I don't use the cloud--I keep only local back-ups. My photos are probably only of interest to my immediate family, so back-ups to external discs should suffice.
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How many of you all backup all your photos on iCloud?
- Thread starter seasurfer
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It's not the backup (I have a local copy too), its the sync that I like. I have an iPhone, iPad, and Mac and all stay updated with the photos. I don't need them all the time but its nice to have access from mobile devices without having to keep a full-size copy.
If your iPhone only has 128gb, how does it download all your photo? Or if your iMac only has 512gb, how does it deal with it?
Yep, the free tier downconverts anything over full HD video and 8 MP photos, but that's good enough for me. Paid tier stores full-res.
I'm in a similar situation - 326GB library (31k photos / 2k photos) - so I can comment on this as well.
iPhone 6 64GB - 17.7GB, optimized, all thumbnails loaded, fast and fluid browsing through thumbnails, full res downloaded once you open the photo. 17.7GB is bit inflated though as a large amount of those have recently been taken on a trip. I assume this will go down as the library prunes itself. FYI, recent reset of the library on this iPhone was just 4GB with all the thumbnails loaded.
iPad mini 2 16GB - 2.3GB, optimized, not all thumbnails loaded as not enough space - I guess it would take minimum 5GB to load them all, but I haven't got that much space cause of other apps. Also, the scrolling is bit sluggish - could be due to the iPad running out of space.
Macbook Air 2013 128GB - cca 10GB, optimized, all thumbnails loaded, very similar experience to the iPhone 6.
Mac mini 2009 - 352GB, download originals, all thumbnails loaded. I use this for backup purposes onto an external hard drive.
All in all a positive, albeit expensive, experience. Saves lots of time for sure and is very convenient. I only wish the thumbnails loading would improve on bigger libraries on iOS - it doesn't seem to load all thumnbails by default / in the background when restoring from fresh. One has to keep scrolling the library until they all force-load.
You say that as if Apple doesn't data mine.Get real.Every company does it nowadays.Apple just hides it from you.At least Google is more upfront about their policies
The difference is that Apple doesn't make money off your data and Google does as it is a advertising company.
And yet Apple was more than willing to accept billion dollars worth of ad revenue from Google for keeping them on iOS
Have you any evidence that Apple does data mine?
No you don't.
You just wish Apple was low as Google and Microsoft, but they aren't.
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Apple doesn't data mine to start with.
You are avoiding the fact for what that money is from.
Apple is not selling my data for that money.
Apple is taking their part from the fact that I chose Google as my default search provider and I click Google ads then.
In my case, Apple makes ZERO, because I chose to install an ad blocker, and I never see ads. A procedure fully supported by Apple.
Google will never let you install an ad blocker on Android! Even tough that's possible.
Instead of making such a stupid reply, maybe you should do some simple research, and realize that I am right.
It's just that between the two, I am more comfortable parking my data with Apple than with Google.
I use Google photos as my main backup and Onedrive as my secondary backup, I can see why iCloud would be useful considering I have an iPhone, iPad and Macbook but can't be bothered transferring all over.
It's very tempting to put my photos in iCloud, but it's just not a reliable bug free solution. I currently have them in Dropbox and Google Drive. Both those solutions have served me very well. Apple only appeals because of my long term brand loyalty. Yet that's not enough to trust them until they prove that iCloud is improved and secure.
I'm pretty deep in the Apple ecosystem (and not moving anywhere else for the foreseeable future), so I'm using iCloud Photo Library. Upgraded to the 50Gb tier (at €0.99 a no-brainer really), and it has indeed, maybe even a bit unexpectedly, been working exactly as advertised keeping all my photos and videos accessible on all of my devices. Give me convenience of give me death, as it were.
I don't really consider it a backup as such, the external backup I use (for photos and everything else) is a different beast entirely.
I don't really consider it a backup as such, the external backup I use (for photos and everything else) is a different beast entirely.
This is a reason I don't switch to iCloud. If I uploaded all my photos id need a 64gb iPhone to store all my photos alone. With Google photos it is a back up service, I don't need to keep the photo on my iPhone taking up space. I can take photo, its uploaded I can delete photo from phone.
You have the optimized option. You don't have to keep the full size photo on your device.