Missing and incomplete "Month 20XX Photo Stream" Events

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Level 1

19 points

Missing and incomplete "Month 20XX Photo Stream" Events

When Apple enabled Photo Stream years ago, iPhoto started to build out "Photo Stream" events over the months and years. I liked this as it was a great way to go back and see photos from previous months.

Recently I opened iPhoto and notice many of them are now gone and many are incomplete.

I've tried all the re-building of database options there are and nothing is fixing this. I've tried turning on and off photo stream. I cant' figure it out.

I also have an event called "iPhone Photos" that I must have created once upon a time. I notice that one stopped adding imported photos around Jan 6 2013.

I could go back and re-import photos that I have on my Mac into iPhoto and re-build the photo stream events, but then I believe I have duplicate photos in iPhoto.

If I enable photo stream after disabling it, I get about 100-150 photos in "My Photo Stream" max even though there are 1000 on all my iDevices.

Again, I've done ALL the rebuilding options and still have this mess.

My biggest question is how to best get my photo stream events back and complete, I believe they started around Sept. 2011 (?) or somewhere around that time, though I have photos from my iPhone imported dating back to 2009.

Suggestions? I assume iCloud can't help re-create these categories because it only holds 1000 at a time, so they have to be re-created from my iOS imported imgages...?

Thankfully I have dropbox exporting my iOS photos because I'm really starting to not trust iPhoto.

Posted on Aug 25, 2013 2:45 PM

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Answer 1

Old Toad

Level 10

207,439 points

Aug 26, 2013 2:23 PM in response to lundejd

The following is from this Apple document: iCloud: Photo Stream FAQ

My Photo Stream
When you take photos on an iOS device, or import photos from your digital camera to your computer, My Photo Stream can automatically upload your new photos to iCloud and push them to all of your other devices.

How long are My Photo Stream photos stored in iCloud?

The photos you upload to My Photo Stream are stored in iCloud for 30 days to give your devices plenty of time to connect and download them.

How many photos are stored in My Photo Stream on my devices and computers?

iCloud pushes all your photos to the My Photo Stream album on your devices and computers, and manages them efficiently, so you don’t run out of storage space.

Your iOS devices keep a rolling collection of your last 1000 photos in the My Photo Stream album. From there, you can browse your recent photos or move the ones you like to your Camera Roll or another album to keep them on your device forever.

How long are Shared Photo Stream photos stored in iCloud?

The photos you share with Shared Photo Streams (and comments or likes associated with those photos) remain in iCloud until you delete them manually, or until you delete the shared photo stream completely.

Are you referring to your standard Photo Stream or Shared Photo Streams that you've created?

OT

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Answer 2

lundejd Author

Level 1

19 points

Aug 26, 2013 2:46 PM in response to Old Toad

Photo Stream events, so I think neither of what you are referring too.

Each month I get a new Event in iPhoto. This month its "Aug 2013 Photo Stream". This contains all the photos from my iPhone for the month of August (of course). Previous months would be similar events. I'm not 100% sure if these were created by photo stream as it sync'd with iPhoto (this is my guess) or due to sycning my iPhone. I'm guessing this is a photo stream function that is happening regardless of plugging in my iPhone.

As far as I can tell, the "iPhone photos" held anything previous to photo stream being enabled, which is why my photo stream events began I think in late 2011 (can't quite remember).

My best guess is that I plugged my iPhone in and did a sync at some point in time, and when photos were added to the "iPhone Photos" event, they were stripped out of their subsequent "Photo Stream" Events. This is just a guess.

I never seemed to have an issue before creating Events from Events. Now I get a warning that states a photo can only be in one Event at a time. I don't know if this is new behavoir or something added subsequently, but I swear I was able to take photos out of those "Photo Stream" events and create others. (I was misusing events I think, or don't completely have events and Albums straight.

In any case, I'm repairing my Photo Stream monthly events but hope they don't get destroyed again.

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

207,439 points

Aug 26, 2013 2:52 PM in response to lundejd

Do you have iPhoto setup to automatically import photo stream photos?

If you have the Photo Stream photos automatically imported into your iPhoto Library when you connect your iPhone to your Mac and launch iPhoto only those photos taken receintly and not imported into your ibrary will be recognized and offered up for importing.

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Answer 4

lundejd Author

Level 1

19 points

Aug 26, 2013 5:07 PM in response to Old Toad

I do have it set to auto-import.

The strangest thing is that I had Events set up that duplicated photos in other events. I was treating them like Albums... I guess I like how they are displayed.

Did iPhoto come out with a recent update that required photos to only be in one Event at any given time? If that happend in a recent update it would totally explain what I experienced.

I know for a fact I used to be able to drag photos out of a "photo stream" Event and create other events... such as a trip or a wedding or the like. It never before warned me that photos could only be in one event at a given time. now it does. It seems like this behavoir recently changed...?

I am re-creating my photo stream events by splitting out all the photos that are now under one single "iPhone Photos" event. Seems to be working. Current photo stream functionality seems to be working as well.

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Answer 5

Old Toad

Level 10

207,439 points

Aug 26, 2013 5:37 PM in response to lundejd

iPhoto always had photos in only one event at a time, every since the first version. Photos can be in multiple albums but not Events unless you import a duplicate copy.

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