iCloud Photo Library vs. My Photo Stream

[XTheLancerX]

I noticed the other day that iCloud Photo Library and My Photo Stream both turn on together. For example, My Photo Stream and iCloud Photo Library are both off. Flip the switch for iCloud Photo Library, and both turn on.

Now, this prompts these questions; does iCloud Photo Library rely on My Photo Stream being turned on? Don't both of them involve uploading pictures? It's just that iCloud Photo Library syncs your entire library, so "All Photos" is identical on both devices, while on the other hand, My Photo Stream makes a separate folder on the iPad containing the iPhones' pictures, and makes a seperate folder on the iPhone containing the iPads' photos, etc. Or am I mistaken? I haven't dealt much with My Photo Stream, I just know that I don't use it.

So what I'm asking is, can I turn off My Photo Stream and still have iCloud Photo Library make my pictures in synchronized across my devices? Wouldn't this save battery because pictures would only have to upload to iCloud Photo Library, instead of both that and My Photo Stream? I've been seeing Photos climbing up my battery usage list with "Background Activity" listed below, so yeah.

 

[Mak47]

I think Apple is going to finally kill off PhotoStream once "Photos" replaces iPhoto on the Mac. And good riddance, it's been utterly confusing since it's inception.

The iCloud Photos beta that's on iOS 8 makes all the sense in the world. Upload all your photos to one location--delete them from the originating devices--replace them with optimized thumbnails until actually needed.

It's organized, it's simple, it reduces storage needs. All things that PhotoStream didn't do.

As for your question, if you're talking about the iCloud Photos beta...yes.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

:::snip:::

So what I'm asking is, can I turn off My Photo Stream and still have iCloud Photo Library make my pictures in synchronized across my devices? Wouldn't this save battery because pictures would only have to upload to iCloud Photo Library, instead of both that and My Photo Stream? I've been seeing Photos climbing up my battery usage list with "Background Activity" listed below, so yeah.

This depends... For now, iCloud Photo Library is not on Mac, and afaik it's not going to be on Windows. So, if you've been using My Photo Stream to download your iPhone/iPad photos to your computer, you still need it.