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iPhone Some questions regarding iCloud Photo Library

ciarals

ciarals

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 26, 2010
91
10
Italy
Hello! Today I decided to activate iCloud Photo Library on my iPhone and iPad. I didn't have any cloud options already activated for the photos (for example, no Photo Streaming). Anyway, after activating iCloud Photo Library, also the other options activated: Photo Streaming and iCloud Photo Sharing.

So, first question: why both iCloud Photo Library and Photo Streaming activated? I know that they are different, but I thought that activating iCloud Photo Library would have turned off and greyed out Photo Streaming. So, can I use both of them? Is it useful?

I decided to turn off after some minutes Photo Streaming and leave on only iCloud Photo Library: is that a good move or should I leave both on?

Also, in my iCloud backup there is still my photo library: since I'm now using iCloud Photo Library, will it automatically turn off or should I do it by myself?

Last question: I'm currently uploading iPad photos. After the upload finishes, will the photos appear also on the iPhone? Together with the iPhone's photos or in another folder?

Thank you very much and sorry for so many questions! :)
 
ciarals said:
Hello! Today I decided to activate iCloud Photo Library on my iPhone and iPad. I didn't have any cloud options already activated for the photos (for example, no Photo Streaming). Anyway, after activating iCloud Photo Library, also the other options activated: Photo Streaming and iCloud Photo Sharing.

So, first question: why both iCloud Photo Library and Photo Streaming activated? I know that they are different, but I thought that activating iCloud Photo Library would have turned off and greyed out Photo Streaming. So, can I use both of them? Is it useful?

I decided to turn off after some minutes Photo Streaming and leave on only iCloud Photo Library: is that a good move or should I leave both on?

Also, in my iCloud backup there is still my photo library: since I'm now using iCloud Photo Library, will it automatically turn off or should I do it by myself?

Last question: I'm currently uploading iPad photos. After the upload finishes, will the photos appear also on the iPhone? Together with the iPhone's photos or in another folder?

Thank you very much and sorry for so many questions! :)
Click to expand...

First: Both are activated to give you choice until the time when Apple decides to do away with Photostream. In theory they both do the same thing but they do it in different ways.

Briefly:
-- Photostream gives you the ability to sync and store up to 1000 photos for a period of 30 days so that you have time to copy the photos to their final storage location. It's meant to save you the trouble of physically connecting your device to pull the photos off.
--ICloud Photo Library is meant as a sync service with storage up to the limit you purchase via the monthly payment plan. You could do with the given 5GB or you can buy up to 1TB, its up to you. Its other purpose is to sync your photos between all devices logged into an iCloud account. You take a photo on your phone, you see it on your iPad and MAC for example.

The short answer to number one here is to plan to use iCloud Photo Library (or an option from someone not Apple) long term. Photostream is on borrowed time.

Second: Your backup will reflect the change to iCloud Photo. Just give it a little time to sort out. Soon you will see your backup reduced by the amount of photos no longer being part of the regular backup. If you like, you can delete your backup and run a new manual backup. It wont hurt anything.

Last: Assuming you are using the same iCloud login on your phone and iPad, the photos will all show in the same places on both devices. Your folders will match. Your All Photos folder will contain everything that is a combo of all devices added to the photo library.
 
Thank you gsmornot! Everything's clear now! :) So, the only downside of all this thing is that all photos from the iPhone and the iPad will be together, without any distinction. Well, let's see if I will like this new method or not. In the meantime, thank you again! :)
 
Hello again gsmornot, a little update to this thread... Everything went fine: all photos uploaded correctly from both iPhone and iPad. Just one little question regarding iCloud backup. From Apple FAQs:

Is my iCloud Photo Library still included in iCloud backup?
No. After you enable iCloud Photo Library, your photos and videos are automatically uploaded and stored in iCloud. They won't be duplicated in your iCloud backup.

So how does this work? My iPhone, as usual, did an iCloud Backup this night and it seems that also photos were included. What is suppose to happen? The Photos switch should disappear from backupable apps?

To avoid storage duplicates, I decided to switch off the Photos backup, but I would like to know how iCloud Backup is supposed to do this. Thank you! :)
 
I also have had similar questions. I wanted to disable Photo Stream but leave iCloud Photo Library on because I find uploading to two different services a waste of battery and a waste of Internet bandwidth. I like iCloud Photo Library because I like my photos being synchronized, I don't like to have to think "Hmm, is that photo on my iPad or my iPhone?" Before I go to share it or something. Photo stream I suppose does the same thing but it puts everything from the opposite device in a separate album, it only lasts 30 days and you have to go through and save the photos to the device manually, it's just annoying. iCloud Photo Library is nice and automatic, same camera roll on all devices without any work being done. I like that.

So iCloud Photo Library will still function on its own without photo stream correct? And can I turn off iCloud photo sharing, too? Because I never use that and having that extra useless "Shared" tab in photos kind of annoying.
 
XTheLancerX said:
So iCloud Photo Library will still function on its own without photo stream correct? And can I turn off iCloud photo sharing, too? Because I never use that and having that extra useless "Shared" tab in photos kind of annoying.
Click to expand...

iCloud Photo Library, My Photo Stream and iCloud Photo Sharing are all independent features. Switching the later two off will affect nothing of your iCloud Photo Library. Likewise for the other two.
 
Last edited:
ciarals said:
Hello again gsmornot, a little update to this thread... Everything went fine: all photos uploaded correctly from both iPhone and iPad. Just one little question regarding iCloud backup. From Apple FAQs:

Is my iCloud Photo Library still included in iCloud backup?
No. After you enable iCloud Photo Library, your photos and videos are automatically uploaded and stored in iCloud. They won't be duplicated in your iCloud backup.

So how does this work? My iPhone, as usual, did an iCloud Backup this night and it seems that also photos were included. What is suppose to happen? The Photos switch should disappear from backupable apps?

To avoid storage duplicates, I decided to switch off the Photos backup, but I would like to know how iCloud Backup is supposed to do this. Thank you! :)
Click to expand...

Your backup should or will correct itself. It showed the photos because the backup was just updating the version on the server. Try turning photos back on and it should look at your settings and realize you're now using iCloud Photo Library and remove the photos from the data backed up. If not, you could delete your backup then run a manual backup. Past that let the auto backup run each night as normal.
 
gsmornot said:
Your backup should or will correct itself. It showed the photos because the backup was just updating the version on the server. Try turning photos back on and it should look at your settings and realize you're now using iCloud Photo Library and remove the photos from the data backed up. If not, you could delete your backup then run a manual backup. Past that let the auto backup run each night as normal.
Click to expand...
Perfect, thank you :)

EDIT: I re-activated the Photo Library backup in iCloud Backup. The switch turned on (so, from grey to green) but instead of the total MB/GB below the name (for example: WhatsApp, 400MB) it says "No data". Is this the behaviour you were telling me? Thank you!
 
Last edited:
ciarals said:
Perfect, thank you :)

EDIT: I re-activated the Photo Library backup in iCloud Backup. The switch turned on (so, from grey to green) but instead of the total MB/GB below the name (for example: WhatsApp, 400MB) it says "No data". Is this the behaviour you were telling me? Thank you!
Click to expand...

Yes, that's what you will see from now going forward. The photos entry will remain but no data will be included in the standard backup.
 
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