Photos App: How Does it All Work?
Someone please call Stephen Hawking. We're dealing with some high level, complicated quantum physics using Apple's Photos App. Does my picture exist on my phone AND in the cloud AND on my computer simultaneously? If I delete it on my phone, does it get deleted on my computer? How about in the iCloud? See what I mean? It's not simple.
I know I'm not the only one completely frustrated by Apple's Photos app because I went to the TekServe Support desk in Manhattan and even the experts there couldn't make sense of it. They're all having the same problems and questions. I'm seriously considering switching to Android because of this mess. It's incredibly frustrating. I finally took the time to carefully outline exactly where my questions are while also attempting to define Apple's terminology as I understand it. It really should not be this difficult. Isn't it supposed to "just work", Mr. Cook?
My Question (and apparently everyone else's):
I have thousands of photos on my phone that I need to delete because I have no more storage on my physical device (16Gb). But it's not clear how I should go about deleting the photos and if they will be deleted on my other devices and in the iCloud.
How do I delete photos from my phone without deleting them from my other devices?
My Hardware/Software Status and Settings:
- I have 26GB of iCloud storage.
- I have a 16Gb iPhone 5S running iOS 8.4.
- I have iCloud Photo Library "on" in Settings.
- I have Upload to My Photo Stream "off" in Settings.
My Terminology Understanding (just so we're all on the same page here):
I think this is where I'm getting lost. There are so many components that all sound so similar, yet apparently do very different things and have very different functions that it's easy to make assumptions about how they all work and are interconnected. I'm probably incorrectly defining these terms, so if I am, please correct me and I'll update them.
- Pictures: I'm going to call anything that's an actual image a "picture" so it's not to be confused with the "Photos" app or the "Photos" tab in the "Photos" app.
- iCloud Photo Library (the setting): This allows me to automatically upload and store my library in iCloud to access photos and videos from all my devices. So, if I have this turned on, does that mean that when I take a picture it gets uploaded to my iPad and computer also via WiFi? When and how does it know how to do this?
- My Photo Stream (the setting): What does this do? Apple's definition is "Automatically upload new photos and send them to all of your iCloud devices when connected to Wi-Fi." but this sounds pretty much exactly like the iCloud Photo Library. What's the difference between iCloud Photo Library and My Photo Stream? When should I use them?
- Photos App: this is the actual app that stores my pictures. I can access the app on my phone, iPad, computer, and at www.icloud.com.
- Photos: this is the first tab in the app on my iPhone. This houses all of my photos. The pictures that exist in this tab are actually stored on my iPhone. Since I have iCloud Photo Library turned "on", all of my pictures in Photos get placed on all of my devices. Do the pictures take up storage on my other devices?If I delete a picture on my iPhone, does it get deleted from my other devices?
- Years: photos organized by years
- Collection: photos organized by location and time
- Moments: photos further broken down by even more specific location, but basically the same thing as a Collection.
- iCloud Photos: You access this via www.icloud.com. Since I have iCloud Photo Library "on", all of my photos automatically get uploaded here. If I delete a photo from here, does it get deleted across all of my devices?
- Shared: this is middle tab in the photos app. Also known as "iCloud Photo Sharing". This is the icloud where I can share pictures across devices and with other people by inviting them via Email. Images contained in this tab exist independently. They are not stored on my iPhone.
Activity: recent additions, comments, and likes within the Shared iCloud. This is basically like Facebook's Timeline.
- Albums: this is the right tab in the photos app. Do the pictures that exist in this tab take up storage on my iPhone?
- All Photos: These are all of my photos. These are the same photos that exist in the Photos tab. Does this take up storage on my iPhone? If so, does that mean that I have two sets of pictures, one in Albums > All Photos and another identical set in Photos? If I delete pictures from here, will they also be deleted from my other devices?
- iPhoto Events: these are automatically created folders based on dates. Why do these exist? What is their purpose? Does this take up storage on my iPhone? If I delete a picture from here, does it get deleted on all of my devices?
- Recently Deleted: these are pictures that I deleted within the last 30 days. This is basically like the trash can on your computer, except these get automatically deleted after 30 days. Does this take up storage on my iPhone?
OH MY GOD. I'M SO CONFUSED ABOUT APPLE'S PHOTOS APP. WHY IS IT THIS COMPLICATED? PLEASE HELP ME OR I'M GOING TO RUN TO GOOGLE'S ARMS.
iPhone 5s, iOS 8.1, Photos App