Photo Stream: let me get this straight...

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jessewclark Author

Level 1

24 points

Photo Stream: let me get this straight...

Re: Photo Stream

So, let me get this straight.

1) I'm supposed to turn on Photo Stream, which will take the place of importing photos manually to my Mac.

With Photo Stream on, iPhoto will not access my iPhone when it's plugged into the computer.

Because I can't use iPhoto's import feature, I also can't use iPhoto's "delete after importing" feature.

Meaning that I get the wonderful auto-syncing of Photo Stream, but I have to manually delete every one of the photos I take. And there is no "delete all."

I've had to use the multiple-delete feature and manually tap a more than a hundred photos one by one in order to clear my Camera Roll.

This is the way it's supposed to work?

2) Images that I manually save to my Camera Roll are not automatically loaded into Photo Stream.

So for instance, if I take screenshots from the iPhone, or if I download photos from the web, or if I modify a photo in an app, or if I make a drawing in an app, all of that goes to the Camera Rollm but none of it gets put into Photo Stream.

And there is no way to manually move photos from the Camera Roll into Photo Stream.

And with Photo Stream on, there is no way to manually import photos from the Camera Roll onto my Mac.

To import them, I've had to turn Photo Stream off, plug in the phone, manually import the photos, and then turn Photo Stream on again.

This is the way it's supposed to work?

3) The combination of 1) and 2) means that when I have a mixture of a bunch of photos and a bunch of manually-saved images, I have to go through them one by one to determine whether or not a given image has been sent to the Photo Stream (this is especially hard when my wife sends me photos of our kids and I don't remember whose camera they were taken from).

I have to inspect each photo from hundreds, again one by one, to make sure I don't lose any before I manually delete them.

This is the way it's supposed to work?

Posted on Dec 15, 2011 9:36 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 21, 2011 11:29 AM in response to jessewclark

I am also curious about this. Seems like maybe I should turn off PhotoStream in iPhoto so that I can import photos manually from the Camera Roll like I did before. With the option to delete all imported photos.

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Answer 2

KiltedTim

Level 10

195,537 points

Dec 21, 2011 11:42 AM in response to jessewclark

jessewclark wrote:

Re: Photo Stream

So, let me get this straight.

1) I'm supposed to turn on Photo Stream, which will take the place of importing photos manually to my Mac.

With Photo Stream on, iPhoto will not access my iPhone when it's plugged into the computer.

Not true. You can still access the camera roll the same way you always have.

Because I can't use iPhoto's import feature, I also can't use iPhoto's "delete after importing" feature.

Not true. See above.

This is the way it's supposed to work?

No.

2) Images that I manually save to my Camera Roll are not automatically loaded into Photo Stream.

They do for me...

3) The combination of 1) and 2) means that when I have a mixture of a bunch of photos and a bunch of manually-saved images, I have to go through them one by one to determine whether or not a given image has been sent to the Photo Stream (this is especially hard when my wife sends me photos of our kids and I don't remember whose camera they were taken from).

I have to inspect each photo from hundreds, again one by one, to make sure I don't lose any before I manually delete them.

This is the way it's supposed to work?

No. This is not the way it should work.

Try re-setting your phone. If that doesn't work, Restore it. If that still doesn't work, try setting it up as a new device.

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Answer 3

jessewclark Author

Level 1

24 points

Dec 21, 2011 9:40 PM in response to KiltedTim

Hey, thanks! You've excellently demonstrated the top two least helpful support responses!

1) telling me I'm not actually having the problem I'm having

2) telling me to wipe my device and re-install

But seriously: that is not helpful at all.

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Answer 4

KiltedTim

Level 10

195,537 points

Dec 22, 2011 4:22 AM in response to jessewclark

Sorry you don't find it helpful. What version of iPhoto are you running?

If iPhoto isn't current, it won't support iCloud. If you're running the current version, which fully supports iCloud and Photo Stream, then I'm not sure what you're going to see as a result, though I wouldn't think you would have to turn off photo stream on the phone to get it to transfer photos by wire.

The current version is iPhoto '11. Version 9.2.1

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Answer 5

jessewclark Author

Level 1

24 points

Dec 22, 2011 8:38 AM in response to KiltedTim

Yes, everything is up to date What are you after here? It seems like all you did was re-state your belief that I'm not having the problem I'm having. Why? Did you think you were going to convince me?

The slight help you've been is to state your belie that things are not supposed to work this way. Can you back that up at all? Can you show me a support article or a help file that backs your claim? Can you even tell me that you've tried this yourself and it works differently for you?

If you are sincerely trying to be helpful, please take a moment to understand my explanations of your un-helpfulness. Because it sure seems like your response just did the same things.

On the other hand, if all you want to do is doubt my experience, please restrain yourself. If you're really interested, I invite you to search these forums for all the other people who are confused about why iPhoto had stopped recognizing their phone. There are many.

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Answer 6

Dec 22, 2011 8:50 AM in response to Benjamin Winnick

Last night I tried turning off PhotoStream in iPhoto. iPhoto made sure all my stream photos had been imported, then checked my Camera Roll, found that those photos had all been imported, and offered to delete them all in one go. Importing is now back to behaving as it was pre-PhotoStream. When I plug in my iPhone, it shows up in iPhoto and offers to let me import the Camera Roll and then delete it. I think I'll probably keep it like this until PhotoStream gets a little more flexible. I'm sure Apple will be refining it further.

FYI, I'm running the latest Lion and iPhoto. Double-checked in Software Update.

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Answer 7

KiltedTim

Level 10

195,537 points

Dec 22, 2011 9:03 AM in response to jessewclark

I am not doubting that you're having the problems you're describing, I'm simply saying that the way it is behaving for you is NOT normal. It should not work that way.

Here are some things to try to try and get it back to normal.

Re-set the phone (hold power and home for at least 20 seconds until you see the Apple Logo). This does not affect the data on your phone.

Try deleting and re-adding your iCloud account to the phone.

Try doing the same on your Mac.

Turn off Photo Stream on the phone. Plug it in, extract the camera roll to iPhoto and delete all the photos from the camera roll on the phone. Then turn Photo Stream back on.

Restore the Phone from backup.

Settings>General>Resets>Erase all Content and Settings. Set the phone up as a NEW device. Do NOT restore your backup. Something in the backup may be corrupt and causing the problem.

Test to see how it behaves after each one of these. As I said, I don't doubt you're having a problem. It should not behave that way.

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Answer 8

jessewclark Author

Level 1

24 points

Dec 22, 2011 12:55 PM in response to KiltedTim

Why don't we start like this: have you yourself plugged your phone into iPhoto via USB while photo stream is enabled?

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Answer 9

KiltedTim

Level 10

195,537 points

Dec 22, 2011 1:15 PM in response to jessewclark

Yes. I've done it a number of times and did it again to double check when I saw your message. It works just fine. Of course, it shows anything that was automatically pulled into iPhoto as having been imported already, but I can import them again from the camera roll if I like. I can also erase the camera roll on the phone from iPhoto.

Now... I'm running Lion. I'm not sure how it will behave on Snow Leopard or Leopard. I know Photo Stream support is built into the current version of iPhoto, but I don't know how it would behave or whether it would work at all on an earlier version of OS X. Lion has direct iCloud support built in (assuming it's been updated).

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Answer 10

Dec 22, 2011 2:23 PM in response to jessewclark

jessewclark,

check out www.apple.com/support/iCloud

under iCloud support on the left hand side scroll down and click on photo stream

or go to http://www.apple.com/support/icloud/photo-stream

hope this helps

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Answer 11

jessewclark Author

Level 1

24 points

Dec 22, 2011 3:54 PM in response to KiltedTim

Okay, KT, now we're getting somewhere.

You don't have the problem.

I'm going to assume that you also don't know anyone who's had it and you haven't successfully resolved it for anyone before. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

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Answer 12

jessewclark Author

Level 1

24 points

Dec 22, 2011 4:06 PM in response to brianfromromulus

Brian,

Pointing me to a general support page? Really?

Wow.

The two of you.

Brian: if you have a specific link that addresses this specific issue, I'd be delighted to see it. Otherwise that link is less help than a google search.

Tim: a support suggestion about wiping, restoring, or resetting a device, is not actually a support suggestion.

Fellas, your hearts may be in the right place, but please, ask yourself: if you were calling tech support about any issue at all, and the two responses were "have you checked the extremely general help pages?" and "if that doesn't help, try wiping and restoring your device!"... Would that seem to you like a very helpful call?

Now Benjamin, on the other hand: thanks a lot for sharing your very on-target and helpful experience. Sincerely. Thanks.

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Answer 13

KiltedTim

Level 10

195,537 points

Dec 22, 2011 4:35 PM in response to jessewclark

No. I don't and I haven't. I've never seen that problem reported here. And I'm on these forums daily.

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Answer 14

jessewclark Author

Level 1

24 points

Dec 23, 2011 6:43 AM in response to KiltedTim

Man. Wow.

What's the point of telling me you've never seen it before? Really, why say that?

Look, guys, I want to step back from this. I want to apologize for taking an abrasive and condescending tone. I am sorry.

I know you're only trying to help, and that's good of you.

You're not actually helping, though. So let's stop here.

I thank you for your efforts, and again, I apologize for my rudeness.

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Answer 15

Dec 23, 2011 2:36 PM in response to jessewclark

Jessewclark: I had the same trouble, but try this... in the left column in iPhoto, click on your iPhone's name under the Devices heading. It should have a row of photos synced via photo stream. It should say that all photos have been imported and give you an option to delete all photos from your iphone with a big button below the row of photos. Hope this helps.

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