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atiffarooq

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 27, 2006
638
601
Hi all.

Apologies if this is in the wrong area of the forum. I have a subscription to iCloud storage for 250GB and use it for photos etc. taken with my iOS devices. I also have a Dropbox account which had 50GB storage for 2 years and I've used that to store all photos I've had for many years (about 30GB worth). My Dropbox extra storage has now come to an end and I am not willing to pay the £79 per year for 1TB storage.

I've just started the move from Dropbox to iCloud on my Mac - all the files are now transferring across. Can anyone tell me if I will be able to see the photos I'm moving over in my normal Photo app on my iPhone, iPad etc.? If not, is there anyway to make this possible?

Thanks and Happy New Year in advance!

A
 
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deany

macrumors 68030
Sep 16, 2012
2,873
2,086
North Wales
Hi all.

Apologies if this is in the wrong area of the forum. I have a subscription to iCloud storage for 250GB and use it for photos etc. taken with my iOS devices. I also have a Dropbox account which had 50GB storage for 2 years and I've used that to store all photos I've had for many years (about 30GB worth). My Dropbox extra storage has now come to an end and I am not willing to pay the £79 per year for 1TB storage.

I've just started the move from Dropbox to iCloud on my Mac - all the files are now transferring across. Can anyone tell me if I will be able to see the photos I'm moving over in my normal Photo app on my iPhone, iPad etc.? If not, is there anyway to make this possible?

Thanks and Happy New Year in advance!

A
Hi
Are you moving your photos to

• 'iCloud drive' in iCloud
• or 'photos' in iCloud

I guess 'photos' but just wanted to confirm

also

• how much storage is there on your iPhone and iPad remaining
• which iPhone and iPad do you have
• which version if iOS are you currently using on your iPhone and iPad

with this info I think @zorinlynx is the best person to chip in with the best advice.
Cheers
 
Last edited:

atiffarooq

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 27, 2006
638
601
Hi
Are you moving your photos to

• 'iCloud drive' in iCloud
• or 'photos' in iCloud

I guess 'photos' but just wanted to confirm

also

• how much storage is there on your iPhone and iPad remaining
• which iPhone and iPad do you have
• which version if iOS are you currently using on your iPhone and iPad

with this info I think @zorinlynx is the best person to chip in with the best advice.
Cheers
Hi,

I've just copied the folders from Dropbox to iCloud Drive, so not specifically to photos in iCloud. I have an iPhone 7 and iPad Pro 9.7 and both are on the latest version of iOS. On my iCloud I have 190GB free.
 
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deany

macrumors 68030
Sep 16, 2012
2,873
2,086
North Wales
Hi,

I've just copied the folders from Dropbox to iCloud Drive, so not specifically to photos in iCloud. I have an iPhone 7 and iPad Pro 9.7 and both are on the latest version of iOS. On my iCloud I have 190GB free.

I have a feeling that @zorinlynx will advise moving the photos from iCloud drive to photos in iCloud as per

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204264

but best not to do anything yet ie keep moving photos to iCloud drive, hopefully he will pick up on the thread later.

I think knowing storage left on iPhone 7 and iPad Pro 9.7 would help.

ps
dont forget to keep an 'off site' backup of your precious data on a USB drive as well as the icloud.
cheers
 
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atiffarooq

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 27, 2006
638
601
I have a feeling that @zorinlynx will advise moving the photos from iCloud drive to photos in iCloud as per

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204264

but best not to do anything yet ie keep moving photos to iCloud drive, hopefully he will pick up on the thread later.

I think knowing storage left on iPhone 7 and iPad Pro 9.7 would help.

ps
dont forget to keep an 'off site' backup of your precious data on a USB drive as well as the icloud.
cheers
Thanks for the info. I've just started a copy to a USB drive of all the photos that have been moved to iCloud Drive.
 
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zorinlynx

macrumors G3
May 31, 2007
8,144
17,475
Florida, USA
Am I now the resident iCloud Photo Library expert? I'm not sure what I did to deserve this designation. But anyway...

Don't put your photos in iCloud Drive. My suggestion is to move them out of iCloud Drive (which will free up the space) and then add them to iCloud Photo Library. You will be able to access the photos much more easily. However, make sure you have at least one machine running the Photos app with "optimize storage" turned off so you have your own complete copy of the photo library. Putting complete trust in cloud services is never a good idea.
 

atiffarooq

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 27, 2006
638
601
Am I now the resident iCloud Photo Library expert? I'm not sure what I did to deserve this designation. But anyway...

Don't put your photos in iCloud Drive. My suggestion is to move them out of iCloud Drive (which will free up the space) and then add them to iCloud Photo Library. You will be able to access the photos much more easily. However, make sure you have at least one machine running the Photos app with "optimize storage" turned off so you have your own complete copy of the photo library. Putting complete trust in cloud services is never a good idea.

Thank you!

I've deleted the photos from my iCloud drive now and imported them in to my iCloud Photo library. I can now access these photos across all of my devices. As per your suggestion I've got optimise storage turned off on my MacBook, but other devices are running with this on. I've also got a complete back up of all photos on a flash stick.

Thanks to you both for your help - much appreciated!
 
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