How to delete photos from MacBook but not iCloud?
How to delete photos from MacBook but not iCloud?
I’ve been struggling to free up some space on my MacBook, and I realized that my photo library is taking up a lot of storage. I want to delete some of these photos from my MacBook to reclaim some space, but these photos are also synced to my iCloud account. The catch is, I don’t want to lose these photos from iCloud because I still want to be able to access them from my other devices. I’m worried that deleting them from my MacBook might also remove them from iCloud, and I definitely don’t want that to happen. How can I manage my storage effectively without losing any of my precious photos in the cloud?
5 Answers
Freeing up space on your MacBook while keeping your iCloud photos intact can be done as follows:
1. Temporarily turn off iCloud Photo Library by going to System Preferences > iCloud and unchecking the Photos option.
2. Delete the desired photos from the Photos app on your MacBook.
3. Use the ‘Optimize Mac Storage’ setting to manage your local storage effectively.
4. After deleting, verify that the photos are still in iCloud by checking iCloud.com.
5. Re-enable iCloud Photo Library by going to System Preferences and checking Photos once again.
Taking these steps, you can secure your iCloud photos and manage your MacBook’s storage efficiently.
Here’s a step-by-step process that worked for me:
1. Open System Preferences, then click on ‘Apple ID’ or ‘iCloud’.
2. Find ‘Photos’ and unselect it to stop syncing.
3. Open the Finder and go to your Pictures folder.
4. Locate the Photos Library, open it, and delete the photos you wish to remove.
5. Double-check on iCloud.com to make sure your photos are still there.
6. Finally, go back to System Preferences and re-enable iCloud Photos.
I found this to be an effective way of managing my local storage without losing any cloud-stored photos.
To address your problem, follow these steps:
1. In the Photos app, navigate to Photos > Preferences > iCloud and uncheck the ‘iCloud Photos’ box.
2. Use an external hard drive or USB stick to create a backup of your photos.
3. Proceed to delete the photos from your MacBook to free up space.
4. Log into iCloud.com to verify that the photos remain stored in the cloud.
5. Once you confirm everything is in place, go back and re-enable iCloud Photos in the Photos app.
This method ensures that your iCloud photos remain untouched while you clear up your MacBook’s storage.
I suggest taking the following approach to solve this issue:
1. First, disable iCloud Photos temporarily by going to System Preferences > Apple ID > uncheck Photos.
2. Manually move the photos you want to delete to an external storage device to create a backup.
3. Once you have your external backup, delete the photos from your MacBook.
4. Visit iCloud.com and make sure your photos are still safely stored.
5. Re-enable iCloud Photos by going back to System Preferences and checking the box again.
By doing so, you ensure your cloud storage is unaffected while freeing up space on your MacBook.
From my experience, you should first turn off the iCloud Photo Library on your MacBook. This will prevent any changes you make locally from affecting your cloud storage. Here’s how:
1. Open the Photos app.
2. Go to Photos > Preferences > iCloud.
3. Uncheck the ‘iCloud Photos’ box. This will temporarily stop the syncing process.
4. Now, delete the photos you want to get rid of from your MacBook.
5. After you’re done, go back and re-enable iCloud Photos.
This ensures the photos stay in iCloud while being removed from your local storage.