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Download before sharing to iCloud Album?

I’ve started using the iCloud Shared Album feature of Photos app and I am confused about something. I have the manage free space option in use, so I understand my phone uploads it’s images to iCloud then makes an iPhone version to keep on my phone to save space, leaving the full resolution version on iCloud. So... why, when I go to add photos to one of my shared albums on iCloud, do I have to wait for it to “download”? The full resolution image is already in iCloud. This is evidenced by the fact that your shared albums do not count against your space usage... so the albums just link to the coly of the image(s) already in your account. So again, why in the world would Apple need to download the full resolution image to my phone to add it to the shared album? It is doing this on my shared albums that I created on my account. Seems like a blatant misuse of bandwidth.

iPhone 12 Pro Max

Posted on Apr 17, 2021 11:10 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Apr 17, 2021 12:29 PM

So... why, when I go to add photos to one of my shared albums on iCloud, do I have to wait for it to “download”? The full resolution image is already in iCloud.

Your selected photo is being stored in your iCloud storage. Putting it in a shared album copies it to Apple's storage space they provide for free to you for shared albums. That upload comes from your device, not from iCloud. Once in your shared album, the full sized photo is removed.


Feedback for Apple goes here >>> http://www.apple.com/feedback/


1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 17, 2021 12:29 PM in response to TKT2RDE

So... why, when I go to add photos to one of my shared albums on iCloud, do I have to wait for it to “download”? The full resolution image is already in iCloud.

Your selected photo is being stored in your iCloud storage. Putting it in a shared album copies it to Apple's storage space they provide for free to you for shared albums. That upload comes from your device, not from iCloud. Once in your shared album, the full sized photo is removed.


Feedback for Apple goes here >>> http://www.apple.com/feedback/


Download before sharing to iCloud Album?

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