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User profile for user: hihillari
hihillari Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Why won't my Mac allow me to turn toggle "On" for "Apps Using iCloud" for the Photos app?

Desperately trying to import 5,000 or so videos/photos on my iphone into my macbook so that I can then move them into a 2TB external storage block.


When I plug in my iphone into my 2017 Macbook pro with a cable, only a few photos and videos of my 5k photos and videos are being imported. Apple.com says the issue is that my macbook needs to have the photos app using icloud like my iphone is. However, when I go into my macbook settings, click my name, and go to icloud (the steps apple.com says to do for this problem) to toggle "Photos" on under "Apps Using iCloud," I'm unable to get the toggle to move to "On" from "Off." I see the gray spinning wheel when I click for a split second, but then it disappears.


In software updates, it says my Mac is using MacOS Ventura 13.7 and that "Your Mac is up to date." I have 1.75 TB left in iCloud and 14.64 GB left of storage on my computer itself. What's the issue here?



MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 13.7

Posted on Oct 23, 2024 11:45 AM

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2 replies
User profile for user: Richard.Taylor
Richard.Taylor
User level: Level 6
10,206 points

Oct 24, 2024 9:10 AM in response to hihillari

hihillari wrote:… so that I can then move them into a 2TB external storage block.
…
I have … 14.64 GB left of storage on my computer itself.

My first thought is that 14 GB isn't much free space. Apple recommends 10% of your internal drive storage remain free, and you are very close to that.


Also, be careful about your external drive-- you said external storage block, and I don't know what you mean by that. You can operate a Photos Library on an external drive, but to avoid damaging the Photos Library an external drive must be formatted in either APFS format or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. And the external drive must be directly connected by wire-- it can't be a networked drive or cloud storage.

Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support


You say you have a MacBook Pro, and if you use that as a mobile device, you may have problems plugging and unplugging a Photos Library -- lots of background process happen continuously with a Photos Library. I keep my Photos Library on my internal drive, and I have other documents on my external drive.


I understand that your iPhone is connected to iCloud Photos, and that all your pictures are at iCloud.com-- is that correct?


With all that in mind, the easiest thing for you to do to get your pictures from iCloud is to plug in a proper drive and create a new empty Photos Library on that drive. Designate it as the System Library and connect it to iCloud, as muguy said. Then leave everything plugged in and running overnight, with Photos in the background, and all the pictures will be loaded from iCloud.com to your new Library.

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Why won't my Mac allow me to turn toggle "On" for "Apps Using iCloud" for the Photos app?

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