Apple Photos and Google Photos

[Huntn]

Well my wife’s iPad is over flowing with photos. I was thinking that if I upped the storage of her iCloud account that I could keep her photos on iCloud and pull them off of her iPad, but (tell me if I am wrong) I read that iCloud is just a sync service, and it appears if you delete photo from Photos, it is deleted on all associated iOS devices without an option to store it just on iCloud, yes?

So then I try out Google Photos, there is an app, it directly links to your Apple Photos album, and it is super easy to transfer them over to Google Photos, and when you delete a photo on Apple Photos, it will remain on Google Photos.

Fine and dandy, except, I transferred 300 photos to an album created in Google Photos, it told me immediately 300 photos added, yet I know it takes some time to upload them and there is zero indication that these photos are finished uploading or not. After A while, I shut down Google Photos, then launched it again and there were only 6 images in this library. I would be ok, with a slow upload, but I want this app (Google Photos) to show when it is finished. I’m on the second round of selecting the same photos to transfer to GP. How do you know it is finished?
Thanks!

 

[Mr.Blacky]

Photos are getting synced over iCloud and getting stored in iCloud.

Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support

iCloud Photos works with the Photos app to keep your photos and videos securely stored in iCloud, and up to date on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Vision Pro, Apple TV, and iCloud.com.

support.apple.com

 

[BigMcGuire]

Well my wife’s iPad is over flowing with photos. I was thinking that if I upped the storage of her iCloud account that I could keep her photos on iCloud and pull them off of her iPad, but (tell me if I am wrong) I read that iCloud is just a sync service, and it appears if you delete photo from Photos, it is deleted on all associated iOS devices without an option to store it just on iCloud, yes?

So then I try out Google Photos, there is an app, it directly links to your Apple Photos album, and it is super easy to transfer them over to Google Photos, and when you delete a photo on Apple Photos, it will remain on Google Photos.

Fine and dandy, except, I transferred 300 photos to an album created in Google Photos, it told me immediately 300 photos added, yet I know it takes some time to upload them and there is zero indication that these photos are finished uploading or not. After A while, I shut down Google Photos, then launched it again and there were only 6 images in this library. I would be ok, with a slow upload, but I want this app (Google Photos) to show when it is finished. I’m on the second round of selecting the same photos to transfer to GP. How do you know it is finished?
Thanks!

1. Correct. iCloud is a syncing service. Delete it on your ______ device, it deletes it everywhere.
2. Google Photos makes it easy to sync all photos to Google via the Google Photos app on iOS/iPad OS.
3. It indexes them at first and then will back them up. This happens VERY SLOWLY unless you have the app in the foreground and opened. So I'm not surprised only 6 did it in the background.

How do you know? Click your account icon on the top right and you'll see Backing Up under your "Manage your Google Account" button.

Leave this opened until all the photos are uploaded to Google servers and you'll see a Backup Complete. May need to turn off screen timeout for the duration of the upload.

Edit: Oops, this is the Mac forum. I'd recommend just installing Google Photos on your wife's iPad as the easiest way.

 

[HDFan]

Do you have a 3-2-1 backup strategy for her photos? Neither of those cloud services count.

 

[Huntn]

Do you have a 3-2-1 backup strategy for her photos? Neither of those cloud services count.

I have local backups too.

 

[Huntn]

1. Correct. iCloud is a syncing service. Delete it on your ______ device, it deletes it everywhere.
2. Google Photos makes it easy to sync all photos to Google via the Google Photos app on iOS/iPad OS.
3. It indexes them at first and then will back them up. This happens VERY SLOWLY unless you have the app in the foreground and opened. So I'm not surprised only 6 did it in the background.

How do you know? Click your account icon on the top right and you'll see Backing Up under your "Manage your Google Account" button.

Leave this opened until all the photos are uploaded to Google servers and you'll see a Backup Complete. May need to turn off screen timeout for the duration of the upload.

View attachment 1932085



Edit: Oops, this is the Mac forum. I'd recommend just installing Google Photos on your wife's iPad as the easiest way.

I installed the Google Photo app on my wife’s iPad, and I don’t see anything like this. I’ll check again.

 

[Huntn]

1. Correct. iCloud is a syncing service. Delete it on your ______ device, it deletes it everywhere.
2. Google Photos makes it easy to sync all photos to Google via the Google Photos app on iOS/iPad OS.
3. It indexes them at first and then will back them up. This happens VERY SLOWLY unless you have the app in the foreground and opened. So I'm not surprised only 6 did it in the background.

How do you know? Click your account icon on the top right and you'll see Backing Up under your "Manage your Google Account" button.

Leave this opened until all the photos are uploaded to Google servers and you'll see a Backup Complete. May need to turn off screen timeout for the duration of the upload.

View attachment 1932085



Edit: Oops, this is the Mac forum. I'd recommend just installing Google Photos on your wife's iPad as the easiest way.

I installed the Google Photo app on my wife’s iPad, and I don’t see anything like this. I’ll check again.

I’m kind of confused. This account is signed into google, but in the settings in the Google Photos App, backup is turned off, and despite multiple requests to turn it on, it does not turn on. But then if I look at the Google Photo settings in the iOS settings, it shows that it is turned on. Then my wife is looking at her iPad and a message pops up that photos are updating to Google Photos, but that is it, no progress indicator anywhere I can find. ?

 

[Big Bad D]

Well my wife’s iPad is over flowing with photos. I was thinking that if I upped the storage of her iCloud account that I could keep her photos on iCloud and pull them off of her iPad, but (tell me if I am wrong) I read that iCloud is just a sync service, and it appears if you delete photo from Photos, it is deleted on all associated iOS devices without an option to store it just on iCloud, yes?

So then I try out Google Photos, there is an app, it directly links to your Apple Photos album, and it is super easy to transfer them over to Google Photos, and when you delete a photo on Apple Photos, it will remain on Google Photos.

Fine and dandy, except, I transferred 300 photos to an album created in Google Photos, it told me immediately 300 photos added, yet I know it takes some time to upload them and there is zero indication that these photos are finished uploading or not. After A while, I shut down Google Photos, then launched it again and there were only 6 images in this library. I would be ok, with a slow upload, but I want this app (Google Photos) to show when it is finished. I’m on the second round of selecting the same photos to transfer to GP. How do you know it is finished?
Thanks!

iCloud Photos works exactly as you seem to want. Just do not delete the photos on your devices; instead select to optimize storage in Photos Settings. Depending on device capacity photos will be replaced by thumbnails, with originals stored in iCloud.

 

[400]

Another cloud user and as above. I only download originals to my iMac and then that is on an external HD.

My library is way too big for the ipad and iPhone. They seem to manage the storage well and I see the iPad storage vary over time with regards images but never run out for the apps that need to run. Just keep an eye on "recently deleted" folder in photos, you have around 30 days to nab it back.

Personally avoiding google for various reasons but last time I looked at their photos T+C it was rather worrying.

 

[madeirabhoy]

Well my wife’s iPad is over flowing with photos. I was thinking that if I upped the storage of her iCloud account that I could keep her photos on iCloud and pull them off of her iPad, but (tell me if I am wrong) I read that iCloud is just a sync service, and it appears if you delete photo from Photos, it is deleted on all associated iOS devices without an option to store it just on iCloud, yes?

So then I try out Google Photos, there is an app, it directly links to your Apple Photos album, and it is super easy to transfer them over to Google Photos, and when you delete a photo on Apple Photos, it will remain on Google Photos.

Fine and dandy, except, I transferred 300 photos to an album created in Google Photos, it told me immediately 300 photos added, yet I know it takes some time to upload them and there is zero indication that these photos are finished uploading or not. After A while, I shut down Google Photos, then launched it again and there were only 6 images in this library. I would be ok, with a slow upload, but I want this app (Google Photos) to show when it is finished. I’m on the second round of selecting the same photos to transfer to GP. How do you know it is finished?
Thanks!

sounds over complicating things. if you just stuck to apple photos, then as long as there's space in your icloud and the photos are backed up onto there, if your ipad needs the space it will delete the local photos to free up space.

 

[Huntn]

iCloud Photos works exactly as you seem to want. Just do not delete the photos on your devices; instead select to optimize storage in Photos Settings. Depending on device capacity photos will be replaced by thumbnails, with originals stored in iCloud.

Optimize storage was already selected, I’m dealing with an iPad that is so full it can no longer update apps on it, I once cleaned off a bunch of photos to my wife’s MacBook Air, and they seemed to come back and take up space. I need to verify how much space. Yes, aI think I am guilty of making at least one assumption. ?

I don’t believe my wife has been adding apps, but I should look at this aspect specifically. And ideally I want to be able to store most photos, on a external hard drive (backed up), and not on some of my iOS devices.

Another cloud user and as above. I only download originals to my iMac and then that is on an external HD.

My library is way too big for the ipad and iPhone. They seem to manage the storage well and I see the iPad storage vary over time with regards images but never run out for the apps that need to run. Just keep an eye on "recently deleted" folder in photos, you have around 30 days to nab it back.

Personally avoiding google for various reasons but last time I looked at their photos T+C it was rather worrying.

Are you using iCloud? If so are you using separate accounts to keep photos where you want them, off your iOS devices?

sounds over complicating things. if you just stuck to apple photos, then as long as there's space in your icloud and the photos are backed up onto there, if your ipad needs the space it will delete the local photos to free up space.

But it will keep thumbnails? I’m curious on an iOS device just how big a library of thumbnails can get? What if your iCloud storage is huge? And if it starts deleting deleted photos, the originals or the thumbnails(?), if the originals how would you then manage them?

 

[Huntn]

@BigMcGuire, after I shutdown and restarted the iPad, Google Photos started to backup in the cloud.

 

[BigMcGuire]

@BigMcGuire, after I shutdown and restarted the iPad, Google Photos started to backup in the cloud.

Wow - lol. The good ole restart to fix it. Thanks for letting me know. Good luck with the upload!

My wife and I use Google Photos as a backup for iCloud. What we like about it is that Google Photos lets us share our photos to each other as partners. Can't wait for iCloud to have that someday. But we do use iCloud photos as our primary. A lot of the people we know are Android users so Google Photos helps there too.

 

[Huntn]

Wow - lol. The good ole restart to fix it. Thanks for letting me know. Good luck with the upload!

My wife and I use Google Photos as a backup for iCloud. What we like about it is that Google Photos lets us share our photos to each other as partners. Can't wait for iCloud to have that someday. But we do use iCloud photos as our primary. A lot of the people we know are Android users so Google Photos helps there too.

Obviously I am confused about a lot of things.
Regarding Google Photos:

• I installed the app last night.
• I created an album on it and selected 300 photos.
• It said 300 photos were added, yet later when I went back to check it, there were only 8 photos listed as contained in this album.
• I turned on backup (inGP) thinking this was the answer.
• Had to shut the iPad off and restart to get it to start backing up.
• But this morning there are still only 8 photos showing in the Goggle Photos app in that album, and it says it is backing up another 2500 items, which would be all of the photos on my wife’s iPad.

I just wanted to upload the photos I chose and placed them in the GP album I created. With GP backup turned off will the items sitting in Google Photos be backed up to the cloud?

 

[BigMcGuire]

Obviously I am confused about a lot of things.
Regarding Google Photos:

• I installed the app last night.
• I created an album on it and selected 300 photos.
• It said 300 photos were added, yet later when I went back to check it, there were only 8 photos listed as contained in this album.
• I turned on backup (inGP) thinking this was the answer.
• Had to shut the iPad off and restart to get it to start backing up.
• But this morning there are still only 8 photos showing in the Goggle Photos app in that album, and it says it is backing up another 2500 items, which would be all of the photos on my wife’s iPad.

I just wanted to upload the photos I chose and placed them in the GP album I created. With GP backup turned off will the items sting in Google Photos be backed up to the cloud?

The way the Google app works is, all or nothing by default. Leave the app up and in the foreground to speed up the photo backup.

Gone are the days where you select X number of photos to be "backed up" - it by default backs everything up.

 

[400]

Are you using iCloud? If so are you using separate accounts to keep photos where you want them, off your iOS devices?

One account, I use the 2tb option. Logged in on all devices. My iMac, I use with the download option, my phone and iPad I use with "optimise iPad storage" etc.

My photos are all browsable, if I want the original and it is not on my device, it is downloaded. If I look through a few albums it seems to keep them on the pad, optimise seems a smart cookie in keeping space used to where it is needed and I guess that it manages the full sized but leaving the far smaller thumbnails. Not sure its parameters but with a 800gb, 40,000 images in the cloud, my pad and phone are never clogged with it and I used to run my old iPad close to the limit on apps and spare space.

But it is a sync. Absolutely hard drive backup if you value your library.

Careful with mobile data settings as well, think I set mine to wifi only for the large stuff? Or not, cannot remember without digging into it.

 

[Huntn]

The way the Google app works is, all or nothing by default. Leave the app up and in the foreground to speed up the photo backup.

Gone are the days where you select X number of photos to be "backed up" - it by default backs everything up.

You said by default, is there a way to just upload what you want via GP? I’m going to talk to Google tech support today and hopefully this will clear things up for me. I might end up going with something like Drop box to store some photos.

 

[Huntn]

@BigMcGuire I spoke with Google today and for Google Photos, they said Backup and Sync was basically an all or nothing proposition as you said. I did notice that when I first signed into GP, I was given a choice to access all photos, or some photos. I asked the advisor if yo0u choose "some photos" and pick them out, would they be transferred to both GHP and backed up online? He said he was not sure. I'll play with this a bit.

For everyone, on my wife's iPad, she has 2.5GB in my iOSPhotos, 500MB free, but when it comes time to update apps, iOS is telling me there is to enough space to do so. I looked at some of my wife's apps, she's got 2GB in Facebook. I need to see what that is exactly, almost 2 GB in messenger, that maybe likely photos, 2GB in picture puzzles, and some other over 1GB tied up with an app. For the puzzles, I need to figure out how to wipe those but verify that the purchased items will remain as registered in her account.

I don't like the access I have to iCloud and the way it is handled, all my devices mixed into one, delete 1 photo on 1 device and it disappears on all devices. I'll probably play with Google Photos, it has among the best prices for storage, but there is also Flickr, and one or 2 more I'll check out. I want a setup like I had when I was still using Photobucket, pick what you want, upload it and hold it independent of what you have on your devices at home.

 

[Huntn]

Is anyone storing their photos on thumb drives? I think the come on up to 128GB but are not cheap and I realize you need to double them up to be called backup.

 

[madeirabhoy]

But it will keep thumbnails? I’m curious on an iOS device just how big a library of thumbnails can get? What if your iCloud storage is huge? And if it starts deleting deleted photos, the originals or the thumbnails(?), if the originals how would you then manage them?

Surely google will also keep thumbnails? my photos on iphone is 2.4gb and the full photos are 47gb i think. but my phone isnt full so there will be recent photos stored full.

 

[400]

delete 1 photo on 1 device and it disappears on all devices.

It should go to the bin, and have time to pick it back out but really, backup, full version backup and to be safe, off site as well even if you use Google. Though not sure how you do that iPad alone unless there is a device that photos can hook up to, iMac for example, I have no idea what works with a PC but iCloud does work with a PC?

 

[Huntn]

Surely google will also keep thumbnails? my photos on iphone is 2.4gb and the full photos are 47gb i think. but my phone isnt full so there will be recent photos stored full.

My goal is to be able to remove photos from my iOS device completely but store them somewhere convienent to retrieve.

 

[Huntn]

It should go to the bin, and have time to pick it back out but really, backup, full version backup and to be safe, off site as well even if you use Google. Though not sure how you do that iPad alone unless there is a device that photos can hook up to, iMac for example, I have no idea what works with a PC but iCloud does work with a PC?

Years ago I used Photobucket. Transfer photos to online only, view the library there, possibly via an app, but I have not yet verified if Photobucket has an app and Photobucket does not have the best pricing.

 

[Ruggy]

Back to the beginning.
You can store all your photos on your device and also store them in the cloud.
Or, you can store them all in the cloud and not store any on your device.

If you delete them in the cloud, it deletes them from the cloud everywhere and also from the copy in 'photos'

If you have a image in a folder like 'pictures' or in 'document' or somewhere like them it won't delete them from there if you delete them from the cloud and it won't delete them from the cloud if you delete them from there.

If you choose to store them all in the cloud and not keep them on your device then you can download them again to your device. All or singly.

You can 'Export's photos from the cloud to create a copy on your machine or to send by message or mail if you need to.

You can also export to an external hard drive from the cloud to back up. You will be given options about size, quality etc of the image produced. You can select all your images in the cloud and export them all up to an external drive very easily.

If you have one apple account and two people use it, then all their photos will be mixed together.

If you have a family account you have one icloud account (with whatever storage you have paid for in your account) and then you can have up to 5 members using that account, each with their own apple id.
Each will have their own photo library and they can choose to share any folders they like.
Only the person sharing will be able to delete the images from the cloud they have put up.

I hope that helps because there are some confusions there about icloud.

I haven't used google photos for a while but remember: you don't actually own your photos any more when you store them on google.
They say it doesn't matter and they wouldn't use them without your permission etc, but: you don't actually own the photos any more when you store them on google.

 

[BigMcGuire]

@BigMcGuire I spoke with Google today and for Google Photos, they said Backup and Sync was basically an all or nothing proposition as you said. I did notice that when I first signed into GP, I was given a choice to access all photos, or some photos. I asked the advisor if yo0u choose "some photos" and pick them out, would they be transferred to both GHP and backed up online? He said he was not sure. I'll play with this a bit.

For everyone, on my wife's iPad, she has 2.5GB in my iOSPhotos, 500MB free, but when it comes time to update apps, iOS is telling me there is to enough space to do so. I looked at some of my wife's apps, she's got 2GB in Facebook. I need to see what that is exactly, almost 2 GB in messenger, that maybe likely photos, 2GB in picture puzzles, and some other over 1GB tied up with an app. For the puzzles, I need to figure out how to wipe those but verify that the purchased items will remain as registered in her account.

I don't like the access I have to iCloud and the way it is handled, all my devices mixed into one, delete 1 photo on 1 device and it disappears on all devices. I'll probably play with Google Photos, it has among the best prices for storage, but there is also Flickr, and one or 2 more I'll check out. I want a setup like I had when I was still using Photobucket, pick what you want, upload it and hold it independent of what you have on your devices at home.

Yeah, now days people take so many photos and videos, the idea that you'd only back up some vs not all and forget about it is not even a concept anymore. People check all and go from there. Google Photos does a pretty good job of giving you the option to clear photos locally once they are backed up into Google Photos cloud - I did that for years on my iPhones before getting higher storage.

iCloud is pretty good too. I have 120GB of photos and videos. On my MacBook and my iPhone I have originals set to download, but on my iPad (256GB) I have it set to optimize and it only uses 11GB with optimized photos checked.

I moved from Google to iCloud a few years ago for my primary photo storage. Google Photos is really good too (and I use it as a backup).

Life is too short (imo) to try to spend time saving a few gigs to save a few bucks especially with the memories that photos create. My iCloud family uses 450GB on our 2TB storage plan. Other people I know are using 800GB+. Not everyone is wealthy but $10/mo is a small price to pay for 5 people to store photos / videos. Most everyone I know has Optimized Photos checked on - Apple does a good job with that.

For an iPad with low local storage - Google Photos does a great job of backing stuff up - there's a button on the iOS and iPad OS app that clears local storage - highly highly recommend it. I did this on my 16GB iPhones / iPads for years.

Like other people said too - deleting a photo in Apple Photos puts it in Deleted Photos - accessible by any device - so that is a nice feature. So it isn't like deleting a photo results in permanent deletion.