I want to use it, but from what I can remember the pictures and videos I upload will count against my 5GB....
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Has anybody been using iCloud Photo Library?
- Thread starter Swagged
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Yes people are using it.
Yes, if you have more than 5GB to store, you will need to purchase more storage. It DOES count against your storage.
I've been trying to use it, but it is causing me some issues. Most notably, a 600mb video I took on my iPad was uploaded to iCloud then downloaded to my iPhone. Subsequently I've deleted the video, but the space is still taken on both of my devices. The video is not showing up in any album, including the recently deleted album. It is essentially "orphaned" out there somewhere.
I use it and love it. I can access my photos on beta.icloud.com until 10.10.3 comes out and it syncs perfectly with my iPad. I actually just upgraded to 20gb for $12/year today as I was at 5gb for a while. I'd highly recommend it if you have multiple devices or are crunched for space on a device.
A few questions, and I don't need the storage for photos. Videos I would:
1. Does it auto upload videos, I only want photos?
2. Do you still have Photo Stream?
3. Does it maintain folder structure on first upload, as I have my own folders I created.?
4. As you add photos to your device folders are they added into appropriate folders in cloud?
Thanks
Sorry to jump in--
1. Does it auto upload videos, I only want photos?
2. Do you still have Photo Stream?
3. Does it maintain folder structure on first upload, as I have my own folders I created.?
4. As you add photos to your device folders are they added into appropriate folders in cloud?
Thanks
Sorry to jump in--
You can access the same via the regular iCloud. No need to visit the beta version though its not an issue that you do. Just letting you know.
----------
A few questions, and I don't need the storage for photos. Videos I would:
1. Does it auto upload videos, I only want photos?
2. Do you still have Photo Stream?
3. Does it maintain folder structure on first upload, as I have my own folders I created.?
4. As you add photos to your device folders are they added into appropriate folders in cloud?
Thanks
Sorry to jump in--
1. Yes. It auto uploads photos and videos.
2. You can continue with Photostream for the time being but I'm guessing this will change in the future.
3. It will display photos in two places online as well as on your devices. The folder you put them in which by the way is just a collection and not a location. They will also show up in all photos folder.
4. This to me appears to be the same question as number 3.
What you see for organization and collection will be as well online and on your devices. Space required for the full size photo will count towards your total iCloud space. If you have many photos and/or videos you will most likely need to purchase more space to use this feature.
I haven't started using it yet. I've been waiting to hear from others and for Photos for Mac to be publically released. I'm also having a debate of whether I should:
A. Not use it and continue to store photos locally on my rMBP.
B. Use it for only my iPhone photos and possibly be able to get away with the free 5gb for now.
C. Bite the bullet and buy the 20gb which will probably be enough for all of my photos currently but not forever.
D. Go all out and get 200gb and be set for the future.
I'm not a professional photographer, but if I went with scenario C or D I would have to move old photos from Finder to the Photos app. Not a big deal, but it will take time to make sure they're all organized with the correct dates. My old Canon point and shoot didn't always have the correct date set. I also have to consider what I can afford as a college student. I really dislike the subscription model (aside from Netflix), but it seems inevitable for certain things.
A. Not use it and continue to store photos locally on my rMBP.
B. Use it for only my iPhone photos and possibly be able to get away with the free 5gb for now.
C. Bite the bullet and buy the 20gb which will probably be enough for all of my photos currently but not forever.
D. Go all out and get 200gb and be set for the future.
I'm not a professional photographer, but if I went with scenario C or D I would have to move old photos from Finder to the Photos app. Not a big deal, but it will take time to make sure they're all organized with the correct dates. My old Canon point and shoot didn't always have the correct date set. I also have to consider what I can afford as a college student. I really dislike the subscription model (aside from Netflix), but it seems inevitable for certain things.
While a good portion of my computers tablets and smartphones are Apple, it's the proprietary aspect of iCloud that limits it's usefulness for me. Cross platform solutions are ideal as they accommodate my PC, Linux and Androids as well. Many of the people I collaborate with are also living in cross platform environments as well.
With robust storage requirements of non sensitive data I find Google Drive's 1 TB plan at a very low $10 per month ideal. Especially handy since I also use Google Docs. None of the other services offers this highly useful combination. Having been using it for quite some time without a single problem is just one more reason I'm completely satisfied.
With robust storage requirements of non sensitive data I find Google Drive's 1 TB plan at a very low $10 per month ideal. Especially handy since I also use Google Docs. None of the other services offers this highly useful combination. Having been using it for quite some time without a single problem is just one more reason I'm completely satisfied.
Thanks for reply. For some reason I didn't see your post thru email. I only have 1.1gb of photos so may try it. So far I have been doing everything manually. Plus my icloud Calendsr won't sync with my GMail. Not that I need it. I saw some who went to the beta and lost photos so was hesitant. #
Oh, one question. Can I choose not to upload videos. That will put me over 5gb.
Nope. Dropbox+Carousel doesn't everything I need iPhoto Cloud Library to do, plus holds all my other files in the same container. Plus their 1TB option is much cheaper than Apple's.
Yeah, but I don't need one terabyte of storage, not when my Macbook is rocking 64 gb of storage. So I am likely just paying for extra space I don't need and will never use.
same here i got the 200GB plan for 3.99 which is cheap and its more then enough for my cloud backup for the phone and my photos/videos
Another question about iCloud Photo Library:
If you have more than 5GB of photos/videos but only the free 5GB iCloud storage, can you still use iCloud Photo Library? Like only the newest 5GB of photos/vids are kept in iCloud Photo Library or something like this.. Didn't try it yet but I'm just curious.
If you have more than 5GB of photos/videos but only the free 5GB iCloud storage, can you still use iCloud Photo Library? Like only the newest 5GB of photos/vids are kept in iCloud Photo Library or something like this.. Didn't try it yet but I'm just curious.
Some random thoughts:
iCloud pricing needs to come down. It's not competitive compared to others.
The optimize feature is not very good in my opinion. 18GB of photo and video occupy 12GB optimized.
Apple really blew it by not having the Mac app ready when iCloud Photo Library launched.
The auto upload feature is far better than Dropbox's Carousel. More consistent and dependable.
iCloud pricing needs to come down. It's not competitive compared to others.
The optimize feature is not very good in my opinion. 18GB of photo and video occupy 12GB optimized.
Apple really blew it by not having the Mac app ready when iCloud Photo Library launched.
The auto upload feature is far better than Dropbox's Carousel. More consistent and dependable.
The auto-upload feature is probably using some background API exclusive to Apple's own apps, so no surprise there. As it stands, the dropbox app needs to be open for photos to upload.
As for pricing, I think Apple wants to recoup the costs of its own data centres (just like how they are giving iWork's away for free). Prices may come down in the future once it starts to pay off, I hope.
The top-of-the-line option (1TB) isn't competitive in unit price, but the good side is that they have fairly competitive lower tiers. It is no doubt that paying more to other service gives you more storage marginally, but I think not everyone is interested in paying for what they don't need - just for the sake of being relatively cheaper.
Unless you gonna flood everything on to iCloud and do have such amount of contents, iCloud is IMO fair as a sync & storage service.
Last edited:
Yup, using it, and am paying $1 a month for the 20gb storage option (which I also use to back up my iOS devices every night). Working pretty well overall.
Me too. In the UK the prices went up 0.10p (6¢) so I pay 0.79p (48¢), but I find that very good, I would pay up to £2.00 ($1.20) for it.
It is just a background service that is exempted from the walled garden by the gardener. Well, just like the auto-uploading Photo Stream, and your iCloud backup service.
Frankly, the super large storage plans of other cloud storage services are more of a marketing gimmick. There may be just a small fraction of the users who actually use all the available storage. If every users gonna use the space all up, you would likely see the pricing goes up eventually. But the reality is the users don't, and therefore the unused space in fact helps balance the checkbook. This is probably why Dropbox isn't willing to release lower paid tiers than its 9.99/mo one.
Last edited: