HT201317: My Photo Stream FAQ

Learn about My Photo Stream FAQ
briana334

Q: I want to store my photos on my Mac but not have them upload to iCloud on my phone. How?

I recently updated my iPhone 6 and my Mac to Yosemite. I want all the photos on my computer to stay there and not upload to iCloud. I turned off the iCloud setting, but since I have Photo Stream on, it keeps adding all the computer photos back onto my phone. How can I keep them separate?

 

How can I then send my phone photos to my computer?

 

Thanks!!

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012)

Posted on Nov 5, 2015 7:29 AM

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Q: I want to store my photos on my Mac but not have them upload to iCloud on my phone. How?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Nov 5, 2015 8:19 AM in response to briana334
    Level 10 (140,918 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Nov 5, 2015 8:19 AM in response to briana334

    Disable the My Photo Stream in your Photos library and also on your iPhone.

     

    To download your iPhone photos to your Photos library on your Mac just connect the IPhone to your Mac with it's USB cable and launch Photos. You'll be able to import the photos into the library.

    OTsig.png

  • by briana334,

    briana334 briana334 Nov 5, 2015 8:21 AM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 5, 2015 8:21 AM in response to Old Toad

    Is this going to affect the photos on my computer?  I'm just being really neurotic about accidentally deleting everything since my Mac uploaded all of my photos from the past ten years... Thank you so much for your help!!

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Nov 5, 2015 8:28 AM in response to briana334
    Level 10 (140,918 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Nov 5, 2015 8:28 AM in response to briana334
    I turned off the iCloud setting,

     

    Exactly what iCloud setting did you turn off?  What do you have enabled now?  Do you have the iCloud Photo Stream enabled?

    Can you post a screenshot of Photos' iCloud Preference pane like this:


    Picloudpreferencepane.jpg

  • by briana334,

    briana334 briana334 Nov 5, 2015 9:34 AM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 5, 2015 9:34 AM in response to Old Toad

    Photos.png Here are my Photos settings. I'm not sure it matters anyway. I just checked and some of the photos I wanted to keep are gone and photos I deleted from my phone over a year ago are back. Not clue what's going on.

     

    Here are my iCloud settings. iCloud.png

  • by Old Toad,Apple recommended

    Old Toad Old Toad Nov 5, 2015 9:56 AM in response to briana334
    Level 10 (140,918 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Nov 5, 2015 9:56 AM in response to briana334

    If you disable My Photo Stream what photos are on the iPhone will stay on the iPhone and those on the Mac will stay on the Mac.  There will be no sharing of photos between those devices.  Any time you want to put your iPhone photos on your Mac you'll have to connect the iPhone via its USB cable, launch Photos and import into your library.

     

    These two Apple documents describe My Photo Stream in detail:

     

    My Photo Stream FAQ - Apple Support

     

    My Photo Stream and iCloud Photo Sharing limits - Apple Support

  • by briana334,

    briana334 briana334 Nov 5, 2015 9:56 AM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 5, 2015 9:56 AM in response to Old Toad

    Thanks. I think whatever damage there is, I've already done. Last night I had all the photos I wanted on my Mac and all the photos I wanted on my iPhone and iCloud right. Now, a lot of the photos from the Mac (but not all) are back in the Cloud and photos I deleted forever ago that weren't on my phone or computer are now back on all devices. I guess I'll cut my losses and just disable Photo Stream and upload my phone photos to the Cloud or manually move them to my computer.

     

    Thanks so much for your help!

  • by jwalt313,

    jwalt313 jwalt313 Nov 7, 2015 12:38 PM in response to briana334
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 7, 2015 12:38 PM in response to briana334

    .

  • by jwalt313,

    jwalt313 jwalt313 Nov 7, 2015 12:41 PM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 7, 2015 12:41 PM in response to Old Toad

    On that same note, I want to keep and store only the photos that I have taken by my iPhone on my iPhone so I will disable My Photo Stream.  I understand that, if I then want my iPhoto pics to upload to iCloud, I must first connect the iPhone to my Mac, import the iPhone photos to my Mac which will then upload the pics to iCloud.  But I would also like to view my iCloud photo collection (which had been previously uploaded by my Mac to iCloud) on my iPhone.  Is that possible?

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Nov 7, 2015 2:10 PM in response to jwalt313
    Level 10 (140,918 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Nov 7, 2015 2:10 PM in response to jwalt313
    But I would also like to view my iCloud photo collection (which had been previously uploaded by my Mac to iCloud) on my iPhone.  Is that possible?

    If by iCloud you mean the iCloud Photo Library, the answer is no.  If you mean the My Photo Stream, again no.  If you want to isolate your iPhone from iCloud and want to see photos from your Photos library on the Mac then create shared or public Photo Albums from the Mac.  You can then view them online.