iCloud Photos: What You Need to Know

[2headedgeek]

Great - apart from the price of storage....

This is as we say in the North of England absolutely bobbins (rubbish) Adobe Revel £4.99 unlimited storage over all devices.
I have the whole family synching to it via individual files, sync with your Mac etc etc.
Apple needs to offer this for free. Ooh shock horror something free from Apple that people might actually like (not like U Poo and the screech of Bonio).

 

[dbalone45]

I do not see this question answered. Can you merge two iPhoto libraries? Two separate libraries merged into one within the new Photos. My library becomes one on the cloud and on my Mac.

AND

Libraries are both mine or one library is mine and one is wife's. Both on same Mac different logins?

 

[andreyirra]

This is crazy. I just finished uploading my entire 30GB library of 4700+ photos/videos from my Mac, combined it with the existing photos/videos I already had on iCloud for a total of 6200+ photos/videos and it only takes a measly 1.4GB on my iPhone! That's what I call efficient!
Awesome!

Question. When you select a picture for simple viewing in the iphone does it start downloading a full resolution pic or there is a low resolution picture that looks ok in the iPhone?

 

[jbeck22]

I installed the update last night and opened my existing Aperture library using the new Photos app. I add to set my existing library to the system library in preferences.

In Preferences under the iCloud tab it says "Updating..."

How long does this take and is there anywhere else to see the status? Shouldn't I start seeing something when I log into icloud.com?

Thanks for any help!

 

[profets]

One thing I've been wondering about is whether the iCloud Photo Library is the same size, or smaller, than an iPhoto/Aperture Library containing the same images. Has anyone who's uploaded their library made that comparison?

My thinking is that Apple wouldn't want to keep Master, Preview, and Thumbnail versions of each image up in the cloud (they are still present on Mac). Thumbnails might be needed for the same reason they always have (faster display of images when browsing - in this case, browsing iCloud.com), but I see no real benefit to keeping previews. Considering I have 5.1 GB in my iPhone's Photo Library (Settings > General > Usage > iCloud: Manage Storage > Photos & Camera) and 4.35 GB in iCloud (iCloud.com > Settings), it suggests they're not keeping thumbnails in the cloud (or are using lossless compression of some sort).

Before turning on iCloud Photo library in the Photos app on Mac (using it just locally), I had iCloud Photo library enabled on my iPhone (since September). It was about 20GB in size before I added Photos from my Mac.

My iPhoto/Photos library on the Mac was 201GB. When I turned on iCloud Photo library, I figured it would be adding 201GB worth of Photos/Videos to the existing 20GB (for a total of ~220GB). But when all was said and done, the total iCloud Photo library size was 170GB.

I get a similar message that says "This photo will be deleted from Photo Stream on all your devices" now (my iCloud Photo Library is not activated), but most of the time it gets deletes from the camera roll only. There were a lot of pictures I had to delete them from both places separately. I have not yet figured out a pattern, so I cannot tell whether it is a bug or a feature, but the warning message is definitely not a reliable guide.

I hope it will start working better with iCloud Photo Library.

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Thanks, that's good news.

One thing I made sure to do a while back was turn off the personal/older Photo Stream. I had accidentally left it on at one point on one of my desktops and iPhone, and it was causing duplicate photos to end up in my library. I've made sure since to keep Photostream off on all my devices.

 

[KoolAid-Drink]

Does Photos.app natively support Burst photos, Time Lapse and Slo-mo videos?

Also, are folders supported?

 

[profets]

I do not see this question answered. Can you merge two iPhoto libraries? Two separate libraries merged into one within the new Photos. My library becomes one on the cloud and on my Mac.

AND

Libraries are both mine or one library is mine and one is wife's. Both on same Mac different logins?

I'm not sure myself, but I'd guess no. Without ever enabling iCloud Photo library, the new Photos app just acts like a new version of iPhoto where you can migrate an existing library, or choose manually to open different libraries.

To use iCloud Photo library though (including shared photo streams), you definitely need to have 1 library set as the "System Photo Library".

Question. When you select a picture for simple viewing in the iphone does it start downloading a full resolution pic or there is a low resolution picture that looks ok in the iPhone?

Just tried it a bit now. It seems whenever viewing photos that had not been previously downloaded or viewed, it does download a full res copy. Seems to keep device optimized thumbnails - but shows the little icon doing a download while you're viewing it and then a very sharp (assuming original) image appears.

I installed the update last night and opened my existing Aperture library using the new Photos app. I add to set my existing library to the system library in preferences.

In Preferences under the iCloud tab it says "Updating..."

How long does this take and is there anywhere else to see the status? Shouldn't I start seeing something when I log into icloud.com?

Thanks for any help!

This is after enabling iCloud Photo library right? Have you ever seen it show "Preparing..." or "Uploading..."? I'd try to quit the Photos app, and relaunch it. Or even a reboot might not hurt.

 

[manu chao]

Is there a way of storing say - your last 3 events/albums in Icloud and having the rest on my Mac?

Only via using two Photos libraries on your Mac. One that is synced with the cloud, and one that isn't. I don't know however how to easily move images from one library to another, in particular with them keeping all the metadata including adjustments made. This was easy with Aperture where you could just drag a project (or set of projects) to the Finder (which created a new library out of those projects) and then import them another library (which probably worked also via drag'n'drop not just via the menu).

 

[profets]

Does Photos.app natively support Burst photos, Time Lapse and Slo-mo videos?

Also, are folders supported?

Yup, in the "Albums" view, they have it exactly like the iPhone or iPad shows:

All Photos, Favourites, Panoramas, Videos, Slo-mo, Time-lapse, Bursts, Last Import and Recently Deleted.

Below that all albums, events and folders are listed.

Folders & nested folders are supported! I was pleasantly surprised by that. Though it seems you can only create folders and subfolders on the Mac for the time being (they do show up everywhere).

 

[jbeck22]

I'm not sure myself, but I'd guess no. Without ever enabling iCloud Photo library, the new Photos app just acts like a new version of iPhoto where you can migrate an existing library, or choose manually to open different libraries.

To use iCloud Photo library though (including shared photo streams), you definitely need to have 1 library set as the "System Photo Library".



Just tried it a bit now. It seems whenever viewing photos that had not been previously downloaded or viewed, it does download a full res copy. Seems to keep device optimized thumbnails - but shows the little icon doing a download while you're viewing it and then a very sharp (assuming original) image appears.



This is after enabling iCloud Photo library right? Have you ever seen it show "Preparing..." or "Uploading..."? I'd try to quit the Photos app, and relaunch it. Or even a reboot might not hurt.

Yes iCloud Photo Library is enabled. It only shows Updating...nothing else. I have tried to quit the app and relaunch...haven't tried a reboot just yet though.

 

[manu chao]

The process is ridiculous. I think most people would like the cloud to store photos so they CAN remove them from their phones or iPads.

No, the process is not ridiculous because the iPhone itself will remove them automatically when space is needed, saving you the work of doing it.

 

[Icaras]

Question. When you select a picture for simple viewing in the iphone does it start downloading a full resolution pic or there is a low resolution picture that looks ok in the iPhone?

Yes first the crummy version shows full screen and then you'll see a small downloading circle on the bottom right as it downloads the full quality version. The optimized version looks horrible but again, the photo immediately downloads once you tap it to view it.

 

[manu chao]

Photo stream doesn't put anything on my mac though. It's completely internet based and is limited to 1000 photos.

For iOS devices Photo Stream is limited to 1000 photos. On Macs, iPhoto and Aperture can be set to automatically download all images being added to Photo Stream (usually this would mean the pictures added by iOS devices to Photo Stream).

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It does not "sync" because if you delete anything in your Photostream photos on your Mac, those deletions are not reflected on your iDevices.

Aperture and iPhoto can show all images in your Photo Stream and allow you to also delete images from your Photo Stream. Aperture and iPhoto additionally can be set to download and 'import' all images added to Photo Stream. What you then do with the imported images won't be synced back to Photo Stream.

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Not quite all I need to know:

1) After I take a photo on my iPhone, what happens when I delete that picture from my iPhone? (Right now I have to delete it from Camera Roll and my Photo Stream independently.)

With iCloud Photo Library, you delete an image on any device and it will be put into the iCloud Photo Library trash (which you can empty manually or wait for the images in it to be cleared after 30 days).

2) Do albums sync across devices? Right now, I'd love to be able to create a new album on my iPad, add pictures to it from Photo Stream or photos I upload from the SD card of my camera (via the dongle) and have that album appear on my Mac and iPhone.

Of course they will, that is pretty much the point of the iCloud Photo Library, that things get synced.

3) Pretty common question on this thread: My iPhoto library is pretty large. Is there any limit to how much storage space my iPhone would allocate to the library? (I don't want to fill up my phone storage solely with pictures from years ago.)

Does filling up the phone storage fully with pictures make your phone heavier?

The million dollar question is whether for all practical purposes space taken up by photos your iPhone behaves as if it were empty space to other applications. If it does, then there should be nothing to worry about.

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If your original files are held in the iPhoto "Masters" folder, how do you delete the iPhoto app and the iPhoto library without losing all your master files?

Photos uses hard links when it creates its library based on an iPhoto library. When you delete the iPhoto library this only removes the hard links iPhoto had to the physical location on the disk that stores your photos. The hard links that Photos had created remain and thus the files remain visible/available to the file system.

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[/COLOR]

thanks for the reply. so regarding the first question, i.e. syncing new photos from iphone/ipad to photos, how does it work? can i only get photos to sync via icloud? which means that i'd have to subscribe to a storage plan about the 20gb i have right now. or is there some other way?

Photo Stream still exists. Presumably you can use Photos with Photo Stream the same way you can currently use iPhoto or Aperture with Photo Stream.

 

[cardsdoc]

Any one having trouble with videos in icloud photo library showing up in OS X photos app? I already had icloud photo library enabled on my iPhone 6 an that was appropriately mirrored on icloud.com. Photos app imported everything from iphoto and has also incorporated recent photos that were not in iphoto but in my icloud library. However videos (other than were already in my iphoto library) have yet to show up. Photos is still in process of uploading my large library to icloud but i would have though some videos would have shown up by now since all recent photos have.

 

[manu chao]

As far as I can tell

1) No, which I think it's a bit annoying

Are you sure? Because it should work for any other camera, why shouldn't it work for the iPhone as well?

 

[profets]

Any one having trouble with videos in icloud photo library showing up in OS X photos app? I already had icloud photo library enabled on my iPhone 6 an that was appropriately mirrored on icloud.com. Photos app imported everything from iphoto and has also incorporated recent photos that were not in iphoto but in my icloud library. However videos (other than were already in my iphoto library) have yet to show up. Photos is still in process of uploading my large library to icloud but i would have though some videos would have shown up by now since all recent photos have.

I noticed with mine, that until Photos app on Mac finished doing the massive upload to iCloud, that none of the existing items in iCloud Photo library would download.

 

[manu chao]

Well, I allready use family sharing, it doesnt let you share data. ANd yes, I can share my photos, but then I need to have my own albums. Id prefer if my wife got all the images to our shared laptop and sorted the albums....meaning we would share one cloud subscription. But I guess Apple want us to keep track of our own photos.

You just have share all photos you take to her (name it 'husband' photo stream if you want). And then she shares the albums she creates back to you.

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Could you also use your straightforward approach to explain how to solve for the problem where iPhones for my wife and I have separate Apple IDs but we want all the pictures from the Mac on both phones, not just the Apple ID that's being used on the Mac?

You just have to put all the pictures into a shared Photo Stream (I know that is some manual work but I don't think it is too onerous if you do it on the Mac where you can easily select a large group of photos in one go).

 

[cardsdoc]

I noticed with mine, that until Photos app on Mac finished doing the massive upload to iCloud, that none of the existing items in iCloud Photo library would download.

Thank, that's what I'm hoping. Have a 100gb photo library. I wish ISP's would give us faster upload speeds. Fastest available to me is 5mb/s (TWC) which just doesn't cut it in 2015. It drives me crazy. FIOS has great upload speeds but I can't get it where I live.

 

[KoolAid-Drink]

Folders & nested folders are supported! I was pleasantly surprised by that. Though it seems you can only create folders and subfolders on the Mac for the time being (they do show up everywhere).

So you mean if I create a folder, then a nested folder structure on the Mac side, it will show up the same on iOS; but you can't actually create a new folder/folder structure on iOS?

 

[iMcLovin]

You just have share all photos you take to her (name it 'husband' photo stream if you want). And then she shares the albums she creates back to you.

Thanks I get that but I still think it sounds like a complex/ unnecessary way to solve something that should have been made with a better family solution

 

[KoolAid-Drink]

You just have share all photos you take to her (name it 'husband' photo stream if you want). And then she shares the albums she creates back to you.

Wouldn't that send the photos in a lower resolution/quality? Photostream doesn't upload photos at full resolution.

 

[profets]

Thank, that's what I'm hoping. Have a 100gb photo library. I wish ISP's would give us faster upload speeds. Fastest available to me is 5mb/s (TWC) which just doesn't cut it in 2015. It drives me crazy. FIOS has great upload speeds but I can't get it where I live.

I hear you. I have 10mbps upload where I am. I was on vacation for 5 days so I turned it on when I left, and it finished just after I got back (200GB).

So you mean if I create a folder, then a nested folder structure on the Mac side, it will show up the same on iOS; but you can't actually create a new folder/folder structure on iOS?

That's right. I can create folders and subfolders, they show up on iOS devices immediately. But on an iOS device, the only option I currently see (8.2) is to create albums. Maybe this changed in 8.3? Or will in iOS 9?

Thanks I get that but I still think it sounds like a complex/ unnecessary way to solve something that should have been made with a better family solution

Wouldn't that send the photos in a lower resolution/quality? Photostream doesn't upload photos at full resolution.

I agree. Shared photo streams are a nice feature, but they really don't fix this issue. I'm hoping that they eventually do some sort of family sharing with iCloud Photo libraries. One step at a time...

 

[KoolAid-Drink]

That's right. I can create folders and subfolders, they show up on iOS devices immediately. But on an iOS device, the only option I currently see (8.2) is to create albums. Maybe this changed in 8.3? Or will in iOS 9?

Actually, on 8.1.3, you can go to Photos > Albums, HOLD the + button (not tap) and it'll give you the option to create a folder. From there, it doesn't seem to support nested folders right now, though.

Maybe it's hidden currently because it's not ready yet?

 

[AlecZ]

Honestly, this photo fiasco has dragged on for so long and has gotten so complicated that I've gotten scared, have disabled anything photo-related on iCloud, and just sit here with iPhoto '09 and a local library. This stuff is very un-Apple-like. I'll bet the majority of users have given up on trying to figure out all the nuances of Photo Stream.

 

[theBB]

Does filling up the phone storage fully with pictures make your phone heavier?

Ahh sarcasm dripping with maturity!...

Q: I am going on a long flight tomorrow. How many rental movies can I fit on my phone?

- Let me check my free space as reported my phone -> easy

vs.

- Let me start renting and see if I get an error message? -> no so easy (Would I still be charged a rental fee even if I cannot download the second movie until I am done with the first, which means after the flight.)

Q: Should I rent SD or HD versions of these two movies, so that they both fit?

- If Photos cleans out half its space and iOS cleans out temporary files of these three apps (damn Facebook) and others contract by 200MB, HD will fit.

vs.

- Let me check the amount of my free space