Figuring out iCloud Photos

Submitted by Wakellor957 t3_10ok624 in iphone

So, I'd like to start using iCloud Photos, but I'm not so sure about the very limited settings for it.

I'd like to take photos with the phone, then transfer them to my computer (it's a pc), sort them into folders and have a backup there and on another drive, then re-upload the sorted ones to iCloud so I can scroll through them all on my phone. Just wondering, will the "download and keep originals" setting download ALL PHOTOS ever uploaded to iCloud on my phone or will it only keep the ones I actually take with the phone?

The point of using iCloud for me would be so I can go through years of photos without a hard drive with me. Is this possible?

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Cezzium t1_j6f4c6c wrote

I may not explain this well.

iCloud Photos is what you describe - automatically. if your phone has storage the photo will be present there and also uploaded to the cloud.

if you have multiple devices you can see all your photos no matter what device and download as needed.

you just need to pay for the storage.

it will put all your photos in iCloud so you may need to do some maintenance. for example I take pics while shopping to see if my kids want something, but those are not keepers so I need to clean those off

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Wakellor957 OP t1_j6f6mmw wrote

So if a photo has been moved off the phone and to the Cloud, and I connect the phone to my PC and try to transfer photos. Will it then just transfer preview of those photos?

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Cezzium t1_j6f8hsp wrote

you can sign into iCloud directly from your computer via the web.

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Wakellor957 OP t1_j6ip14m wrote

Well it's a bit slow transferring over the Web, but I get what you mean. Thanks!

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Cezzium t1_j6ohqzs wrote

interesting - for me it has been fast. It certainly could be the type of connection.

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zwomt t1_j6gg6kz wrote

What do you mean by moved off. If you mean deleted then deleting it on the iPhone or computer deletes it from both of those and iCloud. Ie iCloud is a syncing service. It keeps all three in sync. You can use an option to limit how much space it takes on your phone and computer in which case it will keep full copies on iCloud and previews in your phone and computer. Or you tell it to also store full copies on your computer.

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Wakellor957 OP t1_j6ipaz8 wrote

So I mean; when my iPhone decides there's not enough space for more photos, then certain photos from my collection are retrospectively moved to the Cloud and only a preview remains. When this happens, and I try to move photos over the cable (which is faster) to my computer, will it then either not recognise those photos or transfer previews instead?

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zwomt t1_j6ipomg wrote

They are always in the cloud.

If you use the photos app to export the photos then full size ones are downloaded and exported from iCloud even if your computer only had a oreview

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