iCloud Photos, formerly known as iCloud Photo Library, is an Apple service that saves your cherished memories captured in pixels and ensures they find a safe home among the clouds. With iCloud Photo, you will have your entire photo library at your fingertips, seamlessly accessing it from any Apple device. It is more than just a storage solution, as it allows you to relive your life’s biggest adventures. This guide aims to unravel the magic of iCloud Photos. Let’s go!
How to Turn on icloud Photos?
You must set up iCloud by signing in with the same Apple ID on all your Apple devices. If not, the uploaded photos won’t be accessible on all your devices.
Then, you can turn on iCloud in the following ways:
- On your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch, head to the Settings app > tap your name > iCloud > Photos > tap the switch next to Sync this [device].
- On your Mac, click Apple menu > System Settings or System Preferences > Apple ID > iCloud > Photos > click the switch next to Sync this Mac.
- On Apple TV HD or Apple TV 4K, head to Settings > Users and Accounts > iCloud > turn on iCloud Photos.
How To Access icloud Photos?
iCloud Photos automatically syncs all of your media across your Apple devices using the same Apple ID. So, there’s no need to manually transfer the media files. Furthermore, you can create Shared Albums to easily share your captured memories with your loved ones.
Accessing iCloud Photos is super easy, but if you are struggling and wonder how do I access my iCloud Photos, these tips might help.
- View photos via the iCloud Photos app. If you have already turned on iCloud Photos on your iPhone or iPad, you will see the uploaded and synced photos within the Photos app itself.
- Use the Photos app or access iCloud.com in your browser to view photos on your Mac.
If you are unable to access iCloud Photos, you might be using the wrong Apple ID, or there’s something wrong with your Internet connection.
How to Download and Share Photos?
All the pictures and videos saved on iCloud are automatically synced with your Apple devices. Hence, if you wish to delete or edit a picture on your phone, you may lose the original file, as it will be deleted or edited on iCloud, too. Therefore, it makes sense to create a backup of your iCloud Photos on local storage.
For this, you will need to download the photos to your device’s internal storage, an external drive, or the computer’s hard drive.
If you are accessing your photo library from iCloud.com, go to Photos and choose all the videos and photos you want to download. Click the Download button and select Unmodified Originals to download the original picture in its original format with full resolution.
To do this on your iPhone or Mac, click the Photos application. On your phone, choose the photos and tap the share button. On your Mac computer, choose the files and drag them to the desktop or folder where you want to download them.
You may also want to share the photos and videos with your near and dear ones. There are two ways to share photos from iCloud photos:
- You can send an iCloud link to your loved ones. Choose the photos and videos you want to share and click the Share button. Then, choose Email > Open Mail and send the link to someone using the Mail app. Or, you can copy the link and then paste it on an email, a WhatsApp conversation, or a Messages chat. Anyone with the link will be able to see the photos.
- Create a Shared Photo Library and share it with up to five people. Here, everyone with access can add, delete, edit, caption, or mark videos and photos as their favorite. You can also create Shared Albums where you can control what people can do. Create them by clicking Shared Albums > clicking the plus button > naming the album and choosing the contacts you want to share this with. Double-click the Shared Album and click Add Videos and Photos to open a photo stream and choose the ones you want to share. The contacts selected will receive a notification that an album has been shared with them.
Wrapping Up
iCloud Photos is a representation of Apple’s efforts to streamline the experience of being in the Apple ecosystem and using multiple Apple devices simultaneously. Most of the efforts are bundled under the Continuity umbrella, and these Continuity features tap into the capabilities of iCloud for linking different devices. Thanks to iCloud Photos, you can not only create a backup of your precious memories but also share them easily with your loved ones. You can even collaborate on specific albums.