John C Lin

Q: If I use iCloud Photo Library to share the photos on my Mac, do the original full-sized files stay on my Mac or do they get stored in the cloud?

If I use iCloud Photo Library to share the photos on my Mac, do the original full-sized files stay on my Mac or do they get stored in the cloud?

 

Thanks!

iMac (27-inch, Late 2013), OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Sep 3, 2016 2:22 PM

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Q: If I use iCloud Photo Library to share the photos on my Mac, do the original full-sized files stay on my Mac or do they get stored ... more

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  • by markwmsn,

    markwmsn markwmsn Sep 3, 2016 2:52 PM in response to John C Lin
    Level 5 (5,652 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 3, 2016 2:52 PM in response to John C Lin

    The full sized photos will always go up to the cloud. Whether they also stay on (or download to) your Mac depends on whether "Download Originals to this Mac" or "Optimize Mac Storage" is checked in Photos > Preferences > iCloud. If the latter is checked, it also depends on how much storage space is available on your Mac.

  • by LarryHN,Apple recommended

    LarryHN LarryHN Sep 3, 2016 2:54 PM in response to John C Lin
    Level 10 (84,105 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 3, 2016 2:54 PM in response to John C Lin

    When you use iCloud Photo Library your original full sized photos are on iCloud and what is on each device is determined by the settings you make on that device - they may be full resolution photos or reduced sized (as needed) optimized photos - you make that determination on a device by device basis

     

     

    http://www.apple.com/icloud/photos/

     

     

     

    LN

  • by John C Lin,

    John C Lin John C Lin Sep 3, 2016 4:08 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 3, 2016 4:08 PM in response to LarryHN

    This is very helpful!

     

    Can I pick which albums or photos from my Photos library end up going into the cloud or does the entire library end up going into the cloud? In other words, can I have some of my photos uploaded to the cloud while others stay on my computer only?

  • by markwmsn,Helpful

    markwmsn markwmsn Sep 3, 2016 5:18 PM in response to John C Lin
    Level 5 (5,652 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 3, 2016 5:18 PM in response to John C Lin

    iCloud Photo Library is "all or nothing". If it is on, Photos works to make sure the cloud version of the library and the version(s) in the System Photo Library on your Mac(s) and other devices match by propagating additions and deletions.

     

    Some people chose to maintain multiple Photos libraries on their Mac, knowing that only the one marked as the System Photo Library will/can sync with the iCloud Photo Library. This has several drawbacks, such as the lack of tools for managing multiple libraries and the limitation that Media Browser can only access the System Photo Library.

  • by John C Lin,

    John C Lin John C Lin Sep 3, 2016 5:20 PM in response to markwmsn
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 3, 2016 5:20 PM in response to markwmsn

    Thanks, this helps a lot!

     

    Couple follow up questions:

     

    1. When I turned on Photo Sharing in Photos, it seemed to populate the cloud with photos from libraries that weren't part of the System Photo Library. Is that possible? Where would those photos come from?

     

    2. If I want to selectively share or sync albums of my library to my phone (and my wife's phone), is the better way to do it through iTunes instead of iCloud?

  • by John C Lin,

    John C Lin John C Lin Sep 3, 2016 5:24 PM in response to John C Lin
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 3, 2016 5:24 PM in response to John C Lin

    I think there may be referenced files that is trying to consolidate. If I consolidate those files with the thumbnails, does that copy the photo files to Photos or actually move them?

  • by markwmsn,

    markwmsn markwmsn Sep 3, 2016 10:56 PM in response to John C Lin
    Level 5 (5,652 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 3, 2016 10:56 PM in response to John C Lin

    1. You were asking about iCloud Photo Library. iCloud Photo Sharing is a different service.

     

    Only one library per device should populate into your iCloud Photo Library at one time. Is it possible that your iCloud Photo Library already had some pictures in it from other devices or previous Mac Photos libraries?

     

    Shared albums in iCloud Photo Sharing would show up on your Mac with whatever pictures are in them in the cloud at the time you activate iCloud Photo Sharing.

     

    2. Either iTunes "syncing" (really downloading) or shared albums (really shared streams) would do. iTunes syncing is the older method, but it it still useful for getting pictures onto your own devices. Shared streams/albums are more for sharing with other users, but can be viewed on your own devices.

     

    (3.) If you consolidate referenced files, they are copied into the Photos library, not moved.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Sep 4, 2016 4:23 AM in response to John C Lin
    Level 10 (105,518 points)
    iLife
    Sep 4, 2016 4:23 AM in response to John C Lin

    It is not really clear what you want to achieve. Please clarify:

    If I use iCloud Photo Library to share the photos on my Mac,

    • iCloud Photo Library is meant for syncing and not for sharing.  If you enable iCloud Photo Library on your devices, it will upload the library to iCloud and sync it between your devices, so it is identical on all devices. But your wife will not be able to use your iCloud Photo Library, unless she is using the same AppleID for iCloud..  It is not meant for sharing libraries between users. And it requires a paid subscription if your library needs more than 5GB of cloud storage.
    • iCloud Photo Sharing is for sharing selected albums between users. You create shared albums and invite others to view them or to add photos to them. iCloud Photo Sharing does not require iCloud Photo Library. Do not enable iCloud Photo Library, if you just want to share selected albums. iCloud Photo Sharing is free and does not count against your free cloud storage.

     

     

    I think there may be referenced files that is trying to consolidate. If I consolidate those files with the thumbnails, does that copy the photo files to Photos or actually move them?

    Consolidating will copy the referenced files into your library, not move them.

     

    But consolidating should not happen automatically.  Referenced files cannot upload to iCloud photo library, but Photos does not consolidate them on its own.  Why  do you think, that files are being consolidated?

    Did you import photos as referenced?

    Photos will show this alert, when I select photos and use the command "File > Consolidate".

    Screen Shot 2016-09-04 at 13.19.46GMT.png

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Sep 4, 2016 4:37 AM in response to John C Lin
    Level 10 (105,518 points)
    iLife
    Sep 4, 2016 4:37 AM in response to John C Lin
    When I turned on Photo Sharing in Photos, it seemed to populate the cloud with photos from libraries that weren't part of the System Photo Library. Is that possible? Where would those photos come from?

     

    Did you subscribe to Shared albums set up by other users? Or use Family Sharing?  If you enable iCloud Photo Sharing, all Shared albums you subscribed to will appear in your Photos Library, including all photos added by the people you invited to your shared albums.

     

    2. If I want to selectively share or sync albums of my library to my phone (and my wife's phone), is the better way to do it through iTunes instead of iCloud?

     

    iTunes Photo Sync and iCloud Photo Library cannot be used at the same time. iCloud Photo Library will disable iCloud Photo Sync, but you can combine it with iCloud Photo Sharing.

     

    • iTunes photo sync is easy and quick, because you do not need Wi-Fi for it. Just plug the iPhone into a USB port and select the albums you want to sync. There is one drawback - Your wife will not be able to delete the photos from her iPhone. They are not in the camera roll and can only be deleted by syncing again. But you can share the albums sorted with all metadata this way.
    • If you use iCloud Photo Sharing, no metadata will sync with the photos. And you cannot rearrange the photos in the shared albums.  But you can easily drop photos into the shared albums and send her new photos you have taken, and she can add her new photos to the shared albums. It can be quite fun and it is more spontaneous than having to connect the iPhone to the Mac to transfer new photos.
  • by John C Lin,

    John C Lin John C Lin Sep 4, 2016 5:52 AM in response to markwmsn
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 4, 2016 5:52 AM in response to markwmsn

    Thanks for clarifying for me. Admittedly, I'm not sure I understood the difference between the various options.

     

    My main goal is at minimum to get select photos (I transferred my entire library from Aperture to Lightroom, since Apple dropped Aperture support, but I'm going to use Photos to sync select albums/photos with my various devices) on to all of my devices. As an added bonus, if I could also sync those photos to my parents' devices, that would be great too.

     

    After that, I'd love to be able to share/sync photos with only a couple of people - mostly family.

     

    1. I've never used iCloud Photo before this, so I don't think there were any photos in it from before, unless it was somehow transported over from a previous iteration of Apple photo sharing. Or, perhaps the photos are being pulled from an old iPhoto library that I have somewhere?

     

    2. Just so I understand properly, are iTunes photo syncing and the iCloud Photo Library with which I sync to my own devices basically the same thing, except that iTunes is manual and iCloud Photo Library is the automatic? And iCloud Photo Sharing is basically a way for people to publish and subscribe to one another's photo streams with a more social dimension? I'm not really interested in the social dimension, except for the possibility of sharing my photos to my mother-in-law's phone.

     

    3. Thanks!

  • by John C Lin,

    John C Lin John C Lin Sep 4, 2016 6:02 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 4, 2016 6:02 AM in response to léonie

    This is very helpful. Admittedly, I'm still trying to figure out what I'm trying to do!

     

    If I use iCloud Photo Library to share the photos on my Mac

    What I'm really trying to do is be able to view all of my photos on my devices (laptops, desktop, iPhones, iPads, etc.) and also my wife's devices (she's on the same AppleID for iCloud). I don't want to share libraries with other users (except possibly my mother-in-law on her devices - in this instance, it sounds like the two options would be to activate Sharing or to simply log-in using my AppleID?) and I'm not really interested in the "social" dimension of photo sharing where people can add photos, comment, like, etc.

     

    Does it sound like iCloud Photo Library is the solution for me? Also, for bigger context (for what it's worth), this summer I moved my entire library from Aperture to Lightroom and am planning to use Photos (I'll just add export albums from Lightroom to Photos) to share select albums and photos (not my entire library) to make those photos available on my various devices.

     

    I think there may be referenced files that is trying to consolidate. If I consolidate those files with the thumbnails, does that copy the photo files to Photos or actually move them?

    I got the same alert that you showed. I'm not sure why they are being consolidated. I just opened Photos for the first time yesterday by converting my iPhoto library (which was quite small). Interestingly, it wanted to consolidate photos that weren't actually in my iPhoto library. I really don't know where those photos came from. I didn't import the photos as referenced - I was sort of freaked out by the alert and I stopped it midstream!

     

    Please advise

  • by John C Lin,

    John C Lin John C Lin Sep 4, 2016 6:18 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 4, 2016 6:18 AM in response to léonie

    Did you subscribe to Shared albums set up by other users? Or use Family Sharing?

    Nope to both.

     

    iTunes Photo Sync and iCloud Photo Library cannot be used at the same time. iCloud Photo Library will disable iCloud Photo Sync [Did you mean "iTunes Photo Sync"?], but you can combine it with iCloud Photo Sharing.

    I'm not terribly interested in the social dimension of adding photos to shared albums. I'm more interested in viewing completed albums of photos and getting them onto my and my wife's devices (we're all on the same iCloud account) and possibly my mother-in-law (I can put her on our account). If that's the case, does that mean my options are iTunes Photo Sync or iCloud Photo Library (to which I can add iCloud Photo Sharing in the future if I want?)?

     

    Separately, though possibly related - what is Family Sharing? Is that a better solution for getting photos to my wife and mother-in-law? What more would that offer than if I were simply to have them use my iCloud account?

     

    Please advise

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Sep 4, 2016 7:12 AM in response to John C Lin
    Level 10 (105,518 points)
    iLife
    Sep 4, 2016 7:12 AM in response to John C Lin

    iTunes Photo Sync and iCloud Photo Library cannot be used at the same time. iCloud Photo Library will disable iCloud Photo Sync [Did you mean "iTunes Photo Sync"?], but you can combine it with iCloud Photo Sharing.

    Yes, that was a typo. I meant "iTunes Photo Sync".

     

    If that's the case, does that mean my options are iTunes Photo Sync or iCloud Photo Library (to which I can add iCloud Photo Sharing in the future if I want?)?


    Yes.

    Separately, though possibly related - what is Family Sharing?

    Family Sharing lets you share the purchases among the family members, without having to share the AppleID:  See:  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201079

     

    This way you can keep the iCloud email, contacts, calendars private and still share the purchased music, books, apps.

    Family Sharing automatically sets up a shared album to be shared with all family members.

  • by John C Lin,

    John C Lin John C Lin Sep 4, 2016 7:26 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 4, 2016 7:26 AM in response to léonie

    So, are iTunes Photo Sync and iCloud Photo Library basically the same, except that one requires that you manually sync using wi-fi or USB and the other requires that you log into (and pay for) iCloud Photo Library on all of your devices after which everything is automatic?

     

    Sounds like iCloud Photo Sharing has a different purpose altogether, namely the social dimension

     

    Any thoughts on where these photos may have come from that Photos is trying to consolidate?