I can't see to select multiple photos from photos on icloud.com. whithout selecting one by one...So real tedious deleting them.

Also Pngs..screenshots.. deleting those required a box came up on screen to save, and have to tediously click save on each one..

See today's OS X Daily article

Joe that is great thanks. Never knew that. I'd been clicking one at time on phone for 3 years... but.. this post was actually about the online icloud.com photos.. Anyway to bulk select there?

Then I'm golden if you can figure that one out.

Since I have iCloud Photo Library turned on on all my devices, I do my editing, moving, block deletes, etc. on either my Mac or my iPad rather than directly on iCloud. So I have the full range of selection options available.

Joe, but what about if you have to download 40 items, 40 photos that you took with your phone to the laptop/ desktop?

For all intent and purposes they are already on my iPhone/iPad/Desktop/Laptop and do not need to be downloaded except to export them to another app or print them. The images on each of the various devices are optimized images for viewing in Photos, but when they are edited, it is the full image on iCloud that is actually edited. The full image is downloaded transparently when the image is exported from Photos. NOTE: this is only true for images in Photos. There can be a delay after taking a picture on the iPhone before it moves to the iCloud and from there to the desktop, but I find that it is only noticeable in rare circumstances — assuming a WiFi internet connection on both ends.

Joe, lost me, did not understand a word! (unusual)

The original post about that when I'm in icloud.com, Photos, I can't see to contiguously select lots of photos/ video quickly. It's extremely tedious to click one by one 80 photos and video which I then download to my dekstop.

The tip you sent for selecting quickly for the iphone/ Photos was fantastic, I did not know that.. but does not work online with icloud.com

If I could get my photos/ video quickly to my desktop without icloud.com I would do it.(In theory airdrop should, but does not really work well for that)

On your Mac go to Photos > Preferences > iCloud and check the box labeled "iCloud Photo Library" then if you have plenty of storage available click the radio button labeled "Download Originals to this Mac", if storage space is limited click "Optimize Mac Storage".

On your iOS device(s) go to Settings > Photos and turn on iCloud Photo Library. Below that if you have enough storage on your iOS device for all your fill size images select Download and Keep Originals, if not select Optimize iPhone Storage. Turn on Upload to My Photo Stream. If you have a generous data plan turn Cellular Data ON, otherwise your libraries will only synch when you have a WiFi connection on your iOS device(s).

With these settings the contents of your Photos Libraries on all your devices and iCloud WILL for all intents and purposes BE IDENTICAL and will automatically remain that way. Any changes or edits on one device will within minutes be reflected on iCloud and every device attached to your iCloud account. You can select a group of images on your Mac or on your iOS device and do what you will with them and that action will be reflected on iCloud and all your other devices. The only reason to use Photos on iCloud would be in a case where you wanted to show your Photos and did not have your computer or iOS device with you.

Thanks Joe, fascinating, I've never even clicked on the app Photos on my desktop. Before I dive in though, I'm getting this: what should I do.. don't want screw it up:

Photos cannot find the System Photo Library named “Photos Library.photoslibrary”
You can open another library and set it as the System Photo Library in Preferences.

Interesting. I hadn't run into the before, but there is a very simple remedy:

1. Hold down the Option key (⌥) and double click on Photos.
2. At the bottom of the window that appears click on "Create New"
3. Then click on OK which will create a new Photos Library in the Pictures folder of your account's home folder. (At this point you can take a tour of the current features in the current version of Photos if you wish.)
4. Click on "Get Started" and you will be prompted to use iCloud Photos Library, Click on Use iCloud Photos Library.
5. That is all there is to it — the download willstart immediately and depending on the speed of your connection and the number of images in the iClous Photo Library may take hours to days to complete.
6. To save storage space on your computer go to Photos > Preferences > iCloud and click the Radio button labeled "Optimize Mac Storage"

From that point on you can access anything in the iCloud Photos Library directly on your Mac and any changes, deletions, edits, etc. will be mirrored on iCloud and assuming you have set your iOS devices the use the iCloud Photos Library on those as well. Updates are not always instantaneous and may take several seconds to several minutes to populate the libraries on all your devices but it will happen.

You will also find Photos on your Mac has some nice image editing features as well. Many of those features are available on your iOS device as well plus there are additional editing features unique to the iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, and iPhone X. ENJOY!

CAVEAT: The steps I outlined are present in Photos 3.0 on MacOS 10.13 (High Sierra) and I verified each step there I cannot verify them in earlier versions of MacOS or Photos.

Joe, ok got it going, but: The desktop which had this issue.... is showing about 100 images that were deleted months ago; while the laptop and phone, and even icloud.com all match at 156 images.

The desktopsays 177 images, and 100 of those are old and gone, and conversely desktop is missing a bunch of other stuff the other three platforms have.

The other three say 156 images.

Before I wrote the instructions I gave you, I performed those same steps on a server I have where I had not previously setup Photos Library or linked it to the iCloud Photos Library to verify my instructions were correct. While I didn't check the count during the process there was a definite lag as the library was filled first with image placeholders and much more slowly the actual images. it took a bit over two days the new Library to entirely settle and now it reports 4865 images (4728 pictures and 137 videos) — the same as my regular desktop, my iPhone, and iPad and iCloud. I can only speculate on your current difference, that it takes a while for things to settle so you might wait a day or so and check again. If it still has not settled then we will have to dig deeper to find out why.

If you are interested in how much local storage is saved by choosing "Optimized" images the 4728 photos and 137 videos in the Photos Library on my Desktop occupies 25.3GB and the newly created library on my server occupies 21.3 GB optimized for iPhone X the Library and app together occupies only 1.04GB of local storage. I have no way of telling how much space the Library occupies on iCloud, but I guarantee it is a lot more than 25.3GB as those are the full resolution images, not optimized for a given platform.

Thanks Joe, I'll wait a couple of days to see if things change.

All today the desktop is sticking very firmly to it's weird take.
But where do all these delete photos come from? I thought they were long gone! (don't take any compromising photos with iphone then.. then don't seem to really vanish..?)

That's a log of Gigs! Considering they have to be in your phone right? I only have a 16GB iphone 6.

Optimized is just save you 3 GB or so?

I don't know if this is applicable, but when I trash pics in Photos in Sierra they remain in the trash for 30 days unless I consciously delete them sooner.

I can't follow your math. If the optimized Library on the Mac is 25.3GB and that same library optimized for the iPhone is 1.03GB how does get reduced to a 3GB differential in your calculations? According to my calculations that comes out to a 98% reduction in size due to optimization.

Remember too, the 25.3GB Library on the Mac is substantially reduced from the size of the iCloud Library with the full resolution images in it.

Joe, I was thinking of photos, not libraries. I'm not even aware there is a library? Where is this library, and why would a library be such a big file (unless that included images).

BTW while I wait on desktop....

1) Is there a way to quickly select contiguous images fast on non phone platforms? And if not then just do it with the swipe trick on the phone?
2) And whatever you do anywhere, should reflect later upon all other places?

in this case the Library is a special type of folder or package containing index files, several folders for specific purposes and if burrow down far enough, every image contained in Photos. It is named Photos Library and located in the ~/Pictures folder (where ~/ indicates your home folder). To view the individual folders and files within the Photos Library Control+Click on the Library and in the drop down menu that appears select "Show Package Contents". WARNING; you should NOT do anything to the contents of the Photos Library package or you risk damaging the structure and destroying the Library. If you want to manipulate the images in any way do so using the Photos app.

It is NOT a question of phone or non-phone platforms, rather MacOS or iOS devices. Any group selection tool available anywhere in MacOS will work in Photos on MacOS including:

1. click on the first image of a group then Shift+Click on the last image in the group
2. Click and drag a rectangle around a block of images you wish to select as a group
3. Select non-contiguous images by holding the Command (⌘) key and clicking on the desired images
4. Select a contiguus grpup of images using option 1 or 2 then select-out any unwanted images in the group using Command+Click

The "Swipe Trick" only works in Photos on iOS devices such as the iPhone and iPad. Photos on iCloud is intentionally neither MacOS or iOS it is designed to work on any computing device with a browser capable of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript which limits iCloud Photos' capabilities.

Thanks Joe, in fact, I don't know why I did not test it yet, but indeed normal shift select works on the desktop Photos. Does not work though in icloud.

Everything going great, but I don't think Photos on desktop will resolve, pessimistic; will wait a couple of days, but it seems of whack, showing a lot of deleted photos. So.. wait a day or two and the... I could just copy the laptop Library right over to the desktop?

And Final: When it's all synced then if I delete a photo on one, it will sync all others: laptop, desktop, iphone and icloud?

Hence no need to open and log into icloud.com?

BTW, any idea why the desktop library has old photos, Maybe it got frozen?

I have no idea why the old photos are showing up. As Yul Brynner said in The King and I "'tis a puzzlement!". But to explore that issue further...

• By any chance have those deleted images ever been on your desktop?
• On your Laptop in Photos under Library > Recently Deleted look and see if those images appear there.
• Look in the same place on your Desktop.
• On your Desktop see if those images are listed under Imports.

In answer to your other questions:

• Assuming all of your devices have the correct settings they will automatically and transparently synchronize. Think of it this way: the MacOS and iOS devices are all mirror images of the iCloud Photos Library. The settings I recommend for MacOS and iOS can be seen in these screenshots.
• There is no reason to open the iCloud Photos Library unless you are on a strange computer (ie. not linked to your Apple ID) and want to show someone your photos.
• Yes, you could replace the Desktop's Photos Library with a copy of the Laptop's Photos Library and that should work.

Joe, thanks good info. Well first thing? On laptop, Photos, I don't see word Library in the software Photos anywhere, maybe I missed it. (you were not talking about finder, Library correct?); you are saying within opened software Photos -- Library. I don't see it in menu or sidebar...

But I do see on laptop, Photos software on left ALBUMS, recently deleted, and in fact there are a lot of deleted images there. And a lot of those recently deleted are are the ones polluting the desktop version of photos.

Strangely on the desktop, Photos, there is no recently deleted on the left sidebar.

You tell me what you make of this, all over my head, and if you think I should just bring over the finder library to the desktop. And also should / can you permanently delete from the recently deleted? (ie empty trash) good idea?

Once the two are blessed/ harmonious in sync, I'll have follow up question at that point on your nice settings screenshot..., and your method of bribing photos into the system....

(Clickable link)

At this point I have no explanation for what you are seeing. I followed the exact same set of steps on my server and the resulting Photos Library is an exact duplicate of the Library on my Desktop — the only connection between the two being their mutual connection to the iCloud Photos Library. What you see on your Laptop and Desktop can be identical but will never be a 100% match to iCloud or iOS simply because MacOS supports features that are not available on the other platforms. But those differences are minor and the images and albums should be the same.

Once again I urge you to CAREFULLY check your Photos and System Preferences on both your laptop and desktop to verify they match my recommended settings as well as each other then for the time being leave both machines plugged in and logged onto the network for a day or two with Photos open on both. After that If the Desktop and Laptop do not reach consensus on the Library organization and content, manually replacing the Photos Library on the Desktop with a copy of the Photos Library on the Laptop. But my recent test proves that should NOT be necessary.

In Sierra, if I go to Photos > Trash I see all my pics that have been deleted during the past 30 days, each of which has the number of days until permanent deletion next to it.

If I want to delete any pics immediately, I select them and then hit the radio button towards the top right of the page, which presents me with a "Do you really...Can't be undone" pop-up, and clicking "Yes" (or whatever) rids me of the pics instantly.

Thanks Artie, I'm in Sierra, I don't see photos trash.

Sorry, kevs, my mistake; I was working from the sieve I call "memory"...should have said "Recently Deleted".

This is how it looks in Sierra. (I think it's clear, but if not, post back.)

Ok setting all of Joe's settings, and I already seeing new activity (it's bringing back old deleted shots into my laptop I don't want!)

But let's see if if all settles downs and synchronized across lap/ desktop in couple days. Will remember that in case I need to fully nuke out images.

Those old deleted shots were/are hanging around somewhere in the system, maybe on iCloud, or I am betting on your iPhone, but they were/are obviously somewhere where they had not been deleted. They are showing up again/now because all of your systems are getting into synch via the iCloud Library.

My suggestion would be to use Photos on either your Desktop or your Laptop and delete them (it is much easier to select and delete groups of images on MacOS than it is on iOS or iCloud.) Because your Libraries are all synched (in fact mirror the iCloud Library) deleting them on either MacOS device will delete those unwanted images from iCloud and therefore from all your devices. With is what you want.

AN OBSERVATION: When you drag an image from Photos to say your desktop on your MacOS devices, if you watch the image icon title closely you may notice the size and resolution of the image will increase over a period of a few seconds. This is because the image in Photos is "optimized" for viewing on your Desktop/Laptop screen and there is a slight lag while the full resolution and size image is quickly downloaded from Photos on iCloud. (I hadn't observed/noticed this until I was experimenting to be sure of my facts in this thread — thanks for filling in that blank. )

Excellent Joe. So then no need to upload or download through icloud.com anymore? I've been doing that -- just take photos on phone and then download to desktop with image capture software.

The photos I take on the phone, just wait till they are in desktop photos and drag to desktop?

Same with bringing images on my hardrive at home to iphone?

ok Joe! Everything is coming up roses. All the devices are syncing, and not only did we solved the selection issue, but even conquered something super tedious I was not expecting: I no longer have to plug in my phone to the desktop and download iphone image to the desktop....amazing, I've been doing that rigormoral for the full three years I've had a smartphone. Thank again....

Update on thread. Everything is synced and I'm free from having to visit icloud, which is great; but I added 16 photos to photos on desktop 2 days ago, and they are still not on photos on iphone, nor the laptop photos... so..? frustrating.. anything one can do?

That would be frustrating. A few of questions.

1. Have you gone into Photos on iCloud to see if the new images are there?
2. On your Mac: Photos > Preferences > iCloud is "My Photo Stream" checked?
3. On your iOS devices: Settings > Photos is "Upload to My Photo stream" turned ON?
4. On your iOS Devices: Are they turned on and connected to WiFI?

I was just editing my Photos Library, deleting a LOT of old Albums dating back as far as 2004 that had migrated through several versions/revisions of iPhotos, Photos, etc. and I happened to have iCloud open in a Safari window at the same time. I had been working for perhaps ten minutes when a popup appeared on the Photos icon in iCloud announcing "the database was undergoing maintenance and was not available". iCloud icon.

That should give you and me both, some idea of how quickly the synch occurs. By the way, those changes appeared on my iPad (which was locked and plugged in) by the time I could get to it to check.

Thanks Joe, no the 16 photos have not gone to icloud photos, just checked which I hate to do as it involves the tedious log in. Those 16 photos added to desktop photos have not synced anywhere else.

Desktop, yes photo stream is checked.
iphone, turned on and connected to wifi, yes... but I often often turn them off too. Sometimes the laptop is off.. but they both will go on again at some point throughout the days for hours and hours.

Last night though, I took an iphone photo at a restaurant, and that one shot is everywhere: desktop, laptop, icloud.

But the 16 images I dragged into photos, desktop, two days ago is still only on the desktop. real bummer. I was hoping they would swiftly been seen on all other devices. Now 2 days.

In Photos the left hand column under Library you will see an item labeled "imports". Look there on your other devices to see if the 16 photos are there.

Thanks Joe, on laptop, 16 are still not there.
I don't see library in left hand pane or imports.

I see: memories, activities, albums, people etc... no library..

Ok Joe, I did test, a way, anyway to force the 16 images to the iphone from the desktop Photos. Share, and then software makes you create a new album. And even then it did not come up on iphone, I have to click share, then iphone chuggs along updating over 15 min. and even then is not in "ALL PHOTOS", only a special share folder.

But, they do appear in Instagram. So it works...

Bottom, line, I was very excited, to not have to plug in my iphone to the desktop to add photos. I could just drag them into photos-desktop- and they would efficiently make it to the iphone, but it does not seem a reality. I do have all the settings synced well per your nice screenshots in this thread.

So there is this workaround, but it's a few clicks a wait, a bit better than cording in the iphone to the desktop hub.

Conversely, When I take one image on an iphone that flies everywhere instantly, but dragging images into photos desktop.. real sluggish bummer of inefficiently with icloud.

Still this is all great info, thanks, any final ideas on this?

Normally I take pictures on my iPhone and forget about them until some time (hours? days? weeks?) later when I want to do some heavy-duty editing and I open Photos on my desktop the images all are. When I am in a hurry to move images from one device to another, I use Air Drop which takes only several seconds. To be honest, I seldom even think about iCloud, it catches up at some point.

I'm not sure whether images are "pushed" to iCloud or if there is some sort of schedule for database updates, I am inclined to think the images are "pushed" but there may be constraints such as the device is not busy❓

Well clearly from phone to everything else is very rapid.

But from photos app on computer (desktop), you add photos in from a hardrive, they just don't move or get synced at all...

My point is sometimes I want to get photos from storage (hardrive) onto the iphone, and your method of using photos app on desktop is great (as opposed to having to plug in my iphone and do an upload), but it needs this push of sharing, creating an album to get icloud's attention.

You keep asking questions so I keep exploring and finding new things I did not know existed.

IF YOU ARE IN A HURRY TO GET AN IMAGE TO PHOTOS ON ICLOUD...

1. Log onto your iCloud account and open the iCloud Photos App
2. On the iCloud Photos toolbar click on the iCloud icon.
3. Using the Finder navigation window that appears, navigate to the image(s) you want to upload.
4. select the image(s) and click "Choose"
5. A progress bar will appear at the bottom of the window indicating file upload progress.

COMMENT: The entire process can easily be performed in less that a minute to move an image from my desktop to iCloud Photos. That new image appeared in Photos on my iPhone approximately 14 seconds later. No folder or album was involved on the desktop, iCloud, or iPhone, just Photos > Moments > Today.

NOTE: I have tested this with a variety of image formats including JPG, JP2, GIF, MOV, PDF, PSD, TIF, PNG, and RAW. Unfortunately iCloud Photos currently recognizes only JPG for direct upload. FWIW I submitted an enhancement request that iCloud Photos should upload and import any file format supported on MacOS Photos.

Thanks Joe, your tests are appreciated! Will run this an time it as well.

One aspect that your previous tips helped was that instead of having to cord into my iphone to DOWNLOAD to my desktop the images, the iphone images do show up now in Photos desktop, this is great.

But from home hardrive to icloud (or iphone) that direction does not work or sync correct?

I have no problem with it myself. I just dropped an image on desktop Photos and by the time I could get Photos open on my iPhone 17 seconds later the image had been transferred to iCloud and from there to my iPhone. I have no clue why yours are taking so long other than all of my MacOS and iOS devices have high speed WiFi internet connections pretty much 24x7. I never turn any of them off.

Joe, thanks, interesting--
In direction of phone to photos desktop it's fine. Take image on iphone will appear on photos desktop quickly.

But if I copy from my hardrive to photos desktop - nothing moves. Now my desktop and laptop are not on wifi, but corded ethernet to internet (which is faster and more reliable than wifi), should be same then --. Other than that I'm clueless.

I got a stopwatch and it was 1 min 10 seconds to log into icloud and upload those 16 images. Thanks for the perspective, which I lose.. I hate logging into Apple, but the stopwatch does not lie. Its' not that long.

Whether your desktop is connected to the internet via. WiFi or ethernet might make make a few seconds difference in transfer speed but not what you are reporting. Al I can suggest is on your desktop check Photos > Preferences > iCloud settings and System Preferences > iCloud > Options one more time. FWIW mine look like this.

🤷‍♂️

Yes Joe, I saved your screenshots and referenced them, triple check. It's just maddening then. So killer gremlin, the icloud Gods want me to go and log in to get those shots from desktop to phone!

Update Joe, good news, laptop.. to phone works.. continue detective work on desktop. thanks for letting me know this should work. that was important!

Update Joe others/ problem solved, 2 hours with senior supervisor Apple:

the issue why on desktop Photos, adding there, was not bringing them into iphone and elsewhere:

On Photos, desktop app, "copy items into the photos library" was unchecked. It needed to be checked. It was checked on the laptop.

All preference for icloud were ok, but photo general preferences was not in the mix there...