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Apple Photos App (Beta) - Referenced Masters

S

sgshultz

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 10, 2015
4
0
Just a question to anyone currently testing Apple Photos App Beta...

When you choose to use iCloud Photo Library, and it uploads all your photos to iCloud, does it upload your referenced files too? Can anyone confirm this?

I have searched and searched for this to no avail! If it does not upload them (since they are not actually in the library), this is one easy method of sliming down your photos library, and gives you more control over what is uploaded! This to me would be a better alternative than splitting my Aperture/iPhoto library.
 
Referenced images are uploaded.

Whether referenced or "inside the library," either way, the library is simply storing a filename/address. The OS X file system manages the physical location of the bits and bytes. It's completely possible to have a referenced file directly adjacent to a managed file on the HDD itself.

Both the library and the OS X file system (or any other file system) are databases, and they display their contents in a graphical form that is easy for us to understand. Folders do exist in a hierarchical sense (this file is "inside" this folder), but they don't represent the way the data is actually stored on the HDD.
 
Thanks for your response Apfelkuchen! What you wrote totally makes sense to me, but I just found this about 10 mins ago on another forum...what do you make of this? (I underlined the important part!)


"So - I have upgraded my library from Aperture to Photos, I use a referenced library and that seems to have been maintained as expected.

However when I unticked the box which is for copying images to the library a pop up said that only images stored in the library are uploaded to iCloud…

Is this correct - can I only have my library in iCloud if I switch to managed from referenced…??"


So the question is do you know that it really does upload the referenced photos? This user is complaining because it won't! Later he writes the only way he found around this is to have all his photos "managed"!

I just want to see if you actually successfully uploaded referenced photos or not!

Thanks again for your help!!!
 
INHO, migrating from Aperture to Photos is in no way an upgrade. Arguably it is an upgrade from iPhoto to Photos. If you want as close a functional replacement as possible to Aperture consider Lightroom or Capture One Pro. With LR you can likely use the same plugins as you have used with Aperture.
 
Thanks for all your input! I tried it today myself and I will report that it is confirmed...Your referenced photos do NOT upload!

Some will hate this...I personally love this! This allows me to manage what uploads very precisely! It also helps me to operate within 200GB of storage.

At this point there seems to be no way to move photos from being managed to being referenced, with the Photos App...but I reduced my Aperture Library size by referencing everything but my last 2 years worth of photos before migrating...This gives me an extra 80GB of cloud space, which should buy me some time! Hopefully there will be more library management tools available by then!!!
 
sgshultz said:
Thanks for all your input! I tried it today myself and I will report that it is confirmed...Your referenced photos do NOT upload!

Some will hate this...I personally love this! This allows me to manage what uploads very precisely! It also helps me to operate within 200GB of storage.

At this point there seems to be no way to move photos from being managed to being referenced, with the Photos App...but I reduced my Aperture Library size by referencing everything but my last 2 years worth of photos before migrating...This gives me an extra 80GB of cloud space, which should buy me some time! Hopefully there will be more library management tools available by then!!!
Click to expand...

How does it allow you to manage uploads precisely? doesn't it just upload everything in the library?

And BTW, how does propagating deletions work? If I delete the master from Photos, does it delete the "master" and ALL versions or iterations from iOS devices, and is there any control over when that happens? Or does it just start doing it when it connects?
 
Well, you can't manage the uploads...it simply uploads ALL the "managed" photos that are in your library. It won't upload anything that is "referenced", so you can sort of manage what uploads by referencing certain albums or photos from iPhoto or Aperture BEFORE importing your library over to the Photos App.

I believe if you delete a master photo from any one of your devices, it will delete it from your library on all devices. Once you delete anything, it moves it to a "deleted files" folder where you can undelete anything for up to 30 days after it is deleted! All versions will be deleted because versions are all based on the Master (that is how the non-destructive editing works)

What seems to happen is that if you change a file or delete a file on your mac, when you connect to the internet it will push those changes up to your iCloud library, and then when your other devices connect to the internet, those changes will be pushed down from the server (iCloud) to them. In other words every that has iCloud library enabled, will alway be exactly the same.

Does this help?
 
sgshultz said:
Well, you can't manage the uploads...it simply uploads ALL the "managed" photos that are in your library. It won't upload anything that is "referenced", so you can sort of manage what uploads by referencing certain albums or photos from iPhoto or Aperture BEFORE importing your library over to the Photos App.

I believe if you delete a master photo from any one of your devices, it will delete it from your library on all devices. Once you delete anything, it moves it to a "deleted files" folder where you can undelete anything for up to 30 days after it is deleted! All versions will be deleted because versions are all based on the Master (that is how the non-destructive editing works)

What seems to happen is that if you change a file or delete a file on your mac, when you connect to the internet it will push those changes up to your iCloud library, and then when your other devices connect to the internet, those changes will be pushed down from the server (iCloud) to them. In other words every that has iCloud library enabled, will alway be exactly the same.

Does this help?
Click to expand...

Thanks, but that sorta seems like the opposite of what I'd consider fine tuning.

And using push seems to be rather unmanageable as well.

So that's helpful to know: all or nothing gets uploaded, and it's all or nothing on all devices that use it, and everything will be pushed everywhere. Might be handy for some, but a nightmare for my uses.

I've got a deal on Dropbox that expires Sunday and that will be a much better solution for me. I thought I might be able to make some use of Photos and iCloud Photo Library, but given the lack of any controls I can't. Hope that changes, but I rather doubt it will.
 
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