iCloud Photos location?

[scouser75]

Hi, my iCloud storage is almost full as for some reason I have photos backed up even though I had photos turned off in icloud settings. But for some reason I can't find icloud photos anywhere on my iPhone.

Ive looked in the photos app, files, and searched for it but no luck. Where can I see the icloud photos on the phone please?

 

[fatTribble]

I think you’ll have to enable iCloud Photos in order for photos to populate in the Photos app

 

[scouser75]

Thanks fatTribble. If I turn it on on my Mac, would it automatically backup all the photos in my Photos app?

I need to very quickly download the photos from iCloud Photos onto my Mac as I'm running out of iCloud storage, which is taken up with photos. So last thing I need is more photos being uploaded to iCloud.

 

[fatTribble]

So if you turn on iCloud Photos on your Mac it will upload anything in your Photos app and download anything in iCloud that’s not on your Mac. Does your Mac have enough space for all of your photos?
What will be your backup in case a device fails?

Just my suggestion, you should have at least one local disk copy with Time Machine or whatever you want to use. Plus you should have at least one cloud backup of your photos.

If you lost your photos, how much would you be willing to pay to get them back? Likely iCloud will seem like a bargain by comparison.

 

[scouser75]

So if you turn on iCloud Photos on your Mac it will upload anything in your Photos app and download anything in iCloud that’s not on your Mac. Does your Mac have enough space for all of your photos?
What will be your backup in case a device fails?

Just my suggestion, you should have at least one local disk copy with Time Machine or whatever you want to use. Plus you should have at least one cloud backup of your photos.

If you lost your photos, how much would you be willing to pay to get them back? Likely iCloud will seem like a bargain by comparison.

Thanks again fatTribble.

The problem is, I just don't have enough iCloud storage. But I do have 2 Time Machine backups, which I thought also backed up all my photos. Or am I mistaken on this? And do the TM backups back up all the users? I currently have 3 users on my Mac.

And is there anyway of just downloading the iCloud Photos and not upload new ones?

 

[iStorm]

You can to go iCloud.com and download your photos from there. You can also delete them to free up iCloud space. Keep in mind, if you have iCloud Photos enabled on any of your devices, they'll get deleted from those devices. Sounds like you don't, but may want to double-check them all first.

 

[bradman83]

So if you turn on iCloud Photos on your Mac it will upload anything in your Photos app and download anything in iCloud that’s not on your Mac. Does your Mac have enough space for all of your photos?
What will be your backup in case a device fails?

Just my suggestion, you should have at least one local disk copy with Time Machine or whatever you want to use. Plus you should have at least one cloud backup of your photos.

If you lost your photos, how much would you be willing to pay to get them back? Likely iCloud will seem like a bargain by comparison.

Thanks again fatTribble.

The problem is, I just don't have enough iCloud storage. But I do have 2 Time Machine backups, which I thought also backed up all my photos. Or am I mistaken on this? And do the TM backups back up all the users? I currently have 3 users on my Mac.

And is there anyway of just downloading the iCloud Photos and not upload new ones?

If you launch the Photos app on your Mac while holding down the option key a dialog box will pop up before the main window loads which allows you to select between multiple Photos libraries or create additional libraries. You have the option of creating a new library (this does not overwrite your old ones). You should be able to set that new, blank library to sync with iCloud. That would bring in all of the photos that are synced with iCloud without adding new ones. From there you can download them to store locally and delete them from iCloud.

Note that while you can create multiple Photos libraries and switch between them by holding the option key when launching Photos only one of them can sync with iCloud at a time.

 

[scouser75]

You can to go iCloud.com and download your photos from there. You can also delete them to free up iCloud space. Keep in mind, if you have iCloud Photos enabled on any of your devices, they'll get deleted from those devices. Sounds like you don't, but may want to double-check them all first.

If you launch the Photos app on your Mac while holding down the option key a dialog box will pop up before the main window loads which allows you to select between multiple Photos libraries or create additional libraries. You have the option of creating a new library (this does not overwrite your old ones). You should be able to set that new, blank library to sync with iCloud. That would bring in all of the photos that are synced with iCloud without adding new ones. From there you can download them to store locally and delete them from iCloud.

Note that while you can create multiple Photos libraries and switch between them by holding the option key when launching Photos only one of them can sync with iCloud at a time.

Thanks guys. Very useful tips. For now, I'm going to go for the first tip as I just don't use iCloud for photos.

I also had a thought, can I sync all my photos to OneDrive? I have 1tb storage available vis my MS subscription, so that would be very useful.

 

[bradman83]

Thanks guys. Very useful tips. For now, I'm going to go for the first tip as I just don't use iCloud for photos.

I also had a thought, can I sync all my photos to OneDrive? I have 1tb storage available vis my MS subscription, so that would be very useful.

Yes, the OneDrive app for iOS has the option to sync your photos on your phone and you can manually upload others from your Mac.

 

[scouser75]

Yes, the OneDrive app for iOS has the option to sync your photos on your phone and you can manually upload others from your Mac.

Brilliant. Thank you. I only really need to sync / upload my photos on Mac soo will suss out later how to do this. Right now I've just copied and pasted the photos library.