Fastest Way to Initially Transfer iCloud Photo Library

[rhyzome]

What is the fastest way to initially transfer your entire iCloud Photo Library to your iPad Pro (10.5)?

Particularly when the internet connection sucks.

I’m doing fieldwork and currently don’t have access to fast internet but want to load my Photos library from my rMBP 15” to the iPad Pro 10.5. I’d like to preserve all of my albums, favorites, edits, faces, memories, etc across devices and want the originals.

Is there some way to make iCloud Photo Library initially transfer to a device over USB rather than trying to download all of it from “the cloud”?

 

[Richard8655]

iCloud has a backup feature where you can backup your entire iCloud Photo Library to a file on your Mac or PC. From there you could copy it to a USB flash drive.

 

[rhyzome]

Hm..I’m not sure if getting that file on a USB drive would help get the library onto the iPad?
While I like the security that the backup feature of iCloud provides, my primary goal is to use it to enjoy the library on multiple devices and have all of my changes, albums, faces, memories, etc sync across devices with minimal effort on my end!

If I just manually transfer “all photos” with iTunes to from the rMBP to the iPad via USB sync, with iCloud Photo Library turned OFF, and then turn it ON after the transfer is complete, will the switch to iCloud Photo LIbrary work smoothly with minimal downloading from the internet? Or will it just delete all of the newly transferred photos from the iPad and try to download them over the slow internet and make the whole thing a waste?

 

[960design]

What is the fastest way to initially transfer your entire iCloud Photo Library to your iPad Pro (10.5)?

Particularly when the internet connection sucks.

I’m doing fieldwork and currently don’t have access to fast internet but want to load my Photos library from my rMBP 15” to the iPad Pro 10.5. I’d like to preserve all of my albums, favorites, edits, faces, memories, etc across devices and want the originals.

Is there some way to make iCloud Photo Library initially transfer to a device over USB rather than trying to download all of it from “the cloud”?

Sync over WiFi.

 

[sonicrobby]

Id like to know if there is one, but I havent been able to find it. When doing a fresh restore or get a new device, I usually wait until right before I go to sleep to change the "Download and Keep Originals" setting on my iPad, and let it do its thing overnight so that it is done in the morning. But to my knowledge, wi-fi seems to be the best way.

 

[Richard8655]

Did you try going to the Photos setting on your iPad and checking "Download and Keep Originals"? According to the doc, it should keep the original photos and videos both in iCloud and on your device (iPad). I haven't tried this myself so it's unknown to me if this works as intended.

 

[rhyzome]

Sync over WiFi.

How? Do you mean a basic i Cloud sync?

 

[Spcmac]

If your Mac has High Sierra installed you can try turning on the content cache. Go to System Preferences, sharing, Content Cache. In theory your iPad would then transfer the iCloud photos from your Mac.

 

[akadafni]

What is the fastest way to initially transfer your entire iCloud Photo Library to your iPad Pro (10.5)?

Particularly when the internet connection sucks.

I’m doing fieldwork and currently don’t have access to fast internet but want to load my Photos library from my rMBP 15” to the iPad Pro 10.5. I’d like to preserve all of my albums, favorites, edits, faces, memories, etc across devices and want the originals.

Is there some way to make iCloud Photo Library initially transfer to a device over USB rather than trying to download all of it from “the cloud”?

Don't know how many photos you have but iCloud photos should start to appear as soon as you sign in to iCloud and turn on the photo library. Alternatively I just airdropped 1k photos between 2ios devices. Took maybe 15 min.

 

[rhyzome]

If your Mac has High Sierra installed you can try turning on the content cache. Go to System Preferences, sharing, Content Cache. In theory your iPad would then transfer the iCloud photos from your Mac.

Ah, content caching...I think I'll give that a go!

Thanks!