iOS File App and Photos.

[Ben1980]

Looking for a bit of help.

At the minute I have 250GB of photos in One Drive. I can currently see these through the File app but I am looking to pay for just one storage plan.

I have tried copying photos in to the iCloud drive which I can see uploading but these do not start appearing in the photos app.

Am I doing something wrong? Ta in advance.

 

[macduke]

Looking for a bit of help.

At the minute I have 250GB of photos in One Drive. I can currently see these through the File app but I am looking to pay for just one storage plan.

I have tried copying photos in to the iCloud drive which I can see uploading but these do not start appearing in the photos app.

Am I doing something wrong? Ta in advance.

iCloud Drive and iCloud Photos are two separate things that use the same space. Yeah, Apple really is that confusing. Basically they don’t expose the file system for iCloud Photos. Basically what you have to do is select all the photos in your One Drive and click the share sheet icon in the bottom left and select “Save Files” which will save them to your camera roll. To be safe I might do this a chunk at a time which is easier if you already have your photos organized into folders because trying to move 250GB of photos at once might crash or lock up iOS. If you have a Mac the process might go smoother on that as you can just download the whole archive from your One Drive and import it into the Photos app and then it will propagate to all your devices. Make sure to select the “Optimize Storage” option in the Photos settings in iOS or you’ll fill up your devices with full resolution content as fast as your IP can serve them.

 

[bmac89]

Be careful to check that all photos are actually saved to the camera roll as there appears to be a bug in iOS 11 which causes only some photos to be added when sharing multiple photos from another app.

For example I tried saving about 10 photos and only some would transfer. There was no rhyme or reason as to which photos would be added and which wouldn’t. The bug also occurs for me when trying to save multiple photos from the mail app when sent via mail drop.

As macduke suggested, doing this on a Mac would be less problematic.
All the best.

 

[Ben1980]

Thanks for the advice.

I am in the market for a new macbook so may wait to see if any updates come at wwdc and then sort this then.

One final question. I am a bit ocd with how the photos are organised. Would the mac keep the folder structure when importing.

 

[zorinlynx]

One final question. I am a bit ocd with how the photos are organised. Would the mac keep the folder structure when importing.

If you organize photos by using files in folders, you may have some trouble adjusting to the way the Photos app does things.

With the Photos app, you no longer are dealing with files in folders, but photos in albums. You can create an album for each folder, then drag the photos to that album, thus preserving your layout somewhat, but it's still a different paradigm and you will have to get used to it.

If you want to keep managing your photo library as files inside folders, you could try using the Documents by Readdle app. You can copy your entire directory structure of photos to Documents' iCloud storage and browse your photos with the app. It's not what I would do, but it may be an easier adjustment for you.