Icloud Photo Library Mac App

05.04.2020by
Icloud Photo Library Mac App Rating: 3,5/5 9982 reviews

Apple's online service, iCloud Photo Library, lets you seamlessly access, manage, edit, and share pictures and video from your iPhone, iPad, and your Mac. It's free to use — though if you want to store any real amount of data, you're going to have to pony up for a paid iCloud plan. I've had a lot of people over the years ask me whether they should turn on iCloud Photo Library: Is it safe? Is it secure? Is the cost of an iCloud plan worth it?

Sep 20, 2019  In this article, we will review iCloud photo storage and tell how to access iCloud Photo Library on iPad, iPhone, Windows PC, Android and online. To view the iCloud photo stream, first, turn on iCloud Photos on your device. Through the Photo App on your iPhone, iPad or Mac. ICloud Photo Library was introduced with iOS 8, but with the launch of the Photos for OS X app, it's now available on the Mac. In a nutshell, iCloud Photo Library is Apple's newest photo service.

What is iCloud Photo Library?

Essentially, iCloud Photo Library is an optional feature of Apple's iCloud service that can automatically back up and sync any images and video you take to iCloud. It works with Photos for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and also provides sync services for devices like Apple TV.

When you enable iCloud Photo Library, it uses your iCloud storage space to upload all images and video you've either taken, screenshot, saved, or imported on any of your iOS devices or Macs.

Apple supports a number of file types in iCloud Photo Library, including:

Jun 04, 2018 If you enable the iCloud Photo Library, your photos and videos are NOT included in your iCloud backup (it would be a duplicate backup and add to your storage total.) However, the iCloud Photo Library DOES count towards your total storage, so 5GB if you have the free plan and so forth depending on what iCloud storage plan you have. In the iCloud tab, make sure iCloud Photo Library is enabled. It may not be, because you switched libraries. It may not be, because you switched libraries. Then choose Download Originals to This Mac.

Nov 12, 2019 If you use the iCloud Photo Library service, all the images in your Photos or iPhoto Library are stored in iCloud, and any new photos you take with an iOS device are added to it and are accessible on all your devices that have iCloud Photos enabled. Despite this, the images and videos in your iCloud Photo Library should be backed up just like. Jan 05, 2020  If you want your Mac's photos to wirelessly sync to all your other iOS devices and computers, you want to set up iCloud Photo Library: Apple's photo sync service lets you back up your images on all your devices, as well as access them — online or offline — on said devices.If you're willing to pay for the extra iCloud storage space, you can store an incredible amount of photos and videos.

  • HEIF (Apple's high-efficiency image codec that saves disk space)
  • JPEG (most web-based image files)
  • RAW (image files that haven't been processed, usually from a high-end camera or third-party iPhone app)
  • PNG (images with transparent backgrounds; screenshots)
  • GIF (animations)
  • TIFF (often high-end graphics projects or photographs)
  • HEVC (Apple's high-efficiency video codec that saves disk space)
  • MP4 (video)
  • Apple-only specialty formats like slo-mo, time-lapse, and Live Photos

Jun 04, 2018  If you enable the iCloud Photo Library, your photos and videos are NOT included in your iCloud backup (it would be a duplicate backup and add to your storage total.) However, the iCloud Photo Library DOES count towards your total storage, so 5GB if you have the free plan and so forth depending on what iCloud storage plan you have.

You don't need to use iCloud Photo Library to use Apple's Photos app on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad; the app works without any cloud service involvement. But if you pass on using iCloud, we highly recommend finding a different way to back up your photos, lest you lose them accidentally.

If you do choose to use iCloud Photo Library, you'll likely need to pay for iCloud storage space to properly save all your images without clogging up your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Once you do, you'll have access to all its backup benefits along with its automatic sync across devices and sharing service.

The pros

After several years with iCloud Photo Library and the Photos apps on Mac and iPhone/iPad, I'm pretty familiar with the service's ups and downs. Thankfully, there are far more ups than downs — at least in my experience.

It just works — really!

Perhaps the biggest bullet point in iCloud Photo Library's 'pro' column for me is that Apple's iCloud team has a rock-solid 'it just works' sync product. Even during the earliest beta-testing days, I had no issues with iCloud losing or dropping images from my library.

I had only one sync error, which came from accidentally turning iCloud off on my MacBook before it had finished syncing up that library; as a result, those half-uploaded photos disappeared from my other devices. But they remained on my MacBook and repopulated on my iPhone and other Macs as soon as I re-enabled iCloud sync.

You really can access your photos from anywhere — and manage them, too

With iCloud Photo Library, my images are accessible everywhere — even on iCloud.com if I don't have one of my devices handy — and when I'm offline, I can still view low-resolution thumbnails of any pictures I haven't downloaded locally to my machine. I can even manage that library while offline: Delete an image while you're away from internet access, or add it to an album, and all of that syncs when you pop back online.

In addition, iCloud Photo Library solved one of my oldest iPhone photo management irritations: I can manage albums on my Mac and have them sync to my iPhone, and vice versa. That includes the People album, which automatically finds faces in images of your friends; this data now syncs across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac, too.

Your edits also sync across your devices

Forget having to make multiple copies of your images to edit them: iCloud Photo Library syncs non-destructive image edits across your devices, meaning that you can start editing an image on your iPhone, finish the touchup on your Mac, or undo it all on your iPad.

All hail optimized storage

iCloud Photo Library's Optimize Storage option automatically and smartly takes a percentage of your device's storage space for high-resolution versions of your most recent photos; any images or video that can't fit in that space are stored as low-resolution thumbnails. This space is variable, too — it doesn't take up every speck of free space you have, and instead appropriates a portion to photo storage, adjusting smartly on the fly.

If you need to download an older image or video that's been offloaded from your device and stored in iCloud, you need only tap it while on Wi-Fi; the Photos app will automatically remove the oldest images and video you've viewed in order to make room for the most-recently downloaded ones.

This is awesome not only for small-storage iOS devices but also for laptops: I love being able to carry around my 'entire' library on my Mac without also having to lug a 500GB external drive to view full-resolution Raw photos.

Secure, strong backups

While iCloud Photo Library's primary goal may be to provide you with the same library on all your devices, it also keeps a copy of that library safe and secure in iCloud using Apple's CloudKit framework. In the unlikely event of a hard drive malfunction, waterlogged iPhone, or other hardware disasters, your images will be safe and sound and ready to re-download.

The cons

For everything I love about iCloud Photo Library, it still has its flaws. For me, they aren't deal breakers, but they might be depending on your needs.

The iCloud storage cost

The cost of Apple's iCloud storage offerings has improved greatly over time, with $10 per month now netting you 2TB of iCloud storage space. However, while Apple's $10 a month plan now outdoes Dropbox, it still hasn't been able to match Google's 15GB free storage tier (not to mention the company's 'unlimited' free storage in the Google Photos app, which lets you save an endless number of mid-resolution photos at 16 megapixels or under).

While 2TB and the lesser-priced tiers should be enough for most people, that's still up to $10 each month, and Google's offer can look awfully tempting — especially when most photos taken on an iPhone come in below 16MP.

There is an Apple-based alternative out there for those who don't want to pay for an iCloud storage plan: Photo Stream. While the older sync service has largely been supplanted by iCloud Photo Library, it still offers a quick way to sync the most recent images to your other devices and back them up to your local hard drive.

You can't exclude certain photos from syncing

CloudKit is incredibly secure, but even so, there may be some images you'd prefer stay offline — whether for professional or personal reasons. Unfortunately, iCloud Photo Library is an all-or-nothing affair: If you want those photos offline, you'll have to move them out of Photos for Mac or iOS to do so.

It's (largely) tied into Photos for Mac and iOS

If you're a die-hard Lightroom user, iCloud Photo Library won't really help you — it's dependent on Photos for iOS and Photos for Mac. Photos for Mac does support external image editors like Photoshop and Pixelmator, and you can set up automation workflows to move your favorite Lightroom snaps to Photos. You can even upload images straight to iCloud.com, if you don't mind the workflow. But these alternate solutions aren't as easy as the default iCloud Photo Library checkbox that you get inside the Photos app.

There's also the question of reference libraries: Officially, iCloud Photo Library doesn't support syncing with an additional referenced Photos for Mac library (one held on an external drive), because of the potential for sync conflicts. There is a (cumbersome) workaround that involves multiple libraries and turning iCloud Photo Library on and off, but it may not be worth it for those who regularly need access to referenced images.

Bottom line

For me, iCloud Photo Library is an excellent way to bring my images and video to all my devices. It boasts impressive sync capabilities, offline photo access, and easy management and backup, even for gigantic libraries. But it also has a few caveats that, while not deal-breakers for me, might be for others. For those unsure what camp they're in, I'm hoping that I've cleared up iCloud Photo Library's pros and cons to help you make the decision that's right for your workflow.

Updated January 2020: Information is up-to-date through iOS 13 and macOS Catalina.

Serenity Caldwell contributed to a previous version of this article.

iCloud Photo Library: The Ultimate Guide

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The holidays are hitting this month and that means time with family and friends as well as making memories with your iPhone or iPad camera. You might very well take enough photos or video to run out of space on your iOS device, so today we’ll discuss how the iCloud Photo Library and Photos app work hand in had to help you manage your photo storage.

The Difference Between The Camera and Photos Apps
Back when the iPhone first arrived on the scene, there was only one Apple photography app called “Camera”. With Camera, you not only took photos, but could organize them, do a little bit of editing, and show them to your friends in the “Camera Roll”. When syncing an iOS device to a Mac, the images were synced to the iPhoto app on the Mac which provided a new way to organize and edit photos. iPhoto finally made it to iOS devices in 2012, bringing with it some of the best photo editing features found in a native Apple app at the time.

Apple likes to change things up so you don’t get too comfortable, and in February of 2015, the beta of Photos for iOS appeared. In April of 2015, Mac OS X 10.10.3 was released, formally doing away with iPhoto on both iOS and Mac OS X and replacing it with Photos (see the icon at the top right of this post).

There are a few ways to transfer your iTunes library from one computer to another. When you get a new Mac, use Setup Assistant (or Migration Assistant, if you’re switching from Windows) to move files—including your iTunes files—from your old computer to the new one. How to transfer itunes library to new computer mac 2017 Move your iTunes library to another computer. If you get a new computer, you can transfer your iTunes library by connecting computers or by using iPod or a portable drive. See the Apple Support article Back up and restore your iTunes library on your PC.

By splitting the functions of taking photos and editing them into two separate apps, Apple was able to focus on adding new features to the Camera app like HDR, Live Photos, Slo-Mo, Time-Lapse, and the Portrait mode (found only on the iPhone 7 Plus), while adding resolution to the cameras and keeping capture speeds fast. There was quite a bit of consternation about the loss of some editing features that existed in iPhoto and didn’t make it to the Photos app, but at least on the macOS version the ability to use extensions adds a tremendous amount of editing power. Hopefully iOS 11 will include Photos extensions.

Icloud Photo Library Mac App Free

Basically, Apple took the best photo taking features on iOS device and rolled them into a much more complete Camera app. The Photos app provides access to tools for organizing your media by “Moments”, by place, by type of photo (for example, panoramas or selfies), and more options. On the Mac, the Photos app also has powerful tools for printing your images professionally.

iCloud Photo Library
iCloud Photo Library puts all of your photos in the “cloud”, available on any compatible device over any type of Internet connection. What this means is that on any device connected to your iCloud account, you have full access to your photos. iCloud Photo Library is not enabled by default; you’ll be asked if you wish to enable it when setting up a new device. Should you decide to enable it on your own, the process is very simple. On an iOS device, launch Settings, choose iCloud, and then tap “Photos” (see image below).

iCloud Photo Library is enabled in Settings on this iPhone

Once you’ve done this, your entire photo library is uploaded to iCloud and stored there. This has a couple of enticing benefits: first, your photos are backed up to the cloud whenever you’re connected to Wi-Fi. Edit a photo, and the edited version appears in Photos on all devices. Delete a photo, and it’s deleted from all devices. The latter can be frustrating if you want to take a photo out of your iCloud Photo Library but want to keep it; we’ll discuss how to resolve that issue on Friday.

Download Icloud Photo Library To Pc

What’s the other big benefit of iCloud Photo Library? You can choose to store optimized versions of images and videos on your iPhone or iPad if you’re running low on storage. Your full-resolution originals are still out in the cloud, but you’ll get a version of the image that is optimized for the storage, screen size and resolution of a specific device. This really works — my Photos Library consists of 49, 648 items (both video and still photos) taking up 201.9GB on a 2TB iMac, yet I can view them on a 16GB iPad mini.

How do you turn on iCloud Photo Library on other devices? On the Mac, launch System Preferences, click the iCloud button, and then check the Photos box. Click “Options”, and you can choose to automatically upload and store the entire library in iCloud. Note that it can take quite a while for the photos and videos to make it out to iCloud depending on the speed of your internet connection.

To get access to your iCloud Photo Library on a 4th-generation Apple TV, go to Settings > Accounts > iCloud > iCloud Photo Library. And if you want to access the library from a Windows PC, the process is a bit more complex but can still be done:

1)Download the most recent version of iCloud for Windows (download link)

2) Open iCloud for Windows

Icloud Photo Library Iphone

3) Next to Photos, click Options

4) Click Done, then click Apply

How To Access Icloud Photo Library

5) If iCloud Photo Library is already enabled on your Apple devices, the photos will begin to sync with the PC. If you need to add photos to iCloud Photo Library from the Windows PC, just open a File Explorer window, click iCloud Photos (found under Favorites), click Upload Photos, then choose the photos and videos to be uploaded and select Open.

Caveats
Apple supplies everyone who signs up for an iCloud account with 5GB of free storage. That’s not a lot, and chances are good that you’ll need more storage quickly if you have a lot of photos or videos in your iCloud Photo Library. In the U.S., extra space in iCloud runs $0.99 monthly for 50GB, $2.99 monthly for 200GB, $9.99 monthly for 1TB and $19.99 monthly for 2TB.

You’ll know if you have reached your limit if you see a warning message like that seen above. You have the choice of either going to the next highest storage tier (sadly, there’s no tier above 2TB yet…) or moving some of your images and videos off of iCloud and onto your Mac or PC. To do this on a Mac, just launch Photos, then drag images and videos you want to take out of iCloud Photo Library to a folder on your Mac to copy them. Once you’re done, those photos can be deleted from Photos and iCloud Photo Library.

Conclusion
For many iOS and macOS users, iCloud Photo Library and the Photos app on the respective devices provide a good mix of backup and accessibility of media on any device. On Friday, we’ll follow up with an article about alternatives to iCloud Photo Library.

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