Secondary photo albums: iCloud Drive, Documents, or Photos?

DJMc wrote: … So, should I leave that folder of albums & graphics in my iCloud Drive, move it to Documents, Or move it to Photos folder?

I certainly have pictures in my iCloud Drive that I don't need in Photos. These include some temporary storage, graphics, screenshots that I use in answers on this site, and so on. I don't see why anyone would imagine that these folders should be in the Documents folder. If you want these files synchronized through iCloud, then put them anywhere that helps you find them in iCloud Drive.

Documents is just a folder, but it is one that some apps expect to use, and those apps look in Documents to find their files. Most apps may start with Documents as the default location, but they're happy if you change that. Lightroom Classic seems to want to keep its catalogs some place--I don't remember where, and I don't mess with that. But I put my pictures where I want-- not on iCloud. (Lightroom does keep warning me about something, but I ignore it, and I'm fine)

iCloud Photos is great for organizing pictures so you can find them by date, location, activity, title, caption, keyword, etc. If you don't need all that help in organization, then you may not need to put pictures in Photos. Graphics that I use in presentations, for me, don't seem to fit Photos all that well. But I have some presentations with pictures that I keep in Photos-- especially if I think that's the first place I'll look for them.

As far as iCloud Photos goes, there are two reasons to use it. First, it synchronizes with all your devices, so you can look at your pretty pictures on your iPad, your Mac, or your iPhone. Second, it allows you to Optimize Storage so lots of pictures can be viewed on lots of devices without taking up lots of storage. If graphics, for instance, aren't something you need to see on all your devices, why would you use iCloud Photos for them?

By the way, on a Mac you can have more than one Photos Library, so I have a separate Photos Library for presentations, and another for pictures at work-- these make some sense to keep in a Photos Library--keywords, captions, etc are useful for them, but they are not for sharing, and they have no business in iCloud.

So, it all probably depends on what you want to do…

I suspect the point of suggesting that you have a copy of this folder on your HD is to make it easy to back up, amd have a good copy locally, rather than in the Cloud. Remember iCloud is not a back up - it's a sharing facility designed to make your data available across your devices. As such a simply error on any one of these devices could see your entire folder lost.

Whether you store the folder in the Pictures Folder or your Documents folder is neither here nor there as long as you include it a back up. There are no special characteristics attaching to these folders. They're just named.

A thought however: if you have Lightroom Classic, what's the point of using Photos? LRC is so much more capable and powerful. Mind you if all you're doing is using it to "sort this album", well there are a lot less expensive apps that will do the same. and how can it sort a folder stored on iCloud?

Yer_Man wrote: … A thought however: if you have Lightroom Classic, what's the point of using Photos?

As thoughts go, and as you and I have discussed before, Lightroom is indeed powerful, but it is also rather awkward. I like Photos better for organizing pictures, and the editor is also pretty great as long as you don't need masks or noise reduction. Those tools in Lightroom are especially good for RAW files--there's nothing I've tried that's better, but for jpgs, like old pictures, the "power" isn't that much greater than Photos. I've been playing with Photomator, by the way, and its noise reduction for old pictures is darn good, and I'm hoping the masks get better. Those are my thoughts, and I'm sticking by them.

Might be just me and familiarity but I don't find LRC awkward, but to each their own. I think Photos is good for its target audience, no doubt about that, but if you're not that guy you hit the barriers quite fast. However, I'm quite happy to admit I'm not the target audience, I treat most any pic I take with my phone, for instance, as forgettable. But that's just me. Mind you I'm so long invested in LRC - using it Aperture's demise - that this is probably part of my reluctance to change. That a nd my love if instantly deleting unwanted passers-by in my snaps ;)

Yer_Man wrote: …that a nd my love if instantly deleting unwanted passers-by in my snaps ;)

Aah-- there you go! That's a difference.I almost never do that-- I have some feeling that I'm trying to use the tools to make the picture look more like the reality I saw, not change it. So I have no desire to use Photoshop, for instance. The barriers you see are not barriers for me. Photos can do (almost) all of that sort of thing that I need.

DJMc wrote: … I liked the ability to rename photos and sort as I wanted. I do very little extra editing of photos I take now that Apple Photos does such a great job, but I still like to keep copies with names & sorted as I want. The sharing of photos over devices is also a big, big advantage of using Apple Photos via iCloud.

You might look at this:

Organizing Photos with Folders & Albums

DJMc wrote: …My original ? about the best placement of the secondary folder I have seems to be moot. I'll probably keep it where it is.

Perfect! If it ain't broke…