Apps Questions about Photo library

[Gaprofitt]

Hi All,

Typically I have used Google Photos, now that I have an Apple TV apple blocks/doesn't allow a Google Photos app, I am considering using Photo Library.. I have a couple of questions.

I have a ton of photos on Google Photos, assuming I have say 20GB of photos, how much storage will the thumbnails/smaller size take up on phone and macbook?

How does this work with large 4K footage? WHat is stored locally on my phone, macbook vs the cloud?

Thanks,

 

[B_Z]

I don't have any 4K videos, so I cannot comment specifically, but as far as I am aware iCloud Photo Library does not do any sort of resolution reduction or other modifications to your original photos and videos.

As far as how local vs cloud storage works - in the Preference pane of Photos.app, if you choose "Optimize Mac Storage", originals will be stored in iCloud and your local app tries to be smart about caching low-quality thumbnails/previews, and dynamically downloads content as you skim through your library requesting it. Right now iCloud tells me I have 36.4GB of photos and videos in my iCloud Photo Library, and the Finder.app tells me my photo library size on disk is.... 38.4GB. Huh. Maybe "optimize" doesn't do much since I have so much free space (60+GB free). The "about this mac" Storage tab says it only takes up 10GB though - so this might be a situation where Finder is reporting the size of all of the images/videos if they were downloaded, and the Storage tab is reporting the actual capacity taken up on disk.

On my phone, I have 12GB free and the same iCloud Photo Library reports using 14.48GB of space.

It may depend on your mix of photos and videos, but if you guess the "space optimized" option takes up only 1/4 to 1/3 of the total space on your local disk, I think you will be in the ballpark.

 

[Lappen71]

Hi All,

Typically I have used Google Photos, now that I have an Apple TV apple blocks/doesn't allow a Google Photos app, I am considering using Photo Library.. I have a couple of questions.

I have a ton of photos on Google Photos, assuming I have say 20GB of photos, how much storage will the thumbnails/smaller size take up on phone and macbook?

How does this work with large 4K footage? WHat is stored locally on my phone, macbook vs the cloud?

Thanks,

Ask Google why they doesn't make a Photo app because nobody is blocking or doesn't allow.

 

[HDFan]

How does this work with large 4K footage?

As for 4K video, on my iPhone Photos setting I don't have iCloud Photo Library set, but do have Photo Stream, Burst Photo upload, and iCloud sharing set to on. My 4K videos are uploaded to iCloud as I see them there. However I just downloaded one and it is 720p, not even 1080p. The original file size was 42.5 MB, the downloaded file is just 2.7 MB.

Disappointing.

 

[B_Z]

As for 4K video, on my iPhone Photos setting I don't have iCloud Photo Library set, but do have Photo Stream, Burst Photo upload, and iCloud sharing set to on. My 4K videos are uploaded to iCloud as I see them there. However I just downloaded one and it is 720p, not even 1080p. The original file size was 42.5 MB, the downloaded file is just 2.7 MB.

Disappointing.

Photo Stream /does/ do compression - iCloud Photo Library explicitly does not:

From https://www.apple.com/icloud/photos/

"iCloud Photo Library helps you make the most of the space available by automatically storing the original full-resolution photos and videos in iCloud"

"When you turn on iCloud Photo Library, every photo you take is automatically uploaded in full resolution"

I don't have any 4K video, but I do have 1080p@60fps, and it is transferred to my Mac via iCloud Photo Library at original resolution and framerate.

EDIT: May be worth mentioning that I also have "optimize storage" enabled on both my iPhone and Mac - so the only possible source of the full original that I can see both places is iCloud

 

[BrianBaughn]

You can display Google Photos from an iPhone or iPad via Airplay to an Apple TV.

https://www.macrumors.com/2017/04/25/google-photos-apple-tv-streaming/