I Regret the Blood Pact I Have Made With iCloud Photos
Nick Heer (Mac Power Users Talk):
Apple’s next iCloud tier is a generous 6 TB, but it costs another $324 per year. I could buy a new 6 TB hard disk annually for that kind of money. […] A better solution is to recognize I do not need instant access to all 95,000 photos in my library, but iCloud has no room for this kind of nuance. The iCloud syncing preference is either on or off for the entire library.
[…]
So: the next best thing is to create a separate Photos library — one that will remain unsynced with iCloud. Photos makes this pretty easy by launching while holding the Option (⌥) key. But how does one move images from one library to the other? Photos is a single-window application — you cannot even open different images in new windows, let alone run separate libraries in separate windows. This should be possible, but it is not.
[…]
As a workaround, Apple allows you to import images from one Photos library into another — but not if the source library is synced with iCloud. You therefore need to turn off iCloud sync before proceeding, at which point you may discover that iCloud is not as dependable as you might have expected.
[…]
I have this library stored locally and backed up, or at least I though I did. I thought I could trust iCloud to be an extra layer of insurance. What I am now realizing is that iCloud may, in fact, be a liability. The simple fact is that I have no idea the state my photos library is currently in: which photos I have in full resolution locally, which ones are low-resolution with iCloud originals, and which ones have possibly been lost.
I’m finally moving away from maticulously organizing my own library and just letting photos do it and using iCloud Photo Library. I’m syncing 170,000+ items. And it says “synced” when clearly it is not finished.
Previously:
- A Lament for Aperture
- Fixing “Optimize Storage”
- 6 TB and 12 TB iCloud+ Plans
- Photos Needs Better Storage Management
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Hey, Im a follower (on RSS). Myself, and others have been in this world. Take a peek at immich. Yes, I know its selfhosted, but this is what I had to do with a growing family setup. For my, hard drives AND backups (backblaze++) are still cheaper than icloud.
Initially to try to save space, I split out videos and put them on plex home server, but with immich, pics and video are now in the same place again.
Im very impressed at how mature Immich is. Worth a look.
I don’t trust iCloud in the least, but it is convenient.
I store, edit, and rate everything locally in Lightroom, and only the 3+ star items get exported from there to be imported into Photos.
That way the stuff I actually want to look at again is readily available on all my devices but stupid iCloud bugs are less concerning since it is not my source of truth and it does not touch the original files.
I recommend using PowerPhotos app to transfer photos between libraries. It supports AppleScript so it's possible to automate transferring https://www.fatcatsoftware.com/powerphotos/
An extraordinarily, I feel, disingenuous, article from someone, one would imagine, that knew Apple/iCloud well enough to not use iCloud photos. A mac power user would've advised against iCloud music and photos except for the most non technical of users.
The opening line is enough - why stick with something for so long? "Sometimes, I do not recognize a trap until I am already in it. Photos in iCloud is one such situation.
When Apple launched iCloud Photo Library in 2014...".
Solution: Don’t have your entire family share a single 6TB plan: Get and share separate smaller iCloud+ plans. You can still be a single family group.
Since you have the huge library, get the 2TB plan for yourself, and everyone else can get their own or share a smaller 200GB or 2TB plan.
Re: paying for services: You’re paying for convenience. Does anyone really need access to all their photos all the time? Probably not. Is it nice to have? Sure is. Everyone will have to make their own choice on priority there.
I’m running out of space on my 2 TB plan and wanted to clear out space.
I know there are way too many useless videos in my library. It’s mind boggling that I cannot use file size as a criteria for smart albums!
The lack of clear sync status for items is terrible but sadly not surprising. This is typical Apple: hide all the details from all users since “it just works”… except it doesn’t just work and then you’re stuck.
