∞ Trading in iCloud photo stream

Written by

Dave Caolo:

iCloud’s Photo Stream feature is handy, in that it pushes photos shot with a compatible iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to Apple’s servers and then back to other authorized devices. It’s a hindrance for the same reason, in that my iPhone, iPad and Mac are now cluttered with space-hogging one-offs I shot for the sake of a tweet or a Facebook update.

I haven’t noticed this myself, but perhaps I just don’t take enough pictures for it to be a problem.


  • djr

    It could do with some finer (or any) controls to limit the shots that go up, but so far the convenience is outweighing the annoyance.

  • nelsonh

    For me it’s the opposite. Without the simple ability to delete anything, my stream quickly turned into a cluttered mess housing dozens of images that I really don’t need to be there. I get the convenience and all but for any avid picture taker it sure seems to me like it desperately needs more user control. After resetting it a few times to clear the crud, I’m about *this close* to turning it off completely. The good news is I’m certain Apple will hear the outcry and add some needed controls eventually. I’m hoping for sooner than later. Also, the fact that I can access my stream in Aperture OR iPhoto – but not both – is very irritating.

  • Anonymous

    Odd that they don’t have deletion capabilities.  So far, I’ve enjoyed the feature.  Of course, I’ve only taken 35 photos since my iPhone 4S arrived.  I hadn’t realized I could not delete them from the iPhone or iPad.

    I’m still looking for a good way to organize my photos in iPhoto, Aperture, or some other tool.

  • His Shadow

    I will take the inconvenience of “junk” photos as a side effect of never worrying about losing a photo.

  • Anonymous

    For me the benefit of Photo Stream is so I can get my photos from my iPhone onto my iPad/Mac without plugging anything in.

    So once a week I’ll go through my Photo Stream, save any pics I want to keep, and flush the stream completely and start over. Or just let them expire.

    I don’t get why someone would turn this *off* though? Where’s the inconvenience?

  • Travis

    Remember that pictures only enter the stream when connected via wifi. Consequently you can take pictures in the field and delete images to your heart’s content before they get uploaded. This pruning can keep crud from entering the stream.

    Admittedly I too would like to edit the stream but until Apple adds the feature to iCloud this “preemptive strike” is a viable alternative.

  • Sam

    I have noticed photostream consumes alot of cpu usage. I turned it off for that reason.