HT204570: Get help with your iCloud Photo Library

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Nerfherder72
Level 1 (4 points)
Photos for Mac

Q: How to back up photos if iCloud Photo Library deletes them when I delete them from iphone

The new photos app is pretty and it is great for managing the things I have done recently and the photos currently on my phone.  What I can't figure out is how to make the jjump to archiving whereas I backup the current set of photos on my phone and photos app on my Mac, then delete them from my device and start a new.  In short, I have no problem with how the photos app and icloud backs up my trip from last month, but how do I manage it so that it backs it up for the next five years without keeping all those photos taking up space on my phone??  This is EXTREMELY frustrating because all I can find from Apple is something along the line of "iCloud photo library is automatic" and "seamless backup of all your photos".  Well I feel I have found a very important seam.  I am hoping there is a one click solution that I haven't found.

 

So far I have found you can drag and drop pictures from photos app into a folder which makes a new copy of the picture for the new folder.  The glaring problem with this, is that it strips the photo of its metadata and so if I open this new copy, it says that the photo was taken on the date I made the copy.

 

any help much appreciated

Posted on Jun 1, 2016 7:10 AM

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Nerfherder72

Q: How to back up photos if iCloud Photo Library deletes them when I delete them from iphone

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  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Jun 1, 2016 7:23 AM in response to Nerfherder72
    Level 10 (84,217 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Jun 1, 2016 7:23 AM in response to Nerfherder72

    You back them up by have a Mac with enough storage and setting it to download the originals and then have a backup system like TimeMachine running on that system

     

    But you seem to be wanting an archive rather than a backup - with a backup when you delete something from the system it will be deleted form the backup sooner or later

     

    When you are using ICPL on devices with limited storage you set to use optimized photos on that device - you do not control storage by deleting things since the entire purpose of ICPL is to sync all changes and keep all libraries identical storage

     

    ICPL is not a backup service - it is a syncing service

     

    And if you want copies outside the library do not drag and drop as that gives you a smaller preview with limited metadata - select the photos and export (file menu ==> export) so you control the size and metadata

     

    LN