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With Photo Stream gone, how do I copy photos?

Nermal

Nermal

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Original poster
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
21,310
5,093
New Zealand
I'm struggling to figure out how to copy my iPhone photos onto my Mac now that Photo Stream doesn't work any more.

I've turned on "show phone over Wi-Fi" (or something to that effect) and can see it in Finder's sidebar, and there's an option to sync photos. However, it only seems to copy old photos from the Mac to the phone, and won't copy new photos from the phone to the Mac.

If I go into the Photos app then the phone doesn't show up at all.

Is there really no built-in way to sync photos from the phone to the Mac? I can't imagine that this is an uncommon issue but it's so hard to search for because so much of the information out there is outdated.

Any ideas?
 

Transfer photos and videos from your iPhone or iPad to your Mac or PC - Apple Support

Learn how to transfer photos from your iPhone or iPad to a Mac or PC.
support.apple.com

Import to your Mac​

You can import photos and videos to your Mac by connecting your device to your Mac. However, if you use iCloud Photos, then you don't need to import.
To import to your Mac:
  1. Connect your iPhone or iPad to your Mac with a USB cable.
  2. Open the Photos app on your computer.
  3. The Photos app shows an Import screen with all the photos and videos that are on your connected device. If the Import screen doesn't automatically appear, click the device's name in the Photos sidebar.
  4. If asked, unlock your iOS or iPadOS device using your passcode. If you see a prompt on your iOS or iPadOS device asking you to Trust This Computer, tap Trust to continue.
  5. Choose where you want to import your photos. Next to "Import to," you can choose an existing album or create a new one.
  6. Select the photos you want to import and click Import Selected, or click Import All New Photos.
    Mac screen showing the photos available for import
  7. Wait for the process to finish, then disconnect your device from your Mac.
 
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Sorry, I forgot to say "short of physically getting the phone and plugging it in". It worked over Wi-Fi before Photo Stream disappeared.

iCloud Photos claims that the photos are over 5 GB despite there only being nine new ones, and refuses to let me turn it on. There doesn't seem to be an option to only do new photos, and instead it wants to copy the entire library. Is there a way to change that?
 
Last edited:
Nermal said:
Sorry, I forgot to say "short of physically getting the phone and plugging it in". It worked over Wi-Fi before Photo Stream disappeared.

iCloud Photos claims that the photos are over 5 GB despite there only being nine new ones, and refuses to let me turn it on. There doesn't seem to be an option to only do new photos, and instead it wants to copy the entire library. Is there a way to change that?
Click to expand...
Wait, you have 9 offending photos over 5GB? Are those the only thing stopping you from being able to turn on iCloud Photos? iCloud Photos is generally what I replaced Photo Stream with.
 
Yebubbleman said:
Wait, you have 9 offending photos over 5GB? Are those the only thing stopping you from being able to turn on iCloud Photos? iCloud Photos is generally what I replaced Photo Stream with.
Click to expand...
There are x photos on my Mac (copied "manually" via cable), and x+9 photos on my phone (because I took some new ones). It seems that iCloud Photos looks at the total size of your library, rather than the size of the photos that actually need to be copied.
 
Nermal said:
It seems that iCloud Photos looks at the total size of your library, rather than the size of the photos that actually need to be copied.
Click to expand...
I might be missing something about your particular situation, but yes that's how iCloud Photos works. If you have 5921 photos in your library, 5921 of those will be stored on iCloud if you enable iCloud Photos. Take one more photo and that also needs to be stored on iCloud in addition to the ones already there.

Of course, iCloud Photos is primarily concerned with how much space those photos take and how much iCloud storage space you have available, rather than the number of photos in your library. But you get the point.

When you enable iCloud Photos for the first time on one of your devices it tries to upload your photo library on that device to iCloud (assuming you have enough iCloud storage space). Once that's done and you enable iCloud Photos on a second device, iCloud Photos is supposed to compare the photos in the second device's library to those already in the iCloud Photos library and only upload ones that are new or differ.
 
To copy several photos, I have set up a shared photo stream where I am the only participant. You can post them on the iPhone and then access them on the MacBook instantly. Works fine without the hassle of iCloud Photo.
 
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rocketbuc said:
To copy several photos, I have set up a shared photo stream where I am the only participant. You can post them on the iPhone and then access them on the MacBook instantly. Works fine without the hassle of iCloud Photo.
Click to expand...
They’re limited in resolution though - 2048px on the longest side. And videos limit to 720p. Just be aware of that using a shared photo album! Https://support.apple.com/kb/HT202786
 
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FreakinEurekan said:
Also interesting term “hassle of iCloud Photo” - iCloud Photos is the opposite of hassle, it’s seamless set-it-and-forget-it. “Hassle” is all the work-arounds to avoid paying a few $/£/€/¥ a month.
Click to expand...
I understand where you are coming from. Different people have different needs. Syncing my whole Photo library from my MacBook simply wouldn’t be practical or necessary for me. As much as I would like to use it, it does not work for my use case.
 
Nermal said:
There are x photos on my Mac (copied "manually" via cable), and x+9 photos on my phone (because I took some new ones). It seems that iCloud Photos looks at the total size of your library, rather than the size of the photos that actually need to be copied.
Click to expand...
Yes. That much is correct. It basically just makes sure that what it has is what all of the devices have and if any devices haven't uploaded things yet, it does so.
 
Nermal said:
I'm struggling to figure out how to copy my iPhone photos onto my Mac now that Photo Stream doesn't work any more.
Click to expand...
PhotoSync on the iPhone and its companion app on your Mac. Upload from iPhone to Mac over Wifi and destination can be a folder or Photos. After testing you will need the PhotoSync Pro in app purchase. No need for iCloud Photos.
 
If you have an Amazon Prime membership you can simply use Amazon Photos - which offers unlimited photo storage - to sync between devices.

If the Photos in the Photos Library on your Mac were imported via the discontinued photostream-option, they are as pointed out different to the original on the iPhone. Hence not only the most recent photos taken will be imported.
 
rocketbuc said:
I understand where you are coming from. Different people have different needs. Syncing my whole Photo library from my MacBook simply wouldn’t be practical or necessary for me. As much as I would like to use it, it does not work for my use case.
Click to expand...
Absolutely. Some people choose not to use iCloud Photo Library for any number of reasons, not just cost. But thinking that they're doing so because it's "Simpler" to not use iCloud, is simply wrong. iCloud is the SIMPLEST way to synchronize photos among all devices, period.

Not using iCloud could be the right decision for a variety of reasons, but it is ALWAYS going to be more complex.
 
FreakinEurekan said:
Absolutely. Some people choose not to use iCloud Photo Library for any number of reasons, not just cost. But thinking that they're doing so because it's "Simpler" to not use iCloud, is simply wrong. iCloud is the SIMPLEST way to synchronize photos among all devices, period.

Not using iCloud could be the right decision for a variety of reasons, but it is ALWAYS going to be more complex.
Click to expand...

I think people growing up with "Explorer" and copy paste on windows have a hard time adjusting to "it just works". My uncle is the same. He wants to copy paste all his music and photos manually into folders and I am like "omg just sync it automatically" but each their own of course
 
contacos said:
I think people growing up with "Explorer" and copy paste on windows have a hard time adjusting to "it just works". My uncle is the same. He wants to copy paste all his music and photos manually into folders and I am like "omg just sync it automatically" but each their own of course
Click to expand...
Yep, some people insist on doing things "The hard way." You can lead a horse to water...
 
OK, so summarising everything so far:

iCloud Photos isn't the same thing as Photo Stream. Although it can technically be used as a way of copying new photos, it's built as a way of putting a copy of your entire photo library on Apple's servers. My library is too large, and although I could probably delete old/unneeded photos to trim it down, that's probably more effort than it's worth.

PhotoSync might be what I need. I'll take a look at that when I can.

Failing that, there's the old "plug in the cable" method. It seems that Finder's "sync" is one-way by design, which doesn't seem particularly useful, and it seems that the phone won't show up in Photos without the cable.

Do I have everything right?
 
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