HT204570: Get help with your iCloud Photo Library

Learn about Get help with your iCloud Photo Library
Professor Lassen
Level 1 (4 points)
iCloud

Q: How do I find photos by filename in Photos in iCloud?

I'm trying to find where I left off when uploading my pictures to Photos in iCloud. There don't seem to be labels anywhere that i can see.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1), Photos in iCloud

Posted on Dec 4, 2015 4:49 PM

by Winston Churchill,Solvedanswer
Winston Churchill Winston Churchill
Level 10 (103,981 points)
Apple TV
A:

OK, I understand what it is you are doing (that was actually what I was asking in my first response), I'm afraid you can't look for the filenames the way that you want to through your web browser at iCloud.com.

 

iCloud library is designed to work in conjunction with Photos on your Mac which is why it doesn't do things the way you would like to. If you used Photos on your Mac to upload these photos your photos would upload automatically and you would be able to see the names and titles of the photos too.

 

If you don't wish to use Photos on the Mac to do this, then I suggest uploading your photos in (say) groups of 50 until they are done, if you get any problems along the way with any batches (such as like you already have) then just re-upload them. When you have uploaded all batches, scroll through the photos in your web browser and delete any duplicates you find.

 

If the reason you aren't using Photos as intended is because of disk space on your Mac, you could always keep the library on the external drive.

Posted on Dec 7, 2015 4:16 AM

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Professor Lassen

Q: How do I find photos by filename in Photos in iCloud?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Winston Churchill,

    Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Dec 5, 2015 8:17 AM in response to Professor Lassen
    Level 10 (103,981 points)
    Apple TV
    Dec 5, 2015 8:17 AM in response to Professor Lassen

    Where exactly are you looking, there are no labels/titles at iCloud.com, but you can see titles and filenames in the get info window in Photos on your Mac.

  • by Professor Lassen,

    Professor Lassen Professor Lassen Dec 5, 2015 9:05 AM in response to Winston Churchill
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iCloud
    Dec 5, 2015 9:05 AM in response to Winston Churchill

    Thanks Winston! By the way, you are one of my favorite historical figures.

    However, you ask "Where exactly are you looking" and my reply is sir, EVERYWHERE/ANYWHERE!

    Apparently you tell me there are no labels so that reply is fruitless.

    I have been uploading pictures to Photos in iCloud and the upload was interrupted with a message telling me so and it has been reported to Apple.

    My problem is, I don't know what pictures have been uploaded and what has not among the 2,000 or more.

    I don't want to right click on a photo to find it's filename, I want to search for a particular photo by it's filename to see if it is there and if there are duplicates.

    Unfortunately , it doesn't seem that there is an option to show the picture thumbnail with it's file name.

    That is what I'm looking for, to search for a specific picture by filename rather than scroll through thousands of pictures for one exact version of an image.

    Thanks

  • by Professor Lassen,

    Professor Lassen Professor Lassen Dec 5, 2015 9:18 AM in response to Winston Churchill
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iCloud
    Dec 5, 2015 9:18 AM in response to Winston Churchill

    Winston, why would I want to look on Photos on my Mac to see a particular photo in iCloud? How would I know there is a difference between the pictures on my Mac in Photos and the pictures in Photos in iCloud? Are they intrinsically the same? Do they sync? Is there ever a difference between the inventory of pictures in Photos on my Mac and the pictures in iCloud?

    Thanks!

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Dec 5, 2015 12:46 PM in response to Professor Lassen
    Level 9 (71,926 points)
    iTunes
    Dec 5, 2015 12:46 PM in response to Professor Lassen

    They should be the same and they should sync. Unless a picture is in a format iCloud won't load, they should be the same number of photos in both places.

     

    Photo Sharing - iCloud

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Dec 5, 2015 12:57 PM in response to Professor Lassen
    Level 10 (107,629 points)
    iCloud
    Dec 5, 2015 12:57 PM in response to Professor Lassen
    Is there ever a difference between the inventory of pictures in Photos on my Mac and the pictures in iCloud?

    Yes, there could be a difference.

     

    Some photos cannot upload to iCloud Photo Library.

    • Only photos that have been copied to the Photos Library can upload to iCloud Photo Library. Photos imported as referenced cannot upload.
    • Not all image file formats are compatible with iCloud Photo Library.

     

    To find all photos in your Photos library that cannot upload to iCloud Phto Library create a smart album (File > New Smart Album) with the following constraints:

    Screen Shot 2015-12-05 at 21.53.33GMT.png

  • by Winston Churchill,Helpful

    Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Dec 6, 2015 1:59 PM in response to Professor Lassen
    Level 10 (103,981 points)
    Apple TV
    Dec 6, 2015 1:59 PM in response to Professor Lassen
    Apparently you tell me there are no labels so that reply is fruitless.

    There are titles and filenames (different things) but they can't be seen at iCloud.com. You look at iCloud.com through a web browser.

    I have been uploading pictures to Photos in iCloud

    Are you doing this via the application "Photos" on your Mac or just through Photos at iCloud.com in a web browser. If the later then even if your upload was interrupted it should resume itself automatically. If the later are you just uploading from a folder of photos.

    I don't want to right click on a photo to find it's filename, I want to search for a particular photo by it's filename to see if it is there and if there are duplicates.

    You can't right click on a photo in iCloud.com and see it's filename, so I'm a little confused where you are doing this

    Unfortunately , it doesn't seem that there is an option to show the picture thumbnail with it's file name.

    Again I'm not sure where we are, in the Photos app on the mac or in the Photos app at iCloud.com

    That is what I'm looking for, to search for a specific picture by filename rather than scroll through thousands of pictures for one exact version of an image.

    You can do that in Photos on your Mac but not through photos at iCloud.com.

    Winston, why would I want to look on Photos on my Mac to see a particular photo in iCloud? How would I know there is a difference between the pictures on my Mac in Photos and the pictures in Photos in iCloud? Are they intrinsically the same? Do they sync? Is there ever a difference between the inventory of pictures in Photos on my Mac and the pictures in iCloud?

    If you are using iCloud photo library ( setting in the photos preferences) then yes they should be identical in most cases, although it may take a while to get to that stage if you have a lot of photos, also as mentioned before it should all be automatic.

  • by Professor Lassen,

    Professor Lassen Professor Lassen Dec 6, 2015 2:12 PM in response to Winston Churchill
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iCloud
    Dec 6, 2015 2:12 PM in response to Winston Churchill

    PPerhaps I'm not being clear. I am not doing anything with Photos on my Mac. I have no space on my hard drive so I'm conserving space using iCloud.  I am importing pictures on an external drive that I have removed from Webshots. In the upload/import there was an issue and I don't know where it left off. I am right clicking the thumbnail because that is what one does in other programs. I am aghast that it does nothing. I'm amazed that I can't find a picture by file name in iCloud

  • by Professor Lassen,

    Professor Lassen Professor Lassen Dec 6, 2015 2:20 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iCloud
    Dec 6, 2015 2:20 PM in response to léonie

    I Have in fact imported pictures not in  Photos on My Mac. I do this because I have no space on my hard drive. Isn't that the purpose of iCloud?

  • by Winston Churchill,Solvedanswer

    Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Dec 7, 2015 4:16 AM in response to Professor Lassen
    Level 10 (103,981 points)
    Apple TV
    Dec 7, 2015 4:16 AM in response to Professor Lassen

    OK, I understand what it is you are doing (that was actually what I was asking in my first response), I'm afraid you can't look for the filenames the way that you want to through your web browser at iCloud.com.

     

    iCloud library is designed to work in conjunction with Photos on your Mac which is why it doesn't do things the way you would like to. If you used Photos on your Mac to upload these photos your photos would upload automatically and you would be able to see the names and titles of the photos too.

     

    If you don't wish to use Photos on the Mac to do this, then I suggest uploading your photos in (say) groups of 50 until they are done, if you get any problems along the way with any batches (such as like you already have) then just re-upload them. When you have uploaded all batches, scroll through the photos in your web browser and delete any duplicates you find.

     

    If the reason you aren't using Photos as intended is because of disk space on your Mac, you could always keep the library on the external drive.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Dec 7, 2015 5:34 AM in response to Professor Lassen
    Level 10 (107,629 points)
    iCloud
    Dec 7, 2015 5:34 AM in response to Professor Lassen
    I Have in fact imported pictures not in  Photos on My Mac. I do this because I have no space on my hard drive. Isn't that the purpose of iCloud?

    Not really The main purpose of iCloud is to have a central storage that will make all documents and and data available on all devices and to update them across all devices in the same way.

     

    To save storage on your mac by using iCloud Photo Library the recommended way is to use "Optimize Mac Storage".That will stlli let you use the Photos.app to browse and to search your Photos library, but store the full resolution original image files only in iCloud.

    The web interface is very limited, compared to what you can do to browse the library using Photos.

  • by Professor Lassen,

    Professor Lassen Professor Lassen Dec 9, 2015 1:16 PM in response to Winston Churchill
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iCloud
    Dec 9, 2015 1:16 PM in response to Winston Churchill

    Thanks for your reply.

    I purchased a 5TB external drive so I can put all my photos on it from other much smaller external drives.

    I will need to consolidate Photos Libraries so I can use pictures I have all over the place.

    Webshots shut down and I had to download all those pictures. I have pictures on Picasa and on Flicker.

    I think I want to consolidate to iCloud and get rid of those other web based photo storage sites.

    Agreed?

    Shall I have another strategy.

  • by Winston Churchill,

    Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Dec 9, 2015 3:10 PM in response to Professor Lassen
    Level 10 (103,981 points)
    Apple TV
    Dec 9, 2015 3:10 PM in response to Professor Lassen

    Sounds like a fine strategy to me.