120 MACWORLD AUGUST 2019
HELP DESK MAC 911on this particular Mac won’t download
images and videos or upload those
captured or imported locally.
But if the iCloud Photos box is checked,
you need to understand what happens next:
Photos prompts you about whether to check
“Download Originals to this Mac.” If you
choose to do so and hadn’t previously had
that option selected, Photos downloads the
full-resolution versions of all media. You can
opt not to do that, and only synced images
downloaded in full are retained. (More likely,
you’ll want to create a new Photos Library
after you disable iCloud Photos on a single
Mac while keeping it active elsewhere.)
Because iCloud retains the full-
resolution versions of all synced images,
you’re in no danger of losing media even if
you have the optimized option checked
for Photos on other Macs and in iOS. (If
your Mac was the only device in an iCloud-
linked set that had iCloud Photos enabled,
then iCloud will delete your entire library
from cloud storage in 30 days.)
One further note: you might be
tempted to manage this process from the
iCloud system preference pane, but I
recommend handling it entirely within
Photos. That’s in part because there are
two ways to disable iCloud Photos in
System Preferences, and you don’t want to
choose the wrong option.
If you click Options next to Photos in
that pane, it brings up a dialog similar, but
not identical, to the one within Photos.
But if you instead click Manage in the
lower-right corner of the pane and select
iCloud Photos, the only option presented
is Disable and Delete. That removes
iCloud Photos from all your devices and
starts the 30-day countdown to cloud-
based deletion, too. ■