in this time of crisis, and to all of those who are making personal sacrifices for the good of their communities. We will continue to give you accurate and timely information throughout the crisis, and we will deliver on our mission — to help everyone in the world learn how to do anything — no matter what. Where is library on mac.

How to access Optimized Storage

There are two ways to access Optimized Storage. The first is easy. Do nothing until your storage gets full. When it does, you'll get a notification asking if you want to optimize your storage. Click Yes to be directly taken to the Optimized Storage tool window.

To access Optimized Storage manually:

  1. Click on the Apple icon in the upper left corner of your screen.

  2. Select About this Mac from the drop-down menu.

    Source: iMore

  3. Click on the Storage tab in the System Information window.

  4. Click on Manage.

    Source: iMore

This opens up the four Optimized Storage tools, which are on the right side of the window.

How to use Store in iCloud

Store in iCloud allows you to store older photos, files, and messages in the cloud, freeing up space on your hard drive. Messages stay on your hard drive until your hard drive starts to get full. When you're running out of room, photos, files, and messages will automatically be stored in iCloud and only recent attachments will stay on your Mac for quick and easy access.

  1. Click on the Apple icon in the upper left corner of your screen.

  2. Select About this Mac from the drop-down menu.

    Source: iMore

  3. Click on the Storage tab in the System Information window.

  4. Click on Manage.

    Source: iMore

  5. Click on Store in iCloud in the Store in iCloud section of the window.

  6. Click on Store in iCloud again to confirm that you want to enable the feature to automatically store photos, files, and messages in iCloud when your hard drive gets full.

    Source: iMore

How to stop syncing Desktop and Documents folders in iCloud on your Mac

If you've tried out Desktop and Documents folder syncing in iCloud but decided you don't like it, you can stop syncing. If you disable syncing, Desktop files will no longer appear on a secondary Mac computer's desktop, but they will still be in a file in iCloud Drive, which you can move them out of. Your Documents folder will also still be visible in iCloud Drive, which you can also move.

  1. Click the Apple icon in the upper left corner of your Mac's screen.

  2. Click System Preferences in the drop-down menu.

    Source: iMore

  3. Click on Apple ID.
  4. Click on Options next to iCloud Drive.

  5. Untick the Desktop & Documents Folders box.

    Source: iMore

How to use Optimize Storage

Optimize Storage relates to storing media in the cloud that is not necessarily already in your iCloud storage, specifically movies and TV shows you have already watched on iTunes. When you select Optimize Storage, it will remove these files from your computer. If you want to watch them again, you can redownload them from iTunes.

It also gives you the option to store your email attachments. You can set it up so that recent email attachments are stored on your Mac, or you can store all of your email attachments in the cloud and download files that you need when you need them.

  1. Click on Optimize.. in the Optimize Storage section of the window.

  2. Click on Optimize again to confirm that you want to enable the feature to automatically remove iTunes movies and TV shows that you've already watched.

    Source: iMore

How to disable Optimize Storage on your Mac

Optimize Storage automatically removes iTunes movies and TV shows that you've already watched from your Mac. It also only keeps recent email attachments on your Mac when your hard drive starts to run out of room. If you want to keep your movies and TV shows on your hard drive so you don't have to re-download them every time you want to watch them, you can disable the feature.

  1. Click the Apple icon in the upper left corner of your Mac's screen.

  2. Select System Preferences from the drop-down menu.

    Source: iMore

  3. Click on Apple ID.

  4. Click to uncheck the checkbox at the bottom of the window for Optimize Mac Storage.

    Source: iMoreItunes library file is locked on a locked disc mac.

How to use Empty Trash Automatically

It is pretty common for the average computer user to forget to empty the trash bin regularly. Just like a real garbage can, trash can start to add up. Unfortunately, unlike a garbage can, your Mac's trash bin doesn't get full, so you don't realize you've been stocking up digital waste for months and months. Empty Trash Automatically will enable a tool that will erase items that have been in the Trash for more than 30 days. You don't even have to think about it anymore.

  1. Click on Turn On in the Empty Trash Automatically section of the Optimized Storage window.

  2. Click Turn On again to confirm that you want to enable the feature to automatically erase files that have been in the Trash for more than 30 days.

    Source: iMore

How to disable Empty Trash Automatically on your Mac

If you worry that you are going to delete something from your Mac and need it back more than 30 days later, you can disable the feature and go back to manually emptying the trash.

  1. Open a Finder window.
  2. Click on Finder in the upper left corner of your Mac's screen.

  3. Click Preferences in the drop-down menu.

    Source: iMore

  4. Click on Advanced in the Finder Preferences window.

  5. Click to uncheck the checkbox for Remove items from the Trash after 30 days.

    Source: iMore

How to use Reduce Clutter

Reduce Clutter is the one feature in Optimized Storage that requires you to manually clean files on your Mac.

The list of categories on the left side of the Optimized Storage window represents the folders that tend to store files that are older and can be removed from your Mac.

You can either click on Review Files in the Reduce Clutter section of the Optimized Storage window or select a category from the list on the left side of the window.

You can then go through the files individually and decide whether you want to keep or remove them from your Mac.

For example, in the Applications folder, you can view apps on your Mac by type. Older versions of apps you are currently using can sometimes take up dozens of GB of space. You can delete the files right from the Optimized Storage window.

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

Photos on the Mac optimizes storage by letting you store full-resolution photos and videos in iCloud instead of on your internal hard drive. 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.

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.

Photos and videos tend to take up a lot of space. You may find you don't have enough iCloud storage to keep your entire photo library in iCloud. You can upgrade your iCloud storage to a larger plan if you are running out.

Any questions?

Do you have any questions about what Optimized Storage is or how to use the tools? Let me know and I'll help you out.

Icloud Photo Library Mac Release 2017

Updated December 2019: Updated for macOS Catalina.

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