iCloud Photo Library issues in 8.1

[ZEEN0j]

I had some very weird iCloud Photo Library storage discrepencies that at first made no sense until I figured it out. So no one else need to go through what I did, I'm adding what I learned.

Just like with the normal camera roll, the iCloud Photo Library does not count non-favorited Burst photos when counting the total number of photos. Unlike with My Photo Stream though, iCloud Photo Library ignores the "Upload Burst Photos" setting and uploads them anyway. They get added to the total photo count under the Manage Storage section. That's why the Photo count in Photos and under beta.icloud.com may not match the count in the Manage storage area.

In my case, Manage Storage said I had uploaded 198 photos and 20 videos. All Photos showed a count of 154 of which 20 were videos for 134 photos. I have a "burst photo" with 65 bursts, one of which is favorited. That means that there are actually 134 + 65 - 1 = 198 photos, so the math adds up.


Something that doesn't make a lot of sense though is the fact that, despite having the "Photo Library" removed from my iCloud Backup when I enabled iCloud Photo Library, the actually backing up of the photos wasn't disabled. Since I set up iCloud Photo Library to "Download and store originals", that means my photos are now being backed up twice: once in iCloud Photo Library and once in iCloud Backup for my iPhone. That makes no sense since my understanding is that if I turned off backing up "Photo Library" in iCloud Backup and then did an iCloud restore from backup, that my photos would download from the iCloud Photo Library.

Basically photos take up double the amount of space by default, if you save the originals. That makes no sense and just wastes space.

Edit:

When I disabled backup up "Photo Library" in iCloud Backups, my current backup size shrunk down to 124 MB, with the next backup taking up 1.1 GB. That makes absolutely no sense. Why would disabling "Photo Library", which deletes the photos from the backup, remove all the other iCloud backup data?

I tried re-enabling backing up "Photo Library" in my phone's iCloud Backup settings and now it contains "No Data". Huh? So when iCloud Photo Library is enabled, it screws up iCloud Backup?

When I enabled iCloud photo library and selected keep originals. My iCloud backup went from 13gb something to about 600mb. When I go to manage backups, photos are still selected but it says no data. When I restored and updated to 8.1 it downloaded all the pictures and videos in full quality again.

 

[Morac]

When I enabled iCloud photo library and selected keep originals. My iCloud backup went from 13gb something to about 600mb. When I go to manage backups, photos are still selected but it says no data. When I restored and updated to 8.1 it downloaded all the pictures and videos in full quality again.

That's what's supposed to happen, but somehow my iCloud backup got screwed up. I ended up deleting and recreating it.

 

[hattonna928]

Mine didn't want to upload pictures at first, it kept saying the connection to iCloud was lost. Then finally I just tried keeping the photos app open and watched it go down pretty quickly.

What I can't figure out it how it optimizes things... My library was about 1.9 GB's and I have it set to optimize. It's still 1.9 GB's. Nothing changed. Any ideas what might be going on??

Update: what's even weirder is that in iCloud storage it shows the iCloud Photo Library as only taking up 1.8 GB's, LESS than my phone!

 

[Zetaprime]

Mine didn't want to upload pictures at first, it kept saying the connection to iCloud was lost. Then finally I just tried keeping the photos app open and watched it go down pretty quickly.

What I can't figure out it how it optimizes things... My library was about 1.9 GB's and I have it set to optimize. It's still 1.9 GB's. Nothing changed. Any ideas what might be going on??

Update: what's even weirder is that in iCloud storage it shows the iCloud Photo Library as only taking up 1.8 GB's, LESS than my phone!

Not working for me. Still not uploading. I think I'm going to just turn it off on my phone and iPad and go back to the way it was before since iCloud Photo Library clearly doesn't work well enough to be any use.

 

[jameskeithv]

I keep getting this error every time I try to turn it on, but I didn't restore my iPhone at all? I then restart my phone and it does the same thing again but then proceeds to upload but is stuck anyway. I honestly have no clue as to what I should do..

 

[whiteshadoww]

I'm just not sure how it works. I have photos arranged by folder on my Mac. These sync with the iPhone as albums. I choose to use the iCloud photo beta and thought all these albums would move to the cloud. Now I cannot find them.

Is iCloud photo limited to cameral roll?

 

[epphllps]

I figured out my issue with the "frozen" upload. Once I opened the photos app and see the data indicator, the pictures are then uploading. The photos app has to been open for it to work on my phone. Figured it would work in the background, but this will do for now. So whoever mentioned opening then photo app and just leaving it there for them to upload was a good idea. 11 days of no uploads and now I have everything backed up to ICPL.

 

[beratblakaj]

I figured out my issue with the "frozen" upload. Once I opened the photos app and see the data indicator, the pictures are then uploading. The photos app has to been open for it to work on my phone. Figured it would work in the background, but this will do for now. So whoever mentioned opening then photo app and just leaving it there for them to upload was a good idea. 11 days of no uploads and now I have everything backed up to ICPL.

You're welcome! I think their might be a glitch with ICPL. It should be a system services app that allows background app refresh to keep sending data. Especially, if you're plugged in and on wifi. But this is still beta so I'm sure they'll be some more tweaking going on. As for anyone that missed it. Please leave your photo app open and let it upload. It'll be a lot quicker, instead of waiting in the background for it to upload. Now if we could only figure out when the phone will optimize photos on our devices that would be great. lol

 

[acm1108]

I guess I done goofed. I purchased the 200gb iCloud storage plan thinking I could use it as such... for storage. That way I wouldn't have to still keep local copies on my phone.

My thinking was if I had 100 photos locally on my phone I could transfer them to my iCloud storage where they would be backed up. Then I could delete them locally off my phone to save storage. But when I tried to delete the photo after transferring it to "Your Cloud Drive" it just deletes altogether.

 

[PNutts]

For those of you with huge libraries on your iPhone for uploading, how exactly did you get the photos on to your phone in the first place?

I'm guessing "shutter button"?

 

[Zetaprime]

I figured out my issue with the "frozen" upload. Once I opened the photos app and see the data indicator, the pictures are then uploading. The photos app has to been open for it to work on my phone. Figured it would work in the background, but this will do for now. So whoever mentioned opening then photo app and just leaving it there for them to upload was a good idea. 11 days of no uploads and now I have everything backed up to ICPL.

I tried opening the photos app and waiting. But nothing happened. How long did the photos app have to be open before anything started to happen? And then what happens if you get a call and it gets knocked to the background, not to mention when the device goes to sleep..sounds very impractical if not impossible. I already disabled iCloud Photo Library and went back to the way it was before. I don't see much advantage to using it. It actually disabled the normal functionality of when you take a pic with one device it shows up on the other. That made it worse than useless.

 

[Mike Boreham]

But no way to view these on a Mac other than the website?

For now, if you have Photostream enabled as well as iCloud Photo Library, you can see (and download) your iPhone photos in Aperture, and I assume iPhoto. You can't see the whole of your iCloud Photo Library until the new Photos app for Yosemite slated for next year.

 

[epphllps]

I tried opening the photos app and waiting. But nothing happened. How long did the photos app have to be open before anything started to happen? And then what happens if you get a call and it gets knocked to the background, not to mention when the device goes to sleep..sounds very impractical if not impossible. I already disabled iCloud Photo Library and went back to the way it was before. I don't see much advantage to using it. It actually disabled the normal functionality of when you take a pic with one device it shows up on the other. That made it worse than useless.

It's very impractical and I agree with you completely. It was uploading only when I saw the data indicator spinning and when I left the photo app it seemed to stop uploading. Did get them uploaded with the exception of a few new pictures so while it isn't practical, I can manage this for now and submit a ticket to apple for the issue I am experiencing.

 

[Zetaprime]

It's very impractical and I agree with you completely. It was uploading only when I saw the data indicator spinning and when I left the photo app it seemed to stop uploading. Did get them uploaded with the exception of a few new pictures so while it isn't practical, I can manage this for now and submit a ticket to apple for the issue I am experiencing.

I'll try it again when it actually ready ( if ever). It should add functionality rather than taking it away.

 

[epphllps]

I have another question. I know back on earlier versions of iOS 8 that we could use cellular to upload to ICPL. Is that option gone now? I can't upload without a wifi connection and I know there was a lot of debate around cellular upload being enabled by default earlier on. Has this changed? I would rather use cellular to upload if I can.

 

[Zetaprime]

For now, if you have Photostream enabled as well as iCloud Photo Library, you can see (and download) your iPhone photos in Aperture, and I assume iPhoto. You can't see the whole of your iCloud Photo Library until the new Photos app for Yosemite slated for next year.

So this new Photos app for Yosemite will replace iPhoto?

 

[Mike Boreham]

So this new Photos app for Yosemite will replace iPhoto?

Yes, and Aperture.

 

[Zetaprime]

iCloud Photo Library issues in 8.1

Yes, and Aperture.

I guess I'll wait till then before attempting to use iCloud Photo Library again. I suppose at that point there will be no choice but to use it.

 

[johnmacward]

Something that doesn't make a lot of sense though is the fact that, despite having the "Photo Library" removed from my iCloud Backup when I enabled iCloud Photo Library, the actually backing up of the photos wasn't disabled. Since I set up iCloud Photo Library to "Download and store originals", that means my photos are now being backed up twice: once in iCloud Photo Library and once in iCloud Backup for my iPhone. That makes no sense since my understanding is that if I turned off backing up "Photo Library" in iCloud Backup and then did an iCloud restore from backup, that my photos would download from the iCloud Photo Library.

Basically photos take up double the amount of space by default, if you save the originals. That makes no sense and just wastes space.

Morac, noticed the exact same thing - the Photo backup basically is also stored even though it now has its own storage space in the Photo Library, so far too much of your iCloud is used. I've disabled on both my iPhone and iPad and have recovered about 7GB's of space.

Something tells me that the beta status of this feature means they don't trust the library so well that you can honestly disable your actual picture backup. Maybe when this comes out of beta this option will be gone when you have the library enabled.

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I guess I done goofed. I purchased the 200gb iCloud storage plan thinking I could use it as such... for storage. That way I wouldn't have to still keep local copies on my phone.

My thinking was if I had 100 photos locally on my phone I could transfer them to my iCloud storage where they would be backed up. Then I could delete them locally off my phone to save storage. But when I tried to delete the photo after transferring it to "Your Cloud Drive" it just deletes altogether.

Well you can choose from photos options, "optimise device storage" and then it only saves thumbnails, rather than the full images which you have to download when you want to see them. The space saving is pretty big.

 

[johnmacward]

Ok, I have this working again and I can't say exactly what did this for me because I tried a few things.

Firstly I rebooted a number of times both my iPad and iPhone (both of these devices use ICPL).

Then I disabled ICPL and even chose to delete the photos and videos that were stored there. It gave me the warning about having 30 days to download all images to the device. This scared me a bit so I hit "Undo".

I switched back on ICPL on both devices and ensured that they were plugged in and connected to good wifi. This got the uploads running albeit quite slowly, certainly not at the speed allowed by the Internet connection I had so this leads me to think that Apples servers might be a tad overworked at the moment fr some reason.

 

[Morac]

Last night I ended up disabling ICPL on both my iPhone and iPad. I then re-enabled it and it decided it wanted to re-upload all but 15 photos on both devices. That would have resulted in duplicates so I ended up turning off ICPL again, deleting all photos and then turning it back on and having it download the existing photos. It doesn't seem like it should work that way.

By the way, when I disabled ICPL, really old My PhotoStream photos were still there, which I then deleted. It seems turning on ICPL, doesn't delete My PhotoStream photos off the device, it just hides them so they waste space.

 

[richwoodrocket]

Morac, noticed the exact same thing - the Photo backup basically is also stored even though it now has its own storage space in the Photo Library, so far too much of your iCloud is used. I've disabled on both my iPhone and iPad and have recovered about 7GB's of space.



Something tells me that the beta status of this feature means they don't trust the library so well that you can honestly disable your actual picture backup. Maybe when this comes out of beta this option will be gone when you have the library enabled.

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Well you can choose from photos options, "optimise device storage" and then it only saves thumbnails, rather than the full images which you have to download when you want to see them. The space saving is pretty big.

I can't get them to download. It just says sharing failed. I'm unimpressed with iCloud Photo Library for the most part.

 

[Abazigal]

Guess I got lucky then. Uploaded my photos to iCloud Photo Library without a hitch and have been enjoying it ever since.