Help me understand Photostream and the Photos app on my Mac

[SWFLFFPM]

I am so confused on how this is supposed to work.

My main concern is losing pics on Photostream because of the limit.

I download pics to my Mac in Photos then create an album and drag the pics from Photostream to the album. Sometimes when I let those pics from Photostream it deletes them from the album, sometimes not. I can't figure out why or to prevent them from being deleted in the album.

The end goal is to be able to delete pics in Photostream and not lose them on my Mac.

 

[Tartarus]

Photostream is a shared folder in Photos app on all devices.
The main function of that folder is to have all photos in it available on all devices using the same iCloud account.

Deleting a photo on one device will delete them from all other devices using the same iCloud account.

If you want to save photos on your Mac but delete them from the photostream folder, simply move those photos to another folder on your Mac. This action will save photos locally on your Mac but delete them from other devices.

 

[SWFLFFPM]

Photostream is a shared folder in Photos app on all devices.
The main function of that folder is to have all photos in it available on all devices using the same iCloud account.

Deleting a photo on one device will delete them from all other devices using the same iCloud account.

If you want to save photos on your Mac but delete them from the photostream folder, simply move those photos to another folder on your Mac. This action will save photos locally on your Mac but delete them from other devices.

The problem I am having is if I copy pics to an album then delete from Photostream the pics are deleted from the album also.

 

[Tartarus]

I get that. That's why I said an other folder, preferably one that is not in the same directory as Photostream.

 

[SWFLFFPM]

I get that. That's why I said an other folder, preferably one that is not in the same directory as Photostream.

I hate to seem like a dunce here. I have a feeling I am just not getting a fundamental point.

If I move them to another folder won't that pull them out of the Photos app? I understand that will solve my problem but then will they still show in Photos? With that thinking aren't all the albums you create in the Photos app in the same directory as Photostream as "default". That doesn't seem right since there is a limit in Photostream and would eventually mean deleting pics in albums once the limit is reached. That doesn't make sense.

What am I missing here? How do I fix this?

 

[Tartarus]

I hate to seem like a dunce here. I have a feeling I am just not getting a fundamental point.

If I move them to another folder won't that pull them out of the Photos app? I understand that will solve my problem but then will they still show in Photos? With that thinking aren't all the albums you create in the Photos app in the same directory as Photostream as "default". That doesn't seem right since there is a limit in Photostream and would eventually mean deleting pics in albums once the limit is reached. That doesn't make sense.

What am I missing here? How do I fix this?

I'm gonna save you some waiting time, because being one of those people not using Photostream, I'd have to read all about it in order to be able to answer your questions.

So here is a link I was gonna read myself:
http://m.imore.com/how-use-photo-stream-and-icloud-photo-sharing-ultimate-guide

In the meantime I hope somebody else will come along in this thread and answer your questions more thoroughly.

Good luck.

 

[SWFLFFPM]

Thanks for the link.