iCloud Photo Library: ExplainedWednesday, Apr 8, 2015 at 3446 pm EDT

iCloud Photo Library was designed to keep all your personal photos andvideos safe, synced, and available on all of your devices.

That sounds simple, but the idea of a hybrid library, where our contentseamlessly spans the internet and our iPhones, iPads, and Macs — wherethe line between online and offline blurs — can be tough to grasp.

For years many of us have manually, meticulously managed our photos andvideos — transferring them from our camera and phones over cables andlocal networks, organizing them into folders, backing them up to drives, andhoping beyond hope each time that nothing would be damaged or lost.

Various online services have popped up to help, but often they're just asmanual or they're attached to social networks whose views on privacy mightnot match our own.

iCloud Photo Library aims to solve all of that, by keeping all of our picturesand videos available, and doing it all automatically.

Online backup

iCloud Photo Library takes all the work and most of the risk out theprimary backup process.

With iCloud Photo Library, every picture or video you take with your iPhoneor iPad, or load into Photos for Mac, will be uploaded to Apple's servers.What's more, they'll be preserved in their original format, including any RAWfiles you may have imported.

That means all your pictures and videos are effectively backed up online,and if anything ever happens to your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, those pictures

and videos won't be lost. They'll still be there, in your iCloud Photo Library,available and accessible for any replacement device you get. You can evenaccess them from any web browser via iCloud.com.

Pictures and videos of our friends and families, of our children and pets, ofthe special events and occasions we enjoy together, are among the mostprecious, most irreplaceable of our possessions. Trusting them to a devicewe might lose, damage, or have stolen, or to a laborious transfer and backupsystem that might fail just when we need it the most, just isn't workable.

Likewise, having some old pictures and videos on your Mac and new ones onyour iPhone or iPad — a hodgepodge of different files on different devices —is just as untenable.

That's why iCloud Photo Library won't just backup pictures or videos as youtake them. It will backup all the pictures and videos on all your devices, newor old. That's all the pictures or videos you've taken and are in the Photos foriOS app on your iPhone or iPad, and all the iPhoto, Aperture, and file folderpictures and videos you've imported into Photos on your Mac. That's everypicture or video you've been collecting, for as long as you've been collectingthem.

In other words, iCloud Photo Library takes all the work and most of the riskout the primary backup process. One you enable it, whenever you're online,your pictures and videos are just backed up and your memories are keptsafe.

Sync and state

iCloud Photo Library is, essentially, also a sync tool.

Once your photos and videos are in iCloud Photo Library, as long as you'resigned into the same Apple ID (iTunes or iCloud account) and you've turnediCloud Library on, they're also available for on all your devices, including

iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

That means iCloud Photo Library is, essentially, also a sync tool. It makessure any picture you've taken or imported into Photos for iOS or Photos forMac isn't just backed up online, but pushed back down to all of your devices.

Snap a picture or video on your iPhone and it'll show up on your Mac. Importsome old pictures on your Mac and they'll be available on your iPad. It reallyis all your pictures and videos on all your devices.

What's more, iCloud Photo Library will propagate the "favorite" status ofyour pictures and videos. Hit the star one place, it shows up every place.

iCloud Photo Library will also preserve any edits you make to your picturesand videos. Any adjustments are stored separately from the picture andvideo itself but synced along with it, so if your brighten or saturate or crop aphoto on your iPad, those changes will also show up on your iPhone or Mac.If you trim a video on your Mac, it'll trim on your iPhone or iPad. And sinceedits in Photos are non-destructive, you can change them again, or reverseany changes, and that will sync as well.

It's not just all your pictures and videos everywhere, it's all your pictures andvideos everywhere, just the way you want them.

Storage savings

iCloud Photo Library does all the work, and you get to enjoy all yourpictures and videos.

iPhones and iPads are currently limited to between 8 GB and 128 GB ofstorage, and many people have a 16 GB or 32 GB device. Yet in an age of 8megapixel pictures and 1080p video, that fills up fast. Even a Mac with anSSD drive can storage constraints.

That's why keeping photos and videos all locally can be a problem — you

can run out of space, and sometimes sooner rather than later.

It's especially frustrating if you're anxiously trying to take a picture or videoof something amazing, or in a hurry to import something urgent, and you'retold there's no space left and all you can do is try and figure out, understress, what older pictures and videos you're willing to sacrifice to makeroom for the new.

Purely offloading all pictures and videos to the cloud isn't a perfect solutioneither. If they're all stored online and you end up with a slow, limited, or non-existent internet connection, you lose immediate access to any photos orvideos not stored to your device.

It's just as frustrating to run into a friend or relative and want to show themthat incredible picture or video and then run straight into zero bars and ablank screen.

Apple's solution to both problems is called "optimize storage" and what itdoes is smart. It takes a look at how much space is left on your device andthen begins to intelligently manage it for you. To save on storage, it caches amanageable portion of photos and videos on your device — your mostrecent, favorite, and frequently accessed — and keeps the rest — older andseldom accessed — up in the cloud.

Moreover, for the photos that are cached locally, iCloud Photo Libraryoptimizes them for the size of the display. If you're on an iPhone, you don'tneed the full sized RAW file, so you'll get an appropriately sized JPG. Forphotos that are on the cloud, you'll get a thumbnail, but can tap them at anytime to download them locally.

The result is that you have instant access to all the pictures and videos thatmatter most to you, and one tap access — provided you're online — to yourfull archive of pictures and videos. It is, very literally, the best of both worlds.

Best of all, since it's automatic, you don't have to worry about cables orcards, files or folders, micromanaging or manually moving things around.

All you have to do is set it and forget it. iCloud Photo Library does all thework, and you get to enjoy all your pictures and videos.

iCloud plans

iCloud Photo Library counts towards your iCloud storage pool. Everyone withan Apple device gets 5 GB of storage for free. For most people, part of thatspace will be taken up by device backups, mail, and other data. How muchthat leaves for pictures and videos can vary. You can, however, buy moreiCloud storage whenever you like. As online storage goes, it's notinexpensive, but Apple doesn't show ads against your pictures and videos,doesn't use them in ads, doesn't collect and broker your data for ads, orotherwise monetize your or your content. Everything has a price. Applesimply sticks to money (sometimes a lot of it) rather than data or attention.

Current monthly iCloud plan options include:

20 GB: $0.99200 GB: $3.99500 GB: $9.991 TB: $19.99

Security and privacy

iCloud Photo Library uses end-to-end AES 128 encryption to keep yourpictures and videos secure during upload from your iPhone, iPad, and Macand the servers, while being stored on the servers, and while being sentback down to your devices. And if there's ever anything you decide you don'twant to keep, you can delete, with 30-days to change your mind, orimmediately, so it's done and gone forever.

That lets iCloud Photo Library keep everything available, but also keep it

private and secure.

iCloud Photo Library Security: What you need to know

The bottom line

iCloud Photo Library backs up all your pictures and videos, syncs themacross all your devices, and intelligently manages your storage so you don'trun out of space on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. It takes all of the problemstypically associated with picture and offers a simple, efficient solution.

Professional photographers and videographers will likely still need to takecare of libraries, but for most people, most of the time, iCloud Photo Librarymakes manual management a thing of the past, and brings us fully into theautomatic future.

iCloud Photo Library and PhotoStream: What's the difference?Wednesday, Apr 8, 2015 at 2353 pm EDT

What's the difference between iCloud Photo Library and My Photo Stream?

With iCloud Photo Library, you can store all your photos in iCloud with nolimits, unlike the traditional Photo Stream we've been accustomed to for thepast few years. As long as you have enough iCloud storage, iCloud PhotoLibrary will save all your photos. But what happens to your regular PhotoStream when you enable iCloud Photo Library? And more importantly, wheredid all your synced albums go? We've got the answers to these questionsand more!

An overview of the differences between iCloud Photo Libraryand Photo Stream

There are a few key differences between iCloud Photo Library and PhotoStream that you need to remember. Before we start: It's important to notethat at this time iCloud Photo Library is still in beta form; as such, werecommend always backing up any photos you plan to store on the service.That caveat over with, it's time to break down what each service offers andhow they differ. Here's a brief overview:

Regular Photo Stream:

Only stores your most recent 1000 photos or the last 30 days ofimages, whichever is greaterDoes not use your iCloud storage allotmentCompatible across all devices including iPhone, iPad, Mac, and PCStores web-optimized versions of your photos, which may degradequality

Does not upload and sync videosYou can still sync photos and albums from your Mac or PC via iTuneswhen Photo Stream is enabled

iCloud Photo Library:

Stores all your photos and personal video and has no limits as long asyou have the iCloud storage space to support itUses your iCloud storage allotmentAccessible on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and online via iCloud.comStores full-resolution photos on the server and on your devices andsupports many file formats including JPG, RAW, PNG, GIF, TIFF, andothersUploads and syncs videos as well as photosYou can not sync albums and photos from your Mac or PC via iTuneswhen using iCloud Photo Library, and any existing albums will beremoved when you enable the service

I've enabled iCloud Photo Library, my Photo Stream iscompletely gone! Why?!

Your Photo Stream isn't technically gone. Since iCloud Photo Library nowstores all your photos instead of just the most recent 1000 or last 30 days,it'd be confusing to divide up your Photo Stream and Camera Roll. As such,anything that appears in All Photos is backed up to iCloud Photo Library andavailable on any iOS device with iCloud Photo Library enabled.

If you switch on the "Upload to My Photo Stream" option in Settings >Photos & Camera, your last 1000 photos/last 30 days of images will still getuploaded to Photo Stream, and will display on a Mac, PC, or iOS device (withiCloud Photo Library enabled). Note: If you have multiple iOS devices, makesure to turn iCloud Photo Library on for all of them or none of them — if youhave one device with iCloud Photo Library enabled, but another with just

Photo Stream enabled, those devices won't talk to each other, and you won'tsee photos from one on the other.

How to enable or disable Photo Stream on iPhone and iPad

You can tweak a few settings as to how your iPhone or iPad handles youriCloud Photo Library images on device. Currently, you can choose to eitherstore web-optimized versions (thus saving storage space), or download andsave high-resolution copies to your device. If you aren't sure where to findthis setting, you can follow our guide:

How to save space on your iPhone or iPad with iCloud Photo Library

Can I still access photos on my Mac or PC if I enable iCloudPhoto Library?

Yup! You can access your entire iCloud Photo Library on the new Photos forMac or via iCloud.com. As with your iOS deices, if you're going to use iCloud

Photo Library, the best way to keep your images in sync across platforms isto make sure you have both iCloud Photo Library and Photo Stream enabledon all your devices.

How to access iCloud Photo Library onthe webWednesday, Apr 8, 2015 at 5335 am EDT

iCloud Photo Library lets you easily access all your pictures and videos fromanywhere, including the web.

Sure, the Photos apps for iOS and OS X are fast, convenient, and pack a lotof features, but there might come a time when you don't have eitheravailable to you. That's when iCloud Photo Library being part of iCloud reallycomes in handy — because you can access everything you have onlinestraight from any web browser you have available to you. All you need is aconnection, your Apple ID, and iCloud.com.

Note, the first time you load iCloud Photo Library on the web, it might take awhile. If you see Preparing Library..., either be patient or come back later.You can leave iCloud.com temporarily and your library will continue topopulate, so don't worry. This should only happen the first time. Once it'sdone, your entire photo library will appear and subsequent load times will bemuch, much faster.

How to access and view photos in iCloud Photo Library on theweb

1. Launch any web browser and go to iCloud.com.2. Click on the Photos icon from the main menu.

How to back up your iCloud PhotoLibraryTuesday, Feb 7, 2017 at 4200 pm EST

How do you back up your iCloud Photo Library if online alone isn't enough?Like this!

iCloud Photo Library can contain irreplaceable photos and videos and, assuch, you want to make sure you back it up right. Apple will keep copiesonline, subject to how much storage your plan has available, but you reallywant more than that. You want a local backup as well... and maybe more.

Note: Since you really do need sufficient drive space to store all your photosor videos, a desktop Mac with a big hard drive is best, or a laptop or desktopwith a big external drive that hosts your local Photos library. Beforeproceeding, make sure you have enough storage to fit your needs.

How to download all your original iCloud Photo Librarycontent to your Mac

1. Launch Photos for macOS on your Mac2. Go to the Photos > Preferences menu (or type CMD + , (comma key))3. Click on the iCloud tab

4. Click on Download Originals to this Mac

Once all your photos and videos have finished downloading to your Mac,you'll have a primary local backup.

How to make a second local backup of your iCloud PhotoLibrary

Having one local copy of your iCloud Photo Library is good. Having morethan one is better. Once you've checked the box to keep a copy of all yourphotos and videos on your Mac, if you already back up your Mac using TimeMachine, or clone it using SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy, your iCloud Librarywill automatically be backed up as well. (And if you don't, now's a good timeto start!)

How to backup your Mac using Time MachineHow to backup your Mac using SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner

How to make an online backup of your iCloud Photo Library

Even though iCloud Photo Library is, as the name implies, stored on iCloud,you should consider having a secondary online backup. The good news is,once you have your local backup, if you already use a service like BackBlazeor Crash Plan, you're also already getting that secondary online backup. (Ifnot, also consider it a good time to start!)

How to backup your Mac using BackBlaze or Crash Plan

Any iCloud Photo Library backup questions?

Have any questions about how to back up your iCloud Photo Library, orabout backups or iCloud Photo Library in general? Drop them in thecomments below!

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How to set up iCloud Photo Library onyour Mac or PCWednesday, Apr 8, 2015 at 5334 am EDT

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, all accessible at the touch of a button or

multi-touch screen.

Here's how to set it up on your Mac with Photos for OS X as well as how to

access your images from a PC or older Mac.

How to enable iCloud Photo Library using Photos for OS X

1. Launch the Photos app on your Mac.

2. Visit the Photos > Preferences menu.

3. Click on the iCloud tab.

4. Check "iCloud Photo Library." This will begin uploading any and all

images you have stored in the Photos app to iCloud.

From here, you have the option to either keep all your iCloud-stored photos

also downloaded on your Mac, or optimize your storage by only keeping a

portion of your library accessible from your hard drive, while the rest remains

stored in iCloud.

You can read our full guide on optimizing vs keeping originals for more

information, but in short, I recommend the following: If you're on a desktop

Mac with a large hard drive, download everything; if you're viewing your

images on a laptop or a Mac with a small hard drive, go for optimization.

How to view iCloud Photo Library using your PC or older Mac

If you're on a PC or a Mac that doesn't have OS X 10.10.3 installed, never

fear: You can still view, download, and upload images via iCloud.com. Here's

how.

1. Visit iCloud.com and enter in your username and password.

2. Click the Photos icon on iCloud.com.

Your online library should begin preparing. When it's finished, you'll be able

to view your uploaded photos and videos, favorite them, download them to

your computer or share them via email, and upload images. You can upload

images in JPG, PNG, or Raw form and they'll live in iCloud accordingly;

Uploading video is currently not supported, though it may come in a future

iCloud.com update.

How to use iCloud's Family Sharingwith Photos for OS XThursday, Apr 9, 2015 at 5344 pm EDT

You can't sync your entire iCloud Photo Library with your family, but you canstill share images with them.

While iCloud Photo Library supports syncing your photos, videos, andalbums across your own personal devices, it doesn't offer an option to synceverything to a family member's device: After all, do you really want to shareevery photo or video you've ever taken with your family? Probably not.

As such, if you have Family Sharing enabled, you'll still have your own Photoslibrary. But that doesn't mean you can't still share images with each othereasily. Here are three options I've been using to keep my family in the loop.

Use Family Sharing's Family album

If you have iCloud's Family Sharing option enabled along with iCloud PhotoSharing, you'll see a special album called "Family" in the Shared tab of thePhotos for OS X app, as well as the Shared section of the Photos app oniPhone and iPad. This album will automatically sync with all members withinyour Family Sharing group.

To add photos to the shared stream, select them and click the Share button.From there, choose iCloud Photo Library, and select the Family album. Theimages will then sync over to your family member's device.

If you want to add your family's images from this shared stream to yourPhotos library, you'll first need to turn on the sidebar in Photos by going toView > Show Sidebar from the menu bar. Then navigate to your sharedstream and select the photos you wish to import, and drag them to thePhotos entry in the sidebar. Once you do, they'll copy over to your Photoslibrary and sync with iCloud Photo Library, if you have it enabled.

Use iCloud Photo Sharing to share images with your family

If you don't have Family Sharing enabled, you can still use iCloud PhotoSharing to send certain images to your family, while keeping the ones youdon't confined to your own iCloud account. Here's a quick primer on settingup Sharing and an album for your family and close friends.

1. Make sure you have Photo Sharing turned on. To do so, visit Photos >Preferences > iCloud from the menu bar and click the checkbox nextto iCloud Photo Sharing. You don't technically even need iCloudenabled to use this feature — it'll work even if iCloud Photo Library isn'tturned on.

2. Navigate to the Shared tab and press the plus button in the toolbar.You'll be asked to name your shared album, invite other iCloudmembers, and add a comment about the album. A word to the wise: Youcan invite (or disinvite) more people at any time, but once you name analbum, you name it for good — so choose something timeless!

3. Click Create to start sharing photos with your family members. You canadd images at any time from your library by selecting them and clickingthe Share button, choosing iCloud Photo Library, and selecting thealbum you want them to go to.

4. The images will then sync over to your family member's device. Theycan add images themselves at any point by following the sameinstructions outlined in step three.

If you want to add images from your shared stream into your Photos library,here's how.

1. Turn on the sidebar in Photos by going to View > Show Sidebar fromthe menu bar.

2. Navigate to your shared stream and select the photos you wish toimport.

3. Drag the selected photos to the Photos entry in the sidebar. They'll thencopy over to your Photos library and sync with iCloud Photo Library, ifyou have it enabled.

Share an iCloud ID

This method is far less common in the age of Family Sharing for iTunes andthe like, but on the off-chance that you still use a single ID for yourpurchases, you can unify your libraries by signing into iCloud on each deviceyou want to share photos with, then turning on iCloud Photo Library.

Be advised, however, that doing so will share every photo taken or uploadedfrom each device — you'll have no way to curate what you want (or don'twant) to share.