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So, I have the beta option on my iP5. When I click iCloud Photo Library (beta) I get three options:

1) Learn about Backup
2) Start using Beta
3) Cancel.

I click #2. Then I get this:

"Photos Synced from iTunes will be Removed" 4,686 photos will be removed.

Options:
1) Remove Photos
2) Cancel.

I still don't get it, I'm slow I guess. Photos removed from iTunes? From my iPhone?? I think this new setup stinks!

You can't use iCloud Photo Library alongside synced photos from iTunes/iPhoto. If you want the photos from your mac on your phone then don't enable the iCloud photo drive until its out of beta and the 'Photos' app for Mac is available.
I don't mean to sound rude or patronising but I am really struggling to see why everyone is finding this all so confusing. By switching over to an entirely cloud based photo library you are clearly not going to be able to have your photos synced locally as well, you would end up in a right mess with duplicates etc.
 
By switching over to an entirely cloud based photo library you are clearly not going to be able to have your photos synced locally as well, you would end up in a right mess with duplicates etc.

I don't think that is really clear. The repercussions of switching to the iCloud Photo Library are really glossed over by Apple - they tout the benefits in their marketing material, but do not explain the limitations.
Users need to learn that when they switch to iCloud Photo Library, any and all photos/videos will need to be uploaded to the cloud from now on, in order to be viewable on all their devices.
 
Long story short: Icloud Photo Library is just interesting for people with low GB devices? I have a 64GB iPhone and I'm seeing no reason to enable Library as I have enough space. Or do I oversee something?
 
I'm wondering if anyone has actually noticed a lower usage once enabling iCloud Photo Library.

I still have my phone showing 7.0GB of pictures and I know my photos have synced because they showed up on my iPad after enabling it there.

iCloud storage also shows 6.6GB of "iCloud Photo Library"

So bottom line: iPhone 6 Usage : 7.0GB
iCloud Storage: 6.6GB

Why aren't I seeing my iPhone Usage as 0.4GB?

I know it's still in Beta, but I'm wondering if other people are noticing their usage change.

EDIT: Oh, and yes, I do have "Optimize iPhone Storage" selected


I was wondering same thing. My guess is since its Beta, they haven't optimized the local stored pics yet. If you notice, they aren't counting the locally stored photos as storage in your iCloud backup, so your not wasting iCloud storage space.
 
I tried to turn iCloud photos on and it said it "Not available yet, but adding users daily."
 
I tried to turn iCloud photos on and it said it "Not available yet, but adding users daily."

Yeah it's weird... I've had it enabled since 8.0 was released and this morning it was completely gone and now is back w/ the same message
 
For those who have enabled this feature, does it also sync your videos?

Photostream was very frustrating because I still had to manually import the videos from my phone to my Mac. Photostream only uploaded photos. I am hoping this new full iCloud photo storage also handles video.

Considering this is supposed to fully replace iPhoto on the Mac, it would have to support video, otherwise, where is video to be stored and shared?
 
I don't think that is really clear. The repercussions of switching to the iCloud Photo Library are really glossed over by Apple - they tout the benefits in their marketing material, but do not explain the limitations.
Users need to learn that when they switch to iCloud Photo Library, any and all photos/videos will need to be uploaded to the cloud from now on, in order to be viewable on all their devices.

That is fairly obvious in how Apple describes iCloud + icloud Photo Library. You can't sync contacts etc when you're using icloud either, because it's unnecessary.
 
U sure. It still shows as being backuped

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Maybe I keep it till I can access them on iclouddrive with my windows pc - can't install the control panel - install breaks / stops at 93% install
 
Long story short: Icloud Photo Library is just interesting for people with low GB devices? I have a 64GB iPhone and I'm seeing no reason to enable Library as I have enough space. Or do I oversee something?


IPL is useful for people with devices that don't have enough storage to hold their entire photo library, but it's also useful for people with multiple iOS devices. If you have an iPhone and an iPad then IPL will make all your photos available on both devices.
 
IPL is useful for people with devices that don't have enough storage to hold their entire photo library, but it's also useful for people with multiple iOS devices. If you have an iPhone and an iPad then IPL will make all your photos available on both devices.

But all my photos are already available on both devices (iphone and ipad). When I take a picture with my iphone, the picture is also in the collections/moments on my ipad. :confused:
 
But all my photos are already available on both devices (iphone and ipad). When I take a picture with my iphone, the picture is also in the collections/moments on my ipad. :confused:


You're probably using photo stream for that. Photo stream is limited in that it is only temporary storage for photos. It will hold photos for a max of 30 days and will only hold up to 1000 photos. If you take more than 1000 photos in a 30 day period then the oldest will be removed as you take more.

If you take a photo on your iPhone then you'll be able to see it on your iPad for 30 days while it remains in the photo stream, but unless you save it to your iPad then it will disappear after that.

IPL is permanent storage for your photos and videos as well.
 
Long story short: Icloud Photo Library is just interesting for people with low GB devices? I have a 64GB iPhone and I'm seeing no reason to enable Library as I have enough space. Or do I oversee something?

It really depends on your goals. Yes, it has the potential to stretch available space on smaller-capacity iOS devices (but then again, some day 64gb will be considered small). For some people, this will be the only practical benefit. A fair number of them may not realize that it's happening, since it'll be going on quietly in the background.

However, I've been waiting for some years to have a cloud-based photo library integrated with the Apple ecosystem. The iPhoto/Aperture library is not intended for concurrent-access usage across a network (LAN or internet). If you need to edit from same library on both desktop and laptop, you have some work to do to manage the process, and you don't have access to the complete library at all on iOS.

This change will allow me to work with photos the same way I work with documents in the cloud - I work on whichever of my computing devices is handy (or at iCloud.com if they're not handy), and I can pick up where I left off on any of my other devices, without having to worry about versioning.

It also will also give me automated, nearly-real-time off-site archiving/backup. If your photo library is particularly valuable to you, paying Apple (or anyone else, for that matter) for cloud storage may not seem all that expensive.

No matter how much memory you have on your computing devices, at some point it's necessary to either clean house or pay to expand storage. That reality doesn't change, whether whether you're using a hard drive, flash memory, or the cloud.
 
You're probably using photo stream for that. Photo stream is limited in that it is only temporary storage for photos. It will hold photos for a max of 30 days and will only hold up to 1000 photos. If you take more than 1000 photos in a 30 day period then the oldest will be removed as you take more.

If you take a photo on your iPhone then you'll be able to see it on your iPad for 30 days while it remains in the photo stream, but unless you save it to your iPad then it will disappear after that.

IPL is permanent storage for your photos and videos as well.

But all pictures are low res, when they're in IPL?
 
But all pictures are low res, when they're in IPL?


No, IPL stores the full resolution version in the cloud. As far as the pictures on your device, you have two options you can select download and keep originals, which stores the full version of all the pics on your device as well, but you need to make sure you have enough space on your device if you select this option.

Or you can select optimize device space. This stores a low res version on your device so you can see all your pics and look through them without needing to use a lot of space on your device, but if you want to view or share a particular photo then it will automatically download the full version from the cloud.
 
My understanding that switching over will start counting your photos in your 5gb free iCloud space. Currently those are not counted in your space correct? Also what happens in Windows iCloud control panel or iCloud folder on the PC? I assume that will just be updated much like it currently is so it will match your device and the cloud? Does this in anyway get mixed into the iCloud drive option? That is also using your 5gb free space. Is there a photos area in there once you turn this on?

Problem is there seems to be no clear info available and if you switch to try and figure it out you cant go back.
 
OK, after reading through all of this I think I finally understand.

Just to confirm, if you do turn this on, the storage of all those photos comes out of the 5GB free iClould storage you get right? So if you have a photo library that's larger than that you'll have to pay for more iCloud storage to use this feature.

Lastly, if you don't use this feature you can continue on with photo stream which will allow you to sync photos from the last 30 days to all your iOS devices and iPhoto on your mac.
 
U sure. It still shows as being backuped

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Maybe I keep it till I can access them on iclouddrive with my windows pc - can't install the control panel - install breaks / stops at 93% install


Yes. Even though it shows being backed up, if you calculate the total space of the backups along with the iCloud Photo Library, you will see the backups for your photo library are not counted towards your storage usage for iCloud.
 
U sure. It still shows as being backuped

----------

Maybe I keep it till I can access them on iclouddrive with my windows pc - can't install the control panel - install breaks / stops at 93% install

I got iCloud control panel to install fine. Had 3.1 then upgraded to 4.0. Maybe you should uninstall old version and try . Also you can access iCloud drive from icloud.com now. But not sure if you will see photos there even with icloud photo library. Still wondering about that one myself.
 
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