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muhMario Author

Level 1

13 points

Not enough disk space so I can't download high res photos from iCloud

Photos Library: When attempting to switch from Optimize Mac Storage to Download all Originals to this Mac, I keep getting the error that I don't have enough storage so the download fails to start... I thought I had plenty of storage. The About this Mac | Storage tab said I had plenty of storage, but a substantial amount was "Purgable". However, when I used Disk Utility, it said I had a lot less free storage. No matter how many files I deleted to make room for downloading my photos from iCloud, the Disk Utility's amount of free storage would not increase.

MacBook

Posted on Apr 4, 2021 7:58 AM

Top-ranking reply

muhMario Author

Level 1

13 points

Posted on Apr 4, 2021 8:17 AM

The discrepancy between the amount of available storage listed under About This Mac, Storage tab and the amount of free available storage using Disk Utility was caused because several Time Machine snapshots were taking up several Gb of storage on my Mac. Even though About This Mac, Storage tab listed the TM snapshots space used as "Purgeable" space, Photos didn't recognize this. Apple says the TM snapshots would auto-purge when the space was needed, but this isn't the case when attempting to switch Photos from Optimize in iCloud to Download all Photos to this Mac.

The solution: Delete the Time Machine locally stored snapshots on the Mac to free up the purgeable space. In order to do this, open a Terminal window and give the following command: tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 999999999999999 4

h/t Sam, tier III Apple Support.

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Not enough disk space so I can't download high res photos from iCloud

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