Photos Question

[nancyspeed]

MacBook Pro Retina early 2015 Yosemite.

My older Macs did not do iCloud and now I am confused. If photos are showing on my MacBook does that mean there are permanently there? Or, if I erase them from my iPhone does that mean they also disappear from my MacBook? If so, how do I make them stay on my MacBook?

Thanks.

 

[Ember1205]

Presuming you are in the Photos app, and you have My Photo Stream enabled on your iPhone, here's roughly what you can expect:

When you take a photo on your phone, a copy is made in the My Photo Stream "album" and it is copied to your iCloud account. Any other devices that you have linked to the same iCloud account will receive a copy of this photo as long as they connect while the photo is still available for syncing. I believe the max life in your iCloud account is 30 days, and can be shorted if your storage is low and more room is needed to upload newer pictures.

On your Mac, if you delete the photo, it will be deleted from "My Photo Stream", and THAT will sync back to your phone (and other devices). The original photo on the phone, however, will not be touched unless you deleted it from the phone.

If you take the photo on your phone and delete it from the My Photo Stream album, it will be deleted from all other devices (including your Mac). If you delete the photo on the phone, it will be deleted from the My Photo Stream and any connected devices.

 

[nancyspeed]

How do I delete it from my phone and keep it on my Macbook?
Yes, photo stream is enabled.

Thanks.

 

[IWT]

@Nancy

I thought you indicated in your first post that you do NOT have iCloud — as they are older Macs.

If so, then Ember's excellent summary of the actions to be expected, won't apply to you - as they are all iCloud based.

I have the whole shooting match available — latest iOS9; El Capitan; iCloud; Photo Stream; iCloud Photo Library.

I've played around with all these functions and found — personal opinion only — that the only function I need is the iCloud Library which I use in full resolution as a backup. I find it much easier to take photos on my iPhone and at a suitable time, make a decision on which I want to keep, and sync them via USB to Photos on my iMac.

It initially seemed great to have photos on my iPhone appear on my iMac, but all I was doing was deferring the decision about which of them I kept. Went on the iMac, deleted some, but still had to go back to the iPhone and delete them from there.

A very personal choice, I admit. But perhaps something for you to consider if/when you have full iCloud functionality. In other words, by turning off Photo Stream, you will not lose anything on your Mac that you didn't delete yourself.

Ian

 

[nancyspeed]

Thank you Ian.
Yes, I do have iCloud on my new notebook. I do not have iCloud on my 2008 iMac.

If the easiest thing is to disable photo stream and transfer the photos via USB then I will do so. I simply thought there was some way to transfer the photos permanently from iCloud to the Macbook without USB.

I'd like to delete some photos from my phone and would like them to stay on my Macbook.

 

[Ember1205]

Honestly, Photos and the Photo Stream is way too quirky for me, period. I use Google Photos instead. I get unlimited storage of my photos in my Google account so long as I agree to let Google control the resolution of the photo. 99.9% of the photos I take do NOT need to be at the full resolution they were taken with. For that .1%, I mail or message it to myself and I have it at full resolution on all devices.

It doesn't auto-sync to my Mac, though. I have to open my Photos library in a web browser and download the ones I want to have locally.

 

[badshoehabit]

Thank you Ian.

I simply thought there was some way to transfer the photos permanently from iCloud to the Macbook without USB. I'd like to delete some photos from my phone and would like them to stay on my Macbook.

I never transfer anything via USB. I use Photo Stream on all devices but do my filing and editing on my MBP. Let your photos sync via Photo Stream then transfer them to your albums/folder on the MacBook. You can then safely delete pictures from either the Photos app on the phone, or Photo Stream anywhere, without affecting your MacBook Photos library. But any you leave in PhotoStream drop out after 30 days anyway.

I find this the easiest way as I'm messing around with pictures most days. I use a hard drive for back-up rather than iCloud.

 

[nancyspeed]

I swear to you I am really a very intelligent person. But I just do not get this Photos thing with my new Macbook. I don't understand the difference between photos and albums and projects. I have some photos in Albums (which I mailed to myself from my 2008 iMac]. Then I have all these photos in Photos. Are you saying if I transfer all of them to Albums they will stay? How will they know to stay and not disappear if I disable photostream?

On my Iphone it says "turning off photostream will delete all photos from your Iphone." Will they stay on my Macbook??

I apologize for not understanding. I just cannot grasp the concept at all. All I want is to put my Iphone photos on my Macbook permanently and then delete some of them [but not all] from my iphone.

I did transfer photos from my Iphone to my Macbook and it didn't import them all because some of them were already there via photo stream.

If I get this done I am just going to turn off photo stream. Obviously it is way smarter than I am.

 

[Ember1205]

What you could look at is using multiple Libraries on the Mac.

Set up one library that is synced to iCloud so that all new photos on the phone will automagically sync their way over. Once there, you would copy them over to your larger, NON synced library on the Mac. Then, you can wipe the photos from the iPhone and they will leave the smaller library on the Mac.

https://help.apple.com/photos/mac/1.0/?lang=en#/pht6d60b524

 

[nancyspeed]

Thanks Ember I will try to do that. Maybe I am just overthinking the whole thing.

 

[badshoehabit]

1) Photos is an app, an updated version of the iPhotos app which you would have used on your old Mac. Underneath sits the filing system:
* All Photos which is the overarching storage library; you can click and drag pictures from here into Albums, etc
* Albums which can hold Folders (You might want a Family album with folders, for example, for Children, Family History etc)
* Projects (ie cards, calendars etc you have created from your pix)
2) iCloud is Apple's web storage system, optional but can be useful for syncing/sharing between devices (calendar, contacts etc as well as pictures).
3) Photostream is a complementary function and only works if you have more than one Apple device, and have linked them via iCloud. Pictures are stored there for 30 days, then drop off, BUT
* pictures you have taken on your phone stay in Photos unless you delete them from there
* pictures transferred to your MB, by whatever means, are stored in 'All Photos'

I have some photos in Albums (which I mailed to myself from my 2008 iMac]. Then I have all these photos in Photos. Are you saying if I transfer all of them to Albums they will stay? How will they know to stay and not disappear if I disable photostream?

They will stay unless you delete them from the MB. You can only completely delete a picture by going into the top level 'Photos'. In case you change your mind, there is insurance as they are stored for so many days in 'Recently Deleted'.

On my Iphone it says "turning off photostream will delete all photos from your Iphone." Will they stay on my Macbook??

Yes, once you have transferred them to the MB, they will stay therein 'All Photos'.

I did transfer photos from my Iphone to my Macbook and it didn't import them all because some of them were already there via photo stream.

The app doesn't allow duplicates.

 

[nancyspeed]

Thank you for all these details. I think I can safely say I understand. I also watched a few Photo tutorials for newbies. I appreciate your patience.

 

[Ember1205]

I've been a user of Apple devices of various types for about four years or so (maybe five). I'm always learning, exploring, breaking, and fixing. I'll never be an "expert", but I'll always be happy to share what I've learned along the way in case it helps someone else.

 

[badshoehabit]

nancyspeed

Don't know how far you are from an Apple Store but they do free sessions on various subjects and I've always found the staff happy to answer queries if you pop in and hijack someone.:Blushing:

 

[nancyspeed]

Just want to be very sure before I delete these photos on my iPhone---I have plugged my phone in via USB and transferred them to my new Macbook. No message came up on my iPhone "do I want to delete these from my phone" like it does on my old iMac.

So they are there on my macbook for good if I delete them from my iPhone??

What about the photos on my macbook that were already there by virtue of iCloud? I did get the notice "do you want to import all photos."
Should I go ahead and import even the "duplicates"?

I swear I won't ask another question about this.




Badshoe habit said:

Yes, once you have transferred them to the MB, they will stay therein 'All Photos'.

 

[Sawday]

Just to add my two penn'th (or 2 cents worth). I'm with the OP on this.

I totally gave up trying to understand photo syncing after losing too images by accident. Now, if I want any photo's taken on my iPhone or iPad to go to my mac I either use Dropbox or plug the device into my mac and let iPhoto import them.

I do not want any photos taken on either phone or pad to be transferred (actually or virtually) to to anything other than my mac. If I delete photos from any device I want it to be deleted from that device only and not worry about whether I will lose it from another. Likewise, if I want a particular image to be copied to my iPad or phone then I want to be able to do just that and not have it disappear unless I want it to go.

Syncing implies a two way process whereby all images on one device are synced - ie matched - across all devices and I certainly do not want the thousands of images on my mac to be synced to my mobile devices (I used to be a Lotus Notes administrator so syncing to me will always mean that you end up with identical copies on each device). Finally, I also have a fundamental problem in getting my head around using iTunes ("Tunes" = music, no?) as a mechanism to transfer images.

To sum up, I just don't think Apple have really addressed this relatively simple requirement of making photos available where we want them to be either in operation or in their explanations.

 

[nancyspeed]

Thank you Sawday!! It just seems as if it would have been so simple to have something that said "do you want this [these] photos deleted from your phone" like it does with snow leopard. And I certainly do not like emails being deleted from all devices when I delete them on one device. I think I will be much better off just forgetting iCloud.

 

[Ember1205]

Thank you Sawday!! It just seems as if it would have been so simple to have something that said "do you want this [these] photos deleted from your phone" like it does with snow leopard. And I certainly do not like emails being deleted from all devices when I delete them on one device. I think I will be much better off just forgetting iCloud.

When you delete an email "on one device", you are deleting it from the server copy of the mailbox. That is reflected on all other devices and is working 100% as designed as it always has. The only way for this to NOT be the default behavior is to configure the devices to use POP to access the mail and prevent specific devices from being able to trigger a delete event at the server when items are removed from the device. With multiple devices being connected to our mail now, using this much older access method is a GIANT management headache for your mailboxes.

 

[IWT]

@Nancy

What Ember1205 has just posted is exactly what I wanted to say, but my typing is sooo slow. So, I've edited it. I endorse Ember's comments. The action of deleting on all devices when you delete (or move from the Inbox) on one device; is nothing to do with iCloud per se. It is totally a function of IMAP behaviour and it always works that way. True, @me and @iCloud accounts are Apple accounts and are, in that respect only, linked to iCloud; but their behaviour is dictated by their IMAP status.

Any IMAP account from any provider will do the same.

Ian

 

[nancyspeed]

Thank both of you. Now I remember that has been pointed out to me before regarding emails.