ios - 8 where are the 'camera roll' and 'photostream' albums?

I see the ios8 had done away with the "camera roll" and "photostream" albums and replace them with a "recently added" album. Is there any way to get this old functionality back?

All I want is one folder that contains all the photos on my device and another that contains the photos that I'm happy to share across my devices. I would have hoped I could have create some smart albums, but albums seem to have to be curated manually.

I know I can see all my photos with the photos tab, but there are two issue I have with this, #1 the "collections" interface is horrible – I just want a nice grid of photos like in albums – and #2 my photostream photos are merge within them.

I now have no way of telling if I'm deleting a photo from the phone or the photostream, for example when I'm trying to free up space on the phone.

Would turning on the "icloud photo library" feature help? I would rather not use that as I don't want it to waste all my icloud space.

iPhone 5, iOS 7.0.3

Posted on Sep 17, 2014 12:55 PM

109 replies

Sep 17, 2014 2:36 PM in response to think.different

if you also upgrade with ios8 on ipad, you'll see that the photo galleries of new photos will "Merge".

it's as if all photos are put in a big giant streaming. if you delete from one device, the photo will be deleted from al devices.

basically, they removed the camera roll, and created a STREAMING only.

it's insane. i'm very very upset.

JonnyB

Level 1

25 points

Sep 17, 2014 2:44 PM in response to think.different

I still say that with all of the "guides", Help pages, How To that Apple publishes - why are we left to "figure this out" by trial, error, share on forum? If you go to the "What's in IOS8" on apple.com there is no mention of this "new way" of doing things.

Sep 17, 2014 2:53 PM in response to gabecnc78

Yes, that is the conclusion that I have come to. What I want to know is is the photo actually store on the phone or only now in the cloud?

I holding off from upgrading my ipad for as long as I can. The way folders function in ios7 bugs me with the 9 app limit per screen when in ios6 I can see 20 apps at a time in folders. But this in for another thread. Back to photos.

I have done some testing and yes if I take a photo in ios8 it is both on the phone and the photostream. If I delete it on the phone it is also delete automatically from photostream. If I take a photo on in ios6 is appears on the ipad and photostream but I can choose to delete it from either location or both. If I take a photo in ios8 and then delete it from the photostream in ios6 it says it will be deleted from all devices but it is still left on the phone and just removed from the photostream.

I think this behaviour is just the glitchy way the various version of ios are working together at the moment with photostream.

I personally do not want my camera roll and photostream albums to be one and the same. I don't want to share all the photos across all my devices.

I've been an Apple user since '92 and this is the only thing that bugs me about them - that there can be only one way to do everything. Everyone is different and use their devices in slightly different ways. One way doesn't work for everyone, just give us a couple of options.

Sep 17, 2014 3:04 PM in response to think.different

Also very upset. The new view is TERRIBLE. There are 3 people here with me and all 3 have just updated and we are all angry with the new photo view. Hope Apple is reading these and making some sort of plans to fix it. With the short time iOS has been released (literally a couple hours) there are several websites and posts with people very angry about this. If this stays the same its goodbye iPhone for me.

JonnyB

Level 1

25 points

Sep 17, 2014 3:05 PM in response to think.different

I think Recently Added means (if you have PS "on" - recently added from any device. Not sure how many images "live" in Recently Added. There is also a "recently deleted" folder to show an "audit trail" of what has been deleted from any device. Ill have to play with this on my PC, phone, and ipad to see how it works.

BTW - There is still an icloud/photos folder on my PC - not sure what it is talking to or how it fits with these other things.

Apple could have explained this better - much better.

This whole "beta" feature thing is news to me and most....I have no clue how to get to it...turn it off etc

On another note..I tried icloud drive.....it has Less functionality than DropBox V1.0 - its horrible - you can only upload files - not FOLDERS....diffewrent thread for that

JonnyB

Level 1

25 points

Sep 17, 2014 3:15 PM in response to BestWesTurn

Here is a new twist....scrolling through pix in the Recently Added album. One pic has the "heart" to make it a favorite, another picture does NOT have it !! The ones that do NOT have the heart - when you click on edit...a popup says This photo is not editable. Do you want to duplicate it and edit a copy?" This must have something to do with where the image is NOW, where it came from etc.

They got a lot of explaining to do

Sep 17, 2014 3:19 PM in response to think.different

I have tried all possible options but can't delete a photo from the photostream without also deleting it from the phone. Unless I delete it from photostream on an ios6 or 7 device, then it will delete from the stream but not the phone.

Sep 17, 2014 4:48 PM in response to think.different

Right I deactivated/activated photostream under settings and it has now imported all the photos from the photostream. So in that regards we are now back to square one.

I just now need to find out to to see only the photos on my phone and only the photos in the photostream.

From reading other threads, here and elsewhere, according to Apple documentation there should be an album called "My Photostream" so this may not be showing because if a glitch in ios8. That would still leave how to tell which photos are only on the phone (camera roll).

léonie

Level 10

200,687 points

Sep 17, 2014 5:10 PM in response to think.different

Are you saying that the "photos" tab and the "recently added" album are the photostream now?

It looks like it. But it may be a glitch and not intended. The documentation talks about the Photo Stream like it were still an album, that can be viewed and edited. On my macs I am still seeing a My Photo Stream album. On the iPad and iPod is the only place I am seeing photos from the Photo Streaming the "Recent" album and in Photos view.

Sep 17, 2014 8:00 PM in response to think.different

What I can't seem to understand is where are the pics that are stored on my device? I can't distinguish between local pics and photstream?

When I take a pic, is it stored on my device or on iCloud?

I want each device to have "their own" pics and then the capability of Looking at the photostream from all devices.

if someone can explain this new concept, please do so. Maybe I am just too old school to comprehend what is happening.

Sep 17, 2014 9:04 PM in response to think.different

This whole change is a HUGE problem. The camera roll is supposed to show images taken with or saved by THAT device. Mixing those images with photos from iCloud is a major mistake from an interface perspective. As a photographer this causes a major problem for me. First, I don't necessarily want every photo I made moving up to the cloud by default. Under this new system I have to either send everything up to the cloud or nothing up to the cloud. Not acceptable. Second, by losing the distinction between images taken with or saved on the device I lose the ability to manage the storage on that device and to determine what photos were made where. I use a bunch of different hardware to make photos, so they're NOT all "created equal" as Apple seems to want me to think they are. I need to know which were made by the iPhone I have in my hand and which were made by the camera around my neck. Removing the camera roll and mixing all the photos together removes the ability to do this. Ultimately this system numbs out the whole process of trying to organize images from various devices and makes it FAR harder to manage and sort photos unless you ONLY use an iPhone to make them and are comfortable having Apple house a copy on their servers. I'm a professional photographer working with copyrighted images. The LAST thing I want to do is have every one of my photos automatically upload to Apple's cloud.

This has to be changed. It's a massive screw-up. Bringing iCloud Albums back online will NOT fix it. We need the Camera Roll back and we need a CLEAR distinction between LOCAL photos and iCloud uploaded ones. We should be able to tell what device made a photo. All photos are NOT created equal, Apple.

Sep 17, 2014 9:04 PM in response to think.different

I also lost my photo albums "Camera Roll" and "Photostream" and got the lame "Recently Added" and the hidden "Collections". I do not like this at all, and I feel Apple did not consider the users and how we share photos with our phones. I want it restored as soon as Apple can get it done (tomorroe?).

Sep 17, 2014 10:23 PM in response to think.different

i hate that it all has to be categorized in moments by time

sometimes i will email myself or imessage a older photo i shot on my camera (not my phone) to post on instagram or something

and you have to now scroll thru moments to whenever the date is in the EXIF data of the photo, so dumb.

i dont care about recently added, when you open the camera roll all of the **** at the bottom is RECENTLY ADDED

like everyone knows its their phone.

go back to camera roll

also what is the option under settings for photos and camera that says "photos tab summarize photos" on or off?

what does it do?

Sep 17, 2014 10:31 PM in response to think.different

i hate that it all has to be categorized in moments by time

sometimes i will email myself or imessage a older photo i shot on my camera (not my phone) to post on instagram or something

and you have to now scroll thru moments to whenever the date is in the EXIF data of the photo, so dumb.

i dont care about recently added, when you open the camera roll all of the **** at the bottom is RECENTLY ADDED

like everyone knows its their phone.

go back to camera roll

also what is the option under settings for photos and camera that says "photos tab summarize photos" on or off?

what does it do?

mjsciald

Level 1

0 points

Sep 17, 2014 10:54 PM in response to think.different

My only solution to this was turning off "My Photo Stream" under "Photos and Camera" in Settings. Now the Recently Added folder acts the same as my Camera Roll did in iOS7. this is still confusing though....

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ios - 8 where are the 'camera roll' and 'photostream' albums?