However It is syncing I believe so it will sync and fill up the phone and then stop. So your manual backup idea will not work.
My recommendation would be just to a once off manual backup of all the photos first and get the phone emptied (maybe buy a external drive or as others have suggested google photos. Then setup the iCloud automatic backups. The user does get alerted when the storage is full in which case another manual backup can be done.
As I said sadly its not that friendly for people with less storage space.
I use a NAS, I also back my photos to Google Cloud Photos (remember the unlimited is not original quality) and to One Drive. I also use Time Machine as a fourth safety net.
How do you get them to your NAS though?
I simply copy the masters over once a month or sooner if I have added a lot of photos
If the mac is signed into iCloud under the user account then iirc folders for the iCloud account including photos will appear. Not sure if you can drop photos into it
Hi - as a photographer and someone who has studied the storage/viewing options of photos on the iPhone, I believe that 'relying' on iCloud for photo storage has become way more complicated than it should be (depending on needs and usage). You can use iCloud to make copies of your whole 'camera roll', you can share some via 'Photo Stream' or you can use selective 'iCloud Photo Sharing'... so it's all about deciding how you want to go about this and then do your homework.
Personally I decided a long time ago to treat the photos I take on the iPhone just the same as photos I take on my other digital cameras - I periodically save the 'Camera Roll' to my computer (Mac) - either using 'Photos' (used to be 'iPhoto') or 'Image Capture' (which is Mac native software that most people don't know exists on their computer and allows you to treat any plugged in iPhone/iPad/etc as a mass storage device). Once I've imported the photos and made a backup to an external drive I'll then delete the contents of the Camera Roll on the iPhone. Then I look through the contents of that recent import and decide what images I want to have with me on the phone - these photos will then be added to 'Albums' I've created (or will create as new) in the Photos app of my computer - whether it be 'Family' 'Work' 'Taupo Trip' or whatever.
I then sync my iPhone via iTunes on my computer and ask it to sync selected photo albums. New photos added to existing albums will be added to those albums on my phone and I will put a check next to any newly created albums I want to sync to my phone. For me, this system of using iTunes works very well and I can actually find the photos on my phone when I want them, instead of scrolling through 2 years worth of images in the Camera Roll, or trying to remember a parameter to search by.
I do also use Google Photos on the iPhone ('cos it's free), and also use Photo Stream so that I have access to recent iPhone shots when I'm on my iPad (but be aware these are only temporarily stored in 'Photo Stream'). Plus I also sync selected albums with 'iCloud Photo Sharing' so that I can use those albums as screen savers/wallpaper on our TV screen via Apple TV, but I don't use the 'iCloud Photo Library'.
There is quite a bit to get your head around with Apple's iCloud, but I believe photos are too valuable to just tap on a software button on your phone and hope that they are being saved for that rainy day when you want them. HTH.
Hi - as a photographer and someone who has studied the storage/viewing options of photos on the iPhone, I believe that 'relying' on iCloud for photo storage has become way more complicated than it should be (depending on needs and usage). You can use iCloud to make copies of your whole 'camera roll', you can share some via 'Photo Stream' or you can use selective 'iCloud Photo Sharing'... so it's all about deciding how you want to go about this and then do your homework.
Personally I decided a long time ago to treat the photos I take on the iPhone just the same as photos I take on my other digital cameras - I periodically save the 'Camera Roll' to my computer (Mac) - either using 'Photos' (used to be 'iPhoto') or 'Image Capture' (which is Mac native software that most people don't know exists on their computer and allows you to treat any plugged in iPhone/iPad/etc as a mass storage device). Once I've imported the photos and made a backup to an external drive I'll then delete the contents of the Camera Roll on the iPhone. Then I look through the contents of that recent import and decide what images I want to have with me on the phone - these photos will then be added to 'Albums' I've created (or will create as new) in the Photos app of my computer - whether it be 'Family' 'Work' 'Taupo Trip' or whatever.
I then sync my iPhone via iTunes on my computer and ask it to sync selected photo albums. New photos added to existing albums will be added to those albums on my phone and I will put a check next to any newly created albums I want to sync to my phone. For me, this system of using iTunes works very well and I can actually find the photos on my phone when I want them, instead of scrolling through 2 years worth of images in the Camera Roll, or trying to remember a parameter to search by.
I do also use Google Photos on the iPhone ('cos it's free), and also use Photo Stream so that I have access to recent iPhone shots when I'm on my iPad (but be aware these are only temporarily stored in 'Photo Stream'). Plus I also sync selected albums with 'iCloud Photo Sharing' so that I can use those albums as screen savers/wallpaper on our TV screen via Apple TV, but I don't use the 'iCloud Photo Library'.
There is quite a bit to get your head around with Apple's iCloud, but I believe photos are too valuable to just tap on a software button on your phone and hope that they are being saved for that rainy day when you want them. HTH.
Thanks for this. It all makes sense. I don't think they're adverse to a multi stage operation to have the cloud backup work, and to be honest I may simply recommend using Image Capture and then dumping the photos into a folder on the computer. It removes any ambiguity in the Photos/iPhoto app and iCloud sync/camera roll etc. The cloud backup can then be from any service/app we choose, whether through iCloud and the photos folder on the mac, or google, backblaze, crashplan etc.
I see photo retrieval being simple in this method also, but only if she doesn't want to have images tagged etc.
I maintain a full library in photos on my mac. It has a checkbox which says retain originals and is synced to icloud. The library is about 180GB and holds jpegs, RAW and MP4 files.
I use time machine to back up to my synology, and every 3/6 months I take an updated backup to store at work on an encrypted hard drive.
My iphone (16GB) has optimised storage, so every photo that gets taken is uploaded automatically to icloud, then downloaded to my mac in full rez and the version on my phone is compressed. Uses 3.5GB on my phone.
I connect my camera and DL raw photos to the mac (and have done my ipad at a pinch - works same as iphone above) and those get stored as RAW as well.
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