photostream confusion..

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Level 1

8 points

photostream confusion..

photostream is driving me nuts. for some reason, 300 or so old pictures (ie 2005) ended up on my stream and hence on my imac, iphone and mini. I deleted on the iphone (only way I could figure was to actually tap on all pictures and delete..). But, they're still on my other devices. So, it seems that photo stream ADDS the pics fine across devices but when deleted on one device they are not deleted on the others. Currently my photostream is empty on iphone but still loaded on the mini. I thought this was the point- that all devices sync'd? What am I missing? Thanks.

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on Mar 9, 2014 7:43 AM

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Answer 1

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léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Mar 9, 2014 8:17 AM in response to thisoldfish

I deleted on the iphone (only way I could figure was to actually tap on all pictures and delete..). But, they're still on my other devices. So, it seems that photo stream ADDS the pics fine across devices but when deleted on one device they are not deleted on the others. Currently my photostream is empty on iphone but still loaded on the mini. I thought this was the point- that all devices sync'd? What am I missing? Thanks.

On each device you will have two different sets of photos:

The visible photo stream - it is showing you what currently can be downloaded to your device from iCloud and will vanish after a month.
and the photos you already imported from iCloud, and that are stored permanently on your device.

iCloud is syncing the Photostream across the devices, but not the photos imported from the photo stream. If you delete a photo from the photo stream on one device, it will be removed from iCloud and from the photo stream view on all other devices, but the photos that already have been downloaded from the stream will remain.

iCloud: How to delete photos from Photo Stream

Sometimes the photo stream can become corrupted on your mac and show you older photos that are no longer in iCloud. In that case

import all photo stream photos, that you want to downnload,
disable Photo Stream in your System Preferences > iCloud,
restart your mac, and enable the Photo Stream again in System Preferences > iCloud and in the program you are syncing with. That will delete the local photo stream copy on your mac.

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Answer 2

thisoldfish Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 9, 2014 9:08 AM in response to léonie

thanks for the reply-

so, I get that if you save from photostream to camera roll it's there until you delete it. But I never saved any of the pictures. currently, my iphone "my photostream" has zero images while my mini photostream has 200 or so. So, it seems that the photostream isn't syncing/deleting as I delete from one device. annoying!

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Answer 3

thisoldfish Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 9, 2014 9:13 AM in response to léonie

ok- working now. on my mini I turned off photostream which gave me the option to delete all the pics. Then after restarting it seems be syncing great across devices. Thanks.

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Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Mar 9, 2014 9:23 AM in response to thisoldfish

If the photo stream photos on your mini failed to delete, there may bye a permissions problem with the Photo Stream folder.

You can delete this folder directly from your User Library:

Import all photos that you want to keep.
Quit all applications that are using photo stream on your mini.
Open your user library and open the folder:
~/Library/Application Support/iLifeAssetManagement/assets/sub/
remove the folder "sub" to your Desktop. It contains the photostream images from "My Photo Stream".

Then restart the mac. The photo stream should now be reset to what is currently in iCloud.

You user library may still be hidden, as is the default in Mavericks: To open your hidden user library:

Select the "Home" folder icon (the little house) in the Finder's sidebar and press the key combination ⌘J to open the "view options". Enable "Show Library Folder".
Then open the Home folder and open the Library folder inside and navigate to

~/Library/Application Support/iLifeAssetManagement/assets/sub/

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