iCloud Photos issues

I switched on iCloud Photos after using My Photo Stream for years and it then turned off by Apple.

I have noticed one problem with iCloud Photos and various iOS apps including Instagram and Snapseed.

The issue arises when you access the PhotoStream, there is a noticeable delay in the images appearing in the app.

With Instagram, you have to wait a while and even tap the screen before the images appear. Then the camera feed appears.

It is a similar story with Snapseed.

It also can take a while to swipe through your images with Snapseed.

It is easier to tap Open from device and then browse for the photo you need then.

I don’t know if there is a solution, at the moment it is more annoying than anything else. Initially I thought the Instagram app was broken, rather than thinking it was an issue with iCloud Photos.

Moving to iCloud Photos

I really liked My Photo Stream. It made my blogging and writing workflow so much easier. I would take a photo on my phone and then using My Photo Stream I would be able to use the photo on my iPad or my Mac. So I was quite disappointed that Apple have closed it down.

According to Apple the solution is to move to iCloud Photos.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do that as I knew I would need to upgrade my iCloud+ subscription to the 2TB tier.

So for a week or two I tried doing stuff without My Photo Stream and without using iCloud Photos.

After a while it was apparent that this wasn’t working. So at the beginning of July I upgraded my iCloud+ subscription and on my home iMac I turned on iCloud Photos.

I knew it would take some time to sync my photo library to iCloud as I have over 70,000 photographs in the library.

I did initially have some teething issues, so had to restart the iMac and Photos a few times, but so far it appears to be working as needed. 

I also turned iCloud Photos on, on my iPhone to check it was working.

The photographs I take on my iPhone are now available in iCloud Photos on my other devices.

I do quite like the ability to access all my photographs on my iPhone, whereas with My Photo Stream it was only the last 1000 photos.

My Photo Stream will be shut down on 26 July

My Photo Stream

I received an email from Apple about My Photo Stream closing down.

My Photo Stream is scheduled to be shut down on 26 July, 2023. The photos in My Photo Stream are already stored on at least one of your devices, so as long as you have the device with your originals, you will not lose any photos as part of this process. If a photo you want is not already in your library on a particular iPhone, iPad or Mac, make sure you save it to your library on that device. For more information on this transition and instructions on how to download photos from My Photo Stream, read Information about the My Photo Stream shutdown.

I really liked My Photo Stream. It made my blogging and writing workflow so much easier. I would take a photo on my phone and then using My Photo Stream I would be able to use the photo on my iPad or my Mac.

Sometimes I would load photographs from my Canon DSLR onto my iMac, then be able to use those photographs on my MacBook.

Now according to Apple the solution is to move to iCloud Photos.

Moving forward, iCloud Photos is the best way to keep the photos and videos you take up to date across all your devices and safely stored in iCloud.

The main reason I’ve not done this before, is partly as My Photo Stream worked, and I would need to upgrade to iCloud+ and with the number of photos in my library, I would probably need the 2TB upgrade.

Well I have until the 26th June.

As part of this transition, new photo uploads to My Photo Stream from your devices will be stopped on 26 June.

Has 15.5 fixed My Photo Stream?

In a previous post I mentioned I was having issues with My Photo Stream having upgraded my iPhone 13 to iOS 15.4.

I noticed that photographs I had taken with my iPhone 13 were not being uploaded to My Photo Stream and shared across my other devices.

This was an annoying bug, as I did use this feature a lot, using photographs I had taken on my iPhone and then using them with my Mac.

I did try a temporary fix my changing the camera mode, it was set to High Efficiency, so I switched it to Most Compatible.

However this wasn’t a real fix, as though some photographs were uploaded to My Photo Stream, not all were.

I have now upgraded to iOS 15.5 and though there wasn’t a mention of fixing this bug, I did notice that yesterday all my photographs were uploaded to My Photo Stream, but I was still using Most Compatible mode. This morning I switched to High Efficiency and took a few photographs and allwere uploaded to My Photo Stream.

screengrab of iOS screen showing My Photo Stream working

So here’s hoping that bug is now fixed.

Temporarily resolving an issue with My Photo Stream on my iPhone 13

I have managed to resolve an issue having taken photographs with my iPhone that My Photo Stream was not then updating across my devices.

It was in the past week that I noticed that photographs I had taken with my iPhone 13 were not being uploaded to My Photo Stream and shared across my other devices.

I first did the usual trick of going into settings for the Photos app and turning My Photo Stream off and then back on again, however this made no difference.

What was weird was that the photograph I had taken weren’t been uploaded, but the edited versions from Snapseed or Instagram were being added to My Photo Stream.

This photo of the Bristol Harbourside didn’t upload.

This version I edited with Snapseed did.

I checked back through my iPhone camera roll and there was a range of photographs missing from My Photo Stream.

It was working fine on the 16th April, but had stopped updating on the 17th April.

Doing an initial Google search didn’t help, with most references referring to turning My Photo Stream off and back on again, which I knew didn’t work. I powered off the iPhone and back on again, that didn’t resolve the issue either.

My Photo Stream was working fine on other devices. Took a photo with the iPad and it was uploaded to My Photo Stream. On the iPhone if I created an image with Snapseed it was uploaded to My Photo Stream. 

That got me thinking that the issue wasn’t with My Photo Stream or the Photos app, but was with the Camera app.

Now doing a Google search I found that others were having a similar issue. It appeared to be related to the 15.4 iOS update.

Going through the settings for the Camera app I checked the formats setting.

Settings > Camera > Formats

To reduce file size, capture photos and videos in the High Efficiency HEIF/HEVC format. Most Compatible will always use JPEG/H.264. Cinematic video, 4K at 60 fps, 1080p at 240 fps and HDR video require High Efficiency.

This was set to High Efficiency, so I switched to Most Compatible.

As a result the next photograph I took was uploaded to My Photo Stream.

I switched back to High Efficiency and the problem came back. It was apparent that the HEIC images were not being uploaded to My Photo Stream, though they were with iOS 15.3 and earlier.

So for the moment I have a temporary fix, so when I take photographs with the iPhone 13 they will upload to My Photo Stream.