iphone Photo Library vs My Photo Stream

[Vikas]

I have tried to understand the difference between the two. I do NOT have multiple Apple devices registered under the same account. Currently, under the storage, the phone shows Photo Library 2.8G and My Photo Stream 1.1GB

Under icloud storage, it shows Photo Library 2.7GB

I really have never understood icloud. I could not look at the photos taken by the iPhone backed up to icloud from a desktop client. It seems as if that backup is only for restoring it to the iPhone and NOT for being able to view the photos stored in the cloud.

From documentation, My Photo Stream allows you aggregate photos taken by multiple apple devices under the same Apple ID. Given that I am not trying to use that feature, why am I wasting 1.1GB?

Lately, managing the storage on iPhone has become a massive headache :-(

 

[dparm]

http://www.imore.com/icloud-photo-library-and-photo-stream-whats-difference

 

[Kawiguy454]

if you use a PC why not go into options and setup a local library for pictures. It will be very fast and can be seen on the PC directly.

The "Cloud" is a fancy way of saying it is on someone else's computer/storage somewhere? on the internet. I do not like cloud anything cause I don't trust security and I know someone that has lost everything on the cloud more than once. Good routers have built in features you can use for automated backups these days.

 

[Vikas]

I detest iTune with all my heart, so I do not use it. I dump the photos to the PC by connecting the iPhone to it via USB cable.

Thanks for that article! The most helpful was the following comment which sort of makes it clear as to why there is duplication of storage being used on iPhone itself :-
"
I've finally discovered the easiest way to use this bull [censored] iCloud photo garbage. These are the steps if you use a MAC:

1. Disable ALL iCloud Photos from all portable devices. Especially if they are all under one account.
2. On every mobile device, ENABLE MY PHOTO STREAM
3. Go to PHOTOS on your mac and open preferences.
4. Enable iCloud photo library, enable download to this mac, enable my photo stream.
5. Upgrade your iCloud photo storage to whatever you think is best and what you can afford.
6. Let computer sync to iCloud photo.
7. Start using time machine with a separate drive as another "failsafe backup"

Here is how everything will work if you did all the steps above (arrows are how the your photo data travels):

1. Take a photo -> camera roll & photo stream

You now have two copies, one that is on your phone and one in photo stream. This will show up on all devices that are under the same account that have photo stream turned on. Anyone can now delete these photos from photo stream if they are on the same account. The photo will still be on your camera roll. If you delete it from camera roll it will delete it from photo stream.

2. Photo stream -> computer

At home, turn on computer and your photo in photo stream will show up in Photos. If you have deleted it from your photo stream before turning on your computer it will NOT show up in photos.. but it will still be physically on your iPhone camera roll. Think of Photo Stream as a wireless "quick sync" to your computer. If you have deleted the photo from photo stream and it's still in your camera roll, you can just plug in your phone and sync it that way. ALL VIDEO must be synced via a wire separately.

3. Computer -> iCloud photo library

If you have your mac enabled with iCloud Photo Library and you have chosen enough storage, all your photos in your library will now be backed up. You should be able to delete from your computer library OR from cloud.com and it will erase it on both. IT WILL NOT AFFECT YOUR PHONE if you have everything setup this way.

Now you can happily mess with your photos and have plenty of backups. Basically I am using iCloud photo as a cloud backup service and not a service to backup my phones photos. If you don't want to use iCloud photos as a backup, just don't enable it on any device, use Time Machine like I suggested and you will be fine. I am using both as a super failsafe. Another suggestion is if you see something from another family members phone, you can save that photo into your camera roll from photo stream and now you have another backup of that photo (just in case you are on vacation, etc..) You can also use the "Family Sharing" album as well to do kind of the same thing. But since everyone in my family is all under one account, this feature is useless.

Once again:

Take a photo -> Camera roll -> Photo stream -> Computer -> iCloud Library

Now I have plenty of storage space on my iPhone!!! YAY!!! No more stupid messages saying my phone is full!!

DISADVANTAGE = I still have to manually sync videos and there is no backup of my videos until I have put them on my computer.

I hope this has helped people out there cus this service is really frustrating and it could have been setup like iTunes Match where you have a cloud photo and you can download it if you want. iCloud photos does this but not really as it's forcing you to see everything as one unit. In iTunes Match, I am able to still delete a song from my phone and it asks "delete from iCloud?". WHY CAN'T PHOTOS DO THE SAME THING??
"