I GIVE UP! iCloud Photo Library "Download and Keep Originals" not FULLY working

[Luiz Brunner]

Hello, I'm having a hard time understanding the behavior of iCloud Photo Library and my videos.... I've set on my Mac the option "Download and Keep Originals", so I have all my photos and videos available off line, things work just fine. Now on my iPhone 6 64GB I also set "Download and Keep Originals", but unlike the Mac only some of the pictures and some of the videos are fully download to my phone, no matter how long I leave it connected to a Wifi network the app will never download them all. Right now Photos app takes 20GB of storage and there is 34GB of free space on my phone, I've signed up for the 200GB data plan, and my photo library takes 40GB of total space, so I should be able to fit I'll my pictures and videos on my phone. Just can't understand the behavior.
Thank you!

 

[mikeo007]

Re: iCloud Photo Library "Download and Keep Originals" not FULLY working

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the "Download and Keep Originals" option on iOS only applies to photos/videos taken with that device. So for photos/videos from other devices like your Mac, it will not download them to your iPhone to save space.

This seems to be how it works for me.

 

[Luiz Brunner]

Re: iCloud Photo Library "Download and Keep Originals" not FULLY working

That's the best explanation I've got so far! And looking back to my library seams like it is ALMOST working that way.... I say almost because some videos not taken with my device were downloaded and some taken with my device did not. That's a start.... Just wished I had some clear explanation on that from Apple.
Thanks a lot.

 

[Luiz Brunner]

Re: iCloud Photo Library "Download and Keep Originals" not FULLY working

Based on what you said I've been doing some thinking, and I'm whiling to go ahead and delete my entire 40GB library trying to figure this thing out. So my idea would be to transfer all my original photos and videos to my phone using iTunes (I think the latest version of iTunes even allows you to transfer pictures from OS Photos to the phone as long as you have ICloud Photo Library disabled), so I'd have all my originals on my phone. Then wipe out all pictures from iCloud and my computer before turning on iCloud Photo Library on the phone selecting Donwnload and Keep Originals. I'm assuming this way the phone will upload all pictures and videos to the cloud, keeping originals on my phone and finally turning on Photo Library on my Mac would download all originals to the computer library as well.... Think this would work?

 

[LunchPailTree]

Re: iCloud Photo Library "Download and Keep Originals" not FULLY working

Did you ever work this out?

It's driving me crazy. I have "download originals" selected on my ipad because I want the originals to all download. But they only download when I actually select them ONE BY ONE. What if I want a copy of all my photos downloaded but dont want to select to view each photo in my entire library ONE BY ONE in order to get them to download? Ugh

 

[Luiz Brunner]

Re: iCloud Photo Library "Download and Keep Originals" not FULLY working

Did you ever work this out?

It's driving me crazy. I have "download originals" selected on my ipad because I want the originals to all download. But they only download when I actually select them ONE BY ONE. What if I want a copy of all my photos downloaded but dont want to select to view each photo in my entire library ONE BY ONE in order to get them to download? Ugh

Unfortunately I could never get it to work properly, like Apple likes to say "it just works" (or not). The walk around to have all my originals on my phone was to clear the entire library, start from the scratch by having all my photos/videos transferred to my phone via USB. To do this I had installed iZip on my phone, transferred all photos to the application and finally synced via iTunes. Next I saved all pictures from iZip to the phone camera roll and turned on iCloud Photo Library. This pushed all the pictures to the cloud but the originals remained on my phone. If only it just worked.
Good luck.

 

[Ledsteplin]

Re: iCloud Photo Library "Download and Keep Originals" not FULLY working

Unfortunately I could never get it to work properly, like Apple likes to say "it just works" (or not). The walk around to have all my originals on my phone was to clear the entire library, start from the scratch by having all my photos/videos transferred to my phone via USB. To do this I had installed iZip on my phone, transferred all photos to the application and finally synced via iTunes. Next I saved all pictures from iZip to the phone camera roll and turned on iCloud Photo Library. This pushed all the pictures to the cloud but the originals remained on my phone. If only it just worked.
Good luck.

I'm not sure what you were trying to accomplish. You know iCloud is not a storage option. It's a back up option. It backs up what is currently on your device. If you delete from the camera roll, they will also delete in iCloud.

 

[Luiz Brunner]

Re: iCloud Photo Library "Download and Keep Originals" not FULLY working

I totally understand how iCloud Photo Library should work, after so many testing I finally gave up on using this service, it just doesn't work as advertised. All the downloads and uploads that should run on background simply stop working for no reason, there is no troubleshooting other than turning things off and on again. I was never able to hold my entire library on my devices using the "Download and keep originals", as described above big part of my videos, including the ones shot with iPhone itself, never make from the cloud to my phone storage or computer storage, all I get are the thumbnails. This is true when I clean install the iOS on my phone and turn on iCloud Photo Library for example, after many days conected to Wifi I end up with most images but not all downloaded to my phone and most videos with thumbnails only once the original is never downloaded from the cloud, to make things worst the longer videos can never be watched because of an error message telling me that the larger version of the file is not available and I should try later. If I log in to iCloud.com the video is there, I can play it via Safari but the error message and the "!" on the video remains on my devices. Same behavior on my computer, but with different files been fully downloaded and others not for no reason, it is a totally random process. A complete useless service as it is now. Unfortunately I reverted to manual downloading of my pictures to OS Photos using USB, will keep my library update, organized and backed up to TimeMachine hoping for someday to be able to turn on iCloud Photo Library and see it finally work as advertised by Apple, all photos and videos uploaded to the cloud and ALL PHOTOS AND VIDEOS ORIGINALS downloaded to my devices, it is really frustrating to spend money on a 128GB device expecting to be able to have your 40GB library in it but because of a poor designed software things just won't happen as expected. So for now I give it up on iCloud Photo Library, wasted too much time and effort on something that should "just work" but it doesn't.
Thanks to everyone that tried to help.
Regards.