iCloud Photos synchronizes your pictures across your devices, creating a seamless experience. This means a copy of your photo library resides in iCloud, mirroring your Mac’s library. Any changes made on one device, like adding or deleting a photo, are reflected across all synced devices. Importantly, iCloud Photos is a synchronization service, not a backup. Deleting a photo on your Mac also removes it from iCloud. While deleted photos move to the Recently Deleted album for potential recovery, caution is advised.
iCloud Photos doesn’t inherently free up space on your Mac. However, enabling “Optimize Mac Storage” within iCloud Photos settings allows your Mac to store smaller image versions, preserving full-resolution files in iCloud. This potentially saves significant storage space over time, though the effect isn’t immediate.
Initial synchronization can take days. Potential roadblocks include incompatible photos or videos, often due to codec issues, particularly with videos. A Smart Album with the criteria “Photo is unable to upload to iCloud Photo Library” can isolate problematic files. If this doesn’t work, identifying the specific files causing the issue requires further investigation.
