Do imported photos no longer get streamed?

[quaffa]

Hi all.

I've just realised that the photos that I've recently taken on my Canon DSLR, and then imported into the Photos for Mac app via a USB cable, are not being 'photo streamed' onto my iPhone.

I seem to think that photos imported this way into iPhoto used to arrive on my iPhone, or am I just dreaming this?

I am running OS X 10.10.3 on my MacBook Pro and iOS 8.3 on my iPhone 6.

Assuming I'm not dreaming about how things used to happen, what has happened now to stop the photos streaming? I definitely have photo streaming set on my MBP's system prefs.

 

[mgroot]

I added three photos to Photos this afternoon and they were in photostream on my iphone almost instantly so it's not something being stopped from Apple's side

 

[joedec]

I added three photos to Photos this afternoon and they were in photostream on my iphone almost instantly so it's not something being stopped from Apple's side

Only photos imported into the photos library get streamed. If you "didn't" choose "Copy items to the Photos Library" (referenced photos) in Preferences/Importing they don't.

Go figure.

 

[TallGuyGT]

I'm not in front of my Mac, but I believe the settings are the same as iPhone.

Go to: Settings >iCloud >Photos

You can turn on both "iCloud Photo Library" and "Upload to My Photo Stream". Looks like they are continuing to support Photo Steam for legacy devices and operating systems.

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Rereading your post, it may be that you haven't turned on "iCloud Photo Library" on your iPhone. I think that would be a better solution than Photo Stream if you're already using Photos app on your Mac. IMHO:

iPhoto = Photo Stream
Photos = iCloud Photo Library

But's that's only if you want to store all your photos in iCloud. Otherwise the Photo Stream setting in my previous post would apply.

 

[quaffa]

Hmmm. Thank you all for those comments.

Well it looks likely that it's a settings issue somewhere, but I'm a bit confused as to exactly what is stopping it from behaving as it did before.

On my iPhone, going to Settings>iCloud>Photos:-
I see that I DO have iCloud Photo Library switched on. The other fields show as 'Download and keep originals' being ticked, 'Upload to My Photo Stream' is turned on, but 'Upload Burst Photos is turned off. (I don't think the latter is relevant.)

On my Mac, going to Sys Prefs>iCloud>Photos>Options:-
I see that iCloud Photo Library is NOT ticked on there, but the other two boxes ARE ticked (My Photo Stream and iCloud Photo Sharing.)

And going to Photos>Preferences>iCloud:-
I see the settings are identical to those in Sys Prefs...

iCloud Photo Library is not ticked on my Mac because if I try to tick it I am told 'This library exceeds your available iCloud Storage'. It offers me 200GB of storage for £2.99 a month to store my entire library in iCloud, but I don't really want ALL my old photos stored there, so I don't want to be paying every month to do so. I just want new ones that I import streamed to my iPhone, which is what used to happen perfectly well before.

Is there some other setting somewhere, perhaps hidden in one of those 'logical only to Apple' places, that I'm missing somewhere?

Would reverting to iPhoto be worth trying?

Incidentally, all photos I actually take with my iPhone DO appear in the Photos app on my Mac, it's just those I take on non-Apple cameras that don't go the other way.

 

[joedec]

Only photos imported into the photos library get streamed. If you "didn't" choose "Copy items to the Photos Library" (referenced photos) in Preferences/Importing they don't.

You missed one Photos/Preferences/General/Importing. Is "Copy items to the Photos library" checked?

 

[quaffa]

Yes, I've checked that now and I can confirm that 'Copy items to the Photos Library' is indeed ticked in Photos>Preferences>General>Importing. (There is no mention of the term 'referenced photos' in brackets anywhere there though.)

And above that, the library location is shown as [me]>Pictures>Photo Library.

The 'Show in Finder' button is available under that, but the 'Use as System Photo Library' is greyed-out.

 

[quaffa]

Further to my original post about new photos not appearing on my iPhone via Photo Stream as they used to, I've just realised that ALL the photos that were on my iPhone 4 previously have now disappeared from my iPhone 6.

So that the only photos that are currently in my iCloud Photo Library are those which I actually took with my iPhone 6 since I acquired it in January.

None of the photos I took with my previous iPhone, and none of the photos I have taken with my proper camera at all -even since I got my iPhone 6- are in that iCloud Library, and so do not appear on my iPhone.

 

[quaffa]

Okay, I just wanted to tell anyone who might have the same problem with non-streaming photos since the upgrade to OS X 10.10.3 that I have now 'solved' the problem myself, and I have streaming back...

BUT...

Solving it is costing me nearly three quid a month, which I regard as a bit of a con by Apple.

Reluctantly, I decided that the only way I could get photos streaming to my iPhone again was to turn on iCloud Photo Library in Sys Prefs>iCloud>Photos on my Mac.

As I have a vast collection of pre-digital (real film) scanned family photos, (which I really didn't, and don't, want to stream anywhere at all), Apple forced me to 'upgrade' to a 200GB iCloud and are charging me £2.99 for the privilege. But it seems that since the 10.10.3 upgrade one can only either have all or nothing.

I now have new photos I took on my various cameras streaming to my iPhone though, which is what I wanted, (and was possible for free with iPhoto under previous versions of OS X).

 

[mgroot]

One solution for this is to use a separate library for the photos you don't want to put in the cloud. Not the most user-friendly way but it's cheaper than your current solution!

 

[quaffa]

One solution for this is to use a separate library for the photos you don't want to put in the cloud. Not the most user-friendly way but it's cheaper than your current solution!

Ah. Yes that would work wouldn't it! Never thought of it myself though... #

Well I've signed up now so I'll see how I like having the whole lot mobile. I rather think that's what Apple were banking on though, which grates a bit.

 

[mgroot]

Ah. Yes that would work wouldn't it! Never thought of it myself though... #

Well I've signed up now so I'll see how I like having the whole lot mobile. I rather think that's what Apple were banking on though, which grates a bit.

Luckily you can cancel that plan when you want, you're not stuck to it for a year. It goes month by month