How to manage monster 30K photos in iCloud Photo Library? Segment or archive, suggestions?

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Level 1

8 points

How to manage monster 30K photos in iCloud Photo Library? Segment or archive, suggestions?

Hi there -

I managed to snag a new iPhone 7 Plus today and want to set it up, but I am struggling under the weight of a 32,000 photo iCloud Photo Library. Yes, I know this is my fault - we've had iPhones for years, I am the family record keeper and photo taker, I take too many photos, I save too many photos, I have teen daughters who take A LOT of photos.

SOOO I think they are in iCloud Photo Library. When I'm on my phone with iOS 10, I see "All Photos" and the total is just under 32K - BUT, I don't really NEED to see all 32,000 photos? In fact, I really don't want to? I'd like to know they are saved in their original resolution, but never need to access all those at a minutes notice - they took 10 years to accumulate!

Can I "archive" in iCloud Library? Segment them somehow?

I have the iPhone 7 Plus with 256 GB of memory - so it's not a storage thing, it's just an overkill thing. I am actually considering a clean install b/c I also have about 1000 apps over 10+ years.

But once I sign into iCloud, I think the 30K photos will come streaming back, right?

Other info:

- my Photos usage on my current iPhone 6S is about 40GB

- I have 800 GB available in a 1 TB iCloud account

- In my iCloud account, it says my ICloud Photo Library is 97 GB

- I do have a Smugmug Pro account with unlimited photo storage (though I don't really want all 32K of these there either - there are many that aren't keepers.)

- I did download Google Photos to try to back up that way but it still has 30,000 photos to back up.

- I have a MacBook Air but (gulp) haven't upgraded the OS to have Photos for Mac yet.

I would really appreciate any roadmap here to get out of this situation - or not "pile on" by putting them all on my 256 GB iPhone 7 Plus and just accumulating more and more!

Thanks in advance for the assistance!

akc

iPhone 7 Plus, iOS 10, null

Posted on Sep 21, 2016 8:59 PM

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Answer 1

LACAllen

Level 8

43,590 points

Sep 21, 2016 9:26 PM in response to akcorcoran

IMO, you must choose a photo storage strategy first, and then the best tool.

Do you want your entire photo library accessible to you on any device at any time? Do you want to pick and choose what photos are accessible on your devices?

You are using multiple tools without perhaps understanding why you are using them.

Having a lot of photos to store is only one consideration.

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Answer 2

akcorcoran Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 21, 2016 9:37 PM in response to LACAllen

So, it is true that I only gave you one piece of the puzzle. I have a fairly comprehensive photo storage situation. I have a dSLR and a Sony RX10 and a point and shoot - I take a lot of photos but an avid hobbyist. Just documenting life, not earning a living. When I pull them off my camera onto my laptop, I organize them by year-month-date_occasion, then with a three digit photo number for each individual photo.

I have two iPhoto libraries on an external drive from the good 'ol iPhoto days. Those are really archival for now - I have all of those photos also in folders and compressed (though the size doesn't go down, the folders compact to one name) on a back up drive.

On Smugmug, I have all of our family and/or important photos organized by year for sharing - this is really my "display" solution, though I have many galleries that are not public that serve as cloud storage. I have used the PhotoSync app to upload photos automatically to a specified gallery in Smugmug, but that app struggles when it hits something that is not a jpg (a GIF or anything else crashes the system).

SOOOO it's only the iPhone originated photos that have sort of gotten away from me over five/six upgrades, and I'm afraid that since I got the 7 Plus specifically for the camera, it's only going to get worse.

(And, in case you don't have teen daughters, my 14-yr old has over 2000 selfies (not of just her face, but taken with the front camera) on her phone ALONE.)

I have 800 GB of storage in our iCloud account available - I know it's a large number of photos and I have upgraded to allow for backups of all the girls' phones as well as my own (and my iPad).

It's really just that I don't necessarily need to SEE / ACCESS all the photos all the time from every device? But it seems like it's all or nothing - there's not a setting that is "download optimized versions of: (choose) 6 mos, last year of photos, 2 years, etc)". That would be my preference. 🙂

Does that help fill in the picture a little (no pun intended)?

Thanks for helping me -

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Answer 3

Sep 22, 2016 3:23 PM in response to akcorcoran

akcorcoran wrote:

Hi there -

SOOO I think they are in iCloud Photo Library. When I'm on my phone with iOS 10, I see "All Photos" and the total is just under 32K - BUT, I don't really NEED to see all 32,000 photos? In fact, I really don't want to? I'd like to know they are saved in their original resolution, but never need to access all those at a minutes notice - they took 10 years to accumulate!

Can I "archive" in iCloud Library? Segment them somehow?

But once I sign into iCloud, I think the 30K photos will come streaming back, right?

akc

Since you are seeing the All Photos album, then that indicates that, indeed, you have your photos all uploaded to the iCloud Photo Library.

However, the iCloud Photo Library is not an archival service, it is a syncing service. Basically, all of your photos are uploaded to iCloud, and iCloud becomes the "source" library. Any changes, updates, additions, deletions, etc. that you make on any device or computer that is logged into the same iCloud account with iCloud Photo Library turned on, will update the "source" library, and those changes will be reflected on all of the other devices and computers.

So, it is not a matter of having only some on your device.

However, you can use iCloud Photo Library without being required to have it turned on on your device. What that means is that photos that you take on your device will not be directly uploaded to iCloud Photo Library. You can have Photo Stream turned on, and if you are running Photos on a Mac, you can have that Photo Stream automatically upload new photos to the Photos app on the Mac. I believe (Larry, LACAllen, léonie, correct me if I'm wrong), that when those photos are automatically imported to the Mac's library, they will also be uploaded to the iCloud Photo Library since the Mac is using it, and it now has new photos, correct?

So, as Larry said, there are various combinations and routes you can take, but it would be easiest to decide what to do if you first decide what features you would like to use where.

Cheers,

GB

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Answer 4

LACAllen

Level 8

43,590 points

Sep 22, 2016 3:22 PM in response to akcorcoran

IMO then, iCloud Photo Library is not for you.

It's core strength is to sync your "entire" photo library between devices that are signed in with your Apple ID. This makes them all available to you "wherever you are" in a sense.

Not seeing that in your needs.

As GB points out, adding photos to a local OSX Photos library that is also synced with the iCloud Photo Library, puts them in play.

So if you added 1000 photos to your Mac Photos library from your RX10, those photos would be synced to your devices just as their photos are synced to your Mac.

Mucho content. Optimizing the content at the device level will only take you so far.

Resistance is futile. You will run out of storage on your devices.

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Answer 5

zinacef

Level 10

88,810 points

Sep 21, 2016 9:16 PM in response to akcorcoran

Why not just the photos in the iCloud Photo Library?

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