A better photo backup solution from Apple

[Frankied22]

Do you think Apple will come out with a better photo backup solution this year for iCloud? Right now it's pretty messy and the amount of storage they give you for free is a joke. It would be nice to be able to access all your photos stored in iCloud from your iPad or iPhone and be able to organize them into folders. Basically, a Dropbox/Google+ solution except from Apple.

 

[BaldiMac]

Do you think Apple will come out with a better photo backup solution this year for iCloud? Right now it's pretty messy and the amount of storage they give you for free is a joke. It would be nice to be able to access all your photos stored in iCloud from your iPad or iPhone and be able to organize them into folders. Basically, a Dropbox/Google+ solution except from Apple.

I'm definitely hoping for a better iCloud photo solution, but the amount of storage they give you for free isn't anywhere near a joke. With Shared Photo Streams, iCloud can store more than 500,000 photos for free. And photos don't count towards the 5 GB limit.

(In fact, you can get a hack version of what you are suggesting using Shared Photo Streams. Each stream can be considered a "folder". )

 

[Frankied22]

I'm definitely hoping for a better iCloud photo solution, but the amount of storage they give you for free isn't anywhere near a joke. With Shared Photo Streams, iCloud can store more than 500,000 photos for free. And photos don't count towards the 5 GB limit.

(In fact, you can get a hack version of what you are suggesting using Shared Photo Streams. Each stream can be considered a "folder". )

I had forgotten that photos don't count towards your 5GB limit. That is nice. I guess I just wish you could look at all your iCloud photos and organize them from any device. Right now it is just a scattered mess with Photo Stream.

 

[TC03]

Apple should reverse iCloud photos. Right now, your most recent photos are stored in the cloud and everything else is on your devices. This is wrong. Only the most recent photos should be on devices, the rest should be in the cloud. That way, you'll never have to worry about photo management.

 

[SanjeevRana]

Biggest problem with Photostream (Shared atleast) is that on some images it downsamples the images, they are NEVER copied over as same !

 

[cynics]

Biggest problem with Photostream (Shared atleast) is that on some images it downsamples the images, they are NEVER copied over as same !

Are you sure about that?

The same pic. One pulled from photo stream, the other off the phone (imported to iPhoto for easy screen shots).

Both look identical and share the same resolution and file size as you can see. My gripe is its not that reliable. Not all of my photos will sync to photo stream and I don't know why. Only reason I use it is for the screen saver on my Apple TV.

Edit: Didn't see you said "shared" photo stream. I don't use that so I can't comment.

 

[SanjeevRana]

Are you sure about that?

The same pic. One pulled from photo stream, the other off the phone (imported to iPhoto for easy screen shots).

Image

Image

Both look identical and share the same resolution and file size as you can see. My gripe is its not that reliable. Not all of my photos will sync to photo stream and I don't know why. Only reason I use it is for the screen saver on my Apple TV.

Edit: Didn't see you said "shared" photo stream. I don't use that so I can't comment.

Yes, this affects Shared streams only and NOT ALL images ...

 

[Apple blogger]

I had forgotten that photos don't count towards your 5GB limit. That is nice. I guess I just wish you could look at all your iCloud photos and organize them from any device. Right now it is just a scattered mess with Photo Stream.

Well camara roll does count! It's only the photo streams that doesn't count.. Besides, my photo streams allows the photos from the recent 30 days, by then u have to store them somewhere or else they won't be accessible, and shared photo stream can have only 1000 photos per stream which is good

 

[Frankied22]

Well camara roll does count! It's only the photo streams that doesn't count.. Besides, my photo streams allows the photos from the recent 30 days, by then u have to store them somewhere or else they won't be accessible, and shared photo stream can have only 1000 photos per stream which is good

Yea it's not really a good system. Apple clearly needs to offer a better solution that is more in line with other companies.

 

[dazed]

I've never considered photo stream as a backup since it won't retain all your images forever.

There are many other options from amazon, google, dropbox, smugmug etc. I use smugmug (since I subscribe to it) and Amazon.

 

[cynics]

I think there is some confusion here. iCloud is a device BACK UP utility. Not a photo storage utility.

Its designed to take and store the contents of your device in the event you need to restore your device. Not to be confused with a file/photo cloud storage utility like Dropbox, Google Drive, etc....

The reasons that people say it sucks for photos are only reasons showing its a back up utility.

Photostream is also not a photo storage utility. It is designed to seed your photos across all your photostream equipped devices.

Neither of which should be compared to Dropbox or whatever. "Cloud" just means remote storage, not how its accessed, operated, what can and can't be stored on it. Lol.

 

[Amplelink]

I think there is some confusion here. iCloud is a device BACK UP utility. Not a photo storage utility.

Sure, that's technically correct. The problem is perception and expectations. Users expect and want a backup solution. Users want something like an auto background upload for photos in Dropbox or Flickr. I can't tell you the number of people I know who can no longer backup their phones to iCloud because their camera rolls are humongous. They have no concept of dumping those photos on their computers first. And frankly, in a cloud first world, they shouldn't have to. Apple of all companies missed the boat on Photostream. As someone else mentioned, it should automatically backup all photos/videos to the cloud. Photos can then be deleted on the devices, but still be viewable through Photostream.

 

[Armen]

Apple needs to add a Photostream function to iCloud.com where we can view and edit the photos we have saved in photostream.

 

[richwoodrocket]

Biggest problem with Photostream (Shared atleast) is that on some images it downsamples the images, they are NEVER copied over as same !

Yep, especially wallpapers. They arent that big and they should stay the resolution i make them so i dont have to save them locally whenever i want to switch.

 

[cynics]

Sure, that's technically correct. The problem is perception and expectations. Users expect and want a backup solution. Users want something like an auto background upload for photos in Dropbox or Flickr. I can't tell you the number of people I know who can no longer backup their phones to iCloud because their camera rolls are humongous. They have no concept of dumping those photos on their computers first. And frankly, in a cloud first world, they shouldn't have to. Apple of all companies missed the boat on Photostream. As someone else mentioned, it should automatically backup all photos/videos to the cloud. Photos can then be deleted on the devices, but still be viewable through Photostream.

Why don't those people that can't back up to iCloud just buy more storage? That's what I do.

Or do you think Apple should give you more space for free?

I'm probably just confused because people say Apples iCloud sucks because it doesn't function as something it isn't.

What's wrong with Dropbox and the like?

 

[richwoodrocket]

Why don't those people that can't back up to iCloud just buy more storage? That's what I do.

Or do you think Apple should give you more space for free?

I'm probably just confused because people say Apples iCloud sucks because it doesn't function as something it isn't.

What's wrong with Dropbox and the like?

People are cheap. People don't want to pay for things they want like iCloud.

 

[danielceleste]

I want iTunes Match/iTunes in the Cloud, but for photos.

 

[tennisproha]

I think there is some confusion here. iCloud is a device BACK UP utility.

This is definitely not correct. The whole idea behind iCloud was to put all your devices on the same hierarchy and in order to do that your content had to be stored universally, hence iCloud was born. iCloud syncs with all your devices as its main function offering access to all your original content no matter what device you are on. As a convenience, it also stores a 'backup' of your device but its not an image backup in the traditional sense of the word (however the user doesn't see the difference when they restore a device). Its quite clever actually. But apple already has a separate full backup service. It's called Time Machine.

Anyway, the reason apple doesn't upload all your pics to iCloud yet is probably a storage space issue. Pictures and videos take up A LOT of space while documents don't. They would have to offer each account 100s of Gigabyte of storage space.

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I want iTunes Match/iTunes in the Cloud, but for photos.

That's would be ideal but the difference is the content on iTunes is not your original content whereas your pics are. Almost none of your music is actually uploaded to iTunes in the cloud.

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Apple should reverse iCloud photos. Right now, your most recent photos are stored in the cloud and everything else is on your devices. This is wrong. Only the most recent photos should be on devices, the rest should be in the cloud. That way, you'll never have to worry about photo management.

Exactly! This would be perfect. Although I don't think apple has any service now that actually displays content IN the cloud. Everything has to be downloaded to your device first. I guess icloud.com but that's still in beta.

 

[John T]

Why don't those people that can't back up to iCloud just buy more storage? That's what I do.

Or do you think Apple should give you more space for free?

I'm probably just confused because people say Apples iCloud sucks because it doesn't function as something it isn't.

What's wrong with Dropbox and the like?

At last! The sound of reason!

Personally, I've never trusted the cloud with my personal data. I like to know exactly where everything is! That's why I've always backed up to HDD's. Simple, reliable and secure.

 

[Jessica Lares]

Because there is no amount of storage that will satisfy a customer at this point, especially for photo and video (One 30 minute video taken with an iPhone 4 = 2GB for example). And essentially, most people make photo dumps that they never look at again.

 

[sunking101]

It's easy to stick to the 5Gb iCloud limit if you export certain photos and videos to your computer at regular intervals. Who the hell needs thousands of photos on their phone at all times? Like has already been mentioned, there are other cloud storage areas like Dropbox which also offer free introductory storage. Or you can purchase more iCloud space from Apple for a very reasonable amount, or failing that you can back up to iTunes on your computer at regular intervals and that way you are only limited by the size of your phone's internal memory.

 

[MonstaMash]

Yes, a cloud storage solution for photos between Apple devices is long overdue. A system that will let me seamlessly store (not stream) iPhoto libraries from my Mac and the photos from my iOS devices. I should be able to access all of these images through iCloud.com and easily view, edit and share these photos.

The iPhone is the world's most popular camera, but you got to admit that managing and storing these photos are kind of a drag. More often than not, people just end up losing these valuable memories because they are unaware how to back them up, or have device failures. The cloud is the solution here.

Apple (Steve) said back in 2011 that the cloud would be the digital hub of the future, and we've achieved that for some things, like docs via Numbers, Pages, etc. and notes, contacts and calendars, as well as some apps, but not for photos yet.

I would absolutely pay Apple for this service. Yes, I am aware I could use Flickr, Google Photos or Dropbox to backup my photos but it isn't as seamless and I trust Apple more with my data.

 

[C DM]

Because there is no amount of storage that will satisfy a customer at this point, especially for photo and video (One 30 minute video taken with an iPhone 4 = 2GB for example). And essentially, most people make photo dumps that they never look at again.

Something like 1 TB that Flickr offers would more than satisfy probably even more than the vast majority. Sure, not everyone, but the difference would be humongous.

 

[thelookingglass]

Yes, a cloud storage solution for photos between Apple devices is long overdue. A system that will let me seamlessly store (not stream) iPhoto libraries from my Mac and the photos from my iOS devices. I should be able to access all of these images through iCloud.com and easily view, edit and share these photos.

The iPhone is the world's most popular camera, but you got to admit that managing and storing these photos are kind of a drag. More often than not, people just end up losing these valuable memories because they are unaware how to back them up, or have device failures. The cloud is the solution here.

Apple (Steve) said back in 2011 that the cloud would be the digital hub of the future, and we've achieved that for some things, like docs via Numbers, Pages, etc. and notes, contacts and calendars, as well as some apps, but not for photos yet.

I would absolutely pay Apple for this service. Yes, I am aware I could use Flickr, Google Photos or Dropbox to backup my photos but it isn't as seamless and I trust Apple more with my data.

And Apple technically has given you the solution. For a nominal fee, you can buy more storage space to backup your devices. Problem solved for backup at least. I do agree that they could come up with a more elegant solution for sharing across devices.

 

[MonstaMash]

And Apple technically has given you the solution. For a nominal fee, you can buy more storage space to backup your devices. Problem solved for backup at least. I do agree that they could come up with a more elegant solution for sharing across devices.

They need a system to backup my Mac iPhoto library just like iCloud backups for the iPhone. They also need to make it so if I have an iPhone iCloud backup, I can simultaneously access these photos through the cloud on my other devices (iPad and iPhone).