iCloud Photo Library and Photos: Setup and use. What is iCloud Photo Library
In this article, we will tell you how to work with iCloud Photo Library, view and delete photos and videos located in iCloud, and also answer the most frequently asked questions about this feature.
iCloud Photo Library provides iPhone owners and iPad the ability to store photos and videos in the cloud iCloud service and access them from mobile gadgets or computers (not to be confused with). Any changes to the library on one device are synchronized with other devices within the same account.
New photos and videos are uploaded to iCloud when the device is connected to the Internet (Wi-Fi or via cellular network). Speed of adding photos and videos to everything connected devices depends on the speed of your Internet connection.
After connecting a media library instead of an album "Film" album will appear "All photos" with the same functionality. This folder contains all photos and videos sorted by date added.
It's worth noting that there is also iCloud Photo Library in the Music app settings, which has nothing in common with iCloud Photo Library in iCloud Photos settings.
What devices does iCloud Photo Library work on?
- On iPhone, iPad, iPod touch through the Photo application;
- On Mac computers through the Photos application;
- On Apple console TV;
- On computers with Windows 7 and higher (application required);
- On any device with an Internet browser installed via iCloud.com.
What file types does iCloud Photo Library support?
When you copy photos and videos to iCloud Photo Library, all content remains in the original resolution. Service supports following types files: JPEG, RAW, PNG, GIF, TIFF, HEIF, HEVC, MP4, as well as special formats available when shooting in the Camera app on iPhone: , slow-motion or time-lapse video, and video with 4K resolution).
By default, all photos and videos are stored in iCloud in the form in which they were taken.
Go to menu "Settings" -> Apple ID [your name] -> iCloud -> "Photo" and set the iCloud Photo Library switch to Included.
On Mac open the application « System Settings» and go to the section iCloud. Click "Options" next to the word "Photo" and check the box iCloud Photo Library.
On Apple TV open the application "Settings" and follow the path « Accounts» -> iCloud -> iCloud Photo Library.
On a Windows computer install and run the application. Then click the button "Options" near the point "Photo", select iCloud Photo Library. Click the button "Ready" And "Apply".
What happens to My Photo Stream after I turn on iCloud Photo Library?
Images from the album will be added to this album "My photo stream". Photos that are not saved in the library will be deleted, and the folder itself will no longer be displayed. If the function is activated on your other device "My photo stream", but the media library is disabled, all new photos will be displayed in the photo stream.
Is it possible to delete photos and videos from iPhone or iPad, but leave them in iCloud Photo Library?
All photos and videos stored in iCloud Photo Library take up space in iCloud storage and on the device itself. Deleting a photo or video on one device will automatically delete it from all devices and on icloud.com.
At the same time Apple time offers to increase iCloud storage for additional fee(the user is provided with 5 GB of space in the cloud for free). However, keep in mind that increasing your cloud storage only makes sense when your device's storage capacity exceeds your iCloud storage capacity. Otherwise, the device memory will always be full.
For example, if you use an iPhone with a 16 GB drive, a 64 GB iPad, and a purchased 50 GB plan in iCloud, 25 GB of which is occupied by photos and videos, then it is not practical to use iCloud Photo Library on your smartphone.
You can find the current prices for iCloud space for Russian users.
In order to delete photos and videos from an iPhone or iPad, but leave them in iCloud, you can use the service using an application or third-party alternative services, for example, or.
What does Optimize Storage do in iCloud Photo Library?
To save space on iOS devices and Mac computers, there is a function "Storage Optimization", which allows you to compress photos and videos stored on the device, while storing the original (full) versions of the files in iCloud Photo Library.
How to enable Storage Optimization
On iPhone, iPad or iPod touch on the way Settings -> Apple ID [Your name] -> iCloud -> Photo -> Storage optimization.
On Mac computer in the application "Photo" open Settings programs, go to section iCloud and select item .
Storage Optimization feature starts working only if there is not enough space on the device. If necessary, you can download original photos graphies and video recordings Wi-Fi networks or cellular network.
If the option is selected in the iCloud Music Library settings "Download originals", V cloud storage and the original photos and videos will be stored on the device in full resolution.
icloud.com has a Photos web app that lets you view and delete photos and videos stored on iCloud Photo Library.
A file deleted in Photos is also deleted from your media library on your devices and from the iCloud cloud. Within 30 days deleted photos and the videos are stored in a folder "Recently Deleted", so they can be restored if desired.
To check whether a photo or video has been sent to the cloud, launch the application "Photo", go to the Photos tab and scroll to the very bottom of the page.
If there is not enough space in iCloud, photos and videos will not be uploaded to the cloud and synchronized between devices.
You can solve the problem in two ways: either buy more storage, or clean out your storage by deleting files that you don't need to keep on all iOS devices or iCloud.com. Remember that restore deleted photos or videos you won’t be able to, because they are not saved in the album "Recently Deleted".
If you want to disable iCloud Photo Library only on one iPhone device, iPad or iPod touch, open "Settings" -> Apple ID [username] -> iCloud -> "Photo" and turn off iCloud Photo Library.
On Mac login to the application "System Settings" and follow the path iCloud -> "Photo" -> "Options". Next, uncheck the option “ iCloud Photo Library».
On Apple TV: open the application "Settings" and follow the path "Accounts" -> iCloud. To turn off your media library, click "Choose" in section "Photos".
When the parameter is activated "Optimize storage" Not all original photos and videos may be saved on the device. To download original files to your iOS device, go to the section "Settings" -> Apple ID [username] -> iCloud -> "Photo" -> "Saving originals". On Mac, follow these steps: Open the app "Photo" -> "Photo" -> "Settings" -> "Download originals on this Mac".
Filmed on iPhone and iPad photos and videos take up a huge amount of space on devices free space. If you need more memory, then it is not at all necessary to resort to deleting content or moving it to other media. Using the iCloud Photo Library service, you can store photos and videos in the cloud by configuring automatic optimization data on the iOS device itself.
How to enable Content Storage Optimization for iCloud Photo Library
iCloud Photo Library automatically uploads your photos to cloud storage, allowing you to access it anytime, from any device. Storage optimization - useful option, which replaces photos and videos in the original resolution with optimized versions if the memory on the device runs out. The full resolution file is quickly loaded if you need to view it, edit it, or send it to social networks. To enable this option follow these steps:
1. Open the Settings app.
2. Select the Photo and Camera section.
3. Check the “Optimize device storage” option.
After activating this option, the system will automatically move the original versions of the files to iCloud, leaving only recently captured photos and videos full-size. The process may take long time, depending on the number of files and connection speed.
How to free up space on iCloud
The total size of files you can store in iCloud is not unlimited, and you have several options to free up space.
Option A: Clear Photo Library
Browse through albums that might contain selfies, panoramas, screenshots, or time-lapse videos. Perhaps among them there are those that can be deleted. Important note: You can't delete files from just iCloud or just from your device; if you delete them on your iPhone, they'll disappear from everywhere.
After deleting unnecessary pictures and videos, do not forget to visit the Recently deleted section and clear it. Otherwise, the files will still be stored on the device, taking up free memory within 30 days.
Option B: Buy additional iCloud storage
If you don't want to worry about storing your photos and videos and you're willing to pay for cloud storage space, you can increase the amount of available space in your iCloud Photo Library. Currently, prices for additional iCloud storage are as follows:
- 5 GB - free
- 50 GB - 59 rubles/month
- 200 GB - 149 rubles/month
- 1 TB - 599 rubles/month
Change tariff plan or you can cancel it at any time.
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 in 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 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 given 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 into me.” So no, it doesn't work. Comments on
And video from iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to a computer under Windows control maybe dozens in various ways. But most of them are either completely inconvenient to use or require direct connection mobile device to PC. In this instruction, we talked about how to get direct, and most importantly convenient access to the iCloud media library on a computer running Windows.
Setting up iPhone, iPad or iPod touch
In order to access your iCloud media library from a Windows computer, you first need to make sure that the feature is activated on mobile device. If automatic uploading of your media library to iCloud is turned off, then you need to turn it on.
Step 1. Go to menu " Settings».
Step 2. Select the section " Photo and Camera».
Step 3: Activate the switch " iCloud Photo Library».
Step 1: Download iCloud for Windows from Apple's official website.
Step 2. Install iCloud for Windows and launch the utility.
Step 4. Click on the button Options" next to the item " Photo».
Step 5. Check the box " iCloud Photo Library" and click " Ready».
Step 6: Click " Apply» to save the settings.
Ready! You can now access your iCloud library from your Windows computer. To do this, go to the folder " This computer"("My Computer" in old Windows versions) → « iCloud Photos
" and click " Upload a photo or video" In the window that opens, select media files for which year you want to download to your computer. The selected photos will appear in your Downloads folder.
Please note that all photos and videos created in the future will be downloaded to your computer automatically.