It seems there is quite a bit of misunderstanding about how Photo Streams work, so I will clear them up here.
There are two types of photos stream. "My Photo Stream" and shared photo streams.
Photos are added into this stream automatically from new photos being added to Camera Roll.
My Photo Stream begins deleting photos after they are 30 days old or you reach the maximum of 1000 photos, whichever is shorter.
Each photo does not count towards your iCloud usage.
With shared photo streams, you can share photos with upto 100 people (or if you want to use it as a storage bin, share with nobody at all).
Each shared photo stream has a limit of 5000 photos.
They never expire, and do not count towards your iCloud usage.
Photos have to be added manually.
The only other restriction (although I can't remember the number) is an account maximum for stored photos (it was around 10,000,000 if I remember right).
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In terms of what happens now with shared photo streams since iOS8/Yosemite - nothing. They exist exactly how they did with iOS7.
Apple has not indicated in any articles that photo streams will now count towards your iCloud usage.
I'm currently running the 8.1 beta with iCloud Photo Library turned on, which is obviously backing up my camera roll, and I have over 30 shared photo streams. Looking at my iCloud usage it is still the case that my streams are not listed and therefore I can only assume they are not taking any of my iCloud storage.
You ask if they are "stuck there" as if somehow you have been wronged. No, they are not stuck there. You can move them wherever you want. If I were you I would at least make one copy of your library on an external drive. Whether you choose to store them online through iCloud or some other service is up to you but regardless, make a local copy.
That is a great advice. I do it know all of the time after one of my hard drives broke with about 10000 photos. Rrrrr
1000 photos per shared photo stream and unlimited photo streams.
Wrong. It was never unlimited. There was a 1000 photo limit on your personal stream also. Plus any item over 30 days could disappear.
It appeared to be unlimited because the photos didn't auto delete from local storage. So if y didn't do any kind of erase or restore for several months you could have 5000 photos locally on your iPhone or iPad but the moment you did that restore only the last 1000 came back.
The only "unlimited" was in the time for shared steams. They had no 30 days counter.
The web app is quite nice and a relief to have as we wait for Photos.app next year.
For anyone still confused, YES, you must wait for Photos.app next year to have a Mac client component for iCloud Photo Library.
Your iPhoto library is going to sit dormant, unless you manually manage it, which I MIGHT do, if I see any need. For now, all I really care about is having access to every photo and video I take available on my iOS devices, AppleTV, and any Mac or PC via the web.
Sometime next year, iCloud Photo Library will be kicked into high gear, as I'll be able to migrate my old iPhoto Library (around 150 GB) into Photos.app, and upload quite a lot to iCloud. I wish I could do it right now, but alas, will have to wait for Apple to finish this ultimate app.
(And for those still confused, technically I could sync my old iPhoto library over to my iPhone, little bits at a time, let it upload to iCloud, and could migrate that way. It would just be extremely slow, laborious process. I'm content to let my old stuff lay dormant in iPhoto for now, as I rarely access the old stuff anyway.)
I am curious to see what Aperture does faced with the new paradigm given it was just updated for Yosemite compatibility. Come on Apple, if you can bring back camera roll you can rethink Aperture support.
They are rethinking it. By getting rid of it. And iPhoto. Rumor is they are going to one app with an advanced mode and plug in support.
What I dislike is that they dumped iphoto for iOS and the brushes aren't in the photo app. Nor could we ever use the brushes to edit computer photos using out devices as the input
I find all of icloud.com (or in this case beta.cloud.com) to be rather spectacular. Attractive, smooth and functional.
I only wish I could be notified if anyone tried to access my account via the website and have two-step authentication active for icloud.com.
I agree I would like to be notified on tries, too. Two factor authentication is active for icloud.com, though.
I can login fine with just Apple ID + password but there is a lock over every application and they're greyed out, until I verify from one of my devices.
Thanks for all the useful comments. Are you saying that I COULD have all these years backed up my photos via 'shared' photostreams? I've only used iOS devices for the past 2-3 years so don't have a backup tp Mac option. I didn't think there was an Apple solution to this and so have used other online storage options. Maybe I thought that the shared photostreams were not 'permanent'? I certainly didn't know I could store photos in this way. I hope the new iCloud solution will do the trick!
I agree I would like to be notified on tries, too. Two factor authentication is active for icloud.com, though.
I can login fine with just Apple ID + password but there is a lock over every application and they're greyed out, until I verify from one of my devices.
Odd, I wasn't getting the locks over the apps, sans Find My iPhone, until I jumped into appleid.apple.com to make sure my two-step authentication was enabled.
Odd, I wasn't getting the locks over the apps, sans Find My iPhone, until I jumped into appleid.apple.com to make sure my two-step authentication was enabled.
Strange, I guess they failed to update some records automatically when they made it website-wide, and that's somehow updated them.
Strange, I guess they failed to update some records automatically when they made it website-wide, and that's somehow updated them.
I had seen the locked apps before, but recently it hadn't been there. And I am certain it wasn't there because I was in there looking at Photos as well as Settings (as I annoyingly have my iPhone 5S in there despite having wiped the device).
I hope there isn't some odd security hole with iCloud.
Some of us actually read the T&C of iPhoto, and it was pretty clear: Photos in (the one main) photo stream were limited to 1,000 pictures OR 30 days, whichever was greater (ie if you took more than 1,000 pictures in 30 days, all your photos would be accessible in the stream for 30 days).
Thus, every month in iPhoto, you got an automatic new "event" called "(month) (year) Photo Stream" and all the pictures taken that month. As your photo stream passes (as it eventually will) 1,000 pictures, the oldest pictures will fall "out" of the photo stream, but still exist in the "(month) (year) Photo Stream" event in iPhoto.
I had seen the locked apps before, but recently it hadn't been there. And I am certain it wasn't there because I was in there looking at Photos as well as Settings (as I annoyingly have my iPhone 5S in there despite having wiped the device).
I hope there isn't some odd security hole with iCloud.
Very strange.
Yeah I hope theres no security hole too, it does seem like Apple has been pushing out two step verification onto as many services as possible lately, hopefully they've made it airtight.
Some of us actually read the T&C of iPhoto, and it was pretty clear: Photos in (the one main) photo stream were limited to 1,000 pictures OR 30 days, whichever was greater (ie if you took more than 1,000 pictures in 30 days, all your photos would be accessible in the stream for 30 days).
Thus, every month in iPhoto, you got an automatic new "event" called "(month) (year) Photo Stream" and all the pictures taken that month. As your photo stream passes (as it eventually will) 1,000 pictures, the oldest pictures will fall "out" of the photo stream, but still exist in the "(month) (year) Photo Stream" event in iPhoto.
The My Photo Stream limits below are based on anticipated upload patterns. My Photo Stream upload limits are as follows:
Uploads to My Photo Stream per hour: 1000 photos
Uploads to My Photo Stream per day: 10,000 photos
Uploads to My Photo Stream per month: 25,000 photos"
Comments
That is a great advice. I do it know all of the time after one of my hard drives broke with about 10000 photos. Rrrrr
Wrong. It was never unlimited. There was a 1000 photo limit on your personal stream also. Plus any item over 30 days could disappear.
It appeared to be unlimited because the photos didn't auto delete from local storage. So if y didn't do any kind of erase or restore for several months you could have 5000 photos locally on your iPhone or iPad but the moment you did that restore only the last 1000 came back.
The only "unlimited" was in the time for shared steams. They had no 30 days counter.
The web app is quite nice and a relief to have as we wait for Photos.app next year.
For anyone still confused, YES, you must wait for Photos.app next year to have a Mac client component for iCloud Photo Library.
Your iPhoto library is going to sit dormant, unless you manually manage it, which I MIGHT do, if I see any need. For now, all I really care about is having access to every photo and video I take available on my iOS devices, AppleTV, and any Mac or PC via the web.
Sometime next year, iCloud Photo Library will be kicked into high gear, as I'll be able to migrate my old iPhoto Library (around 150 GB) into Photos.app, and upload quite a lot to iCloud. I wish I could do it right now, but alas, will have to wait for Apple to finish this ultimate app.
(And for those still confused, technically I could sync my old iPhoto library over to my iPhone, little bits at a time, let it upload to iCloud, and could migrate that way. It would just be extremely slow, laborious process. I'm content to let my old stuff lay dormant in iPhoto for now, as I rarely access the old stuff anyway.)
They are rethinking it. By getting rid of it. And iPhoto. Rumor is they are going to one app with an advanced mode and plug in support.
What I dislike is that they dumped iphoto for iOS and the brushes aren't in the photo app. Nor could we ever use the brushes to edit computer photos using out devices as the input
I find all of icloud.com (or in this case beta.cloud.com) to be rather spectacular. Attractive, smooth and functional.
I only wish I could be notified if anyone tried to access my account via the website and have two-step authentication active for icloud.com.
I find all of icloud.com (or in this case beta.cloud.com) to be rather spectacular. Attractive, smooth and functional.
I only wish I could be notified if anyone tried to access my account via the website and have two-step authentication active for icloud.com.
I agree I would like to be notified on tries, too. Two factor authentication is active for icloud.com, though.
I can login fine with just Apple ID + password but there is a lock over every application and they're greyed out, until I verify from one of my devices.
Odd, I wasn't getting the locks over the apps, sans Find My iPhone, until I jumped into appleid.apple.com to make sure my two-step authentication was enabled.
Odd, I wasn't getting the locks over the apps, sans Find My iPhone, until I jumped into appleid.apple.com to make sure my two-step authentication was enabled.
Strange, I guess they failed to update some records automatically when they made it website-wide, and that's somehow updated them.
I had seen the locked apps before, but recently it hadn't been there. And I am certain it wasn't there because I was in there looking at Photos as well as Settings (as I annoyingly have my iPhone 5S in there despite having wiped the device).
I hope there isn't some odd security hole with iCloud.
Some of us actually read the T&C of iPhoto, and it was pretty clear: Photos in (the one main) photo stream were limited to 1,000 pictures OR 30 days, whichever was greater (ie if you took more than 1,000 pictures in 30 days, all your photos would be accessible in the stream for 30 days).
Thus, every month in iPhoto, you got an automatic new "event" called "(month) (year) Photo Stream" and all the pictures taken that month. As your photo stream passes (as it eventually will) 1,000 pictures, the oldest pictures will fall "out" of the photo stream, but still exist in the "(month) (year) Photo Stream" event in iPhoto.
It's been that way since day one of Photo Stream.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4486?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
So glad they got rid of the animated wallpaper in the beta. Hopefully there's also an option to choose your own.
I had seen the locked apps before, but recently it hadn't been there. And I am certain it wasn't there because I was in there looking at Photos as well as Settings (as I annoyingly have my iPhone 5S in there despite having wiped the device).
I hope there isn't some odd security hole with iCloud.
Very strange.
Yeah I hope theres no security hole too, it does seem like Apple has been pushing out two step verification onto as many services as possible lately, hopefully they've made it airtight.
Uhm, that's not the whole story:
"My Photo Stream upload limits
The My Photo Stream limits below are based on anticipated upload patterns. My Photo Stream upload limits are as follows:
Uploads to My Photo Stream per hour: 1000 photos
Uploads to My Photo Stream per day: 10,000 photos
Uploads to My Photo Stream per month: 25,000 photos"
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4858