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I am using iCloud Photos and my settings are like this:
Now, my photos occupy 4.4 GB on the iCloud:
but 7.37 GB on my Mac (according to System Settings/General/Storage):
or 7.5 GB (according to Finder):
I'm not really worried about the storage space since I have plenty but I'm wondering why the discrepancies. What is the real total size of my photos and why do I get three different numbers?
Mac mini 2018 or later
What does the Info in the Finder show for your Library? Look at the dates for "last modified". Sometime the last modification date is way off, and then the reported size will also not be the current size.
It is to be expected, that the library on your Mac will have additional working copies, that are not in iCloud, for example the faces thumbnails, the projects, also previews for the Media Browser, the caches of the background processes.
And external editors are also caching data in library package. Sometimes these additional working copies can be as large as 25% of the total size of the original files. That is just an estimate, it will depend on the format of your original files and the external editors you are using.
To convince yourself, what Photos is storing, select the Photos Library in the Finder, then hold down the CTRL-key while clicking the library. Use the command "Show Package Contents". You will now see the folders inside the library. Just look, don't touch.
The folder "originals" is storing the downloaded originals and should be the largest item. The folder "resources" is holding most of the additional working copies and will probably be the second largest folder.
What does the Info in the Finder show for your Library? Look at the dates for "last modified". Sometime the last modification date is way off, and then the reported size will also not be the current size.
It is to be expected, that the library on your Mac will have additional working copies, that are not in iCloud, for example the faces thumbnails, the projects, also previews for the Media Browser, the caches of the background processes.
And external editors are also caching data in library package. Sometimes these additional working copies can be as large as 25% of the total size of the original files. That is just an estimate, it will depend on the format of your original files and the external editors you are using.
To convince yourself, what Photos is storing, select the Photos Library in the Finder, then hold down the CTRL-key while clicking the library. Use the command "Show Package Contents". You will now see the folders inside the library. Just look, don't touch.
The folder "originals" is storing the downloaded originals and should be the largest item. The folder "resources" is holding most of the additional working copies and will probably be the second largest folder.
Hello Jerry_D,
Welcome to Apple Support Communities. Since iCloud and device storage are separate, it is expected that these numbers will not match. iCloud storage does not reflect device storage but can help you make the most of your available Mac's internal storage. What's the difference between device storage and iCloud storage? explains this in further detail.
We understand that you mentioned you're not concerned about the storage but you can optimize your Mac's photo storage by storing the originals on iCloud. As mentioned in Optimize storage in Photos on Mac, "If you use iCloud Photos, you can turn on Optimize Mac Storage to conserve storage space on your Mac. This option stores smaller versions of your photos on your Mac when storage space is limited, and keeps the original, full-size photos in iCloud."
All the best.
Thanks a lot!
Since my original post two days ago, I have not touched my Mac (it has stayed in the sleep mode) and I have used my iPhone to make two short videos and 5-6 photos. I have later deleted all these photos but one (also from the Recently Deleted album).
Today my iCloud shows 4.5 GB taken by the photos, System Settings/General/Storage on the Mac shows 5.26 GB and the Finder shows 5.39 for the Photo library of which the Originals folder takes 4.52 GB.
This is the situation I can understand, also taking into account all the extras that you mention which are stored in the local library and not in the iCloud. Why it was so strange two days ago (about 70% more on the Mac compared to the iCloud!) I do not understand.
Thanks again for your excellent and kind help!
"Why it was so strange two days ago (about 70% more on the Mac compared to the iCloud!) I do not understand."
The Finder has occasionally shown very strange file sizes for the Library. The reason might be, that the library is a bundled package of many files. We are only seeing the wrapper in the Finder. When the background processes modify the internal files, the size shown for the package in the Finder will not always been updated right away, also the "date modified". The Photos Library can temporarily become very large, when the library is upgraded to a new system version and the background processes need to cache a lot of data.
Thanks again for your invaluable input! You are of course right, something must have been happening at the time (you may notice in my original post that the "date modified" shown in Finder was "today at 21:58") that made the library grow in size temporarily and then go back to reasonable levels two days later. Personally I cannot recall any of my activities that might have provoked that but Apple sometimes works in mysterious ways :-).
Thanks a lot for your kind support.
Please also refer to my answer to léonie further in this discussion.
Photos taking more space on Mac than on iCloud
