iCloud PhotoStream blows

[BlindMellon]

I have an iPhone 4S and iPad 2, both set to share PhotoStream (I'm signed into both devices).

I NEVER get a consistent update of photos on the iPad.

Case in point: Went to Cincy Labor day fireworks last night. Walked down by the Ohio river to watch. Took a ton of pictures with the iPhone. Afterwards we walk back towards town (with thousands of other people, haha) and stop for a late dinner at Taco Bell.

SO, 'bout an hour after the photo's were taken, we get back to the hotel room and I open the iPad up. About TWO of the photo's synced over out of all I took. By morning, another couple made it, but not nearly all of them.

Details: Both devices are on wifi and both are set to share PhotoStreams and I shut down the camera and photo apps after taking pictures (because I read somewhere you needed to).

The whole thing seems very inconsistent. Even when I'm sitting at home on my own wifi, not all of the photo's make it over to the PhotoStream. Sometimes they go quick, sometimes they never show up.

Can I ask wtf is it with this service? I never get a decent sync out of this.

 

[PrometheusGeek]

I have an iPhone 4S and iPad 2, both set to share PhotoStream (I'm signed into both devices).

I NEVER get a consistent update of photos on the iPad.

Case in point: Went to Cincy Labor day fireworks last night. Walked down by the Ohio river to watch. Took a ton of pictures with the iPhone. Afterwards we walk back towards town (with thousands of other people, haha) and stop for a late dinner at Taco Bell.

SO, 'bout an hour after the photo's were taken, we get back to the hotel room and I open the iPad up. About TWO of the photo's synced over out of all I took. By morning, another couple made it, but not nearly all of them.

Details: Both devices are on wifi and both are set to share PhotoStreams and I shut down the camera and photo apps after taking pictures (because I read somewhere you needed to).

The whole thing seems very inconsistent. Even when I'm sitting at home on my own wifi, not all of the photo's make it over to the PhotoStream. Sometimes they go quick, sometimes they never show up.

Can I ask wtf is it with this service? I never get a decent sync out of this.

It's worked flawlessly for me and my family. Between my wife and I and extended family, there's about 12 of us who have iPhones and share photos via PhotoStream. No complaints. I wonder if the wifi at the hotel you stayed at was just slow and unreliable? It does require a decent wifi connection to work properly.

 

[Boyd01]

It also wouldn't be surprising to see an unusually high volume of photos being taken on Labor Day weekend. That might clog up the pipes a bit. 😉

 

[AzureCloud]

You're on the latest iOS versions on both devices? How is the wifi performance of your iPhone on your networks? I just ask in case there is some unusual wifi issue. Do you have a Mac with iPhoto installed? I haven't personally had any issues with Photo Stream, other than sometimes turning wifi off and then wondering why a few of my photos haven't made it to my other devices. The icloud.com website used to have an option to reset your Photo Stream, but it seems that they have gotten rid of that. The only other thing I could think of would be to try toggling Photo Stream on your devices.

Here is what should be happening, according to Apple: "When you enable My Photo Stream on your devices, all new photos you take or import to those devices will be automatically added to your photo stream.

On an iOS device, new photos you take will be automatically uploaded to your photo stream when you leave the Camera app and are connected to Wi-Fi. Note: My Photo Stream does not push photos over cellular connections."

 

[PhoneandPad]

I experience the identical problem.

 

[Carlanga]

I don't close the app, I went to LA on my last trip and took 3000 pics and they all synced when I was on wifi, I noticed if I leave the app open in the photostream section it goes faster.

 

[noisycats]

Also great performance here. I never quit the camera app nor the photo app.

 

[portley777]

same here

I have had flawless results using my 4s to iPad 1, 2 and to iPhoto for a few years until I updated my phone to the new IOS 7. Now I suffer EXACTLY the same problems as BlindMellon. Now a couple of photos will sync but not all of the camera roll and sometimes none. There are no wifi issues to blame. This is purely a software problem. Obviously it can't be anything else but a problem with the software sync between my phone and the cloud as the photos don't appear on three different devices. OF course a clean delete of all of the photos online may help but it shouldn't have to come to that.

Does anybody know how to fix this? Apple certainly have no advice as this problem is firmly under the rug.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[Daysight]

Same issue here. iPhone 4S and iPad Air on iOS 7, updated. Never get consistent sharing to PS from iPhone. Only some photos make it. Even within our home LAN. Used to be fully automatic on my old iPad 2 if that means anything. Pretty sure it started when I switched to the Air when the Air released. Annoying.

 

[dlaxague]

I have the same problem and could never figure out why some photos never make it to photo stream. I just posted in another thread that on the apple forum, someone said that if you take a photo from the lock screen (swiping up on the camera icon without unlocking your phone/entering your passcode), it's THOSE photos that don't go to photo stream. Which seems may be the case -- I've experimented a bit this morning.

If this is the issue and this setting makes sense for some security reason (not evident to me), then there should be a way to go in and okay those lock screen photos for inclusion in photo stream, don't you think?

 

[r0k]

I have the same problem and could never figure out why some photos never make it to photo stream. I just posted in another thread that on the apple forum, someone said that if you take a photo from the lock screen (swiping up on the camera icon without unlocking your phone/entering your passcode), it's THOSE photos that don't go to photo stream. Which seems may be the case -- I've experimented a bit this morning.

If this is the issue and this setting makes sense for some security reason (not evident to me), then there should be a way to go in and okay those lock screen photos for inclusion in photo stream, don't you think?

Lock screen photos NEVER make it to photostream or they don't make it until you unlock your phone? I've never noticed this but I'll have to go check now that you've brought this up...

 

[dlaxague]

Lock screen photos NEVER make it to photostream or they don't make it until you unlock your phone? I've never noticed this but I'll have to go check now that you've brought this up...

Based on my experiments today, they NEVER make it to photostream, even after I unlock my phone.

I'm curious if this is the same for others. Previously, I've had trouble with some photos never making it to photostream but had not thought to connect it with whether I took the photos from a locked or unlocked phone. In another thread, people are saying that the photos from their locked phone won't go to photostream until they unlock the phone (and are connected to wifi). But that isn't how mine is behaving.

 

[r0k]

Based on my experiments today, they NEVER make it to photostream, even after I unlock my phone.

I'm curious if this is the same for others. Previously, I've had trouble with some photos never making it to photostream but had not thought to connect it with whether I took the photos from a locked or unlocked phone. In another thread, people are saying that the photos from their locked phone won't go to photostream until they unlock the phone (and are connected to wifi). But that isn't how mine is behaving.

Ouch! Fortunately, Photostream isn't the only way I get photos off my phone. About every other month, I hook up the serial cable and use Image Transfer to get movies and photos off my phone. I then delete any larger files such as multi-gigabyte movie files off my phone.

In the future, I'll avoid using camera from the lock screen unless I'm in a big hurry. I also plan to ask Apple about this to find out if this is intentional or something they simply overlooked.