Photos library on external hard drive shows a cloud on every item

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Photos library on external hard drive shows a cloud on every item

Hi there,

I was going through old Photos Libraries stored on external hard drives. I have come across one which was last used in 2023 with my old iMac 27 which had High Sierra on it but was as up-to-date as it could be. This library has 360 GB of photos and videos on it. I have a newer iMac 24 which I bought a few days after the date of the last photo in that library. I had to recover the library in order to use it on my newer iMac 24 which has been upgraded to Tahoe. The concern is that most if not all photos and videos stored in this library now show a white cloud in the lower right corner. I've never come across this before.

What do I need to do to resolve this cloud issue. I don't believe this library was stored in iCloud but I could be wrong.

Also, when I checked this library initially on the external HD it showed that it was 362 GB. but it now shows that is taking up 334 GB on there. Could someone explain the issue, please, and what do I need to do to resolve this?

With many thanks...

Lynn

iMac (M1, 2021)

Posted on Oct 29, 2025 10:49 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

200,387 points

Oct 30, 2025 4:18 AM in response to LynnQ

Lynn, have you been using iCloud Photos on your Mac in 2023, when you saved this library to the external drive? A copy of a photos library that has been syncing with iCloud Photos may be incomplete, if the originals have not yet been downloaded from iCloud Photos, when you saved this copy of the library.

In that case you need to make this library your system photos library and enable iCloud Photos, as Brian has already pointed out, so your library can sync with iCloud Photos and download the missing originals (if they are still in iCloud after all these years). But this will cause all photos currently in the library to be merged into your iCloud Photos Library and the photos from the iCloud Photos library to be merged into your external library, because iCloud Photos will sync the two libraries to make them identical.

Do you want to make this restored library your current iCloud Photos Library?

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Answer 2

Oct 29, 2025 10:58 PM in response to LynnQ

A cloud icon (as you have correctly described) shows photos that have not been downloaded.

Click the icons to download the photos.

Good luck! 👋🏼😉

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Answer 3

LynnQ Author

Level 1

10 points

Oct 30, 2025 6:01 AM in response to léonie

Hello Leonie and Smilin-Brian,

Many thanks for your responses. From what has been indicated I suspect that this library must have been in iCloud. I would have just copied that photos library file over to an external drive. I suspect this explains the small cloud icons, many of which have now disappeared overnight, but not all.

I have a newer copied photos library so I think I may just ignore this problem one. I was looking for some missing items but they don't show up because they are later than the date of the last item on this library.

This all began when I couldn't open a video on an SD card but I've now found a way to access that and save it.

Now to check the other backed-up photos libraries. I just need to know what is on each external drive which means converting it to the newer Tahoe version. My 2011 iMac is having "issues" so I have to move these into newer accessible formats. Apart from this one library everything else has gone well.

Thanks again to you both for your assistance, I always appreciate the help.

Lynn

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Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

200,387 points

Oct 30, 2025 6:05 AM in response to LynnQ

You're welcome, Lynn.

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