How does iCloud Photo Library backup photos & save iCloud space

Question

How does iCloud Photo Library backup photos & save iCloud space

I was reading about how to free up some space on my iCloud account (5GB).

Since the Camera Roll is the only thing that is backed up to iCloud, I would periodically import all my photos to iPhoto and delete them from my device. This would make the Camera Roll pictures move over to my other albums which are NOT backed up to iCloud. Now I ran into some apple documentation which explains what exactly gets backed up on an iOS device and its reads like this:

Photos and videos on your iOS devices, unless you turn on iCloud Photo Library beta on your iOS 8.1 device. If you turn on iCloud Photo Library beta, your photos and videos are already stored in iCloud, so they aren’t included in your iCloud Backup.

So basically if I turn on this iCloud Photo Library on my iOS device, it won't back up any photos to iCloud, because they are already stored in iCloud? What does that mean? Is this going to free up some iCloud space if I turn it on on my device? If so, how exactly does it work that will save me space?

Thanks

iPhone 6, iOS 8.1.2, iOS8

Posted on Apr 15, 2015 3:38 PM

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Answer 1

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Apr 15, 2015 4:11 PM in response to santiagofrommiami

Photos app uploads photos to iCloud.

This means all your images in the main library will be uploaded, so if your photos library is over 5GB it will not fit in iCloud.

Once the images are in iCloud there is no point uploading from the camera roll too, so those are dropped from the backup.

I believe you need to create a small library to sync photos into iCloud (less than 5GB in your case) & then use other libraries for other images that you do not want uploading to iCloud. Bear in mind other apps use iCloud storage so you will want to limit how much you upload just for photos.

The document is out of date since Photos.app is now out of Beta, please inform Apple via the report link on the page you read (normally near the bottom).

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Answer 2

Apr 15, 2015 5:01 PM in response to Drew Reece

Ok but I don't want that so, let me ask you this, which program takes care of backing up my iPhone to my laptop? Iphoto or the new Photos app?

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Answer 3

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Apr 15, 2015 5:11 PM in response to santiagofrommiami

Neither does backups of iOS devices.

You use iTunes to make backups or you use iCloud - both store the data from iOS.

About backups in iCloud and iTunes - Apple Support

If you want to backup iPhoto or the Photos library you need to use another hard disk & Time Machine or setup a backup job to clone the Mac's data onto another disk. All hardware fails eventually, so making backups is essential. Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper! are the usual ways to make a clone.

You can also use online services, but your internet connection will cause these to take longer to backup & restore from if you ever have a disaster.

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Answer 4

Apr 16, 2015 6:43 AM in response to Drew Reece

Oops, brain ****! I meant iTunes.

Ok here is my situation. Here is a screenshot of my iphone's General -> Usage -> iCloud Storage:

And of those 4.3GB of backup, my Photo Library is 1.4GB.

So my question is, how do I prevent my Photo Library from being backed up to the cloud, since I already have a backup of it everytime I connect to iPhoto and it copies all those photos to my mac?

I would like to keep the Camera Roll backed up on the cloud. Because I temporarily clear this out when I sync to iTunes. And if anything should happen to my phone between syncs, i would like to have those Camera Roll copies on iCloud.

And one more question while we are at it...can I erase iphoto from my computer now that I have the new Photos app?

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Answer 5

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Apr 16, 2015 10:14 AM in response to santiagofrommiami

santiagofrommiami wrote:

And of those 4.3GB of backup, my Photo Library is 1.4GB.

So my question is, how do I prevent my Photo Library from being backed up to the cloud, since I already have a backup of it everytime I connect to iPhoto and it copies all those photos to my mac?

I don't know, sorry. It's supposed to work alongside Photos & iCloud, so that photos are stored only once. When it doesn't work you have a couple of options as I see it –

Delete the old backups on iCloud to hopefully start over (I don't like deleting the only backup of anything).
Forget about iCloud backups & use iTunes to backup instead, it might not be suitable if you have no computer etc.
Buy more storage for iCloud.

I don't use iCloud backup, it bemuses me with issues like this, there is no easy way to resolve when it fails.

And one more question while we are at it...can I erase iphoto from my computer now that I have the new Photos app?

That is up to you. If you are happy you do not need it & have a backup of it go ahead & remove it. You can re-download it from the app store if it is already in your Mac App store account.

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Answer 6

Apr 16, 2015 2:29 PM in response to Drew Reece

Ok so what I did was, opened iTunes and selected my iphone to be backed up to the computer instead.

I made a full backup on my mac.

I erased the iCloud backup from my phone (because it wouldn't let me do it from my mac).

Then I turned iCloud backup back on on my device, which updated iTunes to do the same.

Now here is the thing, I had read a while back that the photos backed up to iCloud or the computer were only those in the camera roll. Not the other albums on the iOS device. Is this true?

If it IS TRUE then Im fine because my Camera Roll is synced to Photos on a weekly basis and I erase the phone pictures in the Camera Roll after import.

If this IS NOT TRUE, and it backs up everything in all of my iPhone photo albums, then Im back to square one.

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Answer 7

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Apr 16, 2015 3:52 PM in response to santiagofrommiami

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH12519

Apple don't say if Camera Roll is separate.

It doesn't make much sense for iCloud to backup synced photos - those will already exist in Photos app. I think that is what the page is trying to clarify. Please post back if you find that is different when the device has backed up.

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Answer 8

Apr 17, 2015 6:58 AM in response to Drew Reece

No, I dont think anything changed.

Its down to 3.0GB but thats because I erased other things.

So I guess I just need to keep icloud on, until it gets full and then delete. The thing is Im really interested in backing up my photos on the camera roll before I download them to Photos. That sometimes takes between 2 weeks to a month. So its a plus to have that data backed up on the cloud.

Thanks

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