iCloud How to enable iCloud for Photos for iPhone and Mac

[panthro100]

I have previously used a photos library on my mac (via an external 5TB drive). I import photos from my iPhone every month or so. The mac has the master copy of the photos.

Now I wish to turn on iCloud and backup my photos. Will it just "work"? How will my phone and mac know which photos are uploaded to iCloud?

Any tips?

 

[JamesMay82]

I have previously used a photos library on my mac (via an external 5TB drive). I import photos from my iPhone every month or so. The mac has the master copy of the photos.

Now I wish to turn on iCloud and backup my photos. Will it just "work"? How will my phone and mac know which photos are uploaded to iCloud?

Any tips?

How did you get on? I'm in a similar position to you and I've made the move and what drove me crazy was the length of time it took to upload. I've just merged a load of our kids photos and videos from my wife's phone going back years and it sounds excessive but its uploading 10,000 images and 1000 videos. I'm not sure weather to continue it or not.

I shot our Christmas morning video on the iPhone in 4k which is a 17gig file and thats still not uploaded, maybe I'm expecting to much?

 

[swandy]

It "should just work". However, depending on the size of your library (number of photos/videos and the size of the files which relates to the quality at which they were taken) it will take from a few hours to several days for the initial upload to iCloud. My library - at the time that I set it up for the first time - had over 50,000 photos and videos and the initial upload took several days. Just had to be patient (not my strong suit LOL) and wait it out. Stopping and restarting the process will just drag it out.
Also - and this is the part I really hate - if you have an issue on your iMac and have to sign out of either you Apple ID completely or turn off the iCloud Photo settings in the Photos app - the upload process starts all over again. It's like the servers don't realize that your pictures are already there. However, I had to do it recently (iMac issue) and even though my library is now over 85K photos/videos, it did take less time. Still annoying.
As far as how the other devices will know, (1) they all have to be signed in with the same Apple ID and (2) all the devices have to have iCloud Photo Library turned ON in their respective settings. What I also have turned on is for our iPhones an iPads (we have 2 iMacs, 2 iPhone and 2 iPad Minis sharing the same Apple ID and Photo Library) is to have Optimize iPhone/iPad Storage and on my iMac I have Download all Originals. So regardless if the photos in the library started from my initial upload, are taken by one of my cameras or one of our iOS devices, the originals are stored on my iMac and not on all the other devices.

 

[JamesMay82]

It "should just work". However, depending on the size of your library (number of photos/videos and the size of the files which relates to the quality at which they were taken) it will take from a few hours to several days for the initial upload to iCloud. My library - at the time that I set it up for the first time - had over 50,000 photos and videos and the initial upload took several days. Just had to be patient (not my strong suit LOL) and wait it out. Stopping and restarting the process will just drag it out.
Also - and this is the part I really hate - if you have an issue on your iMac and have to sign out of either you Apple ID completely or turn off the iCloud Photo settings in the Photos app - the upload process starts all over again. It's like the servers don't realize that your pictures are already there. However, I had to do it recently (iMac issue) and even though my library is now over 85K photos/videos, it did take less time. Still annoying.
As far as how the other devices will know, (1) they all have to be signed in with the same Apple ID and (2) all the devices have to have iCloud Photo Library turned ON in their respective settings. What I also have turned on is for our iPhones an iPads (we have 2 iMacs, 2 iPhone and 2 iPad Minis sharing the same Apple ID and Photo Library) is to have Optimize iPhone/iPad Storage and on my iMac I have Download all Originals. So regardless if the photos in the library started from my initial upload, are taken by one of my cameras or one of our iOS devices, the originals are stored on my iMac and not on all the other devices.

ha patience is not my strong suit either and my library just finished uploading today and its weirdly satisfying. But one issue is all the devices are out of sync by about 4 photos which is bugging me. any ideas on that fix? I'm guessing the iCloud web log in is the true library? I'm contemplating logging out of all devices and re syncing the library so they all match up?

 

[swandy]

ha patience is not my strong suit either and my library just finished uploading today and its weirdly satisfying. But one issue is all the devices are out of sync by about 4 photos which is bugging me. any ideas on that fix? I'm guessing the iCloud web log in is the true library? I'm contemplating logging out of all devices and re syncing the library so they all match up?

I had an issue recently - don't know what caused it because it also effected my Music app, Calendar app and the Photos app. (I think it was something with the Apple servers and after dealing with several Senior Techs it just seemed to "clear up". What you can try is create a Smart Album and set the parameters to "Photo is Unable to Upload to iCloud Photos". This may show you the photos that for some reason - assuming the you started with the Library on your computer - can't upload. Could be the file format or some other reason that it couldn't be uploaded and then won't show on your other devices libraries.
That would be the easiest way - assuming the same four photos are missing from the other devices - but worth a try before trying to re-sync or re-download the photos again.
There is also a program that people use to merge and check photo libraries for duplicates and other issues. I had it years ago - specifically for finding duplicates - but I don't see installed any longer. You can check out what it is capable of or do searches of the various photo forums for people that use it.

iPhoto Library Manager - Merge iPhoto libraries, find duplicate photos, and more

www.fatcatsoftware.com

 

[JamesMay82]

I had an issue recently - don't know what caused it because it also effected my Music app, Calendar app and the Photos app. (I think it was something with the Apple servers and after dealing with several Senior Techs it just seemed to "clear up". What you can try is create a Smart Album and set the parameters to "Photo is Unable to Upload to iCloud Photos". This may show you the photos that for some reason - assuming the you started with the Library on your computer - can't upload. Could be the file format or some other reason that it couldn't be uploaded and then won't show on your other devices libraries.
That would be the easiest way - assuming the same four photos are missing from the other devices - but worth a try before trying to re-sync or re-download the photos again.
There is also a program that people use to merge and check photo libraries for duplicates and other issues. I had it years ago - specifically for finding duplicates - but I don't see installed any longer. You can check out what it is capable of or do searches of the various photo forums for people that use it.

iPhoto Library Manager - Merge iPhoto libraries, find duplicate photos, and more

www.fatcatsoftware.com

Thanks - I think I just maybe pushed my luck because I had merged 10k photos of my wife's photos via my iMac so that was uploading but at the same time I was deleting a taking new photos and videos on my phone over Christmas so I'm thinking its maybe just got a bit confused.

 

[JamesMay82]

I had an issue recently - don't know what caused it because it also effected my Music app, Calendar app and the Photos app. (I think it was something with the Apple servers and after dealing with several Senior Techs it just seemed to "clear up". What you can try is create a Smart Album and set the parameters to "Photo is Unable to Upload to iCloud Photos". This may show you the photos that for some reason - assuming the you started with the Library on your computer - can't upload. Could be the file format or some other reason that it couldn't be uploaded and then won't show on your other devices libraries.
That would be the easiest way - assuming the same four photos are missing from the other devices - but worth a try before trying to re-sync or re-download the photos again.
There is also a program that people use to merge and check photo libraries for duplicates and other issues. I had it years ago - specifically for finding duplicates - but I don't see installed any longer. You can check out what it is capable of or do searches of the various photo forums for people that use it.

iPhoto Library Manager - Merge iPhoto libraries, find duplicate photos, and more

www.fatcatsoftware.com

just did a resync on my laptop and that downloaded 3 extra photos that aren't listed in the cloud. very strange

 

[swandy]

just did a resync on my laptop and that downloaded 3 extra photos that aren't listed in the cloud. very strange

Yep it is annoying but that is the only way usually to straighten it out.