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User profile for user: flacky2000
flacky2000 Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Adding media stored on wife's icloud to Photos on Mac

We (my wife and I) use Photos for our media storage, it is logged in to my icloud account and subsequently backs up to my iCloud.


Historically we have just plugged our iPhone's into the MAC and added the media to Photos in that way which then get backed up, whilst this is a little clunky and needs more regular manual back ups it works for us.


The recent problem is that my wife has enabled iCloud photo stream on her iPhone so her media is being upload to her icloud, when I then plug her phone into the MAC Photos doesn't recognise that there is any new media (I presume because it is already backed up to her icloud account).


In an ideal world we would like all of our media in the same place and visible on Photos, so wonder if there is an easy way of doing it. I guess I can login to her icloud account and download the media and then ad it that way but that seems a bit long winded and I wonder if I'm being stupid and missing something?


Thanks in advance and apologies if this has been discussed elsewhere but I had a little look and couldn;t find anything this specific.


Martyn

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Dec 29, 2021 8:34 AM

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User profile for user: muguy
muguy
User level: Level 9
76,267 points

Posted on Dec 29, 2021 8:55 AM

The tough part is that iCloud doesn't let you use different Apple IDs for different services. My folks share an Apple ID expressly because of the ease of using photos; grandparents want everything and it's just easier. Of course, the con is that some individual services wouldn't work as expected because they are shared.


  • So, you can have her share albums or photos directly with you (AirDrop works wonderfully and adds the images right into your iCloud account too)
  • She can share albums through iCloud photo sharing (those you need to import when in your Photos app. Easy enough, just right-click and select import)
  • You can establish a family share (apple.com/family-sharing) which creates a shared album for all participants and add items to that. Again, you can import those too.
  • Or, you can use ImageCapture app (built-in) to import any images on the phone to a folder or to the Photos App directly
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User profile for user: muguy
muguy
User level: Level 9
76,267 points

Dec 29, 2021 8:55 AM in response to flacky2000

The tough part is that iCloud doesn't let you use different Apple IDs for different services. My folks share an Apple ID expressly because of the ease of using photos; grandparents want everything and it's just easier. Of course, the con is that some individual services wouldn't work as expected because they are shared.


  • So, you can have her share albums or photos directly with you (AirDrop works wonderfully and adds the images right into your iCloud account too)
  • She can share albums through iCloud photo sharing (those you need to import when in your Photos app. Easy enough, just right-click and select import)
  • You can establish a family share (apple.com/family-sharing) which creates a shared album for all participants and add items to that. Again, you can import those too.
  • Or, you can use ImageCapture app (built-in) to import any images on the phone to a folder or to the Photos App directly
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Adding media stored on wife's icloud to Photos on Mac

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