ICloud – way to use iCloud photos as mostly online (reduce local storage usage)

icloudphotos

I'm helping a friend switch from Google Photos to Apple Photos so they can use the tagging features and have a more seamless experience across phone, ipad, and macbook. I am working on importing 200gb of photos into the Photos app (didn't realize there was a way on the icloud website to upload directly). Their hard drive is getting full, and I can't seem to find a setting that tells the Photos app to delete local copies and only download as needed, similar to how FileStream works with Google, or using the google photos app.

Is there no way to do this with iCloud and the Photos app? We both assumed they could continue having most items archived in cloud storage.

Best Answer

An easy way to get to this setting is: Apple Menu () -> About This Mac -> Storage Tab and click the "Manage…" button. The "Store in iCloud" option on the screen that pops up will provide a checkbox for photos: enter image description here

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If you're still noticing that there are a lot of photos taking up space, open Preferences within the Photos app, and on the iCloud tab, ensure "Optimize Mac Storage" is the selected option: enter image description here

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