Drag photos out of iCloud Drive and into Photos Library

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Level 1

9 points

Drag photos out of iCloud Drive and into Photos Library

I am running OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 on a 2015 MacBook Air and an iPad Mini Retina Display running iOS 9.0.2.

I have a lot of photos, saved in several different folders, which are currently in my iCloud Drive. I want to reduce the amount of storage space I am using in iCloud Drive. But I still want to be able to view those photos on both my MacBook Air and on my iPad Mini.

So I thought that I would create a number of Albums in Photos Library to correspond with the folder names I am using in iCloud Drive and drag the photo folders into those Albums in Photo Library.

But it does not seem possible to drag photos from iCloud Library into Photos Library? It does not seem to make any difference whether I try to drag them within the same Finder window, or whether I open two Finder windows and try to drag them from one to the other (I am not sure what the difference is - if any - between dragging items in one Finder window and dragging them from one Finder window to the other?)

How do I do this?

To whomever answers this, many thanks and wishing you a Happy Christmas.

MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2015), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Dec 24, 2015 9:11 AM

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Answer 1

FoxFifth

Level 10

475,407 points

Dec 24, 2015 11:16 AM in response to arggggh

You can open the Photos app on your Mac and drag them from iCloud Drive in Finder into the Photos app. The other method is to use the Photos app File menu Import.

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Answer 2

arggggh Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 26, 2015 7:34 AM in response to FoxFifth

Thank you FoxFifth but I have to say I am still a bit baffled.

I feel there is an awful lot here I am not understanding at all.

I haven't been able to drag photos from iCloud Drive to the Photos Library.

I think I understand using File - Import in Photos App on my MacBook - I have imported the photos from just one folder to start with, and selected them to appear in a New Album on my MacBook to which I have given a an appropriate name. So far so good.

But when I open the Photos App on my iPad, that New Album doesn't appear? On my iPad Settings, I have got "Upload to My Photo Stream" , 'iCloud Photo Sharing", 'Summarise Photos", and "Keep Normal Photo" all set to 'Yes".

Does Photos in my MacBook not sync with Photos on my iPad with these settings? Is there something else I need to do? Do I need to somehow drag/import the same photos on both devices into the Photos Library (and if so how do I do this?).

Is the Photos App on either device something completely different to "Photos" in iCloud or are they somehow the same?

Thank you again :-)

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Answer 3

FoxFifth

Level 10

475,407 points

Dec 27, 2015 7:16 AM in response to arggggh

Note that your original question focused on how to get photos into the Photos Library used by the Photos app and didn't mention syncing them to an iPad.

There are a number of ways to sync photos from a Mac to an iPad, including iCloud Photo Library, Photo Stream, using a USB cable and iTunes, 3rd party apps such as https://photosync-app.com/, and 3rd party cloud services such as Dropbox and Flckr. See below for more details on the first 3 of those:

1. iCloud Photo Library

If you use iCloud Photo Library on all of the devices, all photos in Photos on your Mac should match what is in Photos on iCloud and in your iPad. Any change you make from anywhere should automatically sync to everywhere.

To turn that on:

On the Mac: open the Photos app and then click Preferences on the Photos menu. Click iCloud at the top of the Preferences window and then put a checkmark in front of iCloud Photo Library and select Download Originals to this Mac. MY Photo Stream and iCloud Photo Sharing can be off.

On the iPad: Settings > iCloud > Photos > iCloud Photo Library on (and Optimize iPhone Storage on if you want smaller optimized versions if space is needed). Upload to My Photo Stream and iCloud Photo Sharing can be off.

Note that you originally stated you wanted to reduce the storage space you are using in iCloud Drive. Doing the above and removing the photos from iCloud Drive will reduce the iCloud Drive space but it will increase your iCloud Photo Library space so you will be still using about the same amount of iCloud storage.

iCloud Photo Library FAQ - Apple Support

2. Photo Stream

If you use Photo Stream instead of iCloud Photo Library the photos don't count against your iCloud storage but they are only kept on iCloud servers for 30 days. I used Photo Stream with iPhoto but have not used it since Photos was released. I believe (but am not positive) that with Photos you need to add the photos to the Photo Stream album on your Mac in order for them to transfer to the other device. See the following link for more information about how to turn it on in both devices and other details: My Photo Stream FAQ - Apple Support

3. iTunes Photo sync

Sync photos from your computer to your iOS device using iTunes - Apple Support

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Answer 4

arggggh Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 27, 2015 7:17 AM in response to FoxFifth

Thank you FoxFifth, this is very helpful and just the sort of advice I was looking for.

Regards

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