Synced Photos deleting when enabling iCloud Photos?

[danny8200]

I read somewhere that when enabling the iCloud Photo Beta on an iPhone, that only your Camera Roll will get uploaded, and the pictures you have synced from iTunes will be removed from your device? Am I understanding this correctly?

Maybe someone can point me in the right direction?

 

[gsmornot]

You are correct. The photos synced from your PC to your phone via iTunes will be removed. The photos remain on your PC but will not be included in iCloud Photo Library.

If you want them included you will need to upload the photos to the device via Airdrop, an app or iCloud.com.

 

[danny8200]

iCloud.com? how would I go about doing that?

This kind of sucks. Any mention of this being fixed in the future?

 

[gsmornot]

You login to iCloud.com with your iCloud user info and click on the photos tab. There is an upload button on the top right that will let you upload photos to your library.

Keep in mind the photos will use your iCloud "space". You get 5GB default for backups and files. Your photos will share that space along with videos so you will need to consider buying more space if you want access to many photos and videos from your phone via the iCloud service.

Your other option would be a different service like OneDrive, Dropbox, etc.

 

[zorinlynx]

This is actually a huge roadblock to my enabling iCloud Photo Library.

I have about 12,000 photos synced to my iPhone, and I like having them there. I don't want them taking up space in my iCloud account either.

It's ridiculous that enabling iCloud Photo Library gets rid of this useful feature!

 

[gsmornot]

The feature may not be an advantage for everyone. I like two things about IPL mainly. 1) The full size photo is stored in the cloud and by my choice a smaller version is stored on my device taking up less room. 2) When I take photos with my phone or with my DSLR and upload, the photos are available in every place associated with my IPL account. iPad, iPhone and iCloud. Two lashes for me but I don't own a MAC at the moment but when I do the photos will be there as well.

The point is to have available your media where you want it. It can handle 12k photos fine so long as you buy the storage space to keep them. I assume you have a backup at home... do you have an offsite backup as well? If you don't already this could be a way for a few dollars a month to make it happen.

 

[rugmankc]

That's horrible, I am very disappointed in iTunes overall. I thought all photos and albums got sent up. I will stay with DB and my iMac.

Not sure what I would do with iPhone new pics if they delete iPhoto/Photo Stream. Which I thought they were going to do.

 

[danny8200]

I'm assuming all synced photos are still stored within your iCloud backup? So if you restore from backup all the synced pictures will come back?

 

[gsmornot]

I'm assuming all synced photos are still stored within your iCloud backup? So if you restore from backup all the synced pictures will come back?

With iCloud Photo your photos are not part of your iCloud backup. The photos are within the same drive space on iCloud where they live as full resolution copies. If/when you need to restore your device you will turn iCloud Photo Library on and your device will download the photo based on your settings. (optimized or full resolution).

----------

That's horrible, I am very disappointed in iTunes overall. I thought all photos and albums got sent up. I will stay with DB and my iMac.

Not sure what I would do with iPhone new pics if they delete iPhoto/Photo Stream. Which I thought they were going to do.

What is horrible?

 

[danny8200]

So if I was to upload my synced photos from my PC onto the icloud.com website would they show up on my iPhone once I enable it?

 

[jpcarro]

So if I was to upload my synced photos from my PC onto the icloud.com website would they show up on my iPhone once I enable it?

Yes. I had to do this. Don't have a Mac at present either. I only have about 1,000 photos I selected for syncing. After enabling IPL, I turned on full rez for the iPhone. Then, from icloud.com, I uploaded my formerly synced photos. Wasn't too bad for only 1,000 photos.

The photos showed up quickly on my iPhone and iPad.

I'll slowly add all my remaining photos to IPL and at some point, may have to turn on optimized on my idevices.

 

[danny8200]

Right now I have my old camera roll from my previous iphone 5, which are the pics that are synced thru iTunes on my windows PC. So now upon enabling IPL on my iPhone 6, those pics will be deleted then when uploading them from my PC onto iCloud.com they'll come back? Am I understanding this correctly?

 

[gsmornot]

Right now I have my old camera roll from my previous iphone 5, which are the pics that are synced thru iTunes on my windows PC. So now upon enabling IPL on my iPhone 6, those pics will be deleted then when uploading them from my PC onto iCloud.com they'll come back? Am I understanding this correctly?

Yes, you got it. Once the option is on, any photo that is on your device by way of syncing with iTunes will be removed. You will be left with photos that are currently stored on your device in its camera roll and whatever you have in your iCloud space. (at the moment nothing). Once you login to iCloud.com and upload your photos, they will begin to show on your device in the size that you selected when turning the feature on. (full size or optimized).

One hint that I have found is to make this decision now on size. If you don't need full size versions of all photos on a regular basis, select optimized. The full size photo will live on the server and a smaller version will live on your device. When you need the bigger version it will download for you upon opening the photo. I have currently @ 4500 photos and @ 250 videos with the setting of optimized and it takes just about 1.5GB of space on my device. The full collection in the cloud is about 24GB. Big difference. I like to have access to my "stuff" but don't need the full size copy all the time. Internet is everywhere I am and if not I doubt its a full size photo that is going to save me if I am some place with bad service. I do the same thing with my music. (music match) and my documents (iCloud Drive). I have access to nearly 100GB of content with barely more than 7GB of space used on my device. Some are not comfortable with that idea but its fine with me.

 

[danny8200]

Thanks for the prompt response. I'll try it later on today.