iPhone to Photos to iCloud backup?

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Disrespective

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#207389 22-Dec-2016 09:27

I was asked by my sister in law about the best way to clear her full iPhone of photos and then have them backed up onto a cloud service. She's invested in the Apple ecosystem so it would be ideal to keep the backup solution there, but I am not clued up in that worls so need some pointers. I do use a combination of Google, Amazon and Crashplan for my own backups so know my way around them.

It's a pretty open ended question I guess, but I wanted to ask someone to confirm part of the process I think would work.

I understand if she syncs her iPhone straight with iCloud, and then deletes a pic off her phone, it also deletes it from her iCloud. This is NOT what we want and won't be of any help as her phone will still be full of photos.

If we connect her iPhone to her macbook, can she import the iPhone photos to the Photos app, and then sync Photos with iCloud? From memory you can choose to delete photos from the iPhone when you import them into Photos? or is it iPhoto?

Either way, is this best practice for an iPhone/iOS photo cloud backup? What do you do?

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#1693674 22-Dec-2016 09:33

Even though you want to stay in the Apple ecosystem, I would suggest Google Photos. Unlimited storage and you can delete from phone safely without deleting from Photos. It has an iPhone app, so it would still 'feel' like she was within the Apple ecosystem.

MadEngineer

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#1693676 22-Dec-2016 09:37

Move them to the pc where they get collected by the backup solution used there (cause there is one, right?) and only use iCloud backup as a storage for the most recent photos unless you want to pay for the extra storage

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

Disrespective

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#1693678 22-Dec-2016 09:44

She doesn't have any form of backup other than her phone being synced with iCloud as it is now. Hence why we need to get her sorted out.

I think in an ideal world she keeps the iCloud phone backup solution for the latest images, and then periodically imports the photos from her phone to the macbook where the cloud based backup solution resides. What I really want to do is make sure that the Photos/iPhoto/whatever backup is completely disassociated with the iPhone.

antoniosk

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#1693692 22-Dec-2016 10:06

Have a read of this.

http://www.imore.com/how-use-icloud-photo-library-ultimate-guide

I'm not a fan of the optimised storage idea, but she could give it a try - and it addresses the 'I can't keep everything on my phone/mac because the disk isn't large enough

Hope she's got a good data plan :-)

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Oriphix

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#1693695 22-Dec-2016 10:17

Just a point I am not sure if you know but I had to find out the hard way.

If your iPhone has a small storage the cloud backup is a bit useless. Why? Let me explain.

My iPhone is only 16GB. The smallest storage you can buy is 50GB iCloud backup for $1.49 a month.
So I can only store on there 16GB at any given time meaning 34GB is unused unless I have a bigger storage on the phone.

If your sister in-law has a bigger storage iPhone then the backup process is easy. Connect the iPhone to the wireless internet and do a manual backup. Depending on the amount of data it might take a while so connect it to a power source.

The iCloud back is automatic and as soon as its connected to a wireless source it should automatically backup. (my one does its iPhone 5 iOS 10.2

Personally I have a backup of my iPhone on iCloud and Google Photos (manually uploaded). The only reason for this is because I am on the fence to move off iPhone to Android and also the storage limitation on my phone.

MadEngineer

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#1693697 22-Dec-2016 10:17

Disrespective:

She doesn't have any form of backup other than her phone being synced with iCloud as it is now. Hence why we need to get her sorted out.

I think in an ideal world she keeps the iCloud phone backup solution for the latest images, and then periodically imports the photos from her phone to the macbook where the cloud based backup solution resides. What I really want to do is make sure that the Photos/iPhoto/whatever backup is completely disassociated with the iPhone.

then yeah as dafman suggested, try google photos. Just be aware that the photos are slightly reduced in quality on the free/unlimited option. Disable photo backups if you must but keep photostream on.

Oriphix: Just a point I am not sure if you know but I had to find out the hard way. <snip>

iPhones have an option to keep only tiny thumbnails of photos on your phone ("optimise phone storage" option iirc) with the originals stored on the icloud. the originals download as soon as you open them (at the mercy of a good internet connection, which most of us have nowadays). This means you can stretch that 16gig a lot further.

What's both awesome and scary at the same time is how people are using these devices as life-long photo albums.

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

Disrespective

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#1693701 22-Dec-2016 10:36

Oriphix: Just a point I am not sure if you know but I had to find out the hard way.

If your iPhone has a small storage the cloud backup is a bit useless. Why? Let me explain.

My iPhone is only 16GB. The smallest storage you can buy is 50GB iCloud backup for $1.49 a month.
So I can only store on there 16GB at any given time meaning 34GB is unused unless I have a bigger storage on the phone.

If your sister in-law has a bigger storage iPhone then the backup process is easy. Connect the iPhone to the wireless internet and do a manual backup. Depending on the amount of data it might take a while so connect it to a power source.

The iCloud back is automatic and as soon as its connected to a wireless source it should automatically backup. (my one does its iPhone 5 iOS 10.2

Personally I have a backup of my iPhone on iCloud and Google Photos (manually uploaded). The only reason for this is because I am on the fence to move off iPhone to Android and also the storage limitation on my phone.

Yeah, I understand that. But if she has the photos transferred to a macbook first, and then those backed up to iCloud (if possible) then the 50GB standard icloud storage backup solution will be fine.

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Disrespective

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#1693703 22-Dec-2016 10:40

MadEngineer:

What's both awesome and scary at the same time is how people are using these devices as life-long photo albums.

Yeah, tell me about it. My wife was doing that, as is my sister in law. I'd discussed how dangerous it was with her husband and hence her call to me for some guidance. I lost a hdd backup of ALL my photos about 10 years ago now and ever since I have had two hard copy backups (original PC and on a NAS with raid) and a cloud backup. Those memories cannot be replaced and are worth the relatively minimal cost of backing up.

Disrespective

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#1693706 22-Dec-2016 10:42

antoniosk: Have a read of this.

http://www.imore.com/how-use-icloud-photo-library-ultimate-guide

I'm not a fan of the optimised storage idea, but she could give it a try - and it addresses the 'I can't keep everything on my phone/mac because the disk isn't large enough

Hope she's got a good data plan :-)

Thanks, i'll have a read. Data isn't an issue, and i'm not a big fan of the optimised storage option either. It doesn't really solve anything other than being able to see the photos on the iPhone. If she just keeps some small albums of the best family photos on her iPhone then that will be enough.

davidcole

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#1693717 22-Dec-2016 11:02

Has anyone found an automatic and reliable way of doing the suggested of getting them on a PC?

I used to use an eyefi card which included as IOS app for dumping to a user specified directory pattern.

I've tried using plex photo uploader, and it seems ok, but it all goes into one directory

Dropbox not really keen, would prefer direct to pc and not via a cloud service

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MikeB4

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#1693733 22-Dec-2016 11:07

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.

davidcole

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#1693735 22-Dec-2016 11:08

MikeB4:

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?

Oriphix

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Ultimate Geek

#1693737 22-Dec-2016 11:12

Disrespective:
Yeah, I understand that. But if she has the photos transferred to a macbook first, and then those backed up to iCloud (if possible) then the 50GB standard icloud storage backup solution will be fine.

Interesting I don't know if you can do it like that. I always though it was a sync method.
So what ever is in your iCloud would sync to your phone and vise versa.

Disrespective

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#1693738 22-Dec-2016 11:17

Oriphix:
Disrespective:

Yeah, I understand that. But if she has the photos transferred to a macbook first, and then those backed up to iCloud (if possible) then the 50GB standard icloud storage backup solution will be fine.

Interesting I don't know if you can do it like that. I always though it was a sync method.
So what ever is in your iCloud would sync to your phone and vise versa.

That's exactly what i'm asking. Can this be done, or does the Photos app HAVE to be sync'd?

I feel like she's going to have to disable iCloud sync on the phone completely, and then only have the Photos app sync with iCloud. This means she'll have to have her phone import to Photos more regularly as they won't be automatically backed up.

I thought apple stuff was supposed to be easy? This is harder to figure out than it should be and I don't think it fair to make people buy new phones because they've taken too many pictures... *shrug*

davidcole

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#1693740 22-Dec-2016 11:22

Disrespective:

Oriphix:
Disrespective:

Yeah, I understand that. But if she has the photos transferred to a macbook first, and then those backed up to iCloud (if possible) then the 50GB standard icloud storage backup solution will be fine.

Interesting I don't know if you can do it like that. I always though it was a sync method.
So what ever is in your iCloud would sync to your phone and vise versa.
That's exactly what i'm asking. Can this be done, or does the Photos app HAVE to be sync'd?

I feel like she's going to have to disable iCloud sync on the phone completely, and then only have the Photos app sync with iCloud. This means she'll have to have her phone import to Photos more regularly as they won't be automatically backed up.

I thought apple stuff was supposed to be easy? This is harder to figure out than it should be and I don't think it fair to make people buy new phones because they've taken too many pictures... *shrug*

Manually (on windows) if you plug an iphone in via usb, it shows up as a camera, and you can just move/copy the files off. I would have thought mac was similar. And if they're on icloud then they're still accessible on the phone via photo stream.

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