BEWARE: iCloud Photo Library COMPRESSES your video. Not 1:1 copies.

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Level 2

351 points

BEWARE: iCloud Photo Library COMPRESSES your video. Not 1:1 copies.

iOS 8.1. iPhone 6. MacBook Pro Yosemite 'Retail'.

I remember reading somewhere (and possibly hearing during a keynote) that iCloud Photo Library stores full fat video from your iPhone, that being 1080p 60fps. Basically 1:1 copy of whatever is recorded.

THIS IS NOT THE CASE

My 1080p 60fps videos are reduced to 720p 30fps on the iCloud Photo Library website on my mac. They looks like garbage compared to the originals. If I select to download, I get the 720p version. This happens if the phone is set to either 'Optimize iPhone Storage' or 'Download and Keep Originals'.

I haven't tested photos yet to see if they are 1:1 copies, but definitely staying away for now. Granted, it's BETA. But why say it does one thing when it clearly does another?

If this is the intended behavior, then it's a pretty big fail in my opinion. I get that it would take more storage space for 1:1 copies, but that's MY CHOICE to pay for it.

What's really stupid, is iCloud is ALREADY uploading 1:1 copies of everything anyway, during iCloud backup, so clearly it's capable.

Frustrated. I've been looking forward to trying this out too.

Posted on Oct 20, 2014 5:09 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Mark Paterson Author

Level 2

351 points

Oct 20, 2014 5:24 PM in response to Mark Paterson

Full resolution photo and video falsely reported in this article too. The comments section disagrees and confirms my own tests, downsampling of video AND PHOTOS…

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/131422-apple-icloud-photo-library-in-beta-explai ned-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work

For example…

Wayne1212

"The author is mistaken. The photo version saved on iCloud is not the original high resolution image. If you download that image from the web (beta.icloud.com) you get a reduced image size (resolution). It doesn't matter which option you use on the iPhone the iCloud version is not the full resolution taken with the iphone. Just installed the iOS 8.1 update and tested. You lose big if you think Apple is backing up your photo in full fidelity. Maybe this will change once it's out of beta, I have no idea. Test for yourself, take a photo, email to yourself at "Actual Size" and then go to iCloud and download that image. It will be about half the size and resolution that you just email'ed to yourself."

JoshuaDotson

"I agree. 1080p@60fps was getting converted to 720p@30fps. That's no good."

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Answer 2

drmcclin

Level 1

4 points

Oct 20, 2014 6:55 PM in response to Mark Paterson

You are definitely right, I noticed the same. This is not at all what I thought I was signing up for when I enabled this and started paying for 200GB of storage. Not what is being advertised, either.

I really hope the full *original* versions of my photos and videos are not lost in all this.

I hope they address this soon.

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Answer 3

Mark Paterson Author

Level 2

351 points

Oct 20, 2014 7:01 PM in response to drmcclin

I read in a comment on a different forum that the full size versions are indeed saved but the iCloud.com browser is only offering up compressed versions. The idea, they said, is that content is optimized per device accessing it.

If this is the case, there needs to be an option on iCloud.com to download the full res versions.

Of course, until we get the actual Photos.app in early 2015 we have no way of knowing if 1:1 versions are safe and sound. Very disappointing.

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Answer 4

Oct 21, 2014 1:04 AM in response to Mark Paterson

I have problem with original size of photos in iCloud Photo Library too. Yesterday I have sync all photos on iOS 8.1 and today I found that if I download the picture from beta.icloud.com the picture is not in the original size bude reduced. Is there any way to get my original pictures? My final decision is to switch off icloud drive till it works and do not spend money for 200GB as I wanted yesterday. What I see as second big problem is. I can see that the photos take some space from my iCloud drive but I can not see the library on the drive on my PC or MAC!!!!!!!!!!!! Why it take my space from the drive and is not there?

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Answer 5

Oct 21, 2014 5:53 AM in response to Mark Paterson

I'm not sure if this is a great solution. Does that mean that PC users will never have a way to get to their full res photos if the only way is through the Photos.app (unless they are going to develop one for Windows)? I was hoping for a 'Photos' folder in my iCloud drive that held all of the pictures along with the rest of the documents.

Hopefully we hear something official on this soon.

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Answer 6

Oct 21, 2014 6:04 AM in response to Mark Paterson

I did all that yesterday... and the pictures looks blur.. and not talking about the video... and yes the Download and Keep original option was selected.

I was so waiting to get this option... but as we all know, it's a beta... At least now, Apple started to release infer about it... iCloud Photo Library beta FAQ

And also now the Photo app is on the www.icloud.com too and not only the beta.ilcoud.com.

I was reading quickly this morning from a recent post (talking about the Photo app now on the www.icloud.com), the resolution of photos was fixed. I can't confirm yet because i didn't play with it this morning.

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Answer 7

dbanon

Level 1

0 points

Oct 21, 2014 11:37 AM in response to Mark Paterson

Same problem here (on both pictures and videos).

In my opinion, full resolution photos/videos are stored on iCloud but:

- Slideshow on icloud.com displays compressed versions to display faster on browser (and I think it's the good choice)

- The download button IS the problem. Currently we get the compressed version by clicking this button but I think it's a bug and we should get the original version.

So we have to wait for now...

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Answer 8

Mark Paterson Author

Level 2

351 points

Oct 21, 2014 11:42 AM in response to dbanon

I hope you're right. Sounds like the most obvious answer.

Seeing as we don't have photos.app yet, can anybody with more than one iOS device test this theory? example: Upload your iPhone photos / videos to iCloud, then download them in full resolution to an iPad? Then copy them from iPad to Mac via AirDrop to confirm they're the 1:1 copies and survived the trip untainted? (1080p 60fps)

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Answer 9

dbanon

Level 1

0 points

Oct 21, 2014 11:44 AM in response to Mark Paterson

+1

If someone can test this, it would be great!

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Answer 10

Oct 21, 2014 1:24 PM in response to dbanon

I was able to complete the test as suggested above, and I think I have good news. Following the suggested procedure above, I was able to download a full resolution, 1080p video to my iPad, and then airdrop it to my Mac.

Just to confirm that I was dealing with the same problem...

Step One: Shot a 1080p video of my kids with my iPhone 5 (so not 60fps, but I think the results will be the same even with 1080p/60fps)

Step Two: Uploaded to iCloud Photo Library Beta (Thought to self, "This is great!")

Step Three: Signed into iCloud Photo on iCloud.com to download videos. Could only download them at 720p, as well as compressed images from some photos I had taken. (Thought to self, "I may have jumped the gun.")

Step Four: Checked my iPad Air which was also enabled with iCloud Photo Library the second it was available. Downloaded the video to play it on the device.

Step Five: Airdropped the video to my Macbook Air. Hurrah! The video was in 1080p.

My takeaway is that the full-resolution photos/videos are indeed stored in iCloud, and that there must be a bug on iCloud.com. There is a slim chance that what was on my iPad was a "device optimized" 1080p version, and thus somewhat lower quality than I originally shot on the iPhone. I doubt that is the case, however, as it doesn't make much sense to offer only a slightly compressed 1080p version and call it "optimized".

Anyways, hope that helps.

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Answer 11

Mark Paterson Author

Level 2

351 points

Oct 21, 2014 1:29 PM in response to SonictheGr8

This is positive!

Could you AirDrop the original iPhone version of the video to your mac and compare the file size to the one you sent from the iPad?

Thanks for you help.

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Answer 12

Oct 21, 2014 1:47 PM in response to Mark Paterson

The image above shows the results of the test. I went ahead and recorded another 10 second video and took a photo for testing purposes. Note that the versions downloaded from iCloud.com are severely compressed. The version that was downloaded to the iPad using iCloud Photo Library and then airdropped to my Mac maintained the same file size and resolution.

Hopefully they will fix the iCloud.com site so that we can access our High Res photos/videos in short order.

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Answer 13

Mark Paterson Author

Level 2

351 points

Oct 21, 2014 1:56 PM in response to SonictheGr8

Excellent! Thanks for doing this. Puts my mind at ease.

I guess without the Photos app on the mac yet, I may as well just switch the feature off on my iPhone.

They need to allow full res downloads (but still default to half res streaming). I have no desire to download half res photos and videos from iCloud.com.

Seems to be only usefull right now if you have multiple iOS devices, so looks like i'll be using Photostream to import photos into Aperture for the time being, and manually copying across my iPhone videos.

HEY, FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS ARE STILL PROBLEMS!

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Answer 14

Oct 21, 2014 1:56 PM in response to SonictheGr8

That's really good news SonictheGr8!!!

Has anyone figured out why are the photos still using the same storage space they were before in my iPhone if I turned the "optimized" option on?

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Answer 15

Mark Paterson Author

Level 2

351 points

Oct 21, 2014 1:57 PM in response to Mark Paterson

Don't know why they can't just give us a beta of the Photos app. 😠

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