Photos System Library on external drive bloating after saving Photos to iCloud
The problem still exists with OS Ventura with a 2019 21.5 inch Retina 4K iMac (OS Ventura 13.4). On signing up for 2TB of iCloud storage, I tried to save my 500GB photos library to iCloud. At 500GB it was already too large for the computer drive of 250GB but the external hard drive was only 1TB and after the file swelled to 998GB, Photos wouldn't open because the storage was full. I have moved it to a 1.5TB drive and it is currently 1.1TB full and 391GB available. How big will it get before reducing back to normal size? The idea was to save lower res versions on the computer with the full res in iCloud. Something odd is happening here. No sign yet of any space being given back to the external (spinning ) HDD. Is patience and faith required or is there something I can do to fill my iCloud and not my hard drive?
iMac 21.5″, macOS 13.4