iPhone How do I add a photo?

[ardchoille50]

I'm on an iPhone 6 running iOS 9. How do I add a photo from the Photos app to iCloud Drive? I can't seem to figure out how to import a photo in the iCloud Drive app and the Photos app doesn't have an entry in its share sheet for iCloud Drive.

I can delete files in the iCloud Drive app but I can't seem to add a file.

 

[RadioGaGa1984]

You can't. Why on earth Apple doesn't allow it I have no idea. I mean 50 GB for 99 cents a month and it almost worthless.

 

[ardchoille50]

You can't. Why on earth Apple doesn't allow it I have no idea. I mean 50 GB for 99 cents a month and it almost worthless.

Well that explains why I've not been able to do this. I would have thought that iCloud Drive would have been integrated more deeply into iOS than this.

I opted for the 200 GB plan, but I'm now wondering if that was a bad choice. Three dollars per month isn't bad for that level of storage, but using it from an iOS device has proven to be a lesson in frustration.

 

[gordon1234]

The idea is that all your photos are already in iCloud via iCloud Photo Library, so storing them in iCloud twice would be redundant. What's your use case for needing to manually upload photos to the Documents portion of iCloud?

 

[ardchoille50]

The idea is that all your photos are already in iCloud via iCloud Photo Library, so storing them in iCloud twice would be redundant. What's your use case for needing to manually upload photos to the Documents portion of iCloud?

More photos than the iPhone can hold? If I remove the pics from the Photos app, do they stay in iCloud Photo Library? If so, where are they? I have taken lots of photos, removed them from my iPhone and don't see them anywhere in iCloud. How do I access them? I don't see them anywhere in the Photos app. If not, how do I add them to iCloud Photo Library and delete them from my iPhone to save space?

It's not just pics, I have several GB of documents that I'd like to put into iCloud Drive for storage and I don't own any other computing device. How do I upload those docs to iCloud Drive?

 

[electronicsguy]

More photos than the iPhone can hold? If I remove the pics from the Photos app, do they stay in iCloud Photo Library? If so, where are they? I have taken lots of photos, removed them from my iPhone and don't see them anywhere in iCloud. How do I access them? I don't see them anywhere in the Photos app. If not, how do I add them to iCloud Photo Library and delete them from my iPhone to save space?

It's not just pics, I have several GB of documents that I'd like to put into iCloud Drive for storage and I don't own any other computing device. How do I upload those docs to iCloud Drive?

what did you create or edit those documents on?

 

[ardchoille50]

what did you create or edit those documents on?

Never mind, I'll just use the Dropbox app.. it's so much easier.

 

[electronicsguy]

Never mind, I'll just use the Dropbox app.. it's so much easier.

exactly.

 

[ardchoille50]

exactly.

Thank you for asking that question, it made me rethink what I was doing.

 

[gordon1234]

More photos than the iPhone can hold? If I remove the pics from the Photos app, do they stay in iCloud Photo Library? If so, where are they? I have taken lots of photos, removed them from my iPhone and don't see them anywhere in iCloud. How do I access them? I don't see them anywhere in the Photos app. If not, how do I add them to iCloud Photo Library and delete them from my iPhone to save space?

You don't delete them from your phone. Just like deleting a document from the iCloud Drive app on your phone will remove it from all your other devices as well, deleting a photo from the Photos app also removes it from the cloud. So, what if you're running low on space? In Settings > iCloud > Photos, make sure "Optimize iCloud Storage" is selected. With this option activated, as soon as space is running low, older photos will be automatically removed from your phone and replaced with thumbnails. Try to access these photos and the full size version will immediately download from the cloud. Essentially, it's exactly what you're trying to do with the iCloud Drive app (have access to photos in the cloud without using all your local space), but fully automatic.

 

[ardchoille50]

You don't delete them from your phone. Just like deleting a document from the iCloud Drive app on your phone will remove it from all your other devices as well, deleting a photo from the Photos app also removes it from the cloud. So, what if you're running low on space? In Settings > iCloud > Photos, make sure "Optimize iCloud Storage" is selected. With this option activated, as soon as space is running low, older photos will be automatically removed from your phone and replaced with thumbnails. Try to access these photos and the full size version will immediately download from the cloud. Essentially, it's exactly what you're trying to do with the iCloud Drive app (have access to photos in the cloud without using all your local space), but fully automatic.

Thank you for that wonderful explanation! I've enabled the optimize setting.