UKC

Ok, so I've worked out how to log into iCloud on my mac and it tells me I have only backed up 59 photos although I thought I'd backed up all the 700 or so from my phone. . I have 3 phones backed up (two I no longer use). How do I know what the content of the phone backs ups is so that I know what I can delete (if deletion if possible)?

In reply to Postmanpat: Isn't there a difference between what's in the back-up and what's stored in iCloud? A backup's a compressed file of everything, but I store photos in the cloud so I can access them from any device.

In reply to andy:

I don't know!! I assumed that if I backed up my iPhone everything on it would be stored and I could access it somehow.
Is this not the case?

How do I "store" but not "back up" or visa versa?

In reply to Postmanpat:
It is probably continuing to upload and sync your photos across all your devices. This may take some time if you have lots of photos and/or a slow connection. If you check again now, you'll probably find some more have synced.

In reply to Postmanpat:

I have a similar concern/level of ignorance, I think. The biggest user of space by far on my ipad and phone is the photos. If I delete them on a device, is that an instruction to delete them forever across my whole Apple space, or will they just disappear from that device and remain untouched elsewhere?

In reply to craigloon:

I backed up my whole i phone weeks ago so it's not that. When it broke and I got a replacement and started it up then 700 photos were downloaded, presumably from the i cloud (??)

The new phone now cannot backup to i cloud because there is not enough space-probably because the space is taken by stuff like the 700 photos but I don't know that. Could there be multiple versions of the same stuff, having had three phones in two months? It's all just a guess, so I want to understand what is on the iCloud.

How do I do that??!!!

In reply to mbh: bump, if that's the right term. It's the question that concerns me. As I understand it anything on cloud can be downloaded again, correct?

In reply to mbh:


If you find out let me know, because trying to get an answer from apple sources is virtually impossible. My photos on the ipad are supposedly backed up, but I can't find any info anywhere on how I confirm this, or retrieve them if thats the case.

In reply to Postmanpat:

You can log into icloud via the photos app on mac/idevice or logging into iCloud.com.
By all accounts though it aint the most friendly interface since its designed to hide away all those boring decisions.

In reply to KevinD:


Yes, and I can see the "photos" file and the content but in terms of what is backed up off devices I can only see the names of the devices, not the content.

In reply to Postmanpat:
OK, log onto your iCloud.com account on a web browser and go to Photos. Are all the photos from your iPhone there? If not, maybe you don't have enough space for your iCloud account, but you can buy some more.

If they are all there, go to your Mac and make sure you have the latest OS, 10.5 I think. Then go into system preferences>iCloud and check that Photos are set to sync with iCloud. After a decent interval they should all download to your Mac as well.

In reply to mbh:

Depends if Photos is set up to sync through iCloud, which in turn depends on how old your devices are and what version of iOS they are running. If they are set up to sync Photos through iCloud, deleting photos on one device will also delete on all the others, but you get a warning asking if that is really what you want to do.

In reply to craigloon:

>
No, only 59 photos are in my i could photo file but when I set up my replacement phone a few days ago immediately 700 pics were downloaded. Would this not be from the iCloud? If so they must have been on the iCloud somewhere.

Can you confirm that it is impossible to see what is contained in the device back ups on iCloud which take up most of my iCloud capacity?

Is this a trick to make me keep buying more iCloud capacity I don't really need?

In reply to Postmanpat:


hmm. I thought you could. If you really need it there are some third party programs which can get to it. No idea about the reliability or accuracy of them though.

In reply to Postmanpat:

Possibly not. It might just have been from your last iPhone backup to iCloud, which is not the same as the iCloud Photos library.

To et things up properly:

Make sure you are signed in to the same iCloud account on both your iPhone and Mac.

On the Mac, if you go into System Preferences > iCloud, is there a tick next to Photos? There should be. In Options next to the Photos bit, are any of the three options ticked? The first one should definitely be, but I have all three ticked.

At the bottom of the iCloud window in System Preferences, you will see how much of your iCloud storage is being used and how much is free. Clicking Manage will let you see how much space each item, like you Photos library, is using.

You can also see the same information with the same level of granularity on your iPhone. Settings > iCloud. Click on Storage > Manage storage and any deeper that you want to go. It should all be there.

In reply to craigloon:
Thanks but I still don't get it. I can see how much storage capacity each of my devices is taking (except my mac which doesn't seem to use any) but I cannot tell what is being stored.
Am I just to assume that everything on all my devices is stored?

If so , I don't understand why the 700 photos I backed up before taking my old iPhone for repair/replacement are not there. (luckily I also backed them up to iPhoto on my mac).

To an ignoramus it just seems that the devices (hopefully) back up but after that you don't know what is backed up and can't get rid of it because you can't access or see it.
I have backed up three iPhones, but it's basically all been the much the same stuff, but they are all taking up capacity. I don't know what to remove because I'm not sure what is being stored!!!

What am I missing?

In reply to Postmanpat:

It sounds to me like you have nor set up Photos to work with iCloud on one or both of your devices.

Also, iPhoto has been replaced by Photos in the latest OS X Yosemite updates. I wonder if that is the problem? What version of OS X are you using?

On the issue of the contents of your iCloud account, if you follow my instructions you should be able to see exactly what is taking up how much space.

On the Mac, System Preferences > iCloud. At the bottom of the iCloud window in System Preferences, you will see how much of your iCloud storage is being used and how much is free.

Click Manage to see see how much space each item, like your Photos library, is using.

For example:

Photo Library: x GB
Mail: y GB
Backups: z GB
etc

Select Backups on the left. In the right hand pane you will see the devices that have been backed up to iCloud. Select and delete any that you no longer use.

If you want to see what is stored locally on your phone:
Settings > General > Manage Storage. Wait for the screen to populate with your Apps and you will see how much space is being taken up by which App.

In reply to craigloon:

Thanks. I've got OSX 10.8.5 and may have just upgraded to Yosemite. I've ticked the photo stream box on the mac
I'll have to check on the devices.

We (I?) seem to have a basic misunderstanding about the devices. The place you directed me tells me I have four iPhones, all with same name (although they are different devices), backed up and taking differing amounts of storage.

BUT it doesn't tell me what is stored on the back up for each phone so I cannot tell whether I can risk removing what I assume the the old ones that I currently don't use. I am worried that I will remove one and find that it will take with it a bunch of photos, messages or whatever that were not on the other phones.

Do you see my problem?

In reply to craigloon:

Your right, my iphone is not to automatically uploading photos to photstrean or iphone. My concern is how i subsequently find and delete them,

In reply to Postmanpat:

OK, I see the problem. Here's a workaround maybe:

1) Back up your phone to iTunes on your Mac. That way you know you have a safe copy somewhere.
2) Turn OFF iCloud photo syncing on your phone through Settings > iCloud > Photos. You my not have to do this, but I'm just being ultra cautious here.
3) Go to Manage in the iCloud settings and delete ALL the backups. You are not deleting data that is in the cloud, just your backups, which is a different thing.
4) Plug your iPhone into the mains so it does a new backup to the cloud. That way you will only have the one backup of your new phone.
5) Turn iCloud Photo syncing back on if you switched it off in step 2. Hopefully the photos on your phone will now upload to the cloud and back down to your Mac if you have set up Photo syncing on that as well.

(Even though your new phone downloaded 700 photos when you set it up, these were from your old iPhone backup in iCloud, not from Photos in iCloud, if you see what I mean. Photos needs to sync separately.)