Understanding iCLOUD PHOTOS - Syncing iPhones, iPads, and Apple Computers IN-DEPTH

[@randygombos1966]

This is hands down the best video explaining iCLOUD Photos. Thank you for sharing. New subscriber.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Thank you so much @Randy Gombos for the kind feedback! Thanks so much for watching and I so appreciate the support!

[@rurumg2322]

Totally agree. Dude could be the best lecture in uni.

[@alexisnoyes499]

@@Learnwithjoel Great Video

[@user-zt7fp7ye8u]

thanks this helped everything works now 😂

[@KarlC.]

Hi! I know it’s been 2 years since you uploaded this video but coming from a Windows system to Apple I just want to say thank you. I had a 2 week battle organizing my files mostly photos and videos and your other videos helped me with the formats and now I’m in this phase where I organize files on iCloud and on my iPhone. These are helpful and made my workflow easier. Thank you for explaining it clearly. ❤

[@shervitabibbs8745]

This video is AWESOME! I learned more in this 17 min video than I did during my 30 minute 1 on 1 with an Apple Specialist! I just subscribed and I'm looking forward to learning more about my new MacBook Pro!

[@Learnwithjoel]

Thank you so much @Shervita Bibbs for your feedback and support! It's greatly appreciated! Thanks for watching and if you ever have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

[@okakuku]

Best video on how to use iCloud Photos!!!! Thank you!!! So easy to understand!

[@Learnwithjoel]

I really appreciate you and your kind words @KUKU ArtsAndCrafts! Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@robinparkes988]

Brilliant videos Joel. Thanks so much. I’m working my way through your tutorials and am feeling a lot more confident in navigating my Mac as a result

[@Learnwithjoel]

Thanks so much @Robin Parkes! I'm so happy my content has been helpful! I appreciate the support and thanks so much for watching!

[@GabeColors]

Just found you after watching a half dozen videos to clean up this icloud photos mess i have created on my iphone ipad and mac. Grateful you go into DETAIL and explain what works, how and importantly what doesn't work (no syncing smart photos on mobile device, etc). I'm subscribed and going to see what else you have, hopefully you have done an new Photos App tutorial for Big Sur 11!

[@Learnwithjoel]

Thanks for watching! Yes Big Sur is coming!

[@kenrussell4389]

This is such a great video, clear, concise and very helpful. There's more I need to know, so I am hoping to find it in the Beginners Guide . Thanks Joel.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Thanks so much for watching @Ken Russell! iCloud is such a huge topic and I know that just the friends and family I encounter regularly don't 100% understand how it's all interconnected! It's a lot! Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate the support! There will be many more videos coming out! Stay tuned!

[@kenrussell4389]

@@Learnwithjoel Hi Joel, thank you for your kind reply. My own issue is that I have iCloud photos turned on, on my iPhone and iPad, as a means to save storage space more than the convenience of having all my photos synced for easy access. My problem is that I don’t so much mind having my iPhone photos on my iPad, but definitely not the iPad ones on the phone as it takes me so much longer to find ones I want. Should I switch off the iPad syncing, but keep the iPhone syncing? And if I turned off iPhone syncing, would it only remove the iPad photos that had synced across to the phone or would it remove all the photos including the ones originally taken on the iPhone? If you have a moment and are able to answer this it would be wonderful or if you can direct me to a particular video where you might have dealt with this it would be so helpful. I genuinely like your videos as they are clear, concise, no waffling and act as a very good, brief, but complete step by step guide. BTW. The reason I need to know all of this is because I’m about to activate my new iPad and I don’t want to import a lot of photos I do not want. With very many thanks from London. Ken

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hey Ken! A couple questions for you! Do you only have an iPhone and iPad or do you have a Mac as well? Are you shooting photos primarily with your iPhone or are you using an actual camera for your photos? Do you have the option for Photo Stream in your iCloud Photos settings? I would for sure keep the iPhone syncing turned on. As most people are using the phone to take pictures and it's usually always on your person, it makes sense to have that sync so you'll always have a copy in the cloud. If you syncing for iCloud Photos turned off on the iPad, you can always use AirDrop or better yet, use Shared Photo Streams to share pictures to your iPhone and that would give you the ability to have access on your iPhone, but not sync all your pictures on the iPad. Hope this helps a little and hope all is well and safe in London!

[@kenneththompson4533]

Very comprehensive explanation; easy to follow. At last, I can see where I was going wrong with it all. Thank you.

[@Learnwithjoel]

You're very welcome @Kenneth Thompson! I'm glad my content was helpful! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t subscribed already and would like to support me and my content, please SUBSCRIBE and click THANKS below on the video! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, please share it along!

[@rurumg2322]

I am sorry but you are the best. I tried everything from other you tubers not work. You are so clear and right on point. Thank you my dear. Sorry I am a woman you did the best job and makes me feel like and expect. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇬🇧🇸🇱🥰

[@Learnwithjoel]

Thank you so much @Ruru MG! I appreciate the kind words! Thanks so much for watching!

[@valentinashamma706]

Its not working for me! I created over 10+ albums on my macbook air, and they arent showing on my iphone. What shall I do?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Valentina Shamma! A few things that to double check. 1. Make sure you're using the same Apple ID on all devices. This is an absolute must in order for the same information to sync among each device. 2. Depending on the amount of photos/albums you have, you need to make sure you've purchased enough iCloud storage to accommodate it all. If you don't have enough iCloud storage, it will not sync. 3. Make sure that you have iCloud Photos toggled on within all devices. On the Mac you'll find this within Apple Photo Preferences and also System Preferences, and on the iPhone, you'll find in the Photos settings under the iCloud settings. I hope that helps and gives you a place to start. Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@valentinashamma2148]

Hi Joel! Thank you so much for your response. I actually figured it out- my photos were "Syncing on Icloud" so that was taking a long time. Once the syncing was completed they all showed on my iphone:)

[@aleksandrasuraeva]

I have a 1TB of Photos in my iCloud (and 2TB iCloud storage) and I store everything there, but now I see a 'photolibrary' folder that weights 60GB (on my MAC computer) - why it is there and how I can reload this files in to iCloud? Thank you so much!

[@jerrytrouble]

Thanks Joel this is best explanation I’ve seen on KZbin

[@qiancharles]

Thank you so much for the wonderful video. I get a question: when right clicking "My Album", we have a choice of making a "New Folder". What's the New Folder for and how is it different from a New Album. Thank you.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Great question @Charles Qian! So our brains are trained to think that folders on a computer can hold anything. However within Photos, folders can only contain Albums. You can not just drag individual pictures into a folder. Only Albums. Maybe you had a folder called 2020 and within that folder you would create different Albums that you may use yearly like Birthdays or Holidays. That way you have a yearly folder that contains an album of every Birthday, New Years, Christmas, Thanksgiving, or whatever holiday you celebrate. Does that make sense? Thanks so much for watching! I appreciate the support!

[@AbdelhamidBenSelma]

Nice video and very well explained ! I have two questions : - Sometimes, when I am browsing through my library on my mac, some videos do not work, although I can see the play button. Do you think this might be related to the fact I don't keep originals on my mac book air with 128 Go capacity ? Is there a way to download the video to my hard drive? - What is the best way to organize and go through my 20.000+ photos and remove many of the not so good pictures I have ?

[@Learnwithjoel]

First off, thank you so much for watching and the support! As far as your question one, I have too experienced that. I do find that on the Mac that I have set to optimize media, it sometimes does not play because it needs to first download the video and depending on the size it could take forever. On my Mac that I have set to download all originals, I don't have this issue. One thing to try just to make sure the video isn't corrupted is to log onto icloud.com and see if the video plays from the browser. Question 2: I feel your pain and can completely relate to the exhausting task of going through thousands of photos. It can be quite daunting and time consuming. My best advice, as i've been in your shoes is to chip away little by little. I started organizing and only viewing photos by year so i wasn't so overwhelmed. I also used a method to title my photos with a word like "delete" and then i made a smart album to find all photos with that title and then i would delete them. It's certainly time consuming, but once you complete it, it will be a good feeling. I personally went from about 45,000 photos to about 28,000 photos just by deleting redundant and "bad" photos. Best of luck!

[@AbdelhamidBenSelma]

@@Learnwithjoel Thank you... I like your answers !!

[@lowbar77]

This is great as it can be very confusing how Apple is doing things. One thing I have learned is that a person needs to be sure they understand what Apple is giving them, or you can loose it all. One suggestion (humbly) please try to normalize your audio between your speaking and the stock music. When I turn up your speaking audio so I can hear it, the music rips my head off. Even if you only put the audio in a different track and turn it down to match your speaking volume, that would fine too. Thanks for the video! :)

[@Learnwithjoel]

Apple has gotten better over the years and I’m excited when they came out with Apple One. And so very true, once you’re involved in the eco-system, you can kinda be stuck in it! Thanks for the tip on the audio, I’ve been recording I’m different places lately and I miss my studio speakers at the moment! I’ll pay attention to my levels more!

[@josiahlopez2955]

Fantastic video describing how the gears work within Icloud photos. But i do have one question remaining... what happens to the photos across all devices if you cancel your icloud storage plan?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Thanks for the kind words @Josiah Lopez! So if you were to cancel your iCloud storage, you would be prompted with a 30 day time period to download all of the photos/videos from iCloud to whatever device that you have... No the doubled edge sword to this is if you have more photos than what your device can hold.... For example. Let's say you have only have an iPhone that is a 64GB size and you were optimizing the iCloud Photo storage to free up space on it. If you had 100GB of photos in iCloud Photos, you're not going to be able to download everything. So if you were in these shoes, you really need to be able to access a computer to download them all. You can always visit icloud.com to download, or if you have a Mac, it can automatically sync and download to Apple Photos. Hope that helps and answers your question! Thanks so much for watching! I appreciate it!

[@LucyLeheilleix]

Great video! Just subbed. A question for you: how do I set up iCloud storage usage with a photo library on an external hardrive? As I don’t have enough space on my Mac, my photos library is on an external drive. Thanks very much :)

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Lucy Leheilleix! I have a video for that exact question! I will link it below and it should answer and walk you through the steps of moving your photos library to an external and then making sure it's talking to iCloud. Give it a watch and don't hesitate to reach out with more questions! Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate the support! How to MOVE your iCLOUD PHOTO LIBRARIES and APPLE PHOTO LIBRARIES to an EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE! kzbin.info/www/bejne/rXLVnICojsqbiJo

[@krsbeln23]

Hi Joel, I wonder if you can help me with this, I have separate photos from my iphone compared to the photos in my iMac, is there a way to merge the photos from my from my iphone and imac to icloud? in my experience, the icloud prioritize the photos in my iphone and if I do have a different photo in my imac, imac photos do not upload to icloud. Maybe my question is, if you have an iphone and a mac and sync photos in icloud, will it merge, or will it delete the photos from other device? if so, which device will it prioritize if you sync your iphone and your imac at the same time?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Great question @Kraize! It sounds like Apple Photos on your Mac isn't being told to sync with iCloud Photos. If you were to turn that on and everything is syncing, it would merge from there with what you have already in iCloud which is what is currently syncing with your iPhone. A few things to note and check if you want your Mac to sync. 1. Make sure you're using the same Apple ID in System Preferences that you're using on your iPhone. 2. Make sure iCloud Photos is turned on within System Preferences and Apple Photos Preferences. 3. Make sure that the Apple Photos Library is set to be the "System Library". You can only have one Photos Library designated as the "System Library" and this is the one that syncs with iCloud Photos. ( This is found in the preferences of Apple Photos) 4. Make sure that the option within Apple Photos preferences for "Copy items into Photo Library" is checked. If it's not, it means that every photo is referenced and not in the library and they won't sync to iCloud Photos. I hope this helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you would like to support me and the content I’m creating, please feel free to SUBSCRIBE and use SUPER THANKS on the video if you haven’t already! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@krsbeln23]

@@Learnwithjoel Thank you so much, 1 new subscriber here 😁

[@myhonneybunches]

Hi Joe, great video. I stopped syncing my Mac to iCloud but continued to take photos with my iPhone connected to iCloud. If I sync my Mac with iCloud will it overwrite and delete the new photos on my iPhone?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Great question @Elsa! If you turn your Mac on, it will just start to sync again and merge with what you have already! So you should be good! I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@johnpolcari3158]

All of my folders seem to be syncing EXCEPT for my Favorites, which I love and use often. The folder is there in my desktop version of Photos but hasn't been updated for the past year. Any suggestions? I've checked all of your settings and that's what I have on mine as well. Help!! TIA!!

[@Learnwithjoel]

So on your Mac within Apple Photos you have marked photos as favorite, but when you go to your iPhone or iPad where you're using iCloud Photos for syncing everything, the "favorites" is not on your mobile device? Are you running the latest OS on your mobile devices as well as the latest OSX on your Mac? The "Favorites" album is just built in and i've never seen any options to turn it on or off!

[@sitapall8746]

Hi Joel , thank you this helped me so much ! Can u tell me , if I delete pics of iCloud photos will it delete off my other synced devices ? Thank u

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @SITA PALL! So if you have iCloud Photos enabled and turned on within all of your devices, yes it will delete photos from all locations. The concept of iCloud is to sync your devices so they all have the same information. Here is another video that helps explain the overall purpose of iCloud. What is iCLOUD?! - Complete UNDERSTANDING of what Apple iCloud's service actually is! kzbin.info/www/bejne/pauZoGOwhbd4fNE Hope that helps! Thanks for watching! I appreciate the support!

[@juliebauer2563]

I have an iPhone but new to Mac. This has been so helpful ! The one think I can’t figure out is- under photos , it says uploading 5301 items , it’s on pause , nothing happens if I hit cancel , does that mean I need more storage before it will continue ? Thank you !

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Julie Bauer! It's not uncommon for the uploads to pause. It could be for a few different reasons. If there is low battery, if the device is on "low power" mode. There are also some limits that I believe that Apple puts in place when you're trying to upload a large amount of pictures at once. I'll link an article below that references this. My Photo Stream upload limits support.apple.com/en-us/HT202299 But overall, it will work itself out if it hasn't already. My hunch is that you just started uploading everything when you got a new Mac and it will take some time. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@michaelvitale4029]

Ok, I organized and created some new albums on my MacBook and they’re totally NOT on my phone as such. Everything you explained IS checked in settings. What am I doing wrong ?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Michael Vitale! Sorry for the delayed response! So a couple things to double check if you haven't already and if it may already be syncing now... Depending on the amount of photos you have, the initial sync can take some time. The Photo Library on your Mac, within the Preferences, is iCloud Photos checked in addition to it being the "System Library" If you create those new albums on your Macbook, they don't go to your iPhone, but do they go to icloud.com? Is the syncing in general working?...meaning if you take a photo with your iPhone, does it show up on your Mac or icloud.com? My first advice would be to start with one device like the iPhone and also icloud.com and verify those sync, then add the computer or another device into the mix. Hope that helps! Maybe it already worked itself out and you're good? Thanks for watching! I appreciate your support!

[@AlbertMilo-k7v]

Extremely informative presented in layman's terms!

[@Learnwithjoel]

THANK YOU so much for watching @user-gn7jm1gt2o! It is appreciated more than you know! If this video was useful, I’d love for you to SHARE it with on social media and say how it helped you! SUBSCRIBE if you haven’t already, and if you have, THANK YOU for your continued support!

[@myeongjinkim5340]

You've presented all the information that I was looking for. Thank you so much!

[@Learnwithjoel]

I appreciate the kind words @Myeong Jin Kim! I'm so happy it was helpful! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@nayderamadeissufo5961]

Thank you for your support! Unfortunately I can't sync all my devices. I have set all the settings you mentioned in this video and I paid for additional storage. 1. My account is the same and active in all devices; 2. Iphone: iCloud photos on; My photo stream on; shared albums on; 3. Mac: Mac Did I miss any critical information? Hoping to receive your help. 🙏🏼

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Nayder Amade Issufo! So let's check some more things...Are there any two locations that currently are syncing? For example, if you take a photo on your iPhone, does it go to either Mac, iPad or icloud.com? Or does it not go to any of those? Try to repeat that for each device...go to icloud.com, upload a photo and see if it appears on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. The purpose will be to try to pinpoint if any device currently is syncing. Also make sure that not only the same account is being used, but that iCloud Photos is turned on within the settings of each device too. I look forward to hearing back! Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate the support!

[@nayderamadeissufo5961]

@@Learnwithjoel Thank you for your reply. Just found out that the problem was unstable internet connection… Mozambique problems… it takes long to upload in the cloud, consequently takes time to be available on all devices. Just discovered after following your instructions! Thank you so much.

[@jasonariston1864]

I have an iPhone and an iCloud account. I just recently bought a MacBook Air, coming from a PC. If I want to bring the photos and videos from my PC to my new Mac, where do I import the pictures to - iCloud or the Mac? Thanks great videos.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hey @Jason Ariston! Welcome to the Apple Family! So on the Mac side of things regarding Photos, Apple wants users to import and store their photo files within Apple Photos. By importing the files there, they will sync to iCloud. If you have iCloud Photos turned on among all of your devices, pictures that you take on your iPhone, will automatically show up within Apple Photos on your Mac. As far as transferring photo files from the Windows, you can bring them over via an external drive or any cloud solution, like Google Drive, OneDrive, DropBox, etc... Once they're copied locally to your Mac, you just need to drag them into Apple Photos and that will import them. I will link a few other videos that may give a better overview of Apple Photos and file/library management once you get going. Getting started with Apple Photos - HOW TO add and IMPORT pictures into APPLE PHOTOS kzbin.info/www/bejne/joPMkmB8abaNY8k WHERE ARE MY PHOTOS? Understanding Photo Libraries and knowing where your pictures live on the Mac kzbin.info/www/bejne/nXy5Xmt_i7aAa5o I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@stevecarroll8513]

Hi Joel, very clear and easy to understand. I'm keen to find a way to synch photo's without using icloud.. i'm guessing its using the synch option from Finder..?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Steve Carroll! Big question would be is sync photos from what devices? iPhone to Mac? Mac to Mac? Finder for sure could be used, but to fully answer, I'd need to know what devices you're working with and what your main goal is. Hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching and if you'd like to support me by subscribing, I would greatly appreciate it!

[@sbalewski5]

Hi Joel - do you have a video on exporting Live Photos from iCloud to an external hard drive? And if so, can you see them easily via the external hard drive?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @sbalewski5! I do not currently have a video on Live Photos, but it's in my upcoming videos that I'm working on next so stay tuned regarding exporting, sharing and uploading photos! I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@NoahBuie]

So if I want to free up space on my phone's storage, if I delete the video or photo on my phone, it will delete it from iCloud as well? What is the point of iCloud then if I can't even free up space on my phone?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hey @Noah Buie, that's a great question! So you are correct in saying that when using iCloud Photos to sync your pictures across multiple devices, it will delete photos from all locations if you delete files with the intent to free up space. We have to remember that before iCloud even existed that users manually connected the phones to a computer to load off files and such like pictures. It is a pain, I don't disagree! If photos is taking up the majority of the space on your iPhone/Apple Device and if you're using iCloud Photos, do you have your settings set to optimize storage locally specifically for photos? My Photos library is around 500GB, but because I optimize it on my iPhone, it's actually only taking up about 15GB. This video may help explain the concept! kzbin.info/www/bejne/mHjQf2B5YpuKbaM Thanks for watching and I appreciate the support!

[@NoahBuie]

@@Learnwithjoel thank you

[@HelensHouseAndGarden]

Hi thanks for your video. Q When I click on photos then icloud logo as per 2:39 on your video I get this message "icloud features for photos are only available in the system photo library" The problem I have is that I cannot upload my iphone photos to my MacBook Pro. I can upload them to the icloud - I've checked they are all there. I'm not sure why my phone has stopped syncing with my Macbook. Can you throw any light on this please? Thanks

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Helens House And Garden! So to make sure we're on the same page...pictures taken on your iPhone go to iCloud, but the same photos are not going to your Mac? First thing to check is that you have enough iCloud storage to accommodate everything in Apple Photos on your Mac. Also at the 4:33 part of this video, I'm assuming you then have the library that you're in as the "System Library"? Now also below, there is an option that says "Copy items to the Photo Library". Do you have that checked? If not, you need that to be checked so that photos you take are imported into the actual Apple Photos Library. When photos are not imported into the Apple Photos library, they are referred to as "Referenced" files. If a file is referenced, it will not be included into iCloud Photos. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you would like to support me and my content, please SUBSCRIBE and SUPER THANKS! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@arturomartinez3354]

Thanks for the video. Based on what you said, the storage of photos is limited by the smallest storage available in your devices. This means that if you have 16gb in your iphone, you will not need more storage just because there is no way to use more. I am right?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hey @Arturo Martinez! So what I mean is that let's say you only have a 16GB iPhone and you fill it completely with photos. Your iPhone is no longer going to be able to create any more photos or space because there's no more physical space on that device. Therefore, the minimum storage you would need is the amount of that device. However.... Depending on the settings you have, you there is ways to have more photos stored in iCloud that are greater than the amount of storage on your device. For example if you turn on the settings for iCloud Photo Storage to be optimized. This allows you to free up space locally on your device and have the full quality high resolution photos stored in iCloud. I have another video on this that goes in greater detail that may be helpful! Optimizing iPhone & iPad Storage - How to FREE UP SPACE on my iPhone, iPad, or Mac for photos! kzbin.info/www/bejne/mHjQf2B5YpuKbaM I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@voyagerman22]

This is great, thank you. Quick question, I have iCloud photos turned on for my iMac and upload has been completed and everything is synced--including my albums. I want to enable iCloud photos on my iPhone, but what happens to the albums I created on my iPhone? Will iphone albums be retained and just added to my iMac albums in iCloud? One other question, I said my photos have all synced, but I have "Syncing 1 item to iCloud" showing in iMac Photos for days. Any idea on what is happening and how I fix might fix? Thank you!

[@DallasWaldoMusic]

i have everything checked, but for some reason my albums are not syncing across devices. I just upgraded and turned on icloud photos. does it take time to show up or do i need to restart my devices?

[@glazedcinnamonbun7025]

A absolute Great video. I only have a problem/question. How can I unSync/disconnect my icloud on iphone macbook air? All my photos, messages, notes are on my laptop and is annoyin when i borrow it to my sister and she scroll and dig deep through my stuff which is kinda like same thing going through my actuall phone?? Helpp😅

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Glazed CinnamonBun! Thanks so much for the kind words! That is actually a very good question! Really it's a topic of "How NOT to use iCloud"! This is actually on my top list to cover in an upcoming video...but for now here are a couple things to think about and possible action to take... 1. As for your Macbook Air, I'd highly recommend to make a separate user account on the computer for your sister or anyone else to use. This way it isn't tied to your iCloud/Apple ID account. 2. If you're sharing your iPhone with her, there's really no good way to prevent her or anyone from looking at anything aside from not letting someone else use it... 3. If you wanted to stop using iCloud on any device and stop syncing your content, the easiest thing to do is sign out of the account within the settings and you would remove your iCloud account altogether. Hope that helps a little for the moment! Stay tuned for more videos coming up soon and thank you so much for watching and I appreciate the support!

[@kristenmoulton6136]

Thank you for this, Joel, and thanks for answering questions. That's awesome! I want to delete 3K photos/videos from my phone and have them survive on iCloud. But will I lose them on iCloud if I later turn the syncing/backup back on? Is there a way to keep them on iCloud permanently -- but off my iPhone? Thanks!

[@florentin4061]

If you have ICloud-Photos turn on but you delete a Photo, it will be still on ICloud

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Kristen Moulton! So let's say you just have an iPhone and use iCloud Photos. Currently photos on iCloud and the photos on your iPhone would each have the same amount of photos. If you were to turn off iCloud Photos on your iPhone, you would be prompted with a 30 day time frame to download all of the photos and videos to your iPhone (assuming you have the available storage), and all of the photos would still be on iCloud.com. Going forward, the photos on iCloud would stay there and any new photos that you take on your iPhone would not go to iCloud. If you were to turn iCloud Photos back on in your iPhone, it's going to go back and sync your photos back down from iCloud and merge them with your iPhone resulting in the same exact situation you were in before you turned on iCloud Photos on your iPhone. Remember the whole goal of using iCloud Photos is to sync all of your devices and have everything on the same page so you have access to all of your files. If you didn't want to turn on iCloud Photos on in your iPhone, you would have to manually sync and copy your photos to a computer and then manually upload them to icloud.com. Does that make sense? Hope this helps a little! Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate the support!

[@alejandroq3454]

Great video Joel. I always like those comments, you make at the beginning like “maybe you want to download all the photos all over again and really load up the memory on your hard drive.” 🤣 Welcome to my world! I actually use my photos for my home inspection business and ideally I need to store them in folders or albums by customer name. The problem I found with iMac and their wonderfully complex filing system is that I can’t download the pics from my the albums when I am logged into my home inspection software website and I need a photo for a report. Something I took a picture of but did not include in the report. It’s great to have access from my Mac cause it’s a big screen, etc.. I still need to download the pictures from the iPhone to the Mac and put it in folders outside of the photo.library.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hey Alejandro Quinteiro! So it sounds like you could actually benefit from having two Photo libraries or depending on if you want to use iCloud Photos or not, you could keep all of your photos referenced files so you could store them in just folders and link them into a Photo Library. A couple different options for sure! Now I have a question about your software...So are you saying that when you access this website on your home Mac, you can't find the photos to upload to the inspection website software? I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@alejandroq3454]

@@Learnwithjoel Hey Joel! Yes sir. When I am logged into the home inspection software website I cannot find the pictures in Photos or the photo.library on my iMac and/or MacBook. I can see the library but when I can click on it, no cigar. It doesn’t open and just buffers when I try. I created Albums at one point for each customer in Photos but they are not accessible or I haven’t found the way. Therefore at the end of each day I plug my iPhone into the Mac and use Image Capture to download them into the customers folder on my desktop. That’s the only way I can find them when I’m logged into the website and try to upload a picture. Am I missing something? Thanks for the advice and videos, it is greatly appreciated. I will search your videos for your recommendation above. Currently I have a MacBook Air OS Big Sur and a new iMac on Catalina. I have the same user account on both and I am logged into the same Apple ID. I called one library MacBook.photo.library and the other CPI.photo.library. But they seem to be synced. Going bonkers in Hudson, Florida! 🤣

[@darrenfitzpatrick5331]

Great video Joel. Thank you. I have a question that I hope you can help with. I recently combined multiple photo libraries (using another one of your other great videos - THANK YOU!!) on a new iMac. To back these photos up, I turned on iCloud on the iMac so they were backed up beyond the computer itself. The problem now is, these photos are also showing up randomly on my iPhone which is also synchronized to iCloud. Is there a work-around to make this a "one way street" to keep random iCloud photos from showing up on my phone? If I turn off iCloud on the iMac and optimize storage on my phone will these photos eventually fall off? Thanks for your consideration. Your videos are great.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Darren Fitzpatrick! I appreciate your kind words and support! So first and foremost, let's clarify that when iCloud Photos is turned on, it is not backed up in iCloud. iCloud is really a syncing service designed to keep multiple devices on the same page with the same content. This is why you're starting to see photos show up on your iPhone. Eventually when it finishes syncing, your photos on your iMac would match what's on your iPhone. If you turn off iCloud Photos on your iMac, it will no longer sync pictures to iCloud and then you'll just be left with your iPhone sending photos to iCloud. The best way to backup your photos is with an external hard drive and use TimeMachine, or another cloud service that's actually designed for backing up. iCloud sounds great in theory and the photos added there are stored on Apple's server, but the issue is that if you delete a photo on your personal device, it's also deleted on iCloud. When a photo is deleted it's put in a "recently deleted" album for 30 days and if you don't recover it, it's gone for good.... So iCloud really is not a backup for iCloud Photos. Hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching and if you'd like to support me by subscribing, I would greatly appreciate it!

[@nounix]

I'm on Monterey. I have run out of disk space on my 2017 MBP and was thinking of buying iCloud storage 2TB. My question is will the folders and albums sync on iCloud exactly as I have them on my MBP Photos app? So if I delete all the contents of Photos on my MBP will I then find everything organized in the same exact way on iCloud?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @nounix! So have you confirmed that the Photos is the main culprit for taking up space? If so, DO NOT delete the contents out of Apple Photos as it will also delete it from iCloud. iCloud Photos is more about syncing rather than a backup of a oneway sync. To answer your other question, yes regular albums sync exactly from your Mac to iCloud Photos. If Apple Photos are taking up the majority of space, You should turn on the option to "Optimize Photo Storage". This setting is within the Apple Photos Settings. The video below discusses this topic not only on Mac, but also iPhone and iPads. Storage is FULL! - How to OPTIMIZE FILES and FIX your STORAGE PROBLEMS on Macs, iPhones and iPads kzbin.info/www/bejne/jJmqeGmdpK6BeK8 Thank you so much for taking your time to watch this video. It is greatly appreciated! If this video has been beneficial, I would be honored if you would consider sharing it with your social media network and expressing your gratitude for its assistance. Kindly subscribe if you have not already done so. Your continued support is greatly appreciated.

[@LoveSharyn]

Great video ! I got a question, is there a possibility I could save I phone storage and sync my I phone photos without downloading all of the ICloud Photos on my device ? I want to see the photos on my device that were already there and that’s it

[@christianwolfe9282]

Hi Joel, thanks for sharing that video. I'm a big fan on storing my 80k + photo/library photo in iCloud. Wondering if I can get your suggestion on something. We have (3) Apple ID's (The main family one on our imac, mine for my phone, then one for my wife's phone). What would be the best way to download the pictures we take from our phones into our main family Apple ID account where our main Library is? I've been using a cable connection to select and copy into the main library but was wondering if there's an easier way? I know it can be kind of tricky because they are separate accounts...just want your opinion/input...thank you in advance!

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Christian Wolfe! Honestly this is my biggest request from @Apple! Is some type of family sharing for photos! It is extremely hard to share photos in a family environment. They do have Shared Albums, but those don't keep the high resolution images in them and there and they don't go automatically. I hope they take some tips from Google Photos on this, because Google has had this ability for a while now. I'm afraid I don't have a better workflow or option for you currently. My wife, family and I currently use Shared Albums as our method. We both have Macs, so at least our pictures are saved to that in full resolution, but still isn't the best option. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@hernandohernandez7567]

Thank You! This thorough video helped me figure out how to create a new photo library and why my photos were not syncing from my iphone to my Macbook.

[@Learnwithjoel]

I'm so glad this was helpful for you @Hernando Hernandez! Its nice when things just work, isn't it?! Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@sasstewart1222]

Fantastic video. ON your setup, i see your photoslibrary is large, is that library on an external drive? If so, are you only running a macbook (and not a desktop ?), if so do you not have access to your photos library when away from home / external drive? I love the idea of having a copy of your photos library locally but how do you manage a 500gb library with a macbook pro? (with limited ssd space)

[@Learnwithjoel]

Thanks so much @SAS Stewart! Yes my Apple Photos is quite large currently and overdue for me to go through and start deleting random unwanted iPhone photos! I do have my main Apple Photos Library on an external hard drive that I run off my older MacBook Pro. This library is set to download the Original Photos from iCloud, so this way I know I have a local copy of all full quality files. I just got a new laptop and on that one, I have the Photo Library set to optimize Mac storage, so it takes up a fraction of my photo space with the benefit of having access to all my photos/videos. It is convenient to have the Photos Library stored on an external to free up space and have room to grow, but in order for it to update and stay current, it needs to be plugged in and have photos open. I usually plug it in about one every other week and let it sit and catch up with all my updates photos. I am lucky because I use my old Mac to do this, but I could easily use my new Mac as well if I only had one Mac. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@hectorcot]

Hello Joel. I'm your fan. You explain very good. I'm from Mexico City. I have 2 questions: 1. If I shared an album, and then I erase a photo from my library... Why it doesn't erase from the shared album. 2. If I modify a pic from my library... Will it automatically modify also in all the Mac ecosystem ? Will the modifications will be automatic also in a shared album ?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Hector Cordoba Tornell! Thanks so much for the kind words and i'm so happy to be able to help! So to answer your questions: 1: Shared Albums in iCloud are slightly different than the albums and photos within the regular Photo Library. Currently these Shared Albums don't take up any space from your existing iCloud storage and are pretty much separate, which is why when you delete photos from your main Photo Library, they still are in Shared Album. I have a video on Shared iCloud Albums that I will link below if you have not seen that one yet. I will also link some Apple Support articles that discuss Shared Albums and info about them. 2: Yes, if you modify a photo by cropping, adjusting colors, or any edits, it should update and reflect those changes on that picture on all devices as long as you're using and syncing with iCloud Photos. iCloud Photo SHARED ALBUMS - GET STARTED with sharing photos with ANYONE on ANY DEVICE! kzbin.info/www/bejne/rIaTfoWcopeoqqs My Photo Stream and Shared Albums limits support.apple.com/en-us/HT202299 I hope that helps! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and so greatly appreciated! Also if you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@DaveMan40]

HI There. Thank you for your videos. Been learning a lot about apple photos, icloud, and syncing. I just turned on icloud on my computer after having it off for years. This synced thousands of old photos from over even like 10 years ago. Now these are showing up on my phone. Is there any way to limit years of photos on the phone while still using icloud as backup? Is there anyway to delete years of old photos off my phone without deleting the actual file? I'd badsically like to take 6-7 years of photos off my phone (that are currently linked through icloud.) Thanks!

[@amberli519]

Thanks for the video! It's really helpful. I encountered a problem where my all deleted photo from my iPhone actually showed up in the All Photos on mac. Any clue? :(

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Amber Li! Thanks so much for watching! I appreciate the support! The first thing that comes to mind is possibility the feature of "Photo Stream". Do you have this turned on by chance on your Mac or iPhone? Usually with Photo Stream enabled, (if you're not using iCloud Photos) When you take pictures on your iPhone, they would go to all of your other devices, and specifically on your Mac they would download there. Then if you were to delete them on your iPhone, they would then still remain in your main library on your Mac. I would start looking there!

[@valton47]

A question Joel…I have the new iMac 24 inch now, which doesn’t have a usb port. I want to put some photos on a CD to send to a friend (using my external dvd drive) so how do I do this please? (This video on icloud is excellent by the way. Thank you.)

[@owenpelaez6594]

I hope you can help me. My goal is to free up my phone but every time I want to take a pictures and video I want it saved on the icloud for the future use. I guess the question is, if I delete the pictures or video on my phone is that going to delete the picture or video on the iCloud too?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Owen Pelaez! Your best bet is to turn on the settings for "Optimize iPhone Storage" in the iCloud Photos Settings. I will link a video below that discusses this for reference. Optimizing iPhone & iPad Storage - How to FREE UP SPACE on my iPhone, iPad, or Mac for photos! kzbin.info/www/bejne/mHjQf2B5YpuKbaM Long story short though, cloud services like iCloud, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive are all designed to keep your content in sync with one another. So yes if you delete a photo out of your Apple Photos app on your iPhone, it would be deleted from iCloud. If you delete a photo out of Google Photos, it will also be deleted from Google's Cloud. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@DeepikaSharma-dn5bz]

Hey Joel, I synched my apple id with my iPhone & mac. Now, I was trying to logout my apple id from mac, but my photos are still showing on mac,. I was wondering if I delete all the pictures from mac will it affect on my iPhone / cloud as well. If Sign in again with the same apple id?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Great question @Deepika Sharma! So if you just sign out of a device, no matter the prompt it gives you, all items would remain on iCloud and your other devices. If you signed out of iCloud on your Mac, it would most likely prompt you to download or remove the content depending on what you're syncing, but it would only effect that Mac. If you signed right back in with the same Apple ID, it would just bring you right back to where you were and sync the same photos/content from iCloud and your other devices. I hope that makes sense! Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@captaincake4331]

Very informative video. One problem I still have though, not all my pictures or videos download over to ICLOUD. I can't seem to figure out why. I have over 189 GB of unused space and plenty to put there but the files won't transfer.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Thanks @Captain Cake! So when you say the "files won't transfer", what do you mean by that? Are you putting files into iCloud Drive? Are you uploading through a web browser? Are you referencing photos? What's your workflow and what type of files are you trying to upload to iCloud that's not working? I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you would like to support me and my content, please SUBSCRIBE and SUPER THANKS! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@davidrowe1254]

THANKS FOR HELPING THIS OLD MAN JOEL-SUBSCRIBED

[@Learnwithjoel]

Thanks David! Happy to help and I so much appreciate the support!

[@ThomasGifford]

This was hugely helpful - thanks! I do have one question that maybe you can help with. I have an iPad, iPhone, and a Mac. I have turned on iCloud photo sharing on all three. For the iPad and iPhone, I have "optimize photo storage" set. On the Mac, I have "download full-size" originals. My question is about Photo Stream. Is there any benefit at all in having it turned on for any of my three devices. You implied in the video that there might be, but it is not clear to me that there is any benefit at all. Because all photos will sync via iCloud, I have access to every photo on all three devices. If I did not use iCloud for photos sync, then I see the value, but I do not see any reason to enable it if iCloud photo storage is used. Am I missing something or is my thinking accurate?.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hey @Tom Gifford! Great question and observation! I have pondered this same question multiple times and have also come to the conclusion that if you use iCloud Photos and pay for storage, the "Photo Stream" feature is really isn't useful as iCloud Photos already syncs everything. However if you don't use iCloud Photos and just want the last 30 days or 1,000 items to sync to your devices, it's super helpful for those users. Plus Photo stream does not count against your iCloud Storage....so for those users who aren't paying for it, it's actually really nice.

[@ThomasGifford]

@@Learnwithjoel It seems we think alike on this. Thanks! (Maybe someone else can point out a good reason to use Photo Stream in addition to iCloud Photo storage that you and I have missed - that's a great thing about this online community!

[@Aims123]

Hi Joel, I followed all your instructions however only the photo's on my iPhone are being uploaded to iCloud, not my Mac. Do you have any ideas on how to fix this? I can not work out how to save all my Mac computer pictures onto iCloud. There is plenty of storage. Thanks so much!

[@jasminecpy9544]

hi joel, thanks for the video. i have a questions, if i’ve backed up everything in my “backups”(the purple part), does that mean my photos will be kept if i lose everything in my current phone? if that’s the case, does that mean i do not have to back up my photos as well?(the yellow part) thanks🙏

[@jeffreeves653]

Hey Joel, Heres one for you. I had taken photos using my IPHONE on a trip. Its setup to load to the cloud. Upon returing I have ALL the photos taken on my phone and IPAD… but only ~1/2 of photos show up on my MAC for that particualer album I made for the photos/videos. I’ve gone over the MAC icloud settings and ensured there settings are correct. Can you advise?🤔

[@mukundhans]

Joe- is there a way to group the photos shot on landscape orientation together in an album while viewing as it is irritating to rotate the phone every now and then to get good viewing experience. Thanks in advance.

[@tashitashi7725]

You saved my kids photo. I lost it by accidentally. And very worried and sad. But you saved me. 🎃🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 you are the best.

[@Learnwithjoel]

AMAZING @Tashi Tashi! I'm so glad my content was helpful for you in saving your kids photos! Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@oleksandrkamniev3407]

Hi Joel. Thank you for information. I probably would ask similar question, but I’m a bit confused. 1)Let’s say, I have an iPhone. Purchased a new iPad. As I understand it make sense to use same Apple ID for both devices then I can share purchases at least. But! If I’ll turn on “iCloud Photos” it goes to iCloud from my phone. If I’ll have same option on on the iPad- it will download all same photos from iCloud and take a space on my new iPad too, am I got it right??? 2) And if I will delete something from iPhone or iPad - it will be also deleted from iCloud? Or it will keep it there even if I will delete from one of the devices? Let’s say I’ll have 1tb iCloud storage, but my phone is only 256gb.. So if I want to clear the space on my iPhone for new photos, but don’t want to lose them from iCloud. Is there any way to keep older and newer photos on iCloud??? I’m trying to find the best way to setup my iPad, but not load it from the first day with all old stuff from my iPhone. I don’t really need all of them on my iPad. Thank you

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi Oleksandr! You are actually spot on in your situation. Apple, google, amazon and many others all have their own eco-systems for end users to use and they all work pretty much the same. The purpose for iCloud or even google photos is to keep all of your content/photos synchronized among all of your devices. So you are absolutely correct in saying that if you use the same Apple ID on both your iPhone and new iPad that they will fully sync and when you delete, add, or edit a photo on one of those devices, it will update on the other. So for your questions, you are correct. It is designed to keep all of your devices on the same page. Now, as far as storage is concerned, that's where you can run into hurdles. There is an option on all Apple devices under the iCloud Photo settings to either "optimize iphone/iPad storage" or "Download and Keep Originals" I personally recommend to always do the Optimize "iPhone/iPad/Mac Storage" on any of your devices. The pros to this is that it takes up a fraction of storage on your device and you really don't need to have a ton of storage on an iPhone or iPad. The cons to this is that because you're optimizing the space on your device, when you touch a photo or video, it could take a moment to actually download the original file and if you don't have a great internet connection it will obviously take longer. For me it's a no-brainer. I personally have an iCloud Photo library that is around 500GB total. I don't have an iPhone or iPad that has that capacity, but because I optimize my settings, photos on my iPhone is only taking up about 13GB of storage. As far as your situation, if you have a mac, you could create a new iCloud photo library and archive the old photos you're referencing, or don't use the iCloud Photos for your iPad. But it all depends if you truly don't want your devices to be synced. Hope this helps!

[@jsac3939]

@@Learnwithjoel Quick follow up. If everything is being stored on iCloud, why is it taking 13gb of photos on your phone? Should it not be zero?

[@richardkeenan3743]

Thank you Joel. Im a new subscriber.Why is it that when I edit a photo on my MacBook and save it, the edited photo does not appear in Photos on my iPhone and iPad, only the original? I checked and all three devices are connected to the Cloud. Thanks

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Richard Keenan! Thanks so much for the support! Hmm...that does sound odd. If you take a photo on your iPhone, does it show up on the rest of the devices? or if you delete it? Also what OS are your devices at? That could play a role in it. Probably not the best answer!

[@HARALDSwarehouse]

Fantastic - very well explained. Cheers! Tony in New Zealand

[@Learnwithjoel]

I appreciate you and your kind words @HARALDSwarehouse! I would love to visit New Zealand someday! Hope all is well there! Thank you so much for taking your time to watch this video. It is greatly appreciated! If this video has been helped you, I would be honored if you would consider sharing it with your social media network and expressing your gratitude for its assistance. Kindly subscribe if you have not already done so. Your continued support is greatly appreciated.

[@bertrandmangeot9974]

very nice video. Quick question. is it possible to use the same photos library using two differents iPhone?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Bertrand Mangeot! So in theory, yes, you could use the same Photos Library using two different iPhones, but that requires both iPhones to use the same Apple ID. Now typically most people won't do this, as the Apple ID also syncs a whole bunch of other content like, text messages, calendars, contacts, notes and more. I guess it all depends on what your end goal is though! Hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate your continued support!

[@josephsun2197]

I plan to do a clean OS install on my old iMac. Before doing so, I will backup 700 GBs of Photos Library on an external drive and on iCloud. How do you recommend I re-import that library after installing the new OS? Import the whole library? Import “original” folder manually? import the whole Time Machine backup? Import via iCloud? Thanks in advance for your suggestions. Also, what OS version do you recommend for a 2015 iMac?

[@Learnwithjoel]

So lots of questions...let me start backwards and work my way to the top. In reference to the OS to put on a 2015 iMac? I am a fan of always having the latest and greatest on one condition, it supports all of the apps that I use. If you're able to update to 10.15 Catalina or even Big Sur, I am all for that as long as your not using any software that doesn't support it! Especially with the syncing and the whole eco-system of Apple products, they're wanting you to stay on the latest and greatest, so it makes sense to do so to eliminate any issues you may run into, especially when using anything iCloud. Now onto the clean install. I'm a fan of this. It's always nice to get a fresh install on your device and start from scratch and copy everything over. I think as far as bringing your photos to the freshly installed imac, it depends. Did you get a new computer and do you plan on having your main iCloud Photo library on there? Do you always house your main iCloud library on an external drive? 700 GB is A LOT of photos! My first instinct is to let iCloud do it's thing, but you will be waiting a very long time for it to upload and sync into your other devices. But really if this library is your System library, you should just be able to copy the library locally to the iMac if that is your plan, or continue to run off the external. I would NOT import from Time Machine if you have it on your external, and I would hope that your Time Machine backup is an additional external drive? I guess i have more questions... Did you get a new Mac that you plan on being your main one and using your iMac as the secondary? Do you plan on using the iCloud Photo library primarily off of your external drive or locally? Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate your support!

[@josephsun2197]

Thanks for responding Joel. So I am keeping the old 2015 iMac. I’ll install a new OS and wipe everything on it because it’s super slow. My main issue is my huge 700GB Photos Library that I’m asking the best way to re-install? Thanks.

[@ArturasDovydenas]

Dear Joel. Thank you for this lesson. Now it is clear for me - how to sync pictures from one source to other gadgets on my apple account in case they have empty “Pictures” folder. But what will happen in case, where for instance iPad, iPhone and MAC already have their one “Picture” folder with unique pictures. Does those pictures will sync to the rest of gadgets, or they will be overwritten by some main gadget’s content. O, in case on two of iPad and iPhone egzist the same set of pictures - does they will be duplicated? I have bad experience with address book. I have restored address book on iPhone with Time Machine and turned on synchronization with iCloud address book. Now I have two entries for each contact of my address book and should coupe this mess by deleting duplications by hands. It is very risky and costly to start synchronization without knowledge “what will happen, when”.

[@skkrawczyk]

Great explanation. However I am wondering what would happen if I turn on iCloud photos only on an iPhone, but not on a Mac?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @skkrawczyk! So on any Apple device that you have, you're able to turn on and off any of the iCloud syncing options. So in regards to iCloud Photos being turned on within your iPhone and not your Mac, this would make it so that every photo you take on your iPhone is uploaded to icloud.com and any other device that you have iCloud Photos turned on, but as far as your Mac, no pictures or videos would show up. If you needed to get pictures to your Mac, you would need to manually sync using a cord with iTunes or Finder, or use AirDrop to wirelessly copy manually. I guess the real question is what is your goal and workflow? The beauty of iCloud Photos and having multiple devices is that it keeps them all on the same page with the same content where you don't need to manually plug in and sync. Hope this helps! Thanks so much for watching! I appreciate the support!

[@skkrawczyk]

@@Learnwithjoel thank you for you answer. I have turned on iCloud Photos on my iPhone, but not on a Mac, so the result was, that photos from the iPhone were uploaded to the cloud, so it helps save space on the iPhone, but they don't show on my Mac - and it is ok for me since my main goal was to save space on the iPhone. I imagine that if I turn on iCloud Photos both on my Mac and on the iPhone - I would be able to see all the pictures on both devices.

[@javonteshavers4388]

I always wondered because I have an old 32 gb iPhone 4 if I upload to my iCloud to save on a different device- an a iPad, iCloud has 2 tb of storage with other files if all files are loaded on iPhone 4 when I turn iCloud off to download originals will it be the originals from the iPhone 4 or all originals from iCloud?? Basically iPhone 4 won’t have enough storage to download ALL files.

[@Learnwithjoel]

You have the right idea @Javonte Shavers, if iCloud were turned off, it would have the option to sync and download all content to that device, but you are also correct that you would need enough local storage to accommodate it all. So chances are, the 32GB on that iPhone 4 would not be enough. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you would like to support me and my content, please SUBSCRIBE and SUPER THANKS! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@michellehubner8182]

Hi Joel, thanks so much for this video. It was very helpful. However, I still have a problem in which some of the albums I recently created on my mac do NOT show up on my iphone. Also, some of the photos that show up in certain albums on my mac are not showing up in the album on my iphone. How do I adjust this?

[@christyfrost8706]

Very helpful videos. So am I understanding this right...iCloud collects photos from all my devices and shares them with each other. The “master” of all my photos lives on my desktop computer (iMac) under Pictures. Is it enough backup to have iCloud? In other words, if my computer (iMac) crashes or gets corrupted, will the photos still exist in iCloud? I also use an external hard drive for back up, but I want to make sure I have two sources of backup. Thx!

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Christy Frost! Great questions! So you are correct that iCloud is the location that keeps all of your devices on the same page with all photos and videos that you have stored in there. As far as the "Master" location, I would actually say that the iCloud is the "Master" because if you were to get a brand new Mac and you sign into iCloud, it will actually just start to download all of your photos, videos, albums and everything into a new Photos Library on that new Mac. Now on your Mac, or any Apple device, you have the ability to have it "Download the Orginals to that device" and then it will physically be on that device, but regardless if you delete, move or edit one photo on any location, it will update and reflect those changes everywhere. And yes, if your Mac got corrupted, lost, stolen, broken, or crashes, those pictures are in iCloud and when you get a new mac, all you need to do is sign in and it will download and you can pick up where you left off! You have the right idea of having your Mac link with iCloud and sync the photos and then use an external hard drive to backup your Mac, then you would have a nice safety net if something where to happen! Hope this helps! Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate your support!

[@manzurman]

You should have more subscribers. Your content is awesome and neat!

[@Learnwithjoel]

I appreciate the kind words @Manzurman! Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@Rollin_Dean]

Hey Joel, what if I don't want ALL my photos on ALL my devices? For example, could I turn icloud photo sync on on my macbook only so only my computer library will be backed up in the icloud. Then every time I am ready to back up photos from my phone I can connect it to my macbook and upload them to my library which in turn will be backed up in my icloud? It may seem dumb, but I don't think I want thousands upon thousands of photos to go through on my phone all the time even at the low res set up. Can that be done and what are your thoughts? Thanks for the great videos!!!

[@Learnwithjoel]

Thanks for watching @Dean Whitmire! So yes, that is a perfect solution for your situation. You could just enable iCloud Photos on your Mac and turn it off on your iPhone and then just do a manual sync from your iPhone to your computer whenever you want. It's more of the older method of syncing, but nothing wrong with it at all! Just takes more time to do it. I guess the biggest thing is that people may find your solution more hassle than it's worth, but non the less, it works! Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate the support!

[@dcamargo515]

Hi, I want to manage my Photos library from an external hard drive due to the storage limitation of my mac book air. If I choose to keep originals in my Mac does it actually means that the originals will be on where ever the library is? In this my external Hard Drive? Thanks.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Yes that is correct! The originals will always be within the library. Depending on how much hard drive space you have on your Mac, you can always move the library first to the external and then after it's copied, check the option to download the originals. I just taped two videos this week in regards to merging photo libraries and moving photo libraries too, but you're on the right track! Thanks so much for watching! I appreciate the support!

[@lindanelson6719]

Thank you, this worked great from my phone to my iPad.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Happy to hear it worked for you @Linda Nelson! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@emilioraulhochang5638]

Hello, is it possible to select what photos you want synced in your devices. For example, every photo I take with my devices I want them in my icloud, but in my devices there are many pictures that I dont need anymore because they are too old.

[@sulai6i]

Thank you Joel for the all info 👍

[@Learnwithjoel]

You’re very welcome!

[@dpeasehead]

My new (fall of 2021) iMac doesn't respond to the skinny silver Apple remote that I used to control the volume on my older Mac when I watched videos. Has the mac been changed in some way that I don't know about?

[@HosseinQanbari]

Thank you, your videos helped me a lot as I am new to iphone and macbook.

[@Learnwithjoel]

You're very welcome @Hossein Qanbari! I'm happy this was helpful! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@jahdeadamo1288]

hi joel, if i do click on the option to create a "phoyo library 2" , is there any way i can get my old library back and get rid of the second one?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Jahde Adamo! Apple Photos allows you to create multiple photo libraries, however you can only have one open at a time. By default they're usually saved within the Pictures Folder. The library usually ends with the extension of .photoslibrary Also if you hold down "option" on the keyboard while opening Apple Photos it should prompt with a window that shows all Photo libraries and the ability to open them. You can also delete any of these at any time by locating it in the Finder and just deleting to the trash. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t subscribed already and would like to support me and my content, please SUBSCRIBE and use the THANKS button! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@photoipster]

Can I rely on iCloud as a backup for my photos? I have a new m1 mini with 1 tb. I have 3 tb of images. However, when I put my photos library on an external drive and use that as my system library, my disk whirs for weeks! But, if I choose optimize for Mac, and put my system library on my m1 with ssd, it is much much much faster. So, I brought in all 3tb of pictures into my mini, and let Mac optimize, then it put my 3tb in the cloud and everything is wicked fast. But, I no longer have my entire library in full res anywhere but iCloud. Love your thoughts

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Jim Huffman! You for sure have a lot of photos! So to answer your very first question....No, I honestly would not rely on iCloud as a backup. Primarily because it's not a backup. iCloud in general is designed as a syncing service. It keep all of your devices in sync with the same information. Even though Apple does market iCloud as providing a "backup" it's only for mobile devices and it actually says that when you turn on iCloud Photos, or iMessages in the Cloud, those items are actually not backed up. We have to understand that all the photos uploaded into iCloud are on Apple's server. Yes they are most likely backed up by Apple if something were to happen, and as a user if you were to delete one it would remain in the "recently deleted" album for 39 days to recover, but it's not really a backup in my opinion. Here is my best method and recommendation for someone backing up all their photos that uses Apple Photos and iCloud Photos. I would have a large enough hard drive...either internally or externally that is able to grow and accommodate all pictures. I would have that be the system library that sync with iCloud and I would also have it sync the original high resolution photos. This way, you have full control of all of your original RAW images. Secondly, I would get another drive to use TimeMachine or another software that backs up that drive. I would always recommend to have at least two backups of any files. Some may see this as excessive, but it's all relative to what is important to the user. Hope this helps and provides some food for thought! Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate your support!

[@jerrytrouble]

Will this work the same on our IPads too?

[@gilbrook]

@Joel, Significance between “iCloud Photos” setting in iPhone Storage vs “Photos” setting in iCloud? “iCloud Photos” setting says “Enable” and “Photos” says “ON”. My 4 Apple devices are iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Mac. Believe iCloud Photos off for my iPhone, on for iPad, on for iPod and off for Mac. Confused. Why is my iPhone saying iCloud Photos is ON, but also to ENABLE? It’s an enigma to me. Ideas?

[@bmsmusician]

If I decide to stop using iCloud photos and just want to have my library on the computer or external drive again, is there a way to download the library with all info on how I've made albums, tags, people etc? That would be a pain to do all over again.

[@Learnwithjoel]

What’s your current setup now? Do you have iCloud photos turned on within all your devices? Also do you have it set to download originals or set to optimize storage? Your main goal would be, before you turn off iCloud Photos is to make sure your Photos library is turned on and that it’s set to download originals. If you just turn off right now, you have potential to not have all your photos and videos in that library before you move it to external location.

[@bmsmusician]

Right now I'm in the process of uploading my library to iCloud. I'm going to use it mainly as a way to minimise the risk of losing the library that is on my physical hard drive but also accessing my photos on my other devises. I've spent years with creating albums and to lose all that if I want to go back to using my hard drive as main storage wouldn't make sense to me. I'm taking lots of photos with my DSL camera and organising them from my laptop and always make a back up of the complete library once a month and I still want to be able to do that even if it is stored in the cloud.

[@Learnwithjoel]

I pretty much do the same thing. I use iCloud Photos and have 2TB iCloud plan. That way all my devices are all on the same page. Then I have an older Mac that is dedicated purely for my Photos Library which downloads the original files and that’s backed up by an external drive.

[@bmsmusician]

@@Learnwithjoel Ok so if you take photos with a DSL that needs to connect to a Mac to transfer its photos, is that a different computer than the old one that holds your library? Or the same?

[@Learnwithjoel]

So the Mac computer that I do my main editing on with all my DSLR professional photos is not the mac I have dedicated to Photos library. I still have iCloud Photos turned, but on that main mac it is set to Optimize Mac Storage. Reason being i don't want it to fill up so much on my primary working mac laptop. My workflow may be a bit odd, but on my primary Mac laptop, I do all my editing and and then I export all edits or needed photos to my Network drive (NAS) and then from my other mac that has the Photos Library (that downloading the originals) I connect to the NAS and import the photos from there. I also try to utilize iCloud Photo Shared Albums as they do not count against your iCloud Storage, which I hope Apple doesn't change that.

[@voyagerman22]

Hi Joel, great video, thanks. Although your video is dated now with IOS 17 coming soon, I have a general iCloud Photo Library questions. I am considering a switch to iCloud Photos, but my iPhone and IPad have different photos and albums. If I turn on iCloud will photos on each device merge together? And will created albums on one device merge onto other device? Just trying to understand before I pull the trigger. Thanks, again.

[@rosaliearnold7163]

This is such a helpful video. Thanks so much. Are you able to tell me why some, but not all, of my many albums have all of a sudden 0 pictures in them. I thought albums transferred. I just checked iCloud as you instructed and they are not there either.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Rosalie Arnold! I'm happy to help! I guess i'll start with asking do you see the albums anywhere? Are they on a Computer, iPhone, iPad, anywhere? Also what were the steps that you were accomplishing? Depending on the amount of photos you have, it could just take a while for the pictures to show up in albums, but to really understand and help, i'll have to know a little bit about your setup and the steps you did! I look forward to your response! Thanks for watching! I appreciate the support

[@troubador7384]

Thanks, Joel. Very helpful content. I have a question relating to my iCloud photos. I have enough storage on my iMac (after getting a new internal HD). I'd like to discontinue the uploading of my photos to iCloud (I'm running out of space there) which is my current setting. My question is: if I discontinue my iCloud photo storage, what will happen to the photos that are already stored there? Will they download to my iMac automatically? (I figure that I can upload all new photos from my iPhone by connecting it to my iMac and transferring the photos to Photos - I'm on Mojave 10.14.6.)

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Troubador! So if you plan to no longer use iCloud photos, when you turn it off, it will prompt you with a message to download all of your photos, videos and files in 30 days and then they'll be deleted for good. Probably the easiest way is to make sure that on your Mac you have it set to "Download Originals to this Mac" set in your Photos preferences and once it's all done just let the 30 days run it's course and you should have everything locally on that iMac. And then yes, you would be able to manually import photos from your iPhone to your iMac by either plugging it in an syncing through the finder or you could AirDrop too. Hope this helps! Thanks so much for watching! I appreciate the support!

[@troubador7384]

@@Learnwithjoel Thank you very much, esp for taking the time to respond. That is very kind of you. Thanks.

[@troubador7384]

@@Learnwithjoel Hmmm ... Photos on my Mac already had the iCloud button unchecked. When I went to my iPhone and turned off the iCloud Photos and checked Download and Keep Originals, I got a dialog box saying "This iPhone was not able to download 4,408 full-resolution photos and videos. If you continue, the low-resolution versions of these photos and videos will be removed. Remove from iPhone (or Cancel)." I'm not sure what the heck this means!! So I didn't turn off the iCloud Photos button on my iPhone - only because I'm not sure of what this dialog box means. I'm not keen on losing any photos but I do want to get them off my iCloud drive (which is nearly full mainly because of photos). Any words of wisdom? Thanks, in advance, for your help.

[@Learnwithjoel]

@@troubador7384 So does your iMac include and have all of the 4,408 photos that are on your iPhone? It very well could be that by turning off iCloud on your iPhone it gives you that message about not being able to download the originals because you don't have enough physical space on your iPhone to do so. First verify that 100% of your photos are on your iMac. If thats the case and you don't have iCloud Photos checked, then you know it's not syncing to the cloud and that everything is there. Then it's just a matter of looking how much space your Photos Library is taking up on your iMac and then seeing if it will actually fit on your iPhone.

[@troubador7384]

@@Learnwithjoel Thanks, again. You are very kind to respond individually and it is very much appreciated. I think I've got all my photos on my iMac (I do have enough storage on my iPhone too). I've turned off iCloud on my iPhone and will wait a few days to see what that does to my iCloud storage (which was nearly full). Thank you, Joel.

[@utubephil100]

Hi Joel Great very helpful video ! I need a bit of help please : When I open Photos / Preferences / iCloud, and then click on iCloud Photo Library , it keeps asking me to upgrade my iCloud storage (currently on the lowest plan ) Therefore it will not allow me to tick any of the options although I am still showing 19.22 GB available ? What can I do next please apart from upgrading my storage plan ?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Luckypip! Thanks so much for watching! My guess is that because you're trying to turn that iCloud Photo Library on now, it's actually more storage than the 19.22GB available.... Most users will have way more content on their computer than mobile device. So for example if your Photos library on your Mac is currently 40GB, but you only have 19.22GB free in iCloud, it's going to prompt you to buy more storage because you won't have enough once you initiate the sync. How big is your Photos library on your Mac? If you go in to the Finder, open up the pictures folder and look for your Photos Library.photoslibrary You should be able to see the total amount of storage that's taking up and that will determine how much iCloud storage you will need to accommodate the whole library. I hope this helps and make sense. Let me know! Thanks for watching and I appreciate the support!

[@hughsimpson]

Hi Joel, Greta video as usual, have recently subscribed to your Chanel and have learned a lot on various topics thanks. With regards iCloud photos, I have about 13k photos on my iPad and would like to upload them to iCloud to free up storage on my device. My question is… if I follow your instructions here, will the albums I have created in photos be replicated in iCloud, or will it just upload the photos as one big album… also what order will the photos be in (date, name, etc) thanks

[@Learnwithjoel]

Welcome @Hugh Simpson! Thanks for supporting and subscribing! If you're going to turn the toggle on for iCloud Photos, it should keep everything in tact and upload everything as is into iCloud. So the Albums should not go away. Using iCloud Photos won't really change much from an organization stand point. You can still sort photos by date, name, place and everything you're already doing. Now keep in mind that freeing up storage, there is an option to "optimize Mac Storage" in the preferences of Apple Photos after turning on iCloud Photos. I have a video related to this feature on an iPad, which works the same way on a Mac. I'll link below for reference. Optimizing iPhone & iPad Storage - How to FREE UP SPACE on my iPhone, iPad, or Mac for photos! kzbin.info/www/bejne/mHjQf2B5YpuKbaM I hope that helps! If you learned something new and want to support my channel, click THANKS below on the video! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, please share it along!

[@Sudds1888]

I have download originals enabled on my Mac… if I delete a photo on my iPhone does it delete from my Mac as well?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Sudds1888! Great question! Even though you have "Download Originals" selected on your Mac, that just means it's keeping the high quality file saved locally on your Mac. There are pros and cons to this, but regardless if you delete it on your Mac, it will delete from iCloud and all of your other devices! I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@Sudds1888]

@@Learnwithjoel Thanks for the reply Joel! Ran very low on iCloud space, exported all unmodified originals to a backup folder then proceeded to clear out iCloud. Seriously thinking about dropping iCloud, have an Asustor NAS along with Photo Gallery 3 and AiFoto3 on the iPhone, this combination auto uploads every photo and video, downside is, you must have keep originals checked on the iPhone.

[@keithnmdowling]

How can I delete just at one source, eg keep the icloud file but delete on the device only. Great 'to the point' tutorials by the way, Best from Ireland. K

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hey @Keith Dowling thanks for the kind words and support! Hope all is well for you in Ireland! The whole design of iCloud and really any other cloud system like Google, or OneDrive is to sync your content across multiple devices so that they're all on the same page. So if you delete a photo from one device, it deletes it everywhere else. Depending on how this concept works for each individual user it could be a benefit or a downfall. So if you wanted to delete an item at just once source and not have it affect all other locations/devices, you would have to turn off the iCloud setting on that particular device so that it doesn't sync that content. So for example if that one device is your iPhone, it means that when you turn off iCloud Photos there, every photo you take only lives on that iPhone unless you manually connect it to a computer or flash drive or something to copy the photos off. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@JudithBradley-sc4ki]

I need your help Joel. I made my “System Library “ on an external hard drive. I want to get my this on my Mac. Would appreciate answer.

[@AgustinBernardoOrozco]

Hi Joel, thanks for you videos, I really appreciate. I do use iCloud 2TB storage as you do, I also have +26K photos in my library, what it is not very clear for me is the size of the pictures in iCloud. If I am storing the "original" files in the iMac, why the size in iCloud is almost the same as in the iMac, is it a "full size" back up in the cloud or are optimized files?. For some time I used the full size in the cloud and optimized in the iMac, but a few moths ago I changed the settings. Is there a way to reduce the size in the cloud or I am duplicating the "full size" files in the cloud and in the iMac? REGARDS!!!!

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Agustin Bernardo Orozco! So iCloud stores the original files in the cloud. There is no way currently to change that. My hunch is that it will stay that way because if you were to get a new Mac, all you need to do is sign in with your Apple ID/iCloud account and it will download all of your originals to that new machine. So in theory you could put your photos back on your Mac do be "optimized", but it is nice to have a copy of everything locally also. I personally have an older macbook pro that i've dedicated to Apple Photos library and it downloads all of the originals. If I didn't have that, i would put it on an external drive. It's always nice to have a safety net locally on a device. Hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! I appreciate the support!

[@anan1979]

Hi nice video thank you, I have tagged people in photos app in mac I backed up in iCloud, but there is no people section in iCloud, so when i use iPad I have to tag people again. It is very tedious as Iva 24k pictures. Can you help

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Anand K! You are correct, there is no option in iCloud's website to see or use the People feature. There is so much I wish Apple would add there, but fingers crossed for the future. I will say that it takes forever for People to sync, especially if you have the option turned on to "optimize" the storage of Apple Photos. Be patient and it will eventually catch up and sync. When I use the People feature and tag people in the photos, I always do it from my Mac and keep Apple Photos open, and it eventually syncs to my phone. I find it way faster to add people from the Mac vs iPhone or iPad. I wish there was some progress bar or something to let users know the syncing status or something, but it really doesn't. Probably not the best answer, but Thank you for your continued support! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please support my channel, by clicking THANKS below, or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@oldkoloa]

Joel, I enjoy your videos, they are very helpful, thank you. I have a problem with my Mac Big Sur photos not syncing with my iCloud photos. My iPhone and iPad are syncing perfectly with iCloud, my Mac isn't. All my preferences are the same, except my Mac never finishes updating from iCloud. I have tried repairing photos (option, command, repair) but still, it never finishes. I like to do my photo work from my Mac, it's easier, but the photos I need are not yet synced from iCloud. Weird, huh? Hope you can help... any ideas will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @O Koloa! A few questions and a couple suggestions... How big is your Photos library? Do you have it set to download the originals, or optimize the storage? Does everything from iPhone and iPad show up on icloud.com? Do you have Photos always open even throughout the night when you're sleeping so that it does sync? Is it a laptop or iMac? If it's a laptop, do you have Power Nap enabled in the Mac System Preferences? (System Preferences > Energy Saver > Enable Power Nap while....) As far as suggestions go... I can speak from personal experience with a photo library of roughly 500GB. When I had to sync my Photos Library to iCloud it took forever! Literally about two weeks with Photos open 24/7 and it finally finished and began to start showing new photos that I would take with my iPhone. Now if you've played the waiting game and you've done this, another suggestion would be to possibly create a new library. Again depending on your iCloud Photo library size, you may need to accommodate enough storage to duplicate your entire library either on your Mac itself, or on an external hard drive. In theory, if you were to get a brand new Photos library on your Mac, after the library is open, you can go into the Preferences of Photos and make sure that the library is set to "Use as System Photo Library". This would then start to download everything from iCloud down to your computer and again just play the waiting game for it to sync down. Hopefully that helps and makes some sense. Don't hesitate to reach out and let me know how it's going! Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate the support!

[@angelafortune3763]

I’ve followed your instructions but how can I tell if the photos on my iMac are uploading to iCloud? I upgraded my account to the 2TB storage so there should be plenty of room. I have about 18,000 to upload and it’s just sitting there thinking?? Appreciate your video above too!

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Angela Fortune! I really wish Apple had a better way of showing the progress! Sometimes i've noticed that when you scroll to the very bottom of All of your Photos, you can see a progress bar, but I don't trust that it always shows... My best advice is to keep the Photos App open all the time on your Mac and check icloud.com and your other devices until you see that they're all on the same page. I go by the fact that when i take a picture on my iPhone and i'm able to see it on my Mac, iPad, and icloud.com, then i know it's done! Probably not the best answer, but I hope it helps! Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate the support!

[@Rayluquin]

2:37 hopefully you can help me out with something, when I try to click on iCloud Photos, I get a message: iCloud Photos is only available on macOS standard, macOS extended and APFS formatted volumes. What do I need to do so I can move forward? Any tips?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hey @Rayluquin! I did google that error message and I see you may not be the only one who has run into that issue. A couple questions... What macOS are you on and what model mac do you have? Do you have a Hybrid internal hard drive, SSD, or HDD drive? Did it work before and now it doesn't? A few things to try: Try repairing the Apple Photo library. It's super easy and I have a video that talks about this: Apple Photos on your Mac not working? Try REPAIRING your library! kzbin.info/www/bejne/lavLqI1moN6KhqM Secondly try repairing the drive using Disk Utility. I don't have a video on this, but I'll link an Apple Support article link below with instructions. How to repair a Mac disk with Disk Utility support.apple.com/en-us/102611 Let me know how it goes! I hope it helps! THANK YOU so much for watching! It is appreciated more than you know! If this video was useful, I’d love for you to SHARE it with on social media and say how it helped you! Please SUBSCRIBE if you haven’t already, and if you have, THANK YOU for your continued support!

[@Rayluquin]

Thanks Joel, let me get you all the information. I will try to repair photo library, also I'm using a external SSD which now that I think about it, I don't think I ever formatted the external SSD.

[@Learnwithjoel]

@@Rayluquin That makes perfect sense then...I would highly recommend to format that external drive if your goal is to use with your Mac and Apple Photos. Just keep in mind that required wiping all data from it. I do have a video on that process in addition to a video that talks about moving Apple Photo libraries to external drives that I'll link below for reference: Understanding how to FORMAT your NEW External Hard Drive for your MAC - A look at Apple Disk Utility kzbin.info/www/bejne/mZK8l42NrrNnebM How to MOVE your iCLOUD PHOTO LIBRARIES and APPLE PHOTO LIBRARIES to an EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE! kzbin.info/www/bejne/rXLVnICojsqbiJo Hope that helps!

[@holliemion9148]

A few questions: --I have some photos and videos that I just want to keep on my Mac hard drive and not in the Cloud. Is there a way to do that? I will want to be able to do that with some of my future photos as well. --If I turn on the iCloud sync then all the old photos I have saved on my hard drive will to end up in the Cloud, right? Yikes! --Is there a way to have photos that I have edited maintain the edits in Shared Albums or saved somewhere else? BTW, I just discovered some of your tutorials yesterday and subscribed immediately. I'm looking forward to watching more of them! I have been so intimidated by Photos and the mess I have created within it for the last 19 years.

[@guwrb1]

What you 1st turn on iCloud photos on your Mac, will the albums/folders stay the same. I worried photos will come out of the albums when you do your first sync.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Great question @Bill Bruderer! If you're just starting to turn on iCloud Photos, it should merge and keep everything that you have already. Now depending on the amount of photos and internet speeds and such, the first sync to get everything indexed and synced between all locations could take a while. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you would like to support me and my content, please SUBSCRIBE and SUPER THANKS! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@VroomsWithAView]

Great how-to ! I have a 256gb iPhone and a 64gb iPad. iCloud photos is currently disabled on both devices. The iPhone has over 70gb of photo/video in storage. The iPad has no media, but half memory used in apps/games. My question is: How can I get all of my photos from my iPhone into the cloud, and view them on my iPad, without having to download them to the iPad ? Is that an option ? AKA, sort of like photo stream, but not limited to thirty days. Thank you !

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Joey Viz! Fantastic questions! So you have the right mindset and concept of "Photo Stream", but my hunch is that feature may go away sometime in the future. New Apple ID iCloud accounts created today, don't even have Photo Stream, they make you use iCloud Photos! If you want to get the photos into the Cloud through Apple and have them stay longer than 30 days, iCloud Photos is your primary option, but I guess Shared Photo Albums could technically work also... Using Shared Photo albums allows you to store up to 5,000 files in each album (up to 200 total) and it doesn't count against iCloud storage. Some limitations to it, but it is a convenient feature. If you haven't checked out my other videos, I have a couple that may be helpful: iCloud Photo Album Sharing Video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rIaTfoWcopeoqqs HOW I SYNC 500GB of iCloud Photos to my 64GB iPad! kzbin.info/www/bejne/mHjQf2B5YpuKbaM Hope this helps a little bit and gives you some options! Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate the support!

[@VroomsWithAView]

@@Learnwithjoel excellent, Sounds like “shared albums” may work for me (sharing between my own devices, how didn’t I think of this). Checking out your video links shortly, and gained a new sub. Thank you sir

[@Learnwithjoel]

You’re very welcome! Thanks for watching and the continued support!

[@mgbspeedy]

First off. Great video. Secondly hoping you can help. Option click does not offer me options. I was previously not linked to iCloud. I would like to link my Mac. The pics and videos in my “Photos” app on my Mac are “not the same as on my phone. Trying not to lose either. I remember in the old days with iTunes, completely overwriting the old xml file when syncing. Is there a way to merge or create a new photos library, without losing both what’s on my Mac and also on my phone. I repeat, “option click” doesn’t do anything. Photos just opens up normally. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[@NichelsWorth]

I almost always don’t have enough space to download updates on my MacBook Pro. I am a photographer, so maybe I have photos scattered about, most of which I don’t want. Or, maybe I have too many apps. I don’t do much other than edit photos on my Mac. So, what am I doing wrong? I need space help!

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Walter Holmes! You're not alone in this struggle! I think every photographer at some point has photos scattered around! So here's what I would do. First Identify your Mac storage and what's actually taking up space. How big is your internal hard drive? You can always find out by going in the top left to the  > About this Mac > Storage > Manage. This will start to break down what's taking up space and where it possibly lives. It's actually a pretty decent utility. After you identify your storage, it may be time to invest in an external hard drive if you don't have one already. This will allow you to start a process, a very boring tedious process, but one that is important so that you're able to start copying your files off your Mac to another location and in return free space, clean up old files and possibly get rid of some duplicates. What software do you use for all of your Photos and how to you currently manage them? What's your workflow and also what's your IG so we can all see your work! I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@PePaskari]

Hello Joel, - A good tutorial on iCloud photos, and impressive teaching and recording skills. I am now a subscriber. I have a challenge, which might be a subject for another of your tutorials: I am a Lightroom and occasional PS user on Mac. With the shift from dSLR to iPhone as main camera, I need to change my workflow, would like 1) to capture on the mobile, sync to iPad ( for better screen), 2) do some Lightroom editing on iPad and 3) transfer edited result to Mac lightroom for storage and fine postprocessing. Most pics would be dropped early on in the workflow. I am looking for help in integrating a IPad Lightroom sync to Lightroom Classic/Mac workflow, built on top of the iCloud device sync. And I want to avoid getting lost in the process. Any comments?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Peter Plantener! Thank you for the kind words! I appreciate it! Based off what you've described, it sounds like possibly ditching iCloud Photos and dedicating your workflow using Adobe may be your best bet. Hear me out.... Adobe Lightroom is typically a subscription that includes 1TB of online storage. They've worked really hard the past couple years to integrate the Mobile version of Lightroom for iPads and iOS. Photos you take on your iPhone, should be able to sync into Adobe Lightroom which would then sync to Adobe on the iPad and then in return should be able to sync to Adobe Lightroom on the Mac. However, it may force you to use Adobe's newer Lightroom and not the Classic version. This may have changed, so I could be wrong, as I was a Lightroom user, but switched to CaptureOne a few years back. So with that being said, the photo files would be syncing among the Adobe Cloud system. When they get to your Mac, I would imagine you would be able to integrate them locally and then export or save your final processed/edited photos into iCloud Photos if you wanted for sharing. I guess that would be my initial thought process. Lightroom is a fantastic tool, and I think it's a good pairing with iCloud Photos for sharing your final work. I hope that kinda makes sense! Thank you for your continued support! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please support my channel, by clicking THANKS below, or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@melissawilkinson7669]

Hi Joel. Thank you for all these videos. I have never (purposely, lol) used iCloud because I have several libraries on my Mac and didn't know which one to make the system library to link with iCloud. Anyway, recently my main photos album on my phone went from 2kish photos to over 6k, and I don't know how. I'm thinking it has something to do with a newish feature dealing with syncing the Mac and my phone...do you have any experience with this? I have verified that all cloud settings are turned off, but photos rom years past that I had deleted from my phone have definitely reappeared. Thanks.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Melissa Wilkinson! So it definitely sounds like one of the libraries got turned on for iCloud Photos if you went from 2K of photos to over 6K, it must be syncing from someplace. When you say you verified the cloud settings are off, what settings are you referring to? How many Photo Libraries do you you have on your Mac? Have you opened up each individually and looked in the preferences to see if you have the iCloud Photos option checked? Do you have photo stream as an option on your iPhone, and is that turned on? There could be a few things to still check. Unless you plugged your phone directly into your mac and started syncing all of the photos manually? As or right now, if you take a photo on your iPhone, does it show up on your Mac, iPad or any other device? Also what do you see on icloud.com? Look forward to helping! Thanks so much for watching! I appreciate the support!