iOS already has a feature called Photo Stream that takes photos you take with one of your iOS devices and syncs them between your other iOS devices, including Apple TV if you have one. But a new feature called iCloud Photo Library seems to take it to the next level. Here’s how to set it up.
iCloud Photo Library was released with iOS 8.1. This new service syncs your photos to iCloud, allowing you to view them not only on your iOS devices, but also on your Mac and any other computer by visiting iCloud.com and signing in to your account.
The service is still in beta, which means it’s not fully functional yet, but it still mostly works. OS X users won’t be able to officially use it until the new Photos app is released at some point early next year, so the feature is probably still in beta mode.
If this is a feature you’re interested in using, here’s how to set it up and sync your photos to all your Apple devices via iCloud.
On Your iOS Device
While most features in iOS 8 are enabled by default, iCloud Photo Library is an optional feature, so you have to enable it yourself. To do this, follow these quick and easy steps:
From there, all the photos and videos currently on your iPhone or iPad will start uploading to iCloud automatically.
To access iCloud photos, simply open the app on any of your iOS devices and then tap the tab at the bottom. You should now see all your photos in iCloud, as well as photos you took locally with that iOS device.
Your only option right now to view your iCloud photos on a Mac iCloud beta website and sign in to your iCloud account using your Apple ID credentials. From there, click the Photos icon to browse through your photos.
Extra options
Once you enable iCloud Photo Library, you will notice that there are a few more settings appearing on that menu page.
You will have the option to choose or. iCloud Photo Library uploads and downloads all your photos to all your other iOS devices, which takes up space on other devices. If you are running out of space on one of your iOS devices, it might be a good idea to choose the first option to save storage space.
However, if you have plenty of free space and prefer full resolution quality of all images, you can choose the second option. However, you can simply pick and choose the photos you want in full resolution, which will save you free space.
iCloud Storage
It is important to know that using iCloud Photo Library takes up space on your iCloud account, so it will be really easy to top up your free 5GB. However, Apple lets you upgrade the storage for a monthly fee.
You can purchase 20GB of storage for $0.99/month, 200GB for $3.99/month, 500GB for $9.99/month, or 1TB for $19.99/month.
Which storage size you choose is ultimately up to you, but 200GB will suffice if you only plan on storing photos and the like, and you can easily upgrade your storage in the future if you need more space. You can do this by going to