iPhoto Library

[mrrjclarke]

Well, when I heard the WWDC introducing Yosemite etc I thought they said you would be able to store all you photos and videos on iCloud drive. So what did they mean exactly. Will it place a my large iPhoto library on iCloud drive then all devices can access it?

Am I wrong. I really would appreciate get setting straight on this/

 

[chas_m]

Apple's iCloud comes with 5GB of free storage. You can upgrade that to 20GB for $1 a month, or $4/month for 200GB. Depending on the size of your iPhoto library, one of those tiers might be perfect for you.

Once you have paid for the tier you need, you can indeed upload your entire iPhoto library to iCloud and have it accessible from any iOS or Mac (or Windows) device. Obviously, that initial upload may take quite a while. This is *not* intended as your sole library, it's intended as a highly-accessible backup. You still should have a local iPhoto library, but you can store that on an external drive if its too large for your boot drive.

I think most people use iCloud Photo Library as a place to store their latest pictures taken on their various devices, and move the best ones to their permanent local iPhoto library. But certainly iCloud Photo Library can be a full cloud backup of your entire photo library (up to 1TB, which gets kinda pricey) if you want.

 

[mrrjclarke]

Hi Chas_m, many thanks for your reply.

So confirming then that there is no specific process/update that will allow you to move the library to live on the iCloud?

Do I move my library to the iCloud through finder or upload each event inside iPhoto?

Thanks again.

 

[Rod]

Yes indeed there is a process.
Go to Apple Menu > System Preferences > iCloud. Log in if you are not already using your Apple ID. Select the tick box next to Photos.
The bad news is that doing that will only allow backup of new photos and allow them to be available on other OSX and iOS devices. For example if you take a photo on your iPhone it will be available on your iPad and your computer. You will also need to turn on the appropriate services on those devices (the same way as above).
But dont dispair, Apple wants you to be able to store your whole iPhoto library on the iCloud.
Read this article: Getting started with the iCloud Photo Library (Beta) - CNET
So it wont be long before you can do what you are requesting, at a price of course.
There are other paid for services such as Flicker but none are as seamless as iCloud for Mac users.