
While iCloud Photo Library's primary goal may be to provide you with the same library on all your devices, it also keeps a copy of that library safe and secure in iCloud using Apple's CloudKit framework.
ISMARTPHOTO FREE VS MAC
This is awesome not only for small-storage iOS devices but also for laptops: I love being able to carry around my "entire" library on my Mac without also having to lug a 500GB external drive to view full-resolution Raw photos.
ISMARTPHOTO FREE VS DOWNLOAD
If you need to download an older image or video that's been offloaded from your device and stored in iCloud, you need only tap it while on Wi-Fi the Photos app will automatically remove the oldest images and video you've viewed in order to make room for the most-recently downloaded ones.

This space is variable, too - it doesn't take up every speck of free space you have, and instead appropriates a portion to photo storage, adjusting smartly on the fly. ICloud Photo Library's Optimize Storage option automatically and smartly takes a percentage of your device's storage space for high-resolution versions of your most recent photos any images or video that can't fit in that space are stored as low-resolution thumbnails. Your edits also sync across your devicesįorget having to make multiple copies of your images to edit them: iCloud Photo Library syncs non-destructive image edits across your devices, meaning that you can start editing an image on your iPhone, finish the touchup on your Mac, or undo it all on your iPad. That includes the People album, which automatically finds faces in images of your friends this data now syncs across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac, too. In addition, iCloud Photo Library solved one of my oldest iPhone photo management irritations: I can manage albums on my Mac and have them sync to my iPhone, and vice versa. I can even manage that library while offline: Delete an image while you're away from internet access, or add it to an album, and all of that syncs when you pop back online. With iCloud Photo Library, my images are accessible everywhere - even on if I don't have one of my devices handy - and when I'm offline, I can still view low-resolution thumbnails of any pictures I haven't downloaded locally to my machine. You really can access your photos from anywhere - and manage them, too But they remained on my MacBook and repopulated on my iPhone and other Macs as soon as I re-enabled iCloud sync. I had only one sync error, which came from accidentally turning iCloud off on my MacBook before it had finished syncing up that library as a result, those half-uploaded photos disappeared from my other devices. Even during the earliest beta-testing days, I had no issues with iCloud losing or dropping images from my library. Perhaps the biggest bullet point in iCloud Photo Library's "pro" column for me is that Apple's iCloud team has a rock-solid "it just works" sync product. Thankfully, there are far more ups than downs - at least in my experience. The prosĪfter several years with iCloud Photo Library and the Photos apps on Mac and iPhone/iPad, I'm pretty familiar with the service's ups and downs. Once you do, you'll have access to all its backup benefits along with its automatic sync across devices and sharing service.

If you do choose to use iCloud Photo Library, you'll likely need to pay for iCloud storage space to properly save all your images without clogging up your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
