iCloud.com Photos App Gains New Uploading Capabilities

Following two weeks of testing on the iCloud beta site for developers, the consumer-facing iCloud.com site has gained support for uploading images to iCloud Photo Library (via iFun.de [Google Translate]).

Before the addition of the new uploading tool, the standard iCloud.com site allowed users to view all of their iCloud Photo Library images, as well as download and delete them, but it did not have a tool to allow users to upload photos captured with non-Apple devices.

icloudbetasiteuploadtool

New toolbar with upload support on iCloud.com site at top, previous iCloud.com toolbar on bottom

The new uploading feature on the iCloud.com site makes it possible to upload JPGs, but as with the beta feature, other image and video formats like .PNG, .MOV, .AVI, .MP4, and more are not supported. When a file is uploaded to the site, it syncs instantly to all of a user's iOS devices, much like a photo taken on an iPhone or iPad or added to iCloud Photo Library via the iOS Photos app.

Currently in beta and introduced alongside iOS 8.1, iCloud Photo Library stores all of the photos and videos that a user takes in iCloud, making them available on all iOS devices and Macs. iCloud Photo Library images can be viewed in the Photos app on iOS or through iCloud.com on the Mac, and the upcoming Photos app that Apple is creating for Macs will also work with iCloud Photo Library.

Users should be aware that photos uploaded to iCloud Photo Library use iCloud storage space. Apple offers 5GB of storage space for free, with additional plans ranging from $0.99 for 20GB of storage space to $19.99 for 1TB of storage space.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Expected Next Week - Here Are the Release Notes

Friday March 28, 2025 2:01 pm PDT by
With the second release candidate of iOS 18.4 that Apple seeded out today, the company finally provided us with release notes that give a full rundown on what to expect. There's an Apple Vision Pro app, new Apple Intelligence features for notifications and additional language support, plus an Apple News Food feature for Apple News+ subscribers, and several updates that should improve the...
Magic Mouse Green

What to Expect From the Magic Mouse 3

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple is reportedly working on a new Magic Mouse. Below, we recap what to expect. The two key rumors for the Magic Mouse 3 so far include a relocated charging port, along with a more ergonomic design. It was briefly rumored that the Magic Mouse 3 would also feature voice control, but that was misinterpreted information. Relocated Charging Port While the Magic Mouse switched from...
top stories 2025 03 29

Top Stories: WWDC 2025 Announced, iPhone 17 Pro and iOS 19 Rumors, and More

Saturday March 29, 2025 6:00 am PDT by
Apple's big developer event is a little over two months away, and rumors about what we can expect to see in Apple's next major operating system updates are becoming increasingly frequent. A public release of iOS 18.4 is also imminent with a number of updates and improvements, although we won't be getting the major Apple Intelligence Siri upgrades that had reportedly been planned for this...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

Six Things to Know About Apple's Upcoming Foldable iPhone

Friday March 28, 2025 3:54 pm PDT by
We've been hearing rumors about a foldable iPhone for almost a decade now, but it looks like we might finally see the device come to fruition in 2026. We're going to be waiting many more months for the foldable iPhone, but so far we're hearing good things. Apple wants to make it creaseless. It's taken Apple multiple years to design a foldable iPhone that it's satisfied with because Apple ...
iOS 19 visionOS UI Elements

Apple Codename Provides Clue About iOS 19's Rumored New Design

Sunday March 30, 2025 6:40 am PDT by
Multiple sources have claimed that iOS 19 will introduce a new design with more translucent buttons, menus, notification banners, and more, and there is now another clue that points towards this glass-like appearance. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said the new design project is codenamed "Solarium" internally. A solarium is a room with glass walls that allow in plenty of sunlight, so this...
Facebook Feature

Facebook's New iPhone App Feature Turns the Clock Back to 2007

Thursday March 27, 2025 1:59 pm PDT by
In the mid-to-late 2000s, Facebook was all about staying connected with friends and family. However, as the social media platform added new features and grew over time, that core experience began to get drowned out. That changes starting now, according to Meta, which today introduced a new feature that will "bring back the joy" of classic Facebook. Specifically, Meta has redesigned the...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

iPhone Foldable Display Said to Feature iPad-Style 4:3 Aspect Ratio

Friday March 28, 2025 3:44 am PDT by
Apple's upcoming "iPhone Fold" will feature a foldable screen with a 4:3 aspect ratio, according to a Chinese leaker who previously leaked the book-style device's display dimensions. The Weibo-based account Digital Chat Station claims that Apple will adopt a "roughly" 4:3 aspect ratio on the inner display in order to achieve consistency between the outer display, as well as to ensure parity...

Top Rated Comments

iphone495 Avatar
135 months ago
Still waiting for the new Photos app.

----------

Jennifer Lawrence can't say the same.

Sorry, I had to say it.

Any update to iCloud is a good one. In the last few weeks I've looked into using it more due to its security.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
proline Avatar
135 months ago
Where is the Photos app for OSX??? :eek:
In 2015, right where you were told it was.

----------

WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY must you force syncing photos to all devices?!?!?
I don't want all my devices to have all the exact same content on them.

The whole point of storing my photos in iCloud Photo should be to NOT HAVE TO STORE them on my mobile devices and free up space.

I want to store photos in iCloud and then be able to access them from my phone or tablet through a browser or app when I want, and then choose whether or not I would like to upload chosen photos to be stored on the device that I want.

iCloud Drive is a joke as well, and from the beginning was incredibly misleading as to how it functions, especially with the photos of the iCloud main folder screen shown on the iPhone.
I asked an apple employee how to access that screen on my iPhone and none of them could figure out how...... because, you can't.

It is not at all a true "cloud storage drive" à la drop box, google drive, etc with direct folder/file access and customization to stored content.
Only specific apps can access / use it.

Why not create a native "iCloud app" to access / manage etc.. iCloud content?

Apple's got this all wrong IMO.
You are incredibly ignorant, please stop talking about this. iCloud photos requires zero local storage to display your entire library, and uses local storage to cache photos only when free local storage is available. Turn on the 'optimize local storage' and grow up. Nobody needs to delete photos from iCloud to free up device space.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
luchid Avatar
135 months ago
So the choice is degradated copies of everything or original copies of everything? :eek:



That's just not going to work for a lot of people.
As soon as you view an image it is downloaded in full quality. So you're wrong.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
metfuel Avatar
135 months ago

The whole point of storing my photos in iCloud Photo should be to NOT HAVE TO STORE them on my mobile devices and free up space.

That is what I thought as well, but I have heard more than one person talk about freeing up the storage on your devices using iCloud Photos and they seem to think that your devices will have lower res thumbnails (even though iCloud will have the full resolution picture) and when when you access the thumbnails it will load the full resolution picture. Not sure if that is what they plan on doing but it would make sense.


I have some deeper concerns about switching over to iCloud Photos.

I do not want ALL of my pictures automatically uploaded. I just don't. There are times I save pictures from safari for one off uses, screenshots that I take.

I have all of my family's pictures in an iPhoto library right now and every so often I offload the pictures that are family related only onto my mac and use an automator workflow to tag the file names with the date created and who is in the picture. Then I import them to iPhoto where they live. This is the library that I would want to access anytime and anywhere. If I am automatically uploading pictures straight to iCloud I am junking up my family photo album with all kinds of stuff, and we have no idea how the metadata is handled.

I wish that they would make a separate "camera roll" for screenshots, and the same goes for saved safari (or insert app name here) pictures that would not be automatically included in this.

This is a huge change and they should at least start detailing how the conversion from iPhoto/Aperture is going to happen to Photos for people who have years invested in organizing their photos in Apples ecosystem. It is absolutely insane to me that they aren't coming out with these at the same time (for iOS and the Mac), yes I am the guy you previous posts were talking about. The release of iOS 8 and iCloud Drive separate from Yosemite screwed enough people over and I am sure there are people who don't know what they are doing will turn this on iOS 8 first and then when they turn it on their computer they will have all kinds of duplicates from having imported the pictures from their camera roll and never deleting it off of their phone.

I have used iPhoto since it was introduced and have multiple libraries. I understand that iPhoto will be able to be used for awhile but eventually everything will have to be migrated out of iPhoto to be used either in Photos or an Alternative like Lightroom. I would like to continue to use Apple's software, but I will have to wait on this to see how much of a disaster or how well it goes.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
topherdesign Avatar
135 months ago
no sense at all

WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY must you force syncing photos to all devices?!?!?
I don't want all my devices to have all the exact same content on them.

The whole point of storing my photos in iCloud Photo should be to NOT HAVE TO STORE them on my mobile devices and free up space.

I want to store photos in iCloud and then be able to access them from my phone or tablet through a browser or app when I want, and then choose whether or not I would like to upload chosen photos to be stored on the device that I want.

iCloud Drive is a joke as well, and from the beginning was incredibly misleading as to how it functions, especially with the photos of the iCloud main folder screen shown on the iPhone.
I asked an apple employee how to access that screen on my iPhone and none of them could figure out how...... because, you can't.

It is not at all a true "cloud storage drive" à la drop box, google drive, etc with direct folder/file access and customization to stored content.
Only specific apps can access / use it.

Why not create a native "iCloud app" to access / manage etc.. iCloud content?

Apple's got this all wrong IMO.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MacVault Avatar
135 months ago
Asside from its feature-vacuum, here's (https://www.icloud.com/#photos) what I hate about iCloud...

To use Photos, go to iCloud Settings on your iOS device, tap on Photos, and turn on iCloud Photo Library.

I love Macs and iOS devices but I refuse to be locked to a certain device or platform. I refuse to use services which don't utilize all the AMAZING web app goodness available.

Why, with Apple's resources, is iCloud such a joke?
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)