Photostream Behavior Clarification Please...

This sounds like a great set-up. Thanks for sharing.

I have some questions though.

Take a photo with iPhone.... it goes into Photostream (iCloud), then it downloads and IMPORTS automatically on all Macbook, iMac, MacMini Server, MacBook Pro.

This is just standard iCloud stuff??

I also have a Nikon D3100. The pics I download from the Nikon, go into my MacBook Pro. Because on my Macbook Pro I activated Automatic Import and Automatic Upload, those pics from my Nikon, go into Photostream, and are imported automatically into the iMac and the MacMini.

This is set up where? Can i do this on windows?

Now, when photostream reaches "1000" pics, those pics are "auto-importing" into all the iPhotos's. It automatically creates a "NAMEMONTH 2011 Photostream" event that avoids having to import the pictures with a cable from the iPhone.

How is this set-up?

You might be wondering why I have such a set up:

Mac Mini "Home" Server has now an exact copy of the library from the MacBook Pro. Well I also have an Apple TV First Gen, which gets all the movies and photos off the server.

The Apple TV 2G, also allows me to get all my pics and movies off that server.

My wife's Macbook only contains the iCloud photostream, so each month, an "event" is automatically generated on her macbook iphoto's library.

The 'event' your speak of. Is that done automatically or have you set that up? Are you and your wife sharing an itunes ID and an ICloud ID?

Thanks

Ben.

some questions: my setup first:

1. 2 iphones (1 mine, 1 wife's) Both with my apple ID

2. 1 ipad 2 with my apple ID

3. 1 iMac with my apple ID.

4. ATV2 with my apple id

5. ALL with photostream download and upload enabled.

6. 2 lovely child, whom I take lots of pics with both iphones. I imagine lots of you take pics of your little children, so you have 5 or 6 pics of the exact moment, waiting to be checked later in a large screen so you can choose the best and delete the others.

BEFORE IOS5

I took photos with the iphones, downloaded to the ipad (deleting both camera rolls) and only then, in my couch linked to the ATV2 or not, I chose good pics and deleted the others. Later I usb-sync my ipad to imac, importing photos and creating the events and albums as I preferred. I later have my idevices synced with the last 2 monts "photo events"

That way I had always both iphones camera roll clean, I could delete photos laying in my sofa and permanently store only good ones in my imac, having access to the last 2 months of good photos in all my idevices

AFTER IOS. I HAVE A MESS

-- All photos go directly to photostream from both iphones, so I have them in ipad2 and iMac on their photostream folder. That's great.

-- If you have "automatic import" in iphoto preferences automatically appears a "month/year/photostream" event with all those photos, so after these iCloud 30 days limit, you still have this photos in your iMac, and you lose nothing. That's great as well. So you could think you don't need any usb-syncing and that everything is easier...

The "BUT",

1. iphone's camera roll isn't clean anymore. So you have pics automatically stored in your iMac but still are in your iphone increasing day by day.

2. You always have to do the "bad pics" erasing in your iMac. If you do them in your idevices, it's of no use, as the photos you delete in your camera roll are not deleted from your photostream. And if you delete them from the iphone camera roll and later usb-sync them to your iMac, iphoto tells you they have been already imported. So don't do the "bad pics" erasing in your iphone or ipad as it is a waste of time.

3. Videos are NOT photostreamed, so you are forced to usb-sync to your iMac anyway...

SO... I find only 3 solutions

1. Activate all photostreaming and later in your Mac you erase and clasify the photos from the automatic event. Then usb-sync your videos and manually delete the camera roll.

2. Activate all photostreaming, converting it in a "photo bakcup" (so you could save iCloud space unchecking the camera roll in its preferences) Later do the classifying in your idevice (it's great to do it on the ipad) Later delete the automatic event in your iMac and then usb-sync the "good photo classification" so you only have the good photos stored in your HDD and all camera rolls are clean.

3. Deactivate photostreaming from iphones and ipad, do classification in idevices and then usb-sync them to iMac (as well as vídeos). Only activate photo streaming upload in your iphoto iMac so photos taken with other cameras could be visible in your idevices...

As you see, in all of them usb-syncing is a must because of the videos. Wich configuration do you usually do that represents less a mess?

Any suggestions?

I'm working on workflow too. I thought that by writing out my current workflow I could help, but the essential difference is that I edit on iMac not my iPhone or iPad. But I ended up deciding to post this because it might be of interest to others who work as I do, and so I can learn more about using Photostream.

Here's my setup:

I have an iPhone, an iPad, and an iMac (Aperture).

I take only a few photos a week using my iPhone and iPad.

I do not edit on the iDevices, instead I prefer to do that on iMac, which is a key difference from your workflow.

I take pics on iPhone or iPad -- they distribute to the other two devices via Photostream.

If I take a pic on iPhone and if I want it in Camera Roll on iPad, I view it in Photostream on iPad and save it from there to iPad's camera roll. Unedited, but available for sharing.

On the iMac in Aperture I drag (or import) new photos from Photostream to a temporary project for sorting and post editing.

Then I drag the ones I want into final projects for storing on iMac.

Then I drag a version of ones I want on iPad and iPhone from there to a set of albums I name using "iDevice Name", like "iDevice Family" or "iDevice Pets". When I sync the iPhone and iPad using iTunes USB sync, the pics in those folders transfer to the iPhone and iPad.

When Photostream gets cluttered, like today:

1. Reset Photostream on iCloud by signing into my account through Safari (Name/Advanced). Has to be done first.

2. Then reset Phototstream on both iPhone and iPad using Settings/iCloud on each device (switch Photostream off then on).

3. On iMac: in Aperture/Preferences/iCloud, turn Photostream off then on.

That cleans out Photostream in all 4 places.

Sharing with others: we're happy with emailing images between us, or Facebooking.

Periodically I copy all the iDevice albums to a USB thumb drive and from there to my wife's computer, and then sync her iPad there, so she has a copy of all the family photos on her iPad.

Works for us.

anyone know how to push videos taken on iPhone to iPhoto, since iCloud and Photo Stream came along?

There's a few key points that Apple is not properly explaining to people anywhere.

- If you take any video with your iPhone, be aware that Photostream DOES NOT HANDLE VIDEO. Therefore you still have to plug in your iPhone to your mac/pc using the USB cable and manually import any videos into iPhoto the old fashioned way. There is no other way to do it.

- Next, even if you enable Photostream in iPhoto on your home mac, this does indeed automatically download photos into iPhoto, however they are STILL in your camera roll on your iPhone taking up valuable storage space. This is a key point most people miss. They don't realize you still have to clear out your camera roll. Either have to manually delete each photo from your camera roll (once it's been photo streamed to iPhoto), or you can connect your iPhone up with your USB cable and go through the manual process of importing photos into iPHoto and then select the option to "Delete From Device", at which point your camera roll will be cleared and you regain the storage space.

So as you can see, you basically still have to manually connect your device with the cable and manually import into iPhoto in order to (a) import the videos you've taken on your iPhone and (b) have iPhoto delete the items from camera roll (thus giving you storage space).

It's taken me a few days of fiddling to figure this out. I'm rather disappointed with Apple at how complicated and non-intuitive they've made this (which was the opposite of what I was expecting). Apple has not offered any clear explanations, and in my opinion they've been somewhat deceptive, because if you don't go through the process of clearing out your camera roll, you'll eventually run out of storage space and online backup space, at which point Apple will send you a message to purchase more storage space, which is very slimy in my opinion. instead they should explain how to deal with this problem and manage your storage space, not just fool you into thinking you need to purchase more online backup space.)

Here's what I suggest SHOULD HAPPEN:

- Apple needs to figure out how to automatically stream videos taken on your iPHone to your Mac/iPhoto, so you don't have to manually plug in the cable.

- also, photos that get photostreamed to your mac/iPhoto should be automatically removed from your camera roll, thus freeing up space (unless you explicitly say you want to keep a particular photo in your camera roll)

that pretty much sums it up

thx

Amen! You said exactly what I was thinking, better than I could have.

I still have to sync via cable to clean out my camera roll, so it's almost like, what's the point? yeah it's nice that they appear on other devices, but I still need to go in and organize everything so it doesn't really save that much time.

I would add to the list that you should be able to delete photos from the photostream. I don't want every screenshot I take (because I need it for five minutes) to be streamed everywhere.

Jesszeus, that blows about having to plug-in for video. I am willing to bet, Apple will implement it at a future release. Apple does this often - get 80% of features out the door, then tack on extra remaining features later.

I think that the not deleting things is actually a good thing.

I can see how it *** for you, as it sounds like your workflow is to remove pics from yer iDevice to give room for other stuff. I keep all photos on my iPhone - years of them. Even when I sync'ed with cable, I told it not to delete. I cant tell you how many times I am with friends or at a party and want to show some pic/s from 2 weeks ago, or 2 years ago.

I guess I am lucky in that I dont fill my iPhone with TV shows and movies and not even too much music. I want to get more music accessible to me though, and I will do that without taking up loads of space on iphone with itunes match.

In the end, Apple should give an option to delete or keep en-masse, or per-month. I think I read on wikipedia page that the next beta of iOS 5 includes deletion of pics in photostream!

jesszeus wrote:

... because if you don't go through the process of clearing out your camera roll, you'll eventually run out of storage space and online backup space

You wont run out of iCLoud online backup space if you tell iOS to not backup your Camera Rolls. You can tell it this in Settings > iCloud > Storage and Backup > Manage Storage > devicename > Camera Roll Off

I dont think Apple meant this to be a scam to sell space. A) You can control how much space you use, with some pretty fine tuning. You can set backup on/off per app, delete entire backups, and set how many backups are kept. B) With the prices Apple is giving for iCloud space (<$2 per month per 10 GB), they arent making a killing. They are offering the added space for convenience to the user, while also covering their costs and keeping the price competitive (actually apples price per GB is same as industry-leading Dropbox)

I think they did a good job on all this - especially for a first swipe around at it. It will get better as they release newer versions.

On a seperate note, I am surprised that no one has mentioned that iPhoto '11 is required on mac for any of this auto syncing of photos to work. And that means $15 / mac (unless you bought a new mac, which all come with iphoto '11).

On a seperate note, I am surprised that no one has mentioned that iPhoto '11 is required on mac for any of this auto syncing of photos to work. And that means $15 / mac (unless you bought a new mac, which all come with iphoto '11).

Or worse than that- how about that on Windows you have to have Vista/Win7?? My fiance recently upgraded to iOS5, and thus from MobileMe (which had worked fine) to iCloud- only to be met with the nasty little surprise that his computer (runnin XP) won't work with iCloud. So he can use a few iCloud features, but not all of them, which *****.

Yeah I know he's a little behind the times and needs to update his OS, but... I know tons of people (not to mention everywhere I've ever worked) still using XP.

The Photosync App, available for IPhone, IPad and Mac, syncs videos AND pictures seamlessly and wirelessly. In fact, I prefer it to ICloud because I can sync what I want when I want. I am using ICloud as well, but may forego it in favor of PhotoSync.

I've just found this out, because I've been having a similar problem - I wasn't sure if the photos that were showing up in my PhotoStream folders in iPhoto were actually there permanently, or if deleting them off my iPhone would also delete them from my Mac. Once I read your post and figured this out, I was in disbelief that I would have to import them all AGAIN in order to delete them, but you were right, there's no other way to do it. So then I came to the question of "what if I don't want a bunch of copies of the pictures on my Mac Book?" So I looked around and found out about a really awesome app that comes INCLUDED in iOS but no one seems to know about:

It's called Image Capture, and it still requires a USB cable, but basically if you plug your phone in and open Image Capture, you can delete all photos from your camera roll on iPhone all at once, without having to import them into iPhoto again and then selecting the "delete from device option."

I can't believe Apple doesn't seem to mention this app, because it is super awesome.

But I agree - what really needs to happen is that photos automatically imported into iPhoto via Photostream should be also automatically deleted from your iPhone. Just another example of Apple's "ease and user-friendliness" translating into exactly the opposite. I got my MacBook Pro earlier this year, and so far have been nothing but disappointed. 😟

Lizzie, glad you found the image capture program on OS X (not iOS). It has been around for years, since before iPhoto, and has less features and a more 'manual' take on importing photos. It's more windows-like. I've used it here and there, but really don't like either image capture or iPhoto. I wish photo syncing (photo stream) was integrated ino the operating system and jut happened in the background - or asked if you wanted it to proceed with syncing. Actually, Dropbox DOES do this. It sits in the background on Mac osx and syncs files - and pictures from iOS devices each time you run the Dropbox app on your phone.

Now for that pesky issue of not wanting pics of for-sale items, or receipts for business, I need a solution here too. There is a number of iOS apps for receipt management. I am using 'Genius Scan'. It doesn't put the receipt pics into the photo stream, and still saves them within the app and allowse to export them in various ways. I am betting that there are other similar apps for other use-cases where you want to take a pic and don't want it stores on the photoroll.

BTW, I completely disagree with your ideal use-case explanation in iPhoto. I want to keep every single photo on my phone. All of them, 4 years back, are there. I don't have as much music because of it (I use Pandora cloud radio instead). I like to have all my pictures in my pocket, because I find it very useful to flick to past photos when telling a story, or showing that funny person I met on a trip to Italy 3 yrs ago, or showing cute videos of my kid when she was 8 mths old. 90% of the time, this happens when I am not at my computer, but in a social setting. I don't want that ability to disappear. And I do not think enough people do this - maybe they find it too difficult to go and find a photo, I dunno. I never ever delete a useful photo, though I do delete temporary info photos and duplicate shots.

I also completely disagree with your assessment of Apples user-experience surmise. The vast majority of it is good, certainly better than windows, and for the time being, better than Linux desktops.

HELLO......MY NAME IS GURI LAST DAY I LOST MY IPHONE ,,,,,,AND MOBILE BOX ALSO ..PLEASE TELL ME HOW TO FIND MY IPHONE ,,,,PLEASE.........😟

I might try Dropbox- honestly I don't use it much except for big files that are too large to email or whatever.

Can you really keep 4 years worth of pictures on your phone? I mean, I have over 10,000 pictures on my computer, and I just don't think that all of them would fit on my phone...? The reason I even got into this conversation was that I realized I had about 400 pics on my phone and it was severely slowing down performance, so I decided to import them and that's when this whole thing started. The idea that I could keep every single picture I've ever taken on my phone seems hard to believe when having less than 500 of them on there was affecting it so much - should that even be happening anyway? I thought these things were supposed to be able to store tons of music and pictures?

As for being able to show people pictures when I'm telling a story or whatever, I guess I just don't really do that. If there is a particular video or picture I want to show someone, I usually just open up the Facbook app and look through my photos there, since that's where the majority of them end up anyway.