Apple Photos and Google Photos

[BigMcGuire]

I've got about 57,000 photos/videos totaling around 120GB. Takes up between 9-11GB on my iPad Pro (256GB) with optimized storage on. (only using 56GB on my 256 GB iPad Pro).

I love how one device mirrors all the others when I make changes to iCloud photos (and cuz I was trying to get away from Google back in the day). I still use Google as a backup but it has really stagnated (and started charging) - but it is still the best photo storage option out there imo. iCloud Photos is catching up slowly. I want to get back into photography again but hasn't been a good time to get out and about :/.

 

[MEJHarrison]

So this is an iPad you are browsing 40k images? How much space does you photos take up on it when you check it in settings?

I've got those on my iPhone (12 Pro Max), my old XS Max I still have sitting around, an iPhone 6 Plus I also still have sitting around and my iPad Pro.

On the iPad, I see it's taking 27.33GB. On my phone it's 14.26GB. On my Mac, it's 164GB.

The difference is sizes between the iPhone and iPad is likely due to what SuperMatt was talking about. If you have the full image already downloaded, and you're not short on space, I think it will just leave it there. When you start getting low on space, it clears things out as needed. That why he suggested turning iCloud Photos off and on again. Clear out what you have, then just download the optimized versions. That shouldn't be needed as the OS will take care of that for you automatically under normal circumstances. But it is a good way to force the library to be as small as possible.

I'd need to double-check, but I think my devices are all 256GB except the iPhone 6, which was 128GB? I do know the current phone and iPad are both 256GB.

 

[Huntn]

I've got those on my iPhone (12 Pro Max), my old XS Max I still have sitting around, an iPhone 6 Plus I also still have sitting around and my iPad Pro.

On the iPad, I see it's taking 27.33GB. On my phone it's 14.26GB. On my Mac, it's 164GB.

The difference is sizes between the iPhone and iPad is likely due to what SuperMatt was talking about. If you have the full image already downloaded, and you're not short on space, I think it will just leave it there. When you start getting low on space, it clears things out as needed. That why he suggested turning iCloud Photos off and on again. Clear out what you have, then just download the optimized versions. That shouldn't be needed as the OS will take care of that for you automatically under normal circumstances. But it is a good way to force the library to be as small as possible.

I'd need to double-check, but I think my devices are all 256GB except the iPhone 6, which was 128GB? I do know the current phone and iPad are both 256GB.

My wife’s iPad is 32GB. As a practical matter she and I would prefer not to have our iOS devices mirror everything in my or her permanent photo album.

I've got about 57,000 photos/videos totaling around 120GB. Takes up between 9-11GB on my iPad Pro (256GB) with optimized storage on. (only using 56GB on my 256 GB iPad Pro).

I love how one device mirrors all the others when I make changes to iCloud photos (and cuz I was trying to get away from Google back in the day). I still use Google as a backup but it has really stagnated (and started charging) - but it is still the best photo storage option out there imo. iCloud Photos is catching up slowly. I want to get back into photography again but hasn't been a good time to get out and about :/.

You have much more leeway than I do. Starting to move photos off. I read online that after backing up your library with Google Photos, photos can be removed from GP with no effect on their status in Apple Photos, they are now independent.. I‘d like to keep these photos on my wife’s MacBook Air, in AP, and wipe them off her iPad, but that does not seem possible. When I delete a photo in AP a message pops up that it will be deleting it in all libraries.

Correct me if I am wrong (anyone), it appears that iCloud and Apple Photos is an all or nothing proposition.

The bottom line is I want to keep the photos I want, where I want them, not be dictated to by iCloud. Does that sound unreasonable?

 

[SuperMatt]

My wife’s iPad is 32GB. As a practical matter she and I would prefer not to have our iOS devices mirror everything in my or her permanent photo album.

You have much more leeway than I do. Starting to move photos off. I read online that after backing up your library with Google Photos, photos can be removed from GP with no effect on their status in Apple Photos, they are now independent.. I‘d like to keep these photos on my wife’s MacBook Air, in AP, and wipe them off her iPad, but that does not seem possible. When I delete a photo in AP a message pops up that it will be deleting it in all libraries.

Correct me if I am wrong (anyone), it appears that iCloud and Apple Photos is an all or nothing proposition.

The bottom line is I want to keep the photos I want, where I want them, not be dictated to by iCloud. Does that sound unreasonable?

Then iCloud photos isn’t for you. Pick another service. I think most people would not want to worry about whether X photos are on this device and Y photos are on this device when they are looking for a photo or worry about losing photos if they lose a device. But there is no one-size-fits-all. Pick what works for your wants and needs.

 

[Huntn]

Then iCloud photos isn’t for you. Pick another service. I think most people would not want to worry about whether X photos are on this device and Y photos are on this device when they are looking for a photo or worry about losing photos if they lose a device. But there is no one-size-fits-all. Pick what works for your wants and needs.

I appreciate your input. The reason this came up only when my wife started running into issues with space. If that had not been an issue, we’d be happy with iCloud. She has 100GB storage with it yet her iPad is full. She has pruned programs off, and I noticed a Setting>General>Offload Unused Apps which dropped 4GB off her iPad resolving the issue for now.

if iCloud offered a method where auto sync did not automatically happen, if there was some choice there, I’d be using it.

Ultimately I don’t want an all or nothing proposition which iCloud is. It’s also why I have Mail turned off on my iOS devices and access all of my mail through Google Mail via browser, I have limited space on a portable device so I don’t want stuff on it, that is not necessary.

 

[SuperMatt]

I appreciate your input. The reason this came up only when my wife started running into issues with space. If that had not been an issue, we’d be happy with iCloud. She has 100GB storage with it yet her iPad is full. She has pruned programs off, and I noticed a Setting>General>Offload Unused Apps which dropped 4GB off her iPad resolving the issue for now.

if iCloud offered a method where auto sync did not automatically happen, if there was some choice there, I’d be using it.

Ultimately I don’t want an all or nothing proposition which iCloud is. It’s also why I have Mail turned off on my iOS devices and access all of my mail through Google Mail via browser, I have limited space on a portable device so I don’t want stuff on it, that is not necessary.

I believe you said photos were only taking up 2GB on her device? That’s very efficient for 3000 photos. It’s a very small portion of the device’s overall storage, so I’d get rid of other things first, personally.

As has been said before, if you turn off iCloud photos and then re-enable it, you will be able to view thumbnails of everything on iCloud photos and it will only download when you want it. Not sure if you tried that yet or not.

 

[Huntn]

I believe you said photos were only taking up 2GB on her device? That’s very efficient for 3000 photos. It’s a very small portion of the device’s overall storage, so I’d get rid of other things first, personally.

As has been said before, if you turn off iCloud photos and then re-enable it, you will be able to view thumbnails of everything on iCloud photos and it will only download when you want it. Not sure if you tried that yet or not.

I appreciate the help so hope I don’t sound dismissive. Here is my beef with iCloud, I don’t want to access to every photo I have in iCloud from every iOS device. It takes up space no matter how efficient It is. So right now , I’m moving most of my photos over to Google Photos, nothing against iCloud other than what I previously stated. In addition to this, I am archiving the same photos over to thumb drives.

Archiving Photos independent of Apple or Google
I figured out how to use Graphic Converter as an image browser which works well when choosing a folder full of photos If you want to see the wall of images, which I do. So now I just have to figure out the best way to archive photos including their metadata out of the Apple Photos, Google Photos ecosystems onto a hard drive where the metadata is retrievable. One great thing I noticed about taking images with our phones is that location data is included, very nice when traveling.

Someone somewhere said that using Apple Photos export function there is a place to say you want metadata exported too. I don’t see that or missed it. Need to do some testing and see if meta data goes with the photo when exported via Apple Photos. Otherwise there are a couple of apps that say they will pull metadata along with the photo- Photo Exifer or Photos Takeout, anyone familiar with these?

I noticed that with going from Apple Photos directly to Google Photos, metadata was included which is especially nice when you see dates and locations posted in the background while looking at your wall of pictures. My goal is to keep meta data when archiving images offline.

 

[SuperMatt]

I appreciate the help so hope I don’t sound dismissive. Here is my beef with iCloud, I don’t want to access to every photo I have in iCloud from every iOS device. It takes up space no matter how efficient It is. So right now , I’m moving most of my photos over to Google Photos, nothing against iCloud other than what I previously stated. In addition to this, I am archiving the same photos over to thumb drives.

Archiving Photos independent of Apple or Google
I figured out how to use Graphic Converter as an image browser which works well when choosing a folder full of photos If you want to see the wall of images, which I do. So now I just have to figure out the best way to archive photos including their metadata out of the Apple Photos, Google Photos ecosystems onto a hard drive where the metadata is retrievable. One great thing I noticed about taking images with our phones is that location data is included, very nice when traveling.

Someone somewhere said that using Apple Photos export function there is a place to say you want metadata exported too. I don’t see that or missed it. Need to do some testing and see if meta data goes with the photo when exported via Apple Photos. Otherwise there are a couple of apps that say they will pull metadata along with the photo- Photo Exifer or Photos Takeout, anyone familiar with these?

I noticed that with going from Apple Photos directly to Google Photos, metadata was included which is especially nice when you see dates and locations posted in the background while looking at your wall of pictures. My goal is to keep meta data when archiving images offline.

No problem - use the tool you like. Basically, iCloud photos (in the Optimize Storage mode) has thumbnails only on your device and when you want a photo, all you do is click it and it downloads. If you download lots of photos, and you run low on space, it starts deleting the local copies as needed (all of this IF you have optimize storage enabled).

For Google Photos, if you use the app, it works similarly, but you can delete photos from local storage one-by-one if you want. And if you don’t want the app, you can do it all on their website.

Neither one is keeping all your photos on your device unless you specifically tell it to.

If the more granular control of keeping/deleting individual photos from your iOS device is what you like, then Google Photos is probably a good pick for you then. Google photos also has 15GB storage on its free tier vs 5GB for Apple.

I prefer the ease of Apple Photos, as I don’t need to worry about deleting individual photos from my device’s storage, and since it’s all in the cloud, if I ever ran low on space, I could wipe iCloud photos from my device, install apps and/or system updates, and then turn it back on, and it would adjust based on the storage space available.

 

[Huntn]

No problem - use the tool you like. Basically, iCloud photos (in the Optimize Storage mode) has thumbnails only on your device and when you want a photo, all you do is click it and it downloads. If you download lots of photos, and you run low on space, it starts deleting the local copies as needed (all of this IF you have optimize storage enabled).

For Google Photos, if you use the app, it works similarly, but you can delete photos from local storage one-by-one if you want. And if you don’t want the app, you can do it all on their website.

Neither one is keeping all your photos on your device unless you specifically tell it to.

If the more granular control of keeping/deleting individual photos from your iOS device is what you like, then Google Photos is probably a good pick for you then. Google photos also has 15GB storage on its free tier vs 5GB for Apple.

I prefer the ease of Apple Photos, as I don’t need to worry about deleting individual photos from my device’s storage, and since it’s all in the cloud, if I ever ran low on space, I could wipe iCloud photos from my device, install apps and/or system updates, and then turn it back on, and it would adjust based on the storage space available.

How about archiving photos and preserving metadata? I’m also storing my wife’s and my photo libraries on local storage. Just figuring the easiest way to do that while preserving metadata.
Just dragging images to a folder wipes all extraneous info, I think. I know it eradicates the image creation date.

 

[SuperMatt]

How about archiving photos and preserving metadata? I’m also storing my wife’s and my photo libraries on local storage. Just figuring the easiest way to do that while preserving metadata.
Just dragging images to a folder wipes all extraneous info, I think. I know it eradicates the image creation date.

There is an “export unmodified originals” choice in Apple Photos on the Mac - which seems like it would do the trick, but I’ve never tried a mass export, so I don’t know for sure.

 

[Clix Pix]

For years I have used Zenfolio as my photo gallery where I stash photos online. That way I have access to them from any computer or iOS device and yet they are not taking up any space on the device unless I choose to have them do so ( which I do, with folders for images from 2020 and 2021). Back in the day, we needed to use Zenfolio or SmugMug or some similar online gallery in order to put our images if we were planning to share them on forums and such, but these days we don't need to do that, as with Xenforo and probably other forum software we can simply upload an image right from our computer. That makes a huge difference!

My Zenfolio folders and files are arranged for easy reference for me and if I suddenly recall a particular image that I want to share that was shot back in 2009 or some such and I don't feel like opening the cabinet to retrieve an external archival drive, I can simply pop right into Zenfolio, look for the appropriate subject header that it's likely to be under, check that gallery and then download the image to my computer or hotlink the image file to whatever forum in which I want to share it. I remember an interesting macro from Spring 2009? Great, just jump into my Zenfolio account and pull up that gallery, take a look and find the exact image. Easy enough to share it with a family member or friend, too.....

Yes, EXIF/metadata is included. I don't know about identification of faces or geolocations, though, since I don't use either of those.

I've been doing a 52-Week Project of images over the past year and as part of my regular routine at the end of the week, after I've shared the chosen images on Nikon Cafe, which is where I've been doing the project, I then promptly upload them to my Zenfolio account, too. I've got last year's and this year's projects up there in exactly the order in which I chose to arrange them, and they're available to me or anyone else for a look if need be.

I've been using Zenfolio from nearly the beginning so am "grandfathered in" as far as fees go and have no idea of what kind of price a newcomer to the site would need to pay, but IMHO it could still be well worth but as it does exactly what you want: sets up your images in galleries/folders, whatever, in the way that you want and they are accessible very quickly and easily to you from whatever device you may be using at the time, as well as galleries being available to friends and family -- which you can mark for privacy and provide them with just a password.

 

[Huntn]

For years I have used Zenfolio as my photo gallery where I stash photos online. That way I have access to them from any computer or iOS device and yet they are not taking up any space on the device unless I choose to have them do so ( which I do, with folders for images from 2020 and 2021). Back in the day, we needed to use Zenfolio or SmugMug or some similar online gallery in order to put our images if we were planning to share them on forums and such, but these days we don't need to do that, as with Xenforo and probably other forum software we can simply upload an image right from our computer. That makes a huge difference!

My Zenfolio folders and files are arranged for easy reference for me and if I suddenly recall a particular image that I want to share that was shot back in 2009 or some such and I don't feel like opening the cabinet to retrieve an external archival drive, I can simply pop right into Zenfolio, look for the appropriate subject header that it's likely to be under, check that gallery and then download the image to my computer or hotlink the image file to whatever forum in which I want to share it. I remember an interesting macro from Spring 2009? Great, just jump into my Zenfolio account and pull up that gallery, take a look and find the exact image. Easy enough to share it with a family member or friend, too.....

Yes, EXIF/metadata is included. I don't know about identification of faces or geolocations, though, since I don't use either of those.

I've been doing a 52-Week Project of images over the past year and as part of my regular routine at the end of the week, after I've shared the chosen images on Nikon Cafe, which is where I've been doing the project, I then promptly upload them to my Zenfolio account, too. I've got last year's and this year's projects up there in exactly the order in which I chose to arrange them, and they're available to me or anyone else for a look if need be.

I've been using Zenfolio from nearly the beginning so am "grandfathered in" as far as fees go and have no idea of what kind of price a newcomer to the site would need to pay, but IMHO it could still be well worth but as it does exactly what you want: sets up your images in galleries/folders, whatever, in the way that you want and they are accessible very quickly and easily to you from whatever device you may be using at the time, as well as galleries being available to friends and family -- which you can mark for privacy and provide them with just a password.

Unfortunately Zenfolio is now renting their space $5/month for 15GB. If I was a pro, I might consider it.

 

[Huntn]

There is an “export unmodified originals” choice in Apple Photos on the Mac - which seems like it would do the trick, but I’ve never tried a mass export, so I don’t know for sure.

One thing Apple Photos does do is provide location data for images if taken with your phone, and I’ve not checked if that transfers well to either Google or private storage after figuring out how to preserve metadata. I’ll experiment with that’s setting. I noticed a photo that said created 2008, but when I exported it, with that “original setting” turned on, it said 2010. Which makes me wonder if I originally put it into iCloud 2 years after it was created, possibly from an early version of the iPhoto library.

 

[adammmmmmm]

I use Commander One on a Mac it can mount Google Drive, where you can save any files, including your photos. Personally, it was very convenient and comfortable for me, a great alternative.

 

[adammmmmmm]

So I can recommend you to use Commander One https://ftp-mac.com/ftp-alternatives/