Turning off iCloud photos on my mac

Question

Andreachan_8 Author

Level 1

4 points

Turning off iCloud photos on my mac

Hi,

I have been trying to find an answer for the bolded question based on this info:

1) All my original photos/videos are stored on my Mac.

2) And all of those photos/videos are also in sync on my iCloud.

3) I go to Mac Photos -->settings-->iCloud, and if I disable "iCloud Photos", I am understanding it would stop syncing future photos & videos that I add to my Mac photo library but what happens to the photos and videos stored in my Mac (Photos library=100GB), and already in Sync with iCloud?

I am reading different outcomes and it makes me nervous because I do not want to lose 12K original photos &videos that I have in my mac library. I want all those 100gb of photos and videos to remain in my Mac, as they are right now, but I want my iCloud to stop syncing my future additions to my Mac library.

Thank you

MacBook Air 13″

Posted on Nov 5, 2024 10:57 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Andreachan_8 Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 6, 2024 9:39 AM in response to AlWeir

Hi,

Yes I have. An External SSD.

I have read the same advice (“make sure you have a copy of your data”) but why? Does that mean iCloud will erase my photos/videos from my Mac? That’s the part I don’t understand about a sync service such as iCloud.

Let me know and thank you for the prompt reply!

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Answer 2

AlWeir

Level 4

2,623 points

Nov 6, 2024 10:00 AM in response to Andreachan_8

I don't trust online back routines like iCloud. Yes I use it sparely, but I also use OneDrive with Office for Mac and use to use Google, but would prefer a local copy so that if something goes missing on any of them I have a back up.

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Answer 3

Andreachan_8 Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 6, 2024 10:19 AM in response to AlWeir

Yes I agree with you. It was a rookie mistake. I paid for iCloud thinking it was a backup server, but it is not. Now I have Amazon photos and videos as an additional backup cloud service.

Now I’m trying to get off iCloud without losing my data on my Mac.

I did the experiment of turning off syncing my Mac Notes from iCloud and when I opened my Mac a few days ago my local Notes were gone. A blank page.

I checked iCloud and all the Notes are online, which it seems absurd to me that iCloud deletes the point of origin of the syncing…

Pretty frustrating on how complicated it is to “cancel/unsubscribe” from iCloud …

😪

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Answer 4

AlWeir

Level 4

2,623 points

Nov 6, 2024 6:38 AM in response to Andreachan_8

Have you backed up all your photos and videos and anything else you want to save that are stored on your mac to a external SSD?

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