General What are the differences between Photos, Shared & Albums? Confused about each.

[budmonster]

I came over from Android and haven't really used my iPhone or iPad that much yet. I still don't understand what different sections are?

When I click on a picture it takes me to collections? Whatever that is?

Then I click on Shared and it lists Activity New, New Shared Stream? I installed some iCloud program on my PC but not sure how to use it or even the need for it? All I know that I see an iCloud Photos folder in Pictures on my PC. In the iCloud Photos folder there are 3 sub folders: My Photo Stream, Shared with a folder labeled New inside and an Uploads folder?

The Albums has Camera Roll, Photo Stream and Videos. Videos is obvious. But then I see videos in the Shared section that aren't in videos under Albums? All this is so confusing. I just want a place for videos and photos, now there's all these locations and I don't know where anything is at. I want to sort everything so if someone could give me a 101 on this camera confusion Id appreciate or point me to a tutorial explaining what I'm looking at.


Thanks -bud

 

[dappledee]

Photos shows all of your photos and videos in a timeline fashion. With the shared albums you are able to share and photos or videos to anyone you want and they can add them or comment about them. And last albums are whatever photos you choose to put in an album to keep them more organized and easier for you to find them. Make sense? Let me know if you still need help.

 

[josephd]

What are the differences between Photos, Shared & Albums? Confused about each.

I posted this in another thread. This might be the proper place.

I also found iCloud photo sharing is very confusing. You click on the shared option, add emails and then it doesn't take you to the photos or who can view options.
It sends the link before you have a chance to add photos. And sometimes the link doesn't get to the email address you choose.
And I sent a test to my Gmail address. It made it there, and it wouldn't open. I get this instead.

 

[budmonster]

I mean how many people actually use iCloud on their PC? Do I really even need it? If I uninstall it, then Shared photos and all that crap will go away right? I'm embarrassed that I've been an iOS user now for a few months and still dont understand it.

 

[josephd]

What are the differences between Photos, Shared & Albums? Confused about each.

Don't be embarrassed, I can pretty much walk through any OS.
And even I find this whole iCloud sharing painful to use, and confusing to say the least.
My main cloud storages are Google Drive and One Drive.
At least you can see your photo streams, and sharing is so much easier.

 

[budmonster]

What are the differences between Photos, Shared & Albums? Confused about each.

Photos shows all of your photos and videos in a timeline fashion. With the shared albums you are able to share and photos or videos to anyone you want and they can add them or comment about them. And last albums are whatever photos you choose to put in an album to keep them more organized and easier for you to find them. Make sense? Let me know if you still need help.

- You mean the "photos" tab aka "collections/years" shows all my photos currently on my iPhone in a timeline order? I think I understand that, just organizes all my photos and videos?? by date? So this doesn't take an extra space up on my iPhone right?

- Next is the "shared" tab. I also don't remember making any "shared streams"? So basically I add photos from my "albums" to a photo stream say for example named birthday and I then can send the stream to any ios user to view my photos on my phone? I can also invite ppl to see that stream? Under "shared streams" there are over 200 photos, I never added them? Under "shared streams" I see "activity" and "new shared by you" folders. Now clue how those got there.

- "albums is last tab with "cam roll" and "my photo stream" folders along with a vid folder. What are the differences? One had 400 photos and the other has 700?

I can't delete any folders in albums. Camera roll, my photo stream and videos can't be deleted. Under shared or shared streams activity can't be deleted only the new folder can be.

Then what's up with this this iCloud app on my PC. Photos from my iPhone automatically show up on my PC and each photo had a comment section almost like it's a social media site.

It's been a long day at work and I'm home with my son so bare with me and my rambling. I'm still on ios7 I just wanna know if I actually need any of these options? Why do I need the same photos I have on my iPhone on my PC at the same time? I could see maybe taking photos of my son on my phone and then using my iPad to view them without having to plug my iPad into my PC and transferring them that way.

 

[white4s]

i never use the actual icloud pc software but it's good to have just in case because it has everything you choose to save right there in one spot....photos, notes, mail, contacts whatever

but when it comes to photostream it creates a location on your hard drive to store the photos.i believe it's under libraries in my computer

 

[josephd]

Well, last night I mastered the art of sharing photos within iCloud Sharing.
It seems like a lot of steps, but it works.

 

[NTheZone]

I came here looking for an answer. I did not find it. Someone above said, Photos on the bottom left is the same as all the photos on the device itself. But that is wrong, because that is what "Camera Roll" is, i.e. all the photos taken by that specific phone. And then there are Moments, and "Collections". WTF is that? The photo app on the iPhone has sucked all the way from iOS 7 until now (11.2.2)