Photos, iCloud and OneDrive sync

Question

Level 1

5 points

Photos, iCloud and OneDrive sync

Hi all,

I have a question on how to best organize my photo library.

At the moment, on my OneDrive space (mapped also to a partition in my MacBook SSD) I have a folder called "Pictures" containing pretty much all my pictures and organized by folders.

Since my tech ecosystem is pretty much Apple branded (iPhone, iPad and MacBook) I would like to use the power and versatility of Photos and iCloud, in order to keep everything synchronized across my devices and free up some iPhone memory space.

Here is the question: I would like to keep my pictures backed-up on OneDrive, then set Photos on my Mac to visualize pictures from that folder, and using iCloud to share them across my devices.

- Will I be able to see the same folders structure on iPhone and iPad one synchronization has ended?

- More importantly, if I take a picture with my iPad, will it be placed not only on iCloud but also automatically added on Photos on Mac which, in turn, will place it in the Pictures folder on my OneDrive?

- Finally, taking pictures from my iDevices will store them in the Camera Roll. If I move them into folders, will the pictures be mapped (copied across iCloud) on my other devices consistently (in folder)?

I would like to remark that I am not trying to avoid using premium space on iCloud - I already have a 50GB subscription plan that I don't mind rising. I just would like to simply keep having all my pictures primarily on OneDrive.

Thank you in advance for any feedback you might have!

Paul

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014), macOS Sierra (10.12)

Posted on Oct 7, 2016 10:39 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Oct 7, 2016 2:12 PM in response to PaVi90

The answer is simply no

The Photos library can not be stored on a cloud based system and Photos does not work will with a referenced library so you can not have a local library references photos on One Drive -- the Photos library can only be on a directly connected local drive formatted Mac OS extended

You can sync between Macs and IOS devices using iCloud PHoto Library which syncs the photos and the album/folder structure between devices

When you import photos you can export them to your OneDrive folder and have a copy (not associated with Photos in any way) on One Drive

You can not have the same physical photos in Photos adn on One drive - each must have its own copy of the Photo

http://www.apple.com/icloud/photos/

LN

Reply

Answer 2

PaVi90 Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 7, 2016 12:20 PM in response to LarryHN

Thank you for your quick feedback!

The thing is, thought, OneDrive does physically synchronize with a hard drive partition on my MAC, formatted OS extended. Can this lead to any benefit or not in any ways?

Paul

Reply

Answer 3

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Oct 7, 2016 2:12 PM in response to PaVi90

The Photos library can not be synchronized except by ICPL and the copy on OneDrive is not on a properly formatted drive - you are risking losing all of your photos if place your library on any cloud service

LN

Reply

Answer 4

PaVi90 Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 7, 2016 2:16 PM in response to LarryHN

Thank you again Larry, this helped too!

I am thinking at this point to import everything from OneDrive to Photos. I guess if I keep checked the option "Copy items to Photo Library" then all pictures will be physically copied in a folder with which Photos interact. And I can go from there.

Two more things if possible:

will the folders structure be kept intact or all pictures will be imported "folderless"?
once I enable iCloud Photo on my iPhone and iPad Pro, I guess Photos will synch with those. But then, if I take a picture with my iPhone, do I have the ability to create a folder and place it in there, and this change be reflected everywhere? I guess yes, by reading Apple's description. But, will I also have a copy in the Camera Roll? Essentially the question is: once I place a picture shot in a folder, will just this folder with the picture be synchronized across devices or also its original copy in the Camera Roll will be present in all my other devices' Camera Rolls?

Paolo

Reply

Answer 5

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Oct 7, 2016 2:59 PM in response to PaVi90

am thinking at this point to import everything from OneDrive to Photos. I guess if I keep checked the option "Copy items to Photo Library" then all pictures will be physically copied in a folder with which Photos interact. And I can go from there.

yes

will the folders structure be kept intact or all pictures will be imported "folderless"?

\you import only photos but you can import one folder at a time and select them all in the last import album and create a new album matching your folder to maintain your structure --or you can use this user supplied script - Import Folders of Image Files into Library as Albums

once I enable iCloud Photo on my iPhone and iPad Pro, I guess Photos will synch with those. But then, if I take a picture with my iPhone, do I have the ability to create a folder and place it in there, and this change be reflected everywhere? I guess yes, by reading Apple's description. But, will I also have a copy in the Camera Roll? Essentially the question is: once I place a picture shot in a folder, will just this folder with the picture be synchronized across devices or also its original copy in the Camera Roll will be present in all my other devices' Camera Rolls?

As I said your structure is synced between devices - and there are no "copies" anywhere - you have a library an d ou view the photos in the library in different ways including the camera roll, albums, etc - one photo with many different window to view it through - a photos can be in any number of albums and it takes no extra space - it still is one single copy of the photo in the library

LN

Reply

Answer 6

PaVi90 Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 15, 2016 9:04 AM in response to LarryHN

Thank you, that really helped as well 🙂 I do apologize for my late reply as well.

If my understanding is correct, on a Mac everything (media important in Photos and files in iCloud Drive) is stored locally, while on iPad/iPhone devices not (you see a preview of the cloud and when you tap you download on the fly what you need, to save space).

Is there just a way to make both Photos and iCloud Drive, on my Mac, to store their local data on a location different than the main partition? Basically at the moment my OneDrive and Dropbox have been assigned on my Mac to a different OS X partition, so in case I need to format my data is "safer".

Paul

Reply