When images from iCloud Photos Library are added to Reminders are they system generated copies?

Question

When images from iCloud Photos Library are added to Reminders are they system generated copies?

I want to delete images in my iCloud Photos Library. My Photos Library is synced to iCloud. I do not share my iCloud Photo Library. When I add an image from my Photos Library to a Reminder, it appears to attach a copy with a unique system generated file name.

Is my understanding correct?

Here is my simple test case. The related screenshots follow.

Screenshot 1: The image in my Photos Library.

Screenshot 2: I add the image to a Reminder.

Screenshot 3: A Quick Look at the image that was added.

Note that the file name of the image added to the reminder is system generated.

Posted on Apr 9, 2024 8:59 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

MarkinPortland Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 10, 2024 9:18 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thanks, Richard. What you said regarding the system generated file names makes sense. I went ahead and added the following steps to my test case. The screenshots follow.

I attached another image to my existing Reminder.
I deleted the image from my iCloud Photos Library.
I deleted the image from my iCloud Photos Library 'Recently Deleted' folder.
I verified that the deleted image did not appear on my three devices (Mac Studio, iPad Pro, iPhone) that sync to my iCloud Photos Library.

In the end, I see that my Reminder still has the second image attached. My conclusion is that Reminders creates a new system-generated image. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find an official Apple tech note that substantiates this. And since there isn't an Apple Community topic area (yet) for the Reminders app, I think I need to contact Apple Support directly. Thanks again for your help.

Reply

Answer 2

Apr 10, 2024 6:32 AM in response to MarkinPortland

All the file names of all the pictures in the Photos database are generated by Photos and look like the crazy filename that you show. If Photos used the original file name, it would have a plethora of IMG_0234s and DSC_0001s and stuff like that--everybody's cameras use similar looking file names, and they'd get all mixed up. So Photos changes the name and stores the original filename in its database, putting them back together whenever you ask. The fact that the filename looks funny doesn't mean that it's not using the same image.

I hope that's interesting information but, frankly, I don't know what Reminders does. I'd guess that it tries not to make a new picture to take up memory when an old one will do. But why don't you make a picture you don't mind losing, and make a reminder to test it out? That's what I'd have to do!

Run the test and let us know what you find!

Reply

When images from iCloud Photos Library are added to Reminders are they system generated copies?

Similar questions