iCloud Photos is not very user friendly is it?

sangs

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With the new iPhone, we decided to start using iCloud Photos. Now, I understand the premise behind iCloud Photos, but man is it convoluted. For instance, we went to a Billy Joel concert last night and I shot a lot of video with the new 6S Plus. Have iCloud Photos turned on across all our devices.

After I was sure everything was synched, I wanted to delete some of the videos from my phone, but was greeted with a "This will delete the video from your iCloud Library and all devices." Say what now? Why? I just want to delete it from the physical device, not the library. How is that not an option?

Did some research about it this morning and correct me if I'm wrong, but there is no easy workaround to this maddening issue (aside from continuing to use Google Photos and Flickr). Can somebody tell me I'm wrong, or tell me how I can easily delete from a device, but now from my iCloud Photo Library? Thanks very much.
 

Just_Me_D

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No. It's primary function, as I understand it, is to keep your connected devices in sync so if you delete a photo from one device, that deletion will sync across all of your other devices.
 

sangs

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No. It's primary function, as I understand it, is to keep your connected devices in sync so if you delete a photo from one device, that deletion will sync across all of your other devices.

Yeah, that's not going to work. I don't understand the reasoning behind that at all. Should be a delete option to delete from device and/or from the cloud. You can delete a downloaded song or movie from your device, but still have it available in the cloud. (Last thing I want to have happen is for the picture to be deleted from the main photo collection on my Mac.) Not sure why they wouldn't implement the same easy option for photos. Oh well, guess I won't be converting from Google Photos after all. That's too bad.
 

Just_Me_D

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Yeah, that's not going to work. I don't understand the reasoning behind that at all. Should be a delete option to delete from device and/or from the cloud. You can delete a downloaded song or movie from your device, but still have it available in the cloud. (Last thing I want to have happen is for the picture to be deleted from the main photo collection on my Mac.) Not sure why they wouldn't implement the same easy option for photos. Oh well, guess I won't be converting from Google Photos after all. That's too bad.

This is an interesting tidbit I just read via the iMore Blog:

"If you have one device with iCloud Photo Library enabled, but another with just Photo Stream enabled, those devices won't talk to each other, and you won't see photos from one on the other."

Source: http://www.imore.com/icloud-photo-library-and-photo-stream-whats-difference

I wonder if iCloud Photo Library and Photo Stream was enabled on the Mac, and only Photo Stream enabled on your iOS devices, would be a workaround. Probably not...:)
 

sangs

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This is an interesting tidbit I just read via the iMore Blog:

"If you have one device with iCloud Photo Library enabled, but another with just Photo Stream enabled, those devices won't talk to each other, and you won't see photos from one on the other."

Source: iCloud Photo Library and Photo Stream: What's the difference? | iMore

I wonder if iCloud Photo Library and Photo Stream was enabled on the Mac, and only Photo Stream enabled on your iOS devices, would be a workaround. Probably not...:)

Well what the hell, I'll give it a shot and let you know. Thanks.
 

iDave_AppleMan

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Well what the hell, I'll give it a shot and let you know. Thanks.

Let me know how this works out! I'm very frustrated with iCloud Photo Library myself... Another thing to note, besides its seemingly under-thought antics, is that it drains battery life like crazy.

Just yesterday I was at a football game where there was ATT wifi in the stadium. As expected, I took many photos and videos (of the cheerleaders mainly - Life Photos work well with them). I noticed my phone heating up and the battery was draining like crazy. From 60 to 50% in about 20 minutes. I wondered wtf was going on.. had a hunch it was Photo Library - sure enough, when I went into settings, it said "uploading 18 images". I turned it off, the phone stopped being hot, and my battery life leveled out.

There NEEDS to be a "only upload new photos while connected to power" option. This is an insane oversight on Apple's part. I will not be using Photo library anymore. I now just have the good ol' photo stream enabled so when I hop on my MBP I can see some images (not vids) that have been uploaded. For some reason, this option seems to use way less battery then photo library.
 

sangs

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Let me know how this works out! I'm very frustrated with iCloud Photo Library myself... Another thing to note, besides its seemingly under-thought antics, is that it drains battery life like crazy.

Just yesterday I was at a football game where there was ATT wifi in the stadium. As expected, I took many photos and videos (of the cheerleaders mainly - Life Photos work well with them). I noticed my phone heating up and the battery was draining like crazy. From 60 to 50% in about 20 minutes. I wondered wtf was going on.. had a hunch it was Photo Library - sure enough, when I went into settings, it said "uploading 18 images". I turned it off, the phone stopped being hot, and my battery life leveled out.

There NEEDS to be a "only upload new photos while connected to power" option. This is an insane oversight on Apple's part. I will not be using Photo library anymore. I now just have the good ol' photo stream enabled so when I hop on my MBP I can see some images (not vids) that have been uploaded. For some reason, this option seems to use way less battery then photo library.

I think you can turn that off in the settings without deactivating iCloud Photo Library completely. If you go into Settings-Cellular you can turn off Cellular Data use for individual apps, including Photos.

I'm going to keep iCloud Photos active on my MacBooks and iPad, but stick with the Photo Stream ONLY on my iPhone. That, coupled with auto backup to Flickr, should keep me happy.
 

eseerc

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Let me know how this works out! I'm very frustrated with iCloud Photo Library myself...

Welcome to the club! ha ha ha ha

iCloud Photo Library is just a glorified syncing service, its not truly "storage" because the user is forced to have the images/videos on your enabled devices. My parents have started to use it, but their photo needs are very meager. Save yourself a great deal of headache and switch to a different service that actually provides true storage!
 

Ledsteplin

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I just don't use it. I prefer cloud apps like Box, Dropbox and OneDrive. Works better for me without the confusion.
 

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