Will iCloud Photos synch albums from my iMac across all devices? AND Photo Stream?

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Will iCloud Photos synch albums from my iMac across all devices? AND Photo Stream?

Hi Mac Gurus,

I have an extensive 400g Photos library with extensive cataloguing using albums to organize everything across literally 150 years of archival photographs.

I've recently purchased the Apple One Premiere plan which gets me 2TB of iCloud space, so I'm tempted to use the iCloud photo library.

However, when reading the official Apple Support page, there's not really a ny clear mention of how the library handles Albums. I have hundreds of Albums as mentioned, and cannot afford two have iCloud Photos library corrupt this cataloguing that I've spend so much time on.

If I turn on the iCloud library, will it preserve my album structure on my iMac? I love the idea of it actually mirroring my album structure across to my MacBook Air for instance - that would be awesome, and I get how iCloud stores originals but I can also keep originals on my iMac, my mainframe as well... RIght?

Then one other question - if I take a picture on my iPhone with iCloud library turned on, will that photo appear in the Root library of my iMac like it does using Photo Stream? And Do I keep Photo Stream turned on everywhere like I have it setup now, or does iCloud Library take the place of Photo Stream?? All a bit confusing!

Thank you!!!

Posted on Feb 6, 2021 10:36 PM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

200,531 points

Feb 6, 2021 11:09 PM in response to MatinicusRock

I am using iCloud Photos on five different Macs and on two iPhones and an iPad.

It will depend on the system versions on your devices, want will happen to the albums.

If you are using the newest system version on all devices, your Photos Libraries will be identical on all devices.

All new photos you add on one device will appear on all other devices.
All adjustments you apply to an item on one device will appear on all other devices.
All metadata you add to a photo on a Mac will appear on other Macs.
With macOS Big Sur and iOS 14 the captions you add will also appear on your iPhone.
With iCloud Photos you also sync videos and Live Photos, Portrait Mode Photos, HEIC photos. It is much more convenient than My Photo Stream.
All standard albums and folders will sync between your devices and appear on all devices. The sort order may change, however
Smart albums are syncing in a limited way. As the iPhone or iPad can't show smart albums, the will only sync between Macs. And they may not be identical on all Macs, if the system versions are different.

But I recommend to make a full backup of your Photos Library before you enable iCloud Photos. On rare occasions the albums will vanish with the first sync with iCloud. I found, that particularly turning on iCloud Photos on my iPhone or iPad occasionally caused the albums to vanish from my Macs. So it will be safer to use this procedure:

Copy your Photos library to an external volume as described here (Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support), so you will have a backup copy of the library.
Then enable first iCloud Photos on your iPhone or iPad and let the iOS devices sync with iCloud.
Once the iOS devices are in sync with iCloud and have uploaded all photos and albums, enable iCloud Photos on your Macs.

For a large Photos Library the first sync can take several days. My library with roughly 50000 photos and videos took the first time ten days for the full upload.

I would no longer use My Photo Stream, once you switched to iCloud Photos. It is not necessary and could create duplicates.

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Will iCloud Photos synch albums from my iMac across all devices? AND Photo Stream?

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