Do Photostream photos prior to the last 1,000 stay in Aperture library?

[Ubele]

I have Aperture 3 on a Mac running Mountain Lion, and an iPhone and an iPad running iOS 6. I have Aperture configured to automatically upload and download photos to and from Photostream. My iDevices are configured the same way. The photos in my Aperture library have a little icon in the lower right corner to show they're from Photostream, as opposed to having been imported from my digital camera. Are those Photostream photos in my Aperture library permanent, or will they disappear when they are no longer in the last 1,000, as they do from my iDevices? The photos are imported permanently when I physically connect and sync my iPhone or iPad, but is that step necessary?

[JPGR_Fan]

While it will take me quite a while to get to 1000 photos, the OP brings up a good question. Also wondering if anyone knows if the pics stay in Aperture?

[DirtySocks85]

Well I know that the 30 day timeout in iPhoto puts them into an album called "October Photostream" (or whatever month it is). My guess based on that tiny bit of info is that yes, the default behavior of photostream is designed so that you will not lose any of your photos if that is your default import method (which it has become for my iPhone).

[Ubele]

I got to 1,000 photos a lot faster than I'd thought. The good thing about digital photography is that you can take all the photos you want and not waste film. The bad thring is that you have to go through all those photos and decide which ones you want to keep. When I go on a vacation, I average about 300 photos, only a small percentage of which are keepers. They all go into Photostream, though – both the photos I take with my iPhone, and the photos I import into Aperture with my point-and-shoot Canon Powershot. Since I always have my iPhone with me, I often take pictures when I'm out for a walk or on a day trip. Then there are the "strictly for information" photos – for example, when I was doing renovations on our home, I took lots of pictures of products at Home Depot and such so I could compare, research, and evaluate them later. None of these were meant to be keepers, but they went to Photostream nonetheless.

To be on the safe side, I'm going to continue manually syncing my iPhone with my Mac and importing my photos into Aperture. Unfortunately, there's no good way to test my question. If I intentionally avoid syncing my iPhone, and photos that automatically are deleted from Photostream also are deleted from Aperture, then those photos will be gone for good. I suppose I could shoot 1,000 non-keeper test photos and see what happens to them, but it's easier to sync.

[DirtySocks85]

Originally Posted by Ubele

I got to 1,000 photos a lot faster than I'd thought. The good thing about digital photography is that you can take all the photos you want and not waste film. The bad thring is that you have to go through all those photos and decide which ones you want to keep. When I go on a vacation, I average about 300 photos, only a small percentage of which are keepers. They all go into Photostream, though – both the photos I take with my iPhone, and the photos I import into Aperture with my point-and-shoot Canon Powershot. Since I always have my iPhone with me, I often take pictures when I'm out for a walk or on a day trip. Then there are the "strictly for information" photos – for example, when I was doing renovations on our home, I took lots of pictures of products at Home Depot and such so I could compare, research, and evaluate them later. None of these were meant to be keepers, but they went to Photostream nonetheless.

To be on the safe side, I'm going to continue manually syncing my iPhone with my Mac and importing my photos into Aperture. Unfortunately, there's no good way to test my question. If I intentionally avoid syncing my iPhone, and photos that automatically are deleted from Photostream also are deleted from Aperture, then those photos will be gone for good. I suppose I could shoot 1,000 non-keeper test photos and see what happens to them, but it's easier to sync.

Well if you have the patience you can import/backup all of your "real" photos, and then snap off 1,000 test photos and see what happens. Shouldn't take too long on your iPhone to snap them, just keep tapping the shutter button.

[Ubele]

Originally Posted by DirtySocks85

Well if you have the patience you can import/backup all of your "real" photos, and then snap off 1,000 test photos and see what happens. Shouldn't take too long on your iPhone to snap them, just keep tapping the shutter button.

Good idea - thanks!