Picture Perfect

Photos and icloud are a pretty picture, when everything works.

HOW IT’S MEANT TO WORK

Take a photo or video on your iPhone or iPad, and it becomes available on any other device signed into your Apple ID and connected to iCloud Photo Library. Much like the iPhone freed you from the worry of running out of space on a regular camera, iCloud Photo Library can further relieve you of storage concerns.

HOW TO MAKE IT WORK

There are two iCloud-reliant syncing services that work with Photos.

The older service is My Photo Stream. When it’s activated, images you capture on your iOS device(s) are automatically uploaded to iCloud, up to a maximum of 1,000 pics, and retained there for 30 days. And this doesn’t count against your iCloud storage, which is good. My Photo Stream can be browsed on Macs, PCs, Apple TV, and iOS devices (see bit.ly/ myphst), and is a painless way to get new snaps into Photos on your Mac.

However, there are limitations. Image edits aren’t synced between devices, Live Photos and videos are not supported, and iOS devices only hold “device-optimized” versions of your photos, not the originals.