iCloud

[dannyboy22]

I recently subscribed to Apple iCloud and accepted the recommendation for the 50 GB option. I note that summary shows there are 6,444 photos to be uploaded and after 7 days I saw that 5769 still need to be uploaded (see pic attached.)
I do not have superfast broadband but find my normal download speeds are satisfactory. Therefore it seems 675 photos have been uploaded in 7 days or 96 per day and at this rate it would take another 60 days to complete the upload. Any comments/suggestions would be appreciated.

Also I noted a reference that the contents of the iCloud Drive are stored on your Mac if there is enough space and that older photos will be stored in iCloud when space is needed, this seems odd as I assumed the idea of using iCloud is to remove content from your Mac to provide more space and allow it to run faster?

 

[Raz0rEdge]

I recently subscribed to Apple iCloud and accepted the recommendation for the 50 GB option. I note that summary shows there are 6,444 photos to be uploaded and after 7 days I saw that 5769 still need to be uploaded (see pic attached.)
I do not have superfast broadband but find my normal download speeds are satisfactory. Therefore it seems 675 photos have been uploaded in 7 days or 96 per day and at this rate it would take another 60 days to complete the upload. Any comments/suggestions would be appreciated.

The photo stream updates happen kinda in the background. It isn't something that you force actively. So you just have to let it do its bit slowly.

Also I noted a reference that the contents of the iCloud Drive are stored on your Mac if there is enough space and that older photos will be stored in iCloud when space is needed, this seems odd as I assumed the idea of using iCloud is to remove content from your Mac to provide more space and allow it to run faster?

You misunderstand how iCloud Drive works. It works by keeping a copy of files on both on your Mac and in iCloud. Once a file is no longer accessed for a while, it will be removed from your Mac but a link will remain to allow you to re-download.

When using iCloud with apps like TextEdit, Pages, Numbers and so on, the files will remain purely on iCloud and there won't be a copy of it on your Mac.

 

[dannyboy22]

Thanks for the explanation Ashwin. I was surprised that the uploading seemed to be very slow and more surprised to learn that everything is kept on both my iMac and in the Cloud for photos. I think I may need to rethink my strategy in backing up the photos. Appreciate your input.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

it is really not possible to have a file stay purely on the cloud, it must exist locally for you to manipulate it. So even though TextEdit, for example, keeps the file in the Cloud, it likely makes a copy of it locally in a temporary location while you are modifying it on your machine. On an ongoing basis it likely syncs the data to the cloud version.

If you want to keep your photos purely on the cloud, you might want to explore sites such as Smugmug where you can just dump your photos and then organize it as you see fit and purely view them from the cloud. However, you'd have to go through the process of taking your photos from your phone and then transferring them to your Mac and then dump them to Smugmug, so a lot of work.

I use Smugmug as my photo dump from my DSLR and that's easy since I just take the pictures off the SD card and upload it.

 

[dannyboy22]

Thanks for the additional information and although I had downloaded lots of material from the Apple website re iCloud I had failed to understand that the photos cannot be moved from my iMac to reside purely on the Cloud. I've taken a quick look at Smugmug and will continue to review that and consider my best option for storage of my pics.
Regards,
Ken

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Just to be clear, with iCloud and Photos on all of your devices, you can enable the functionality called Photostream which is the ability to sync the image across all of your devices. In this case, iCloud is used as the conduit to get an image taken on your iPhone over to your Mac to view.

Similarly, if you were to delete the photo on your Mac, it would go away from the phone as well since it's the sync'ing way of things.

iCloud Drive doesn't provide that automatic sync'ing, but you can put a file there and it's "available" on all associated device available for download to view.

This can definitely get a bit confusing.

 

[dannyboy22]

Thanks Ashwin, you have hit the nail on the head when you say it can get a bit confusing!
My original plan was firstly to upload my photo library (several thousands) onto the Cloud as a storage facility so that I could then delete a large number from my Mac desktop to free up space as my 10 year old machine is very sluggish now in the hope it would respond more quickly. I assumed therefore when I wanted to view any of these folders I would be able to log into the Cloud and do so.
The second criteria was that my wife has just bought a MacBook and to avoid putting some of these photo folders onto this I would be able give her log in permission to view them on the Cloud.
Following your advice I realise that I have misunderstood how the Cloud works and my initial plan will not work, so I will need to opt for something like Smugmug you have suggested or simply move photos onto one of our shared external hard drives used for back ups to view photo folders as and when.
Given all you detailed input I think I need to sleep on it and think about my best way forward.
Thanks again for taking the time to respond.
Ken

 

[Raz0rEdge]

I totally understand your use case and that was pretty much why I went with Smugmug (for photo storage) since we had a many years of photos sitting on external drives and NAS' but not in an organized way.

Plus, accessing the photos was slow and a chore.

Once I moved things over to Smugmug, I spent an initial bit of time moving them with some purpose and do ongoing management to move things around when I have time.

Now, I can use the Smugmug app across all of my devices and create showcases or whatever. During family visits, I use the app on my ATV and can show this on the TV for fun conversations at the gathering.

There are many other services like Smugmug that will fit your photos need, so definitely evaluate what works for you. The flip side of this is that these services are really meant for photo/video storage and not generic files.