Photos going to iCloud

[Splitbolt]

I am curious about something, if you set your iPhone so that photos go to iCloud, what happens when the free 5GB fills up? I have to assume that there are a lot of average people out there with more than 5GB's of photos, but not all of them are paying for extra storage space. So do the older pictures get deleted?

I'm curious about that. As for me, I am looking for a way to no longer have to connect my iPhone and iPad to my MBA with a USB cable and upload photo's manually to iPhoto. But I also don't want to pay for extra storage because I don't need those photos in the cloud, I just want them on my computer.

 

[eyoungren]

I think you have to have a lot of pictures (even with HDR turned on) before that becomes a concern.

I have over 1600 photos in my camera roll and I still have 1.8GB left of storage.

You will note that I am not using the new iCloud Photo deal where you can directly access your photos from the web, but the old iCloud photo backup. I have had it fill up with the new service and iCloud stops backing up.

 

[Splitbolt]

I see that you are very knowledgeable on this so I appreciate the help.

So you have "Photo's" turned off in iCloud but have it set to backup the photo album in Backup? I wasn't aware that those 2 things could be done separately.

If I do it like that, it will only backup my photo's, it won't send them to my MBA's iPhoto app?

I would actually like to do the opposite. I want the pictures sent to my MBA's iPhoto app. I don't need them in the iCloud. I want to be able to view them on my MBA (which is backed up in multiple ways, so I don't need iCloud backup for the photos).

 

[DAP Don]

Just get the Google Photos app and you're done. It's unlimited storage and works just like iCloud. So long as you don't mind the photos being compressed a bit more. Otherwise, if you were to simply use Apple's iCloud model, you have NO choice but to back up to your computer. To not do so is actually stupid, since it's so easy. Why are people so opposed to doing this and not being lazy, instead of yelling at apple employees when they lose all their **** as if it's the employees fault? Back up your **** like a responsible adult.

 

[Splitbolt]

Just get the Google Photos app and you're done. It's unlimited storage and works just like iCloud. So long as you don't mind the photos being compressed a bit more. Otherwise, if you were to simply use Apple's iCloud model, you have NO choice but to back up to your computer. To not do so is actually stupid, since it's so easy. Why are people so opposed to doing this and not being lazy, instead of yelling at apple employees when they lose all their **** as if it's the employees fault? Back up your **** like a responsible adult.

I'm sorry, but your ranting and swearing got in the way of what you were saying.

All I am looking for is a way to have my images download to my computer without having to do it manually with a USB cable. I'd rather use built in features if they can do it, than use third party like Google Photos. And I have everything backed up in at least 2 different ways, so I never had to yell at any Apple employee.

 

[eyoungren]

I see that you are very knowledgeable on this so I appreciate the help.

So you have "Photo's" turned off in iCloud but have it set to backup the photo album in Backup? I wasn't aware that those 2 things could be done separately.

If I do it like that, it will only backup my photo's, it won't send them to my MBA's iPhoto app?

I would actually like to do the opposite. I want the pictures sent to my MBA's iPhoto app. I don't need them in the iCloud. I want to be able to view them on my MBA (which is backed up in multiple ways, so I don't need iCloud backup for the photos).

You can do this differently now because Apple adding iCloud Drive is recent. That means your iPhone can directly upload photos to iCloud Drive where they can be viewed on any device capable of viewing photos.

But before iCloud Drive your photos simply backed up to iCloud to the same place where Apple stores your actual backup data. That's the part I'm using, not the iCloud Drive part.

I can speak only for myself and my own setup, but I've not had any issue directly importing my photos to iPhoto simply by opening the app and using the import feature.

This, despite the fact that the Mac I do this on is a 2003 17" PowerBook G4 running OS X 10.5.8 with iPhoto 4.0.3 and using an iPhone 5 and iPhone 6+ which are unsupported on PowerPC Macs.

I just open iPhoto, it sees my iPhone and imports the pics directly.

Now the other user mentioned Google Photos. That's also an option, but you don't have to compress your photos. It's a setting. There's also Dropbox which uploads photos directly to a 'Camera Uploads' folder. Any device you have connected to Google Photos or Dropbox will then immediately get those photos. I use both, simply because it's easier for me (pics show up on my Mac as soon as they are uploaded) but periodically I will connect my iPhone to my PowerBook and directly import my pics to iPhoto.

Now, if none of this was available to me then I'd be using iCloud to backup my photos but since I do have these options it's why I have my settings the way I do.

Now, if you really want to avoid a USB cable then I don't think there are any 'built-in' ways to do that wirelessly, unless you maybe use that wireless sync thing with iTunes.

I do use Photosync though on occasion. You install this on your phone and a companion app on your Mac/PC. When I first bought it they had a compatible app for PowerPC Macs.

With both apps open Photosync will let you transfer directly to iPhoto (although you also have other transfer options).

That's about all I can think of to get your photos over.

 

[westonborg]

Once u use up the 5gigabites you cant use it anymore unless you want to pay

 

[sura]

Are you opposed to using a cloud service? If not, there IS a way with Dropbox and Automator. It automatically loads new photos into your Photos library. (take a photo on your iPhone and watch it appear in Photos.)

http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20130419063133668 (There are better instructions out there but this is what I just found)

I've been using this for some time with iPhoto, even before the new Photos app was introduced. After migrating to Photos, I kept the old iPhotos library and told Photos app to use it. I did this because Automator still doesn't recognize Photos app as an option, only iPhoto.

Here's the way it works: A photo taken on iPhone gets uploaded to Dropbox (if camera uploads is turned on in Dorpbox.app). With Dropbox loaded on your mac, the photos get downloaded to the Dropbox folder. Automator moves the photos from the Dropbox folder into the Photos library. The only downside to all this is that the photos get duplicated - in Dropbox folder and again in Photos library.

 

[Splitbolt]

I don't mind using the cloud, but it does seem like a big work around. I appreciate you explaining it. I don't think I would even need the Automator app since I wouldn't mind dragging the files from Dropbox to iPhoto. I Just wish there was a way to "sync via Wifi" for the iPhoto app.