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iCloud Photos effect on MAC Photos after canceling?

According to an email from iCloud.com, "You must download your full resolution photos and videos to at least one device before they are deleted from iCloud Photos in 30 days." Do I really need to do this? The email came after I turned off iCloud Photos on my MAC. My MAC was the only device that had iCloud Photos activated. It was not activated on my iPhone or iPad. Did iCloud change all my photos and videos on my MAC to low resolution versions when I activated iCloud Photos?

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Mar 20, 2023 10:31 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 20, 2023 12:30 PM

That will depend in the Photos > Preferences > iCloud you have used with iCloud.


If you never disabled "Photos > Preferences > iCloud: iCloud Photos > Download originals to this mac" all photos should still be in the full resolution in Photos on your Mac.

But if you used "Optimize Mac Storage" instead of "Download originals to this mac", there may be quite a few high originals be missing and you should save the originals from iCloud.


Usually we should enable " Download originals to this mac" and wait for all originals to be downloaded back from iCloud, before turning iCloud Photos off.


1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 20, 2023 12:30 PM in response to B3234

That will depend in the Photos > Preferences > iCloud you have used with iCloud.


If you never disabled "Photos > Preferences > iCloud: iCloud Photos > Download originals to this mac" all photos should still be in the full resolution in Photos on your Mac.

But if you used "Optimize Mac Storage" instead of "Download originals to this mac", there may be quite a few high originals be missing and you should save the originals from iCloud.


Usually we should enable " Download originals to this mac" and wait for all originals to be downloaded back from iCloud, before turning iCloud Photos off.


iCloud Photos effect on MAC Photos after canceling?

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