iCloud Photo Library - what it is, how to turn it on and off. iCloud Media Library - sorted out

Imagine that you are a representative of that small segment of iTunes users who keeps their media library in perfect condition. Each album in mandatory the cover was assigned, all the tags were meticulously written, a rating was given in front of thousands of compositions, and the number of hand-selected playlists exceeded the second ten. For you, music is more than just a collection of bytes. You accumulate your media library over the years by buying albums at iTunes Store or searching for rare recordings on torrents. And the files themselves are not stored in corners hard drive, and in the automatically generated file iTunes library- arranged in folders and always at hand.

And then one fine morning you notice that your wonderful media library is sick. Yes, she is so sick that with every moment the desire to shoot her (so as not to suffer) only increases. After all, some real nightmare is happening before your eyes. Several duplicates of the same album appear, the covers are completely confused, the playlists are filled with completely arbitrary songs. Moreover, when playing songs, their content is completely at odds with the metadata! “No, no, this is Bob Dylan, not Cage the Elephant!” is spinning in your head, but you can’t help it.

This is exactly what happened to me. The only difference is that my catastrophe was not spontaneous. It did not arise on its own. It arose after iTunes updates until the long-awaited version 12.2, which brought us Apple Music and iCloud Music Library. If I and hundreds (if not thousands) of other iTunes users knew in advance what awaited them, we would not have made any sudden movements. However, the “Enable iCloud Photo Library” button seemed harmless enough at first glance.

For some reason iCloud could not cope with uploading the library to the cloud, and near each songs put a warning that, supposedly, this composition has already been uploaded to iCloud. My first suspicion was my iTunes Match subscription, which I canceled at the end of last year. Perhaps due to some error, the files were still left on the server, and Apple Music's actions caused some kind of conflict. Multiple comments on the Apple forums support my theory that it was former iTunes Match subscribers who faced similar horrors.

However, purely outwardly it seemed that all the confusion was caused solely by a malfunction in the program itself - supposedly, an attempt to enable iCloud Media Library caused a “linear shift” of metadata. Moreover, the records that were among the first to be added to iTunes were “distributed” - which also looked a little strange. Fast enough in the depths file system were found backups directly iTunes media libraries in .itl format - iTunes prudently makes a save before each software update. (backups are located at C:\Users\\Music\iTunes\Previous iTunes Libraries)

By “substituting” the last found .itl instead of the current library, we were able to return iTunes to the state it was in before the update. Unfortunately, this was just the beginning of my torment. It turned out that taking advantage of its permissiveness within the iTunes Media catalog, iTunes replaced the metadata not only in its database, but also directly in files. Moreover, he scattered the “corrected” files inside his directory as desired. Naturally, previous version The database was dismayed by this turn. It turned out that when I tried to play some songs, I got an error saying “File not found.”

The following paragraphs describe the process of “curing” the media library in fairly small technical details. If you are not interested, you can scroll through the article until the next similar warning.

And how could he even be found? There were several hundred broken songs; searching for them all manually and moving them to their original location (also manually correcting the metadata along the way) was not an option. Using the golden rule “no one will help you except yourself,” I decided to use the language Python programming, extremely convenient for writing this kind of scripts. The main task was the same - to delve into the organization of the iTunes library database file and find a way to determine the “past life” of the damaged file in order to then return it to its place.

A similar loophole was found quite quickly. iTunes, after launching with a new .itl file, automatically generates XML document, in which it stores information about its media library. In the XML file you can find information about each individual composition - title, album, artist, genre, and so on. The most interesting field turned out to be “Persistent ID” - this is a code set of letters and numbers that is assigned to a file when it is added to the media library and doesn't change no matter what happens to him. It was from this field that it was possible to determine what kind of song was actually in front of us. And considering that the information about the song also included its location, the task finally became completely understandable and tangible.

That is, it was necessary to compare two XML file- With correct information and with incorrect information. If songs with the same Persistent ID have different file locations, you just need to move it, simultaneously clearing it of metadata - iTunes itself will then “pull” them from its library.

I admit that my Python development skills are quite mediocre, so I had to suffer quite a bit to implement this simple algorithm. When writing the program, the built-in library plistlib (which turns plist-XML into a conveniently formatted “dict”) and the external library mutagen (for working with ID3 tags and more) were used. In the end, development and debugging took me a little over eight hours, but the resulting script did exactly what I expected from it.

I will not post the script in open access, since its operation requires special conditions and I cannot guarantee its performance in each individual case. However, if you, like me, are faced with the problem described above, be sure to contact me - I will provide the code and tell you how to use it. Current contacts you will always find in mine.

At this point the technical details end and the thoughts continue that “ Apple has already not that one"

After my music was almost completely disinfected, I made another attempt to connect iCloud Music Library - this time by clearing it first. It didn't help. Another warning about “duplicates”, another metadata disaster. True, the second time it didn’t cause so much horror - literally in two clicks everything returned to initial state. However, after that, I finally decided that Apple Music is not for me, and until it is fixed, it is simply impossible to use it.

As far as I know, this has already happened before - with launching iTunes Match. It's good that I didn't encounter this then. But I’m already anticipating your comments that “everything is working fine for everyone, and here you are rubbing some bullshit on me.” So no, it doesn't work. Comments on

Apple is a world famous company that is the most the best manufacturer computer devices. This company has high demand in the market and constantly surprises its users with new developments. Among their products you can find mobile phones, tablets, laptops, computers and much more. Each development is of high quality and is necessarily part of the huge Apple system. But the company is not known for technologies alone, since some of its departments are actively developing and software, which can be used exclusively by the buyer of their equipment.

And today we will talk about the famous and still quite young software product which is known as iCloud Photo Library. In this article we will look at what this program is, how to use it, what functions it has, and what you can generally expect from it. It is worth recalling that Apple constantly supports its developments, regardless of the year of their production, releasing various updates and extensions along the way.

What kind of program?

So, iCloud Photo Library is link all equipment that was developed by Steve Jobs' company. This program is a kind of virtual storage that can synchronize all the devices you have with each other. The main condition, of course, is production by one company. It's no secret that almost every device uses a single account for its native equipment, that is, you will not be able to connect several developments with each other until you confirm your account, pass verification and identify serial numbers. For example, you can synchronize a mobile phone and a tablet, then connect a computer to them, etc. An important requirement is the presence of the Internet and initial knowledge program control, although all this is contained in the proposed instructions that are provided with the product. Everyone can manage the iCloud media library; the main thing is to start using it, and in the future you will not have any questions or misunderstandings.

What is it for?

We have figured out the basis, but what functions does it contain? Is this interesting and useful application, which can make our devices easier to use? Indeed it is! Media library iCloud iTunes allows you to easily synchronize data between devices using cloud storage. That is, all data stored on the iMac has a copy in the cloud storage, and this allows you to receive data from any device and move everything necessary information without unnecessary reasons, registration and waiting. Convenient, isn't it?

iCloud Media Library allows you to transfer any digital data in the shortest possible time and process it on another device within a minute. The data includes mainly multimedia files, but you can also use simple documents, presentations, etc. You just have to take into account the amount of storage memory.

How to enable it?

Everything is clear about the functionality, but how to enable the iCloud media library? This is quite easy to do, since standard settings allow you to use a switch between the program's sleep and active states. To do this, you need to go to the device settings, find iCloud menu and find the “iCloud Media Library” sub-item, then simply activate the slider, and the function will be available to you. Do not forget that use requires registration and creation of a single account for devices. After all these steps, you will be able to log in and exchange data with virtual server. The server has a limited amount of memory, which must be filled wisely, otherwise you simply will not have enough space. But that's just initial stage use of storage, which can be expanded in the future. You can also specify in the settings exactly what data you will synchronize and which devices to recognize.

Photo storage

So, the iCloud media library is turned on, now all that remains is to start using it and admire the convenience. The first function of the service is cloud transfer of photos. If you have iCloud active, then every photo you take during the day will have a backup copy in the service. It will be stored for some time to protect you from accidental deletion of data. Then you can simply delete it from your phone, and it will remain in your cloud storage forever. Quite a convenient method, especially when you have to take photographs often. But that's not all the features, as iCloud comes with a photo editor. It is, of course, not as advanced as, for example, Photoshop, but it allows you to edit the color scheme and cut out unnecessary things from the frame. And this is already more interesting than any similar service; the most interesting thing is that you can use the editor from any device.

Video storage

iCloud Media Library is recommended for use by absolutely everyone, from ordinary users, ending business people. Why is the application so popular? It's quite simple: iCloud, in addition to the main storage and synchronization function, allows you to use various editors for multimedia files. For example, in addition to the content of video recordings in the storage, they can also be edited and converted at your discretion. You witnessed an unusual phenomenon, filmed what was happening, quickly edited it in iCloud, left it for storage and from there uploaded it to any video hosting service.

Efficiency, convenience and ease of management are the main advantages of this service. And this already opens up great opportunities for maintaining a personal video diary and active employment in the field of video recording. Editor at at the moment has standard features, but this is not the limit, since in the future it will actively develop.

Music content storage

iCloud Music Library, as you already understood, offers standard features and an accompanying editor. The main functions allow you to create audio albums and store all information in the cloud, and the editor allows you to process without much effort and knowledge audio tracks, create your own tracks and simply edit the resulting audio recordings.

At first glance, these are not very popular functions, but it’s worth remembering how many people are doing this kind of thing, and now that it’s possible to always have a convenient editor at hand, it’s already becoming popular. These are, in fact, all the functions that the iCloud media library has. There are few of them, but they are detailed and may well be useful at any time. Considering that we are now in the digital age, it is worth understanding the importance of these skills and capabilities. Various social networks, a huge abundance of videos and many other examples - all this will require you proper operation with different data options. But there is one small and not very pleasant problem that is easily solved, but is emerging more and more often.

Problems with use

If you can't enable iCloud Music Library, what should you do in this situation? Oddly enough, this is not the result of a breakdown or deception. The program cannot be activated if you do not have a registered account and licensed products. Yes, nowadays there are a huge number of counterfeits of Apple products, which look absolutely original and fresh, but in reality it turns out that under the layer of beauty there is an empty blank, without the ability to use various services and other possibilities.

To determine whether the original is in front of you or not, you should remember important rule: Buy products exclusively from designated Apple centers. Even large retail chains do not hesitate to sell counterfeit goods. Be careful and you will immediately save yourself from many problems and extra costs. As for the inability to connect, this problem lies in the lack of Internet or registration of a place in the cloud storage. It's easy to fix these problems, the main thing is to find the time for it.

Main purpose

iCloud Media Library, at first glance, is designed to store data from any device in virtual space. But on the other hand, this service is able to solve the main problem, which concerns the unpleasant situation when a user forgets the password and his device is blocked. Thanks to this cloud storage, any user can special problems Reset your device, thereby saving all data. This will avoid problems with blocking and continue to use your device. And other opportunities that relate to the free transfer of data, their editing and publication in social networks, - all this is just a pleasant addition to the main purpose.

Program requirement

How to disable iCloud Music Library? Before answering this question, it is necessary to consider what is required for this program to work? After all, if the basic conditions are not met, then the inclusion of this development simply will not be necessary. There are only two conditions: the use of a licensed device and the presence of the Internet. There is also a requirement to register an account, but this is completely different. Regarding the Internet: it must be provided to you by the operator mobile communications at special rates. And we already talked about the licensed device earlier in this article. Implementation of these simple rules will help you get rid of problems and use your device calmly.

How can I turn it off?

How to disable iCloud Music Library in iTunes? This is as easy to do as when you turn it on. You just have to go to the menu of your device, find a special setting called iCloud, and redirect the slider towards disabling. After this, your device will not sync with cloud storage, which will allow you to store data on your device. Now you know how to disable iCloud media library, however, this is not recommended, since this function has a lot of positive and useful services, which you will surely find useful.

Further development

That, in fact, is all the information related to the iCloud service. Now you know almost everything about this Apple service, however, it is also worth recalling that all these features were implemented quite recently and do not yet constitute a full-fledged service. Apple has stated that it will actively develop its brainchild, add editors, expand the space and simply organize the use of this service. About the volume Apple storage has already implemented its plans, however, its expansion is paid, although not for a lot of money.

Today, Apple is a fairly successful and popular brand. The company's products are in wide demand on the market, are constantly being improved and delight users with new devices, headsets and stylish designs.

Apple's product range includes wrist watch, tablets, mobile phones, all-in-one PCs, computers and much more. Each type of equipment is different from its competitors high quality and ease of use. However, it is not known for technologies alone this company, its departments are intensively developing software that can be used exclusively by the user of their equipment.

iCloud Photo Library

One of Apple's software is iCloud Music Library. What is it? this program? It can be said that iCloud is the main component of the entire range of equipment ever created by Apple. The program is a virtual storage that is capable of synchronizing all existing devices of a given brand. The appendix to this software provides a detailed usage diagram that will quickly orient the user and show all the capabilities and benefits of the ICloud media library.

Main features of the media library

What can the presented program offer? This media library will greatly simplify and facilitate the use of multiple Apple devices. As mentioned earlier, this is a cloud in which all the files of a particular user are stored. Documents, photos, audio, video and everything else are in the media library.

In reality modern life Very often, using only a phone or laptop is not enough. Probably every user is familiar with the situation when half of the information is stored on the laptop, a quarter on the phone, and a little more on the tablet. And it is very inconvenient to constantly transfer everything from one device to another. It is this function that the iCloud media library took on. Now all files are stored in the cloud, and happy owner Apple products can easily be accessed from absolutely any device without unnecessary manipulation.

iCloud Photo Library initiates minimum terms transfer of any digital information and within a couple of seconds processing it on another device. As a rule, multimedia files are given priority, but presentations can also be transferred. text documents and other information. The main thing is to monitor the memory remaining on the device.

How to get started with iCloud cloud storage?

How to create iCloud? Where can I find instructions for working with the media library? How to access iCloud Music Library? To start using the cloud, you need to register and create a single account for all existing Apple devices.

How to enable iCloud Photo Library? Get started with Icloud storage simple enough. To do this, you just need to go to the gadget settings, find the ICloud application and activate the program.

Now access to cloud storage is open, and you can synchronize files between devices. The storage server has a limited memory size, but this is just an initial step in using storage, which can be expanded in the future. In addition, in the iCloud settings you can specify which devices the user wants to recognize and with whom they will synchronize available information in the cloud.

How to use iCloud Photo Library?

This software is designed to make it as easy as possible to use information and synchronize between devices. So why not get the most useful and necessary from the application?

For most users, capturing the world around them and themselves in it has become an integral part of the day. In accordance with this trend, the service has a cloud photo broadcast function. If iCloud is active, then every photo the user takes during the day will have a backup copy in the cloud service.

The photograph taken will be stored for some time, which will protect the user from accidental deletion of data. Even if you delete a photo from your device, the image will not disappear, being saved in the cloud storage. Quite convenient, especially when you often have to take photographs.

However, these are not all the functions - together with iCloud, the service is offered as a photo editor. The program, of course, cannot compare with an advanced editor, for example, with Photoshop, but it is quite easy to use and contains a basic set of image corrections: editing the sharpness and contrast of the image, applying various effects, adjusting color range images and cropping unnecessary areas of the photo. For high-quality photo quite enough. This editor is available on any device synchronized with your iCloud library.

Media Library saves videos

The iCloud media library is recommended for use by absolutely everyone, from ordinary users to professional programmers. Why did the application become so popular? Everything is quite simple: iCloud, in addition to the main function of storing and optimizing information, allows you to use different editors for multimedia files. For example, in addition to storing video recordings in the cloud, they can also be edited and converted at the user’s discretion.

Now a user who has witnessed an extraordinary phenomenon can not only quickly film the incident, but also edit the video in iCloud app, save the file and upload it from there to any video service.

Efficiency, productivity and ease of management are the most important advantages of this service. The media library is convenient to use for maintaining your own video diary and being active in the field of video recording. As for the video editor, its future, unlike its photo counterpart, is still ahead.

How to view photos in the media library?

How to view your iCloud library on iPhone or PC? Photos taken on any device can be viewed from another device anywhere. How to view photos that were taken on iPhone from a computer? And how can I see screenshots that were saved on my laptop through my smartphone? Just go to the “Gallery”, open the “Current” section, where the latest photos that have been added to the library will be displayed.

You can create a shared album for a specific event. To invite a friend, you just need to select him from your contact list. You can add up to one hundred friends to your shared album. Adding new photos is very simple - you just need to select " Sharing to the photo..." and mark the required images.

Delete photos and videos from iCloud storage

In order to stabilize the storage volume, of course, you have to clean out your media library from time to time. Delete photos or videos in iCloud program Quite simple, as a rule, the procedure takes only a couple of minutes:

First you need to delete photos on one (any) device. The files will be moved to the “Recently Deleted” folder and after 20 days the pictures will disappear automatically.
You can also delete a photo directly from the cloud in the Recently Deleted album.

Your favorite music is always at your fingertips in iCloud

The media library functions allow you to create audio albums and store all data in the cloud, and in the editor you can process audio tracks without special knowledge, create your own tracks and simply edit audio recordings. As a rule, users of Apple devices are only interested in listening to tracks. But once you try to mix tracks together, the service will not leave anyone indifferent.

These are virtually all the functions that iCloud Photo Library has. There may be few options, but they will always be at hand, detailed and useful.

iCloud plans

As already mentioned, the cloud has a limited volume. Free 5 GB available to all users, to expand your media library you need to purchase extra gigabytes. The following tariff plans are available:

50 GB. The cost of additional volume is 59 rubles per month.
200 GB. 149 rubles per month.
2 TB. 599 rubles per month.

There is no free option to expand storage space for photos, videos and other media files. Only paid plans are available.

You can increase your storage capacity from your smartphone or PC. All it takes is a few clicks and data. bank card for payment tariff plan. Tariff renewal is done in the same way - via a smartphone or computer.

Problems accessing iCloud storage

Many users believe that the iCloud media library does not turn on due to a breakdown or malfunction of the application. But in reality, everything turns out completely differently. Only those who are registered in the iCloud Library have access to Apple system. However, today there is an unlimited number of counterfeits of Apple products that look like real ones, but in fact it turns out that a meaningless Chinese craft is hiding under a layer of diversity. Of course, the possibility of using official services disappears.

To understand whether the seller is offering the original or not, you need to remember one fundamental rule: you should purchase products exclusively at specialized Apple centers. Even large retail chains can sell counterfeits. As for the inability to connect, this difficulty lies in the lack of a web connection or registration of space in the cloud storage.

The main purpose of the program

iCloud Media Library is designed to store data from all Apple devices in one place. virtual cloud. But on the other hand, specifically this service can help solve the main problem regarding the blocking situation technical means due to input incorrect password. Who hasn't had this situation? Since all device information is stored in virtual storage, you can always reset all options and device settings, thereby restoring the functionality of the gadget.

Thus, the media library to some extent helps to prevent devices from being blocked and to continue using the gadget. And the remaining features regarding the free transfer of data, editing and publishing on social networks are all just a pleasant addition to the main purpose.

Media library system requirements

Terms normal functioning programs serve: the presence of a licensed device and an Internet connection. There is also a requirement to register a profile. Regarding the web: the connection must be provided by the operator cellular communication, which can tell you more about the possibilities of the tariff and traffic on the Internet. It has already been said about profile registration that registration is supported only by a licensed device.

Delete iCloud Photo Library

Disabling the program will not be difficult. Doing this is as simple as activating the add-on. You just need to go to the smartphone menu, find the iCloud setting and redirect the slider towards disabling. After this, the device will not synchronize with cloud storage, which will allow you to store the data on your own smartphone.

It’s clear how to disable the iCloud media library, but it’s not advisable to implement the instructions in practice. The media library carries a lot required functions, which will definitely be useful to any user.

Is there a future for iCloud?

Apple announced that it will intensively develop its brainchild, add editors for both photos and videos, expand the available space and simply organize the most convenient use of the option. As for the storage size, Apple has already implemented its plans, however, expansion is by no means free.

The decision always remains with the user. If developers see that their software is being actively implemented, then, of course, they will be interested in its further development and promotion. Whether or not to become a user of the ICloud media library is up to the user to decide.

Hello, poppy growers! Apple has both cool and completely stupid services. If we talk about iCloud, I really love this service and happily buy additional gigabytes there every month. But the iCloud photo library really irritates me. Every now and then I come across a misunderstanding among my friends about the essence of this cloud media library and how it differs from a photo stream. So, now I’ll tell you about the features of that same iCloud media library and how to live with it.

Since a long time ago Steve Jobs released the first iPhone, users now have the ability to save photos from iPhone to computer and vice versa. At first we used a simple cable to save photos to the iPhoto program, then photo stream came to our aid, and the last one to reach us was the iCloud photo library. Usually, when analyzing this topic, I use A4 sheet and a pen and within a couple of minutes I put everything on the shelves. Now it will take a little longer, but I will try to explain everything in detail :)

Save photos from iPhone to Mac via cable

The first way we can save photos to our Mac is to transfer photos over the wire to iPhoto, Photos or through Image Capture. Everything is simple here: connect iOS device to the computer and clicked on the import button in the appropriate program. If you periodically upload photos and videos to your Mac in this way, then each time you only add those photos that are not yet in your library. After saving the photos, you can delete the originals from the iPhone. This method has its advantages:

photos and videos are saved as quickly as possible;
transparent operation of this method;

interferes always on iPhoto/Photo programs when connecting an iPhone;
If automatic start the program is turned off, then you must remember to upload photos;
transfer photos only from iPhone to Mac, without synchronization;

By the way, there is also the ability to save photos through the Image Capture program, about which :)

Saving photos via Photo Stream

We sorted out the wire, but there is one problem - there is not always a wire at hand or it is difficult to go after it (this is about me). Since most of our Macs and iPhones have an iCloud account, we can also activate the photo stream. By the way, let me remind you that the account on the gadgets must be the same! How can you organize your accounts on devices, I :)

Let's figure out how the photo stream works! A photo taken on an iPhone or saved in the camera roll (from WhatsApp, for example) if WiFi is available, is blocked on all devices with the same Apple ID. And if your Mac is also connected to the Internet, the photo will appear in iPhoto or Photos. The photo stream stores last thousand photos and when you take 1001, the oldest photo in their photo stream goes away. It leaves the photo stream, but remains saved on devices if you have not deleted it before. That is, you just need to take a photo and connect your iPhone or iPad to WiFi so that the photo appears in the photo stream on other devices.

With this method of transferring photos from iPhone no wasted iCloud space and you don't need to buy it. Even if you use basic free plan 5 GB and have already managed to completely occupy it, then in this case the photos will end up on your Mac. It's like transferring contacts and calendars - the main thing is that there is Internet.

Now let’s imagine that the user has not one iPhone and one Mac, but pair iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch for running, Macbook at home and iMac at work. And everyone is on the same ID and photo streaming is turned on for everyone. If you take a photo on one of the iPhones, it will automatically be broken onto all these devices! And from here comes one big minus - photo stream is a one-way photo stream, not synchronization. That is:

If the photo is good, then it settles in the memory of our gadgets and we rejoice. But if we went to a store and took off price tags so that we could later compare them with price tags in another store, then we won’t be able to delete them on all devices at once! You will need to delete unnecessary photos one by one on each device... Eh, I don’t know about you, but I have a similar situation all the time: a lot of “disposable” photos, several similar pictures or postcards with congratulations from WhatsApp for every holiday... And every time all the photos fall into all home media libraries.

Well, as we see, the photo stream has some good sides:

Easily transfer photos to Mac and other Apple devices;
no need to purchase additional space in iCloud;
if you lose your phone, photo stream can save your last thousand photos (if you only have one iPhone), even if you didn’t create a backup copy in iCloud;

So are the negative ones:

photostream is NOT omnidirectional synchronization;
cannot be deleted centrally unnecessary photos or distribute them into folders or albums;

By the way, I this method distribution of photos resembles the old one postal protocol POP3. It was the same there: letters are received from the server to all devices, but deleted from each one one by one. And the outdated POP3 has been replaced by modern IMAP, and in our case it’s...

iCloud Photo Library or iCloud Photo Library

Oh yes, this is exactly the same analogue of IMAP in the mail world. iCloud Photo Library works differently than Photo Stream, since the single central place for saving photos is the iCloud cloud on Apple server, not every device. That is, by pressing the shutter button on your iPhone, the photo automatically flies to the iCloud server (if there is a WiFi connection), from where it goes to all devices with the iCloud media library enabled. The shot taken is not just used iCloud service to transfer it to other devices and save it in the cloud, taking up space in iCloud! This is important!

Schematically it works like this:

I will say right away that this method synchronization very convenient and promising. But let's look at the situation one by one. Let's say a user bought an iMac and an iPhone, and they helped him create and set up an Apple ID. The user takes a couple of photos on his iPhone and sees that after a couple of minutes all the photos appear on the iMac and the user rejoices! Then he deletes the photo on the iMac and sees that the photo on the iPhone is also deleted. He is happy, but begins to get a little nervous: what if I (or the child) start deleting photos on one device, will they also disappear on the other? Yes, they will disappear, but on Mac in the Photos program, in iPhone and in iCloud cloud There is a recycle bin from which you can restore everything, so this is not a problem.

Let's assume that our user decides to upload all the photos from the old archive, which contains about 40 GB of photos, to the Photos library on his Mac. He transfers all the folders with photographs and is glad that in the media library they are distributed by date and by event. Here he looks at his iPhone and cannot believe his eyes: everything is the same there! “Fire! Cool! “Kaef!” - The guy screams, until suddenly his iPhone tells him that the space in iCloud has run out! The guy doesn’t skimp, he buys an additional 50 GB in the cloud for 59 rubles and again doesn’t make a fuss! By the way, be smart like a dude and buy some iCloud space 😉

But here again an ambush awaits our friend: he bought an iPhone with 32 GB, and the photos in his iMac’s media library are almost 40 GB. And then the iPhone squeals again and offers to compress the library, saying that not the whole photo will be saved on the iPhone, but a trimmed copy. And the photos will take up little space and will all fit on the device. “Fabulous!” — the guy thought and agreed. And only then I realized that in order to view photos on my iPhone in normal quality, I need to have active internet connection so that the photos are in good quality loaded from the cloud! On the other hand, the Internet is almost unlimited, communication is good everywhere - don’t worry and enjoy!

Cool story? Did you like it? I also like it when everything happens according to a similar scenario, but this is a fairy tale in which very few users live. And now the reality:

a proposal to include the iCloud photo library occurs in the Photo program with minimal decoding consequences! Just a big blue button “Turn on iCloud Music Library”...
this offer occurs after updating macOS or iOS and the user can simply not pay attention to the warning, but simply click on the big blue button, without hesitation!
Most often, we don’t know how many photos are in the Photos library on a Mac or iPhone, and turning on the photo library confronts us with the fact that we’ve run out of space in iCloud!
Enabling iCloud Photo Library on your Mac and iPhone at the same time will result in all your photos being completely merged! And no one cares that you carefully transferred only selected pictures to your Mac!
If a user has enabled the iCloud media library on one device, but not on another, then a lot of confusion begins, from which it is difficult to get out without spending a lot of time, nerves and maybe even money (on buying additional space in iCloud)!

These are the realities I most often encounter: the user accidentally turned on something, and then problems began: the space in iCloud ran out, photos from the iPhone are not transferred to the Mac, there is not enough space in the iPhone, etc.

So what do you do with your iCloud Photo Library?

The question is good, but requires clarification. If you just bought your first Apple device, then you can turn on the iCloud media library and live as you live. On the other hand, using the Photo Library will not provide any benefits unless you have other Apple devices with which you would like to share a photo database. In any case, I recommend purchasing additional space in iCloud and creating backup copies of your data - it will definitely be more useful, and all your photos will be stored in the backup copy.

If you have been using Apple technology for some time and you have accumulated a lot of photos, both on a Mac and on an iPhone/iPad, then you need to understand whether it is necessary to have a common photo database. If yes, then go ahead and buy additional space in iCloud, optimize photos on devices and live with it. But if you don’t want to use the iCloud photo library, but you accidentally turned it on, then...

How to turn off iCloud Photo Library?

There is a problem with this. When a large volume of photos ends up on the iPhone and the space on it runs out, iOS may offer to optimize the storage, thereby leaving only photo previews in memory, but not them. full versions. If you try to turn off optimization in the settings and try to download the originals, 2 problems will appear. Firstly, you need to have a normal Internet connection to upload photos, and secondly, you need to have space on your phone, but you don’t already have it... If it is possible to temporarily delete unnecessary data from your iPhone and clear space on it to upload originals - Just Do It !

If you cannot clear the space, turn off the iCloud library on your phone and agree to delete some of the photos. All the same, these photos will remain in the iCloud cloud or they can be downloaded to your Mac or viewed through the website. In any case, those photos that were not uploaded to the cloud will remain on the phone, and those that are already in iCloud will be available through the website. So you won't be able to lose your photos.

Here, as a small life hack, I can suggest temporarily deleting it from your phone Facebook programs, Instagram and Vkontakte. All of them are just shells and there is no information inside them - everything is stored on servers! When you finish all the manipulations with your media library and photos, they can be downloaded again.

iCloud Photo Library is cool, but not for me...

What about me? And I decided that iCloud Photo Library is not for me, since I am not ready to combine photos on my devices. Even taking into account that there is enough space on the iPhone to fit all the photos from the library on the Mac. I decided for myself this way: on my Macbook Pro there are all the photographs that I have at all. Some are in the Photo program, others are neatly arranged in folders. On the iPhone 6, all the photos from the camera are in a pile, as well as a couple of albums that were transferred from the Mac. I try to constantly back up my Macbook Pro to iCloud, and this gives me peace of mind that my data is safe.

My friends, I really hope that this article at least somehow helped you understand how the iCloud photo library works. Maybe you can choose for yourself the best way store and transfer photos between devices! I am sure that if you have any questions, you can safely write them in the comments below, or ask them on my group’s page in