iCloud How to keep full rez when uploading DSLR photos from desktop to iCloud?

[patent10021]

Last week I uploaded 20 MB DSLR photos from macOS Finder to iCloud thinking they'd be store at full rez. Today I downloaded them but they were only 600 KB - 1 MB.

I do not use the macOS Photos app and do not want to use the Photos app because I don't want all of those iCloud photos on my Mac.

What's the solution?

Thanks

 

[chrfr]

iCloud doesn’t modify files uploaded to iCloud Drive. If you have the optimize storage option enabled, perhaps your computer hadn’t yet redownloaded the full size images.
Also, using the Photos app won’t take up any more disk space than manually copying the photos to iCloud Drive.

 

[Mrbobb]

The fact that is 1 Mb doesn't tell the whole story. Photos, i.e. JPG, has compression built-in that makes it small. TIFF are uncompressed and the same photo will take more bytes to store. There is also BMP which can be compressed and non-compressed.

 

[Starfia]

patent10021 –

That doesn't sound right to me; I've never known iCloud Drive (if that's what you're using) to modify the data for any file. If I noticed that happening, I'd be checking whether the files in question were somehow modified before they were uploaded. If you find out what's happening, please let us know.

(Perhaps you know, but using iCloud Photos the macOS Photos app does come with an optional "Optimize Mac Storage" setting that leaves full-quality photos in iCloud, and off your Mac, until you ask for them.)

 

[patent10021]

iCloud doesn’t modify files uploaded to iCloud Drive. If you have the optimize storage option enabled, perhaps your computer hadn’t yet redownloaded the full size images.
Also, using the Photos app won’t take up any more disk space than manually copying the photos to iCloud Drive.

Right but iCloud doesn't use my Mac's storage. I don't want to use any Mac disk space for photos.

The fact that is 1 Mb doesn't tell the whole story. Photos, i.e. JPG, has compression built-in that makes it small. TIFF are uncompressed and the same photo will take more bytes to store. There is also BMP which can be compressed and non-compressed.

Yup, the 20 MB files from DSLR sitting on my desktop are jpegs as well.

patent10021 –

That doesn't sound right to me; I've never known iCloud Drive (if that's what you're using) to modify the data for any file. If I noticed that happening, I'd be checking whether the files in question were somehow modified before they were uploaded. If you find out what's happening, please let us know.

(Perhaps you know, but using iCloud Photos the macOS Photos app does come with an optional "Optimize Mac Storage" setting that leaves full-quality photos in iCloud, and off your Mac, until you ask for them.)

Weird right but that's what's happening. I've been using Macs and Photos for decades. I have a folder of 20 MB jpegs on my desktop. I uploaded them via web iCloud upload button. I get info on those photos and they're 600 KB - 1 MB. If I download them back to my desktop, same small size.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Right but iCloud doesn't use my Mac's storage. I don't want to use any Mac disk space for photos.

iCloud Drive in Finder definitely DOES use Mac disk space for storage.

Can you lay out exactly what you did, step-by-step?

 

[Starfia]

I uploaded them via web iCloud upload button.

Can you lay out exactly what you did, step-by-step?

Agreed: that's the part that's still vaguest to me. What exactly are you doing? Signing in to iCloud.com, then going to "Drive" (putting you at https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/), then clicking "Upload" (arrow pointing up into a cloud)?

Or some other sequence of steps?

(To test, I've just followed that sequence with a 9.6MB JPEG file. iCloud Drive on the Web shows it takes 9.6MB. And if I choose "Download A Copy" on that file from the Web interface, downloading the copy to my Mac's "Downloads" folder, the Finder shows it takes 9.6MB.)

 

[patent10021]

iCloud Drive in Finder definitely DOES use Mac disk space for storage.

I don't mean iCloud Drive in the Finder. I'm talking about web iCloud. It obviously doesn't use Mac storage so that's why I prefer to do everything via Finder -> upload to web iCloud Photos.

Agreed: that's the part that's still vaguest to me. What exactly are you doing? Signing in to iCloud.com, then going to "Drive" (putting you at https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/), then clicking "Upload" (arrow pointing up into a cloud)?

Yeah, my photos are sitting on my Mac desktop. I open web iCloud Photos on the browser, create a shared album and click the top-right upload button and select the (16 MB - 20 MB) photos from my desktop. When I view an uploaded photo in that album and click the info icon it shows a lower rez size (3 MB). When I download a photo from that album it's the same low rez size as the info icon displayed (3 MB). What's interesting is that regardless of the original size (16 MB - 20 MB), the uploaded versions are always (3 MB). To me, that says web iCloud is specifically compressing to that size.

May 18 [capture], May 20 [transfer]

 

[chrfr]

I don't mean iCloud Drive in the Finder. I'm talking about web iCloud. It obviously doesn't use Mac storage so that's why I prefer to do everything via Finder -> upload to web iCloud Photos.

Yeah, my photos are sitting on my Mac desktop. I open web iCloud Photos on the browser, create a shared album and click the top-right upload button and select the (16 MB - 20 MB) photos from my desktop. When I view an uploaded photo in that album and click the info icon it shows a lower rez size (3 MB). When I download a photo from that album it's the same low rez size as the info icon displayed (3 MB). What's interesting is that regardless of the original size (16 MB - 20 MB), the uploaded versions are always (3 MB). To me, that says web iCloud is specifically compressing to that size.

May 18 [capture], May 20 [transfer]

View attachment 2632976

The shared album is your problem. Those resize images, refer to this document: https://support.apple.com/en-us/108916

Shared Albums also support special formats that you capture with your iPhone, like slo-mo, time-lapse, Live Photos, and Memory videos. When shared, photos are reduced to 2048 pixels on the long edge, except panoramic photos, which can be up to 5400 pixels wide. You can share GIFs that are 100MB or smaller. Shared Albums do not support spatial photo or video.

iCloud Drive really isn't designed to be used the way you're using it- it's more of a sync service for Apple devices and photo libraries than pure cloud storage.
A shared iCloud Photo Library might be more of what you're looking for, but really, you'll be better off just using some of your computer's storage to use iCloud Photos as it's really intended.

View your iCloud Shared Photo Library on iCloud.com

In Photos on iCloud.com, you can view your iCloud Shared Photo Library.

support.apple.com

 

[Nermal]

That doesn't say 3 MB; it says 3 MP (megapixels). What resolution are your originals?

 

[NoBoMac]

At the bottom of the screen shot, says 20.6MB for the May 20th file. So seem like "correct" in iCloud.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

I don't mean iCloud Drive in the Finder. I'm talking about web iCloud. It obviously doesn't use Mac storage so that's why I prefer to do everything via Finder -> upload to web iCloud Photos.

So using Safari or another web browser? Saying you use “Finder” is a little confusing.

But yeah, as pointed out above… iCloud shared library will have a maximum resolution.

 

[patent10021]

The shared album is your problem. Those resize images, refer to this document: https://support.apple.com/en-us/108916

iCloud Drive really isn't designed to be used the way you're using it- it's more of a sync service for Apple devices and photo libraries than pure cloud storage.

Pretty strange. You'd think that if I'm paying for 4TB, that I could fill up that 4TB however I want. Makes zero sense. How are most people cloud sharing high-rez photos then?

At the bottom of the screen shot, says 20.6MB for the May 20th file. So seem like "correct" in iCloud.

It shows that the original file in the Finder is 20 MB.

That doesn't say 3 MB; it says 3 MP (megapixels). What resolution are your originals?

Good looking out. Either way, the iCloud file downloaded to my Mac was a fraction of the size of the original 20 MB.

 

[Arctic Moose]

Pretty strange. You'd think that if I'm paying for 4TB, that I could fill up that 4TB however I want. Makes zero sense. How are most people cloud sharing high-rez photos then?

The use case for shared albums is sharing your photos with other people, typically for consumption on their devices.

For example, I have an album for my children that is shared with their grandparents, aunts and uncles.

I would argue that it would be reasonable to expect a "download full resolution" option so that users of the shared albums could download, crop, print, etc, but it seems Apple does not agree.

However, the question is why you are using shared albums. Are you sharing these photos with anyone? If not, just create a normal album, and upload to that. If you are sharing, choose photos from your normal albums, and add them to shared albums from there.

 

[patent10021]

...Are you sharing these photos with anyone?

Yup. That's why they're in a shared album. I want to be able to download them (from) the shared albums to my iPhone at full rez and edit them at full rez and then if I like, upload the edited versions at full rez to any other shared albums.

Seems like an obvious pipeline for anyone seriously into photography. And again, what do they care how I use my 4TB? 4TB is 4TB.

 

[chrfr]

Pretty strange. You'd think that if I'm paying for 4TB, that I could fill up that 4TB however I want. Makes zero sense. How are most people cloud sharing high-rez photos then?

I believe your high res files are still there, they just aren't in the shared album. As I suggested already, maybe the shared photo library is more what you're looking for.

 

[winxmac]

Uploading to iCloud through the web browser would keep the original file size the same as the local file, unless, as others pointed out, you used the Shared Albums feature.

If you want to keep the original file size, either use OneDrive or Google Drive or other cloud storage services. iCloud is more of a sync service where a folder/file/photo/video you deleted on your Apple device will be deleted from the web and vice versa, unless you disable the sync to iCloud.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

What do they care how I use my 4TB? 4TB is 4TB.

Shared photo albums don’t use your iCloud Drive storage. So that’s why they care.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Yup. That's why they're in a shared album. I want to be able to download them (from) the shared albums to my iPhone at full rez and edit them at full rez and then if I like, upload the edited versions at full rez to any other shared albums.

Seems like an obvious pipeline for anyone seriously into photography. And again, what do they care how I use my 4TB? 4TB is 4TB.

You are defining shared album, but you are not the shared album Goddess. Apple is the shared album Goddess, so you need to learn Apple's rules around how shared albums work. Said rules may be counter intuitive to your (or my) personal thinking or needs.

 

[Arctic Moose]

I believe your high res files are still there, they just aren't in the shared album.

I agree that this is the expected behavior, but I just tested it, and this is not what happens.

I uploaded a 36 MP photo directly to a shared album through the web interface, and as expected it shows up there as a 3 MP image. It was not added to my library.

What's more, I added another 36 MP photo directly to my library to test the workflow I was going to suggest, but it appears the web interface lacks the ability to add a photo from the library to a shared album. WTF? (Also, you apparently cannot move it to the shared library from the web interface either.)

So, if you really want to exclusively use the web interface, you need to upload each file twice, first to your library and then to the shared album. You can also create a share link from the photo library, which will allow any recipient of the link to download the full resolution image. (It seems to me that just using the Photos app with optimized storage enabled would be the simpler solution.)

This got me thinking, and I did some digging around in my shared albums in Photos. It seems there is no connection between the shared photos and their corresponding originals in the library, other than the file name. There is no "show original in library" option, and if you hit "edit" you are asked if you want to import the photo into the library before editing, even though the original high-res photo is already there. If you add a photo from the library to a shared album and then delete the original from the library, the low-resolution version in the shared album remains.

The photos in shared albums really are entirely disjointed from their original context.

 

[chrfr]

I agree that this is the expected behavior, but I just tested it, and this is not what happens.

I uploaded a 36 MP photo directly to a shared album through the web interface, and as expected it shows up there as a 3 MP image.

I thought that the OP was uploading them to iCloud then creating a shared album from there. So yes, if they are just uploading straight into a shared album, it’s no surprise that the full resolution photos aren’t there.