I don't understand iCloud Photo Library

[dannys1]

Apple has done probably its worst job in history at rolling out new cloud features in the last few months, this being a prime example, but even still some of the stupidity in this thread is beyond the pale. It reminds me with my products (and it should remind Apple) that you have to be patronisingly simple about everything as if you're teaching a 5 year old how to do something and you can never be too simple.


My one gripe about this VERY simple concept is that they should still allow you a "camera roll" folder. Simply because once you get the Photos app on OSX, and real photographers start uploading their DSLR images too, they are going to find their recent photos uploads appearing first in their photos tab on the iPhone which can be a nightmare for wanting to access just the photos you took recently on your iPhone quickly.

Secondly I wish there was an option to put screenshots just in its own folder and not have them upload to the cloud. 80% of my iPhone "photos" are screenshots and it makes organising the library a nightmare.

 

[jonnyb098]

That's why its a beta. Provide your feedback so they can improve it. Apple doesn't read these forums. Should post it on their website.

Yeah they do. Macrumors has reported user traffic before on pre release software.

 

[InsideTJ]

Actually, I just checked.

I have iCloud Photo Library, and I forced my iphone to keep only the optimised photos (I had to sync my library, then turn off iCPL, manually access the DCIM folder and delete all photos, then enable iCPL back and it doewnloads all mini low res photos).

Right now I have two folders in my DCIM folder.

\850YOTQM contains all the photos I have manually opened in high res. That is, when you open any photo from your library, you will see a progress pie while it downloads the full res photo. Then the full res photo file is stored in this \850YOTQM folder. This folder also contains photos taken 2 weeks ago.

\892ZLWLR contains all photos I've taken in the last week.

So, summary, the photos from last week are in a folder, the photos from 2 weeks ago are in a different folder, the photos you download from iCPL are also in this second folder. After a week has passed, the photos are deleted and you only keep the thumbnails.

Thanks for trying this. Looks like ICPL will effectively break my manual backup workflow.

Maybe when the mac app is available, there will be an easier way to grab new photos and archive them.

 

[Razeus]

I've given up on this. I'll wait for the Mac app and give it another look then. Even for a beta, this service is terrible.

 

[Zetaprime]

I've given up on this. I'll wait for the Mac app and give it another look then. Even for a beta, this service is terrible.

I think it's more at the alpha level than a beta.

 

[Silver78]

Reading any of this did not help:-/ called apple and the guy on phone was also very confused about this.

Names on folders seem different on the new webbrowser icloud?
Zoom out on ipad its called years...zoom in it called collections zoom more its called moments!?
When i go to ALL PHOTOS folder on both ipads, mac and phone some are the same but others are on one device and some others only on another...this is Very very ..very very confusing. For now i have to carry around 4 devices to have all my pictures and it seems out of my hands!?
I got a new iphone 6 plus and restored from icloudbackup but some fail means that 2000 pictures are blank!? Before on iphone 5 they worked just fine! They are not in icloud or on my ipads so they are lost?!
I lost 2000 photos from the past year! I have not deleted any photos!,!
I was told by apple to do another reset on phone and restore from icloud backup...did not work and my phone does not transfer pictures anymore from phone to icloud? All options have been tried!
Only option seems to back up all pictures from all ipads and phones and start all as new devices... Not what i paid for!! Im about to explode with anger and apple should be happy that there is not a store in sight because i would have shown up with the devices and picked them up when they fixed them problem and give me my 2000 pictures back!!!
Reading this propably does not make any sense...because it does not make any sense.
Advised to turn on icloud when buy a new device.. Then oyou have to buy more space. Then the backup in apples hands does not work.. The pictures they are supposed to handle are scattered all over multible devices! I do get this?

 

[Dino F]

Reading any of this did not help:-/ called apple and the guy on phone was also very confused about this.

Names on folders seem different on the new webbrowser icloud?
Zoom out on ipad its called years...zoom in it called collections zoom more its called moments!?
When i go to ALL PHOTOS folder on both ipads, mac and phone some are the same but others are on one device and some others only on another...this is Very very ..very very confusing. For now i have to carry around 4 devices to have all my pictures and it seems out of my hands!?
I got a new iphone 6 plus and restored from icloudbackup but some fail means that 2000 pictures are blank!? Before on iphone 5 they worked just fine! They are not in icloud or on my ipads so they are lost?!
I lost 2000 photos from the past year! I have not deleted any photos!,!
I was told by apple to do another reset on phone and restore from icloud backup...did not work and my phone does not transfer pictures anymore from phone to icloud? All options have been tried!
Only option seems to back up all pictures from all ipads and phones and start all as new devices... Not what i paid for!! Im about to explode with anger and apple should be happy that there is not a store in sight because i would have shown up with the devices and picked them up when they fixed them problem and give me my 2000 pictures back!!!
Reading this propably does not make any sense...because it does not make any sense.
Advised to turn on icloud when buy a new device.. Then oyou have to buy more space. Then the backup in apples hands does not work.. The pictures they are supposed to handle are scattered all over multible devices! I do get this?

...you have to realise that iCloud Photo Library is still in BETA phase so there are indeed going to be things which don't work properly!

If its any consolation, my iCloud Photo Libray also does not work properly either! On my iPhone 6, in the 'All Photos' folder, it shows I have 680 photos, on my iPad 2, it shows I have 677 photos and on www.icloud.com, it shows I have 900+ photos (all 3 should show the same)?!?!?!

The only thing I can think of doing to get all these 3 places, showing exactly the same amount of photos, is by looking at the iPad and iPhone photos simultaneously and working out which are the extra ones, and deleting them and then doing the same on icloud.com.

Not ideal but at least, this way, I will get all 3 places showing the same exact photos. I think they have become jumbled somewhere along the line......

 

[Silver78]

...you have to realise that iCloud Photo Library is still in BETA phase so there are indeed going to be things which don't work properly!

If its any consolation, my iCloud Photo Libray also does not work properly either! On my iPhone 6, in the 'All Photos' folder, it shows I have 680 photos, on my iPad 2, it shows I have 677 photos and on www.icloud.com, it shows I have 900+ photos (all 3 should show the same)?!?!?!

The only thing I can think of doing to get all these 3 places, showing exactly the same amount of photos, is by looking at the iPad and iPhone photos simultaneously and working out which are the extra ones, and deleting them and then doing the same on icloud.com.

Not ideal but at least, this way, I will get all 3 places showing the same exact photos. I think they have become jumbled somewhere along the line......

Add a zero behind and a bit more to your number of photos and you got the chaos im dealing with.

I went with the free 30gigs from one drive but since you dont have cameraroll anymore and auto update on all devices you get same picture uploaded from all devices..so the pictures x3 on one drive!

My problem is now only on iphone...only solution is to reset phone as new phone.. I guess i will lose all sms/imessage/etc. Pictures not saved to camera roll from sms conversations.

Wanted to backup to mac and tried that iphoto thing...boy that program is fu..ed up! .Got these faces, places and events that just not make any sense.. Problem happens when you save a picture from the internet... You download it today but if picture is taken in 2004 you will suddently have an event from 2004 with the one picture!) found a prg. On the mac called picture transfer? (my os is in danish)
I hope to transfer pics that is not blank from iphone to mac and hope i can figure out how to transfer the to this iclouddrive or even back to my icloudpicture thingy.
Im a pc guy and just jumped to mac.. How can something so simple be so complicated.
This apple mouse got ONE button?

 

[Abazigal]

icloud photo library is not working well for me either.

First enabled it on my iPhone 5s. Found the uploading to be extremely slow. Finally decided to give it up. Turned off the feature, only for my phone to completely freeze for a while before it rebooted on its own.

It's a good thing Apple's not charging for this stuff...

 

[Razeus]

Apple must really like having the reputation of not understanding the cloud.

 

[Silver78]

Only solution for me apple says is backup all photos and reset phone as new phone not restoring from phoneimage backup thing. Guess that means loosing all my data text and so on...having to retype everything?
When trying to backup all photos with picturetransfer (or other) the 2000 blank pictures are not showing up in picture transfer as if they do not exist.
When i press the blank picture on the phone i can see the picture for 1/2 a second and then screen goes grey/blank and says "reading" or what ever it is in english. But picture will not show nomatter how long you wait.
That means i can not back up the pictures so i can not reset phone ...unless i give up on 2000 pictures. What to do?

The blank pics i can see are the ones i have edited at some point...the best pics:-/

 

[Morac]

I'll point out that once you enable iPhone Photo Library, your photos get deleted from your iCloud backups, do doing a restore from iCloud won't restore photos from the backup. It should restore from iCloud Photo Library assuming that works.

 

[Zetaprime]

I don't understand iCloud Photo Library

I'll point out that once you enable iPhone Photo Library, your photos get deleted from your iCloud backups, do doing a restore from iCloud won't restore photos from the backup. It should restore from iCloud Photo Library assuming that works.

I assume that when you give up trying iCloud Photo Library and turn it off the photos which were kept on the device are once again backed up as before.

 

[GolfnCPA]

Actually, if you turn off the Library, you are notified that you need to download your photos within 30 days or they are deleted. Best solution is to simply keep the box checked to retain the originals on your device, even with Library enabled, while using the service. I haven't had any problems with iCPL, and am anxious to see the additional integration when it comes to the Mac in 2015.

 

[Dino F]

I will now add that I have concluded that iCloud Photo Library DOES NOT WORK AT ALL how it is supposed to work.

I took a photo on my iPhone 6 last night and quite rightly, it shows in the 'All Photos' folder on my iPhone, and it also appears in the same folder on my iPad 2, so it is indeed going up to the cloud (I have the 'Upload to Photostream' feature turned off on both devices) and being distributed to all my iDevices.

HOWEVER - on www.icloud.com, this same photo does NOT appear? Also, I just noticed that on my iPhone, I have 15 photos marked as 'Favorites' (by tapping the heart icon), however, icloud.com, it only shows 1 photo in the same 'Favorites' folder?

Jesus Apple - I know the service is in BETA but lets at least get the fundamentals working first.................

Is there a way I can add photos directly on icloud.com to see if it will appear on my iPhone?

 

[Padmini]

I thought I would have my All Photos folder and then also a Photo Stream folder (or something similar) where all my photos were stored and stayed forever regardless of what I did within my All Photos folder.

But when I delete a photo from All Photos I get this message "This photo will be deleted from iCloud Photo Library on all your devices". WTF? So All Photos is now iCloud Photo Storage? Ugh. I thought this was going to be clear and simple.

Can anyone explain this to me? If I delete a photo on my phone I want it to stay in the cloud. Isn't that the entire purpose of having iCloud Photo Library?

It is clear and simple. There is just a lot going on.

----------

I will now add that I have concluded that iCloud Photo Library DOES NOT WORK AT ALL how it is supposed to work.

I took a photo on my iPhone 6 last night and quite rightly, it shows in the 'All Photos' folder on my iPhone, and it also appears in the same folder on my iPad 2, so it is indeed going up to the cloud (I have the 'Upload to Photostream' feature turned off on both devices) and being distributed to all my iDevices.

HOWEVER - on www.icloud.com, this same photo does NOT appear? Also, I just noticed that on my iPhone, I have 15 photos marked as 'Favorites' (by tapping the heart icon), however, icloud.com, it only shows 1 photo in the same 'Favorites' folder?

Jesus Apple - I know the service is in BETA but lets at least get the fundamentals working first.................

Is there a way I can add photos directly on icloud.com to see if it will appear on my iPhone?

Well, my beta.cloud.com Photos web app works exactly as its supposed to....so indeed it DOES work. Not sure why yours wouldn't.

Note: I have yet to actually access it from iCloud.com....i always use beta.cloud.com

Edit: Just signed in to iCloud.com for the first time in a year.....works there too.

 

[Dino F]

It is clear and simple. There is just a lot going on.

----------



Well, my beta.cloud.com Photos web app works exactly as its supposed to....so indeed it DOES work. Not sure why yours wouldn't.

Note: I have yet to actually access it from iCloud.com....i always use beta.cloud.com

Edit: Just signed in to iCloud.com for the first time in a year.....works there too.

beta.icloud.com and www.icloud.com both open up the same page (I know the web address is different but they still go to the same icloud log in page).

Just tried both and the photos are out of sync: photos showing on icloud.com are not on my iPhone/iPad and vice versa.

A total shambles...............

 

[GlenK]

I haven't used iCloud Photo Lib yet and still use iPhoto on my mac, and Photos on my iPhone 6. But they are not syncing like they used to.

Creating new albums on my mac does not sync them to my phone anymore.

I'm confused on how to straighten this out or what to do. I hate working with photos on my phone and simply want to do it on my mac. Can't even open iPhoto on my phone anymore and get a message to migrate to iPhoto library.

I am hoping when they release "Photos" early next year it will be on Macs too and all this will start working together again.

If this post seems confusing then that's correct, because I'm confused as he!!.

 

[Dino F]

.........SORRY, but this is a complete COCK UP.

I have folders on my iPhone which don't appear on icloud.com and vice versa.

Also, when I delete photos on icloud.com, they then appear in the 'Recently Deleted' album on my iPhone, but then when I go back to icloud.com, the same photos have then re-appeared.........?!?!?!?1 FFS

THIS IS RIDICULOUS....................

 

[danbar]

How is supposed to work

Pardon for my obvious naivete, but where can I find detailed documentation articulating how iCloud Photo Library and icloud Drive is actually suppose to function when it is out of beta? Reading all the comments helps, but honestly they reek of uncertainty...including my own comments!!!!!

 

[lemieuxfan67]

Pardon for my obvious naivete, but where can I find detailed documentation articulating how iCloud Photo Library and icloud Drive is actually suppose to function when it is out of beta? Reading all the comments helps, but honestly they reek of uncertainty...including my own comments!!!!!

How it is supposed to work is you have one photo library that is synced across all your devices. So, if you take a picture on your iPhone, it will show up on your iPad and Mac. Then, if you edit the picture on your iPad the edits will also show up on your Iphone and Mac. Right now the service works with iOS 8 devices only. Apple plans to release the Photos application for the Mac sometime early 2015. Once the application is released we are supposed to have photo synchronization between all our devices.

 

[Zetaprime]

I don't understand iCloud Photo Library

Actually, if you turn off the Library, you are notified that you need to download your photos within 30 days or they are deleted. Best solution is to simply keep the box checked to retain the originals on your device, even with Library enabled, while using the service. I haven't had any problems with iCPL, and am anxious to see the additional integration when it comes to the Mac in 2015.

That's what I did when I tried it. No way was I going to let it delete my originals. I turned off ICPL after finding that my iPhone's photos would not upload to the service ( the iPad photos did upload), but those are the same as the ones on my phone so I didn't bother to download them back from ICPL and its fine if they get deleted from the service after that 30 day period is up. Worse was that with the service enabled and only one device cooperating with it I had less functionality than before. I don't think I'll ever bother with it again even after its supposedly 'done'.

 

[Dino F]

.........SORRY, but this is a complete COCK UP.

I have folders on my iPhone which don't appear on icloud.com and vice versa.

Also, when I delete photos on icloud.com, they then appear in the 'Recently Deleted' album on my iPhone, but then when I go back to icloud.com, the same photos have then re-appeared.........?!?!?!?1 FFS

THIS IS RIDICULOUS....................

...to follow on from this, I have now concluded that iCloud Photo Library DOES NOT WORK AT ALL. Yep, I realise that it is in BETA, but the fact that it doesn't work AT ALL for me, is pretty pathetic.

Logging in to www.icloud.com or www.beta.icloud.com (which are both the same thing anyway), I can see photos AND albums in the cloud which DO NOT appear on my iPhone 6 OR iPad 2

When I delete photos from the website, from the 'All Photos' folder (essentially the old 'Camera Roll') and then log out, when I then log back in, a few seconds later, the photos which I just deleted have returned WTF is THAT about.....?

Also, when I take photos on my iPhone or iPad, they must go up to the cloud as when a photo is taken on one device, it does indeed correctly then show on the other device (I have Photo Stream turned off), HOWEVER, this same photo does NOT show on the website - again - ITS TOTALLY BROKEN FOR ME

Its a complete shambles. Gonna use Dropbox instead - at least that bloody works.............

 

[Dino F]

...to follow on from this, I have now concluded that iCloud Photo Library DOES NOT WORK AT ALL. Yep, I realise that it is in BETA, but the fact that it doesn't work AT ALL for me, is pretty pathetic.

Logging in to www.icloud.com or www.beta.icloud.com (which are both the same thing anyway), I can see photos AND albums in the cloud which DO NOT appear on my iPhone 6 OR iPad 2

When I delete photos from the website, from the 'All Photos' folder (essentially the old 'Camera Roll') and then log out, when I then log back in, a few seconds later, the photos which I just deleted have returned WTF is THAT about.....?

Also, when I take photos on my iPhone or iPad, they must go up to the cloud as when a photo is taken on one device, it does indeed correctly then show on the other device (I have Photo Stream turned off), HOWEVER, this same photo does NOT show on the website - again - ITS TOTALLY BROKEN FOR ME

Its a complete shambles. Gonna use Dropbox instead - at least that bloody works.............

...ok, so just be doing some further investigation on this and it seems that the changes which I make on www.icloud.com, do get filtered down to my iDevices. In other words, if I delete a pic from the website, it gets deleted from my iPhone and iPad. Similarly, when I add photos to the 'Favourites' folder on the website, these same photos do correctly also show in the 'Favourites'' folder on both my iDevices.

HOWEVER, it appears that the website has become static as when I make the above changes, when I log out and then back in, it does NOT display ANY of my changes (even thought the changes which were made are still present on my iPad and iPhone).

Wonder whats going on? I might raise a ticket with Apple on this as this is obviously a bug.

 

[davidb8]

What's going to happen to people who have 16gb iPhone or iPad. But have 100gb photos on Mac when icpl finally comes to Mac?