Sharing Photos that are already on iCloud Photo

Hi, all!

Well, I know iCloud Photo is on its beta stages, but here are some details that I found very frustrating and cannot seem to share some of my photos yet.

I will explain in three main trials, otherwise the post might be just too long(er than it already is).

The prologue:

A couple of weeks ago, I went on a trip with a few friends and each one of us took photos with our own respective phones.

Note that, before the trip, my iCloud Photo was already enabled with the "Optimize iPhone Storage" function.

The first try:

After we came back, I was asked to share the pictures I've taken and (since I am not really a fan of Facebook photo sharing) I tried to do it by AirDrop.

But I couldn't because the "Preparing" pop-up was taking forever - I guess it was downloading the pictures from iCloud Photo (where it was backed-up to optimize my phone's storage).

The second try:

I went on iCloud.com and tried downloading the images to a friend's computer.

Again, around 300 pictures was taking forever to download each one separatelyand there wasn't an option to "Share Album" on the website - so, I gave up.

The third try:

I created a "Shared Album" on my iPhone and invited my friends.

However, most of the pictures could not be posted when I tried (the several times).

Once more, I am thinking it is the iCloud Photo optimizing my storage and, since the photos are not actually on my phone, they have to be downloaded before being posted.

I have also added the pictures to an album stored in my phone, but it seems that there isn't an option to "Share an Existing Album" - and I guess that this was less time-consuming, so does not count as a trial(?).

The conclusion:

I believe that the problem is on the "Optimize iPhone Storage" function that makes necessary the download of all the backed-up photo before it can be shared, by any means.

The possible solutions:

1. One feature that could help is not having to download the backed-up photos when sharing them on iCloud.

2. Sharing albums directly from iCloud.com, then the photos would not have to be downloaded - with the addition of a function to download bulk pictures in a compacted file (e.g.: .zip, .rar) and "Select All";

3. "Share an Existing Album" would be nice as well.

Finally, the question:

You might be able to tell already that I have a slow internet and that this was more of a complaint than an actual question.

So, any other suggestions on what I could do to share these nearly-300 photos that my friends are already cursing at me to send them?

Thanks!

yannhaur