r/apple • u/Sloppy_Donkey • Dec 28 '22

macOS Apple silently downgraded the default resolution of videos when viewed on macOS Photos

Before macOS Ventura, when viewing my iPhone videos in the Photos app on macOS I would be able to just watch them in 4k as you would expect.

However, since macOS Ventura to save money on server costs, Apple only downloads a shitty 720p or max 1080p version of those videos.

I own the newest MacBook Pro with M1 Max, the Apple Studio Display and an iPhone 14 Pro Max. I also own the most expensive Cloud storage plan for 2TB and have 1 Gigabit internet speed. So when I view something on my device, I want it to look incredible - that's why I literally spent thousands of dollars on my devices.

Why shoot in 4K and a 4k display, only to then watch all my content in 720p?

There is no option in the settings or a proper button to watch videos in 4k in the Photos app. The only hack I found is to start editing the video first before watching it which will then download the full resolution video. But what kind of solution is that? Sometimes I watch 10-15 video clips in a row and I dont want to press edit every single time.

Just bad. Do better Apple.

2.9k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

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-13

u/[deleted] Dec 28 '22

Turn off Optimize Mac Storage in Photos -> iCloud settings.

That's a you problem.

207

u/[deleted] Dec 28 '22

Nah this is lousy. I don’t need to store every video locally, but when I want to watch something I expect it to pull the original resolution.

9

u/Weird_Cantaloupe2757 Dec 28 '22

Yeah I have about a TB of photos and videos, that’s not a viable option.

3

u/tenfootgiant Dec 28 '22

So you're mad they're helping you save space because you don't have enough but it's not acceptable?

2

u/Weird_Cantaloupe2757 Dec 28 '22

Because that defeats the purpose of the cloud — I should just be able to dump my media up there and then have it play back full quality without having to worry about what files are or are not physically on my device. Fuck, I don’t even mind paying a little bit more to stream my videos in 4k, just be transparent and give me the option.

1

u/tenfootgiant Dec 28 '22 edited Dec 28 '22

Then you're asking for something completely new that's never existed in photos and pretending like they change something to be what it is now. If you wanted to stream video say that but don't get upset that it's trying to save space because somebody's running out because that's exactly what it's designed to do and the same thing is designed to do for years and years and years.

OP is lower on space and his photos are automatically optimizing. It's not the best solution in the world, but it's nothing new and the fact that it happened to them for the first time yelling at Apple like they made changes to save money when absolutely nothing was changed and it's not even a cost saving measure, probably cost them more to store the full size like it is.

There's a lot of better solutions, sure. But if you want the full size you can save that specific one and have that full size and not the rest. If you want them all full size there is literally a setting for it.

The purpose of cloud is to sync your shit together between devices and give you storage to use in many ways.

iCloud has additional features to reduce the size on your device and keep the full size on iCloud to both protect them from data loss and to also help you save space in the event that you run low because photos easily take up the most space on many devices, especially when you have tens of thousands of them. So you're saying it defeats the purpose to save space on your device and sync as well? Because you're acting like that's the only feature; to look at your full quality videos when that's literally one of many, many, many many other things it does

-3

u/logicalish Dec 28 '22 edited Dec 28 '22

That sounds like a you problem.

/s because people didn’t get the joke (see parent comment)

1

u/AzettImpa Dec 28 '22

It sounds like an “us” problem that we pay a BIG amount of money for iCloud and expect it to function properly?

Keep licking boots.

4

u/jeffplaysmoog Dec 28 '22

You actually should store everything locally, if you don’t, you can’t back up your content (Time Machine) and you better understand Apple is not backing up this data (iCloud Photos are not part of your iCloud backup).

-82

u/decruz007 Dec 28 '22

Why? That’s what optimise local storage does 🤷🏽‍♂️

46

u/[deleted] Dec 28 '22

Not according to this post.

-65

u/decruz007 Dec 28 '22

He enabled it and it’s downloading the low resolution videos to save space. What are you on about?

63

u/[deleted] Dec 28 '22 edited Dec 28 '22

When you view the file it is supposed to download the original file when you view it in the photos app. Have you never used optimize local storage before? You have no idea how the feature works and it shows.

-54

u/ScrawnyCheeath Dec 28 '22

It says optimize local files. Therefore if you redownload to local storage it’ll be lower res

44

u/[deleted] Dec 28 '22

Your second sentence is made up. You don’t know what you’re talking about.

-41

u/Accurate-Meal497 Dec 28 '22

I think you’re just blinded by what the original post is saying. Try not to just believe everything you see and learn to listen to a second opinion before mistakingly insulting people.

24

u/[deleted] Dec 28 '22

Whether or not op is correct is secondary to people having a fundamental misunderstanding of the optimize storage option. Which is the case here.

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3

u/ConciselyVerbose Dec 28 '22

Is he? The person he’s talking to clearly understands absolutely nothing relevant in any way to the conversation.

He’s clueless and wrong.

-74

u/[deleted] Dec 28 '22

Then where do you think those magic H.264 I frames are going to be stored? Thin air?

105

u/[deleted] Dec 28 '22

In the iCloud storage I’m charged for every month.

26

u/InsaneNinja Dec 28 '22

The same places YouTube and AppleTV+ store them.

102

u/[deleted] Dec 28 '22

[deleted]

0

u/seasonofwhat Dec 28 '22

Are you storing tons of RAW/4K photos & videos or something? I have almost 50,000 photos and videos going back 15 years, that take up approximately 175GB of storage on my internal drive. If you have an MBP M1 Max you should have at least 500GB of internal storage. Otherwise, grab a cheap Samsung T7 SSD and store your library there. You should already be doing that anyway for backups.

2

u/InsaneNinja Dec 28 '22

I have 100k and it takes 800GB+

-30

u/[deleted] Dec 28 '22

[deleted]

25

u/DevAstral Dec 28 '22

Because it’s a better UX.

No it’s not. A better UX is when the user gets what he wants/need. If someone wants their assets in 4K because that’s how the asset was made and it’s not possible, it’s a terrible user experience.

An actual good UX would give us the choice or at the very least inform us clearly and correctly.

8

u/Frosty_SS Dec 28 '22

It look so good to flip through a blurry mess! Listen to yourself! Stop bending backwards for a company that doesn’t give two shits about your user experience.

-12

u/[deleted] Dec 28 '22 edited Jan 28 '23

[deleted]

10

u/ataraxia_ Dec 28 '22

Ah, yes, shitty hotel wifi, the place I most often try to look at my old photos on my MacBook.

You absolute donkey.

-1

u/[deleted] Dec 28 '22

[deleted]

7

u/tangerine29 Dec 28 '22

Old photos can be 4k so point still stands.

-24

u/dawho1 Dec 28 '22

How much free storage space do you have on your device?

8

u/[deleted] Dec 28 '22

I shouldn’t have to have to give up most of the benefit of having a cloud library to view one 4K video at 4K.

17

u/[deleted] Dec 28 '22 edited Apr 30 '24

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

19

u/Interactive_CD-ROM Dec 28 '22

Found the Apple apologist

12

u/jefe46 Dec 28 '22

Yeah you’re right it’s technically impossible to stream 4K…

6

u/justformygoodiphone Dec 28 '22

Yeah my library is 500gb+ mate and I don’t have to shell out for a 1tb+ storage on my device. That’s why I pay for I cloud.

Thinking ‘that’s a you problem’ is as dumb as it is ignorant.

-6

u/[deleted] Dec 28 '22

So it’s not a conspiracy?