ICloud Photo Library - a really poor support experience (and still unresolved)

I am using (or should I say trying to use) iCloud photo library on iOS 8.1.2 and on an iPhone 5S with 32Gb memory. I bought 200 Gb of Cloud storage too so was ready to go with about 12 Gb of photos.
It was about 3 weeks ago when I turned it on and was initially hopeful, as the number of photos left to sync gradually decreased on my device (there are about 4000 to do). I could see they were coming up at iCloud.com and all looked good for the first 600 or so. And then it "stalled" for the first time and nothing seemed to help - reboot, airplane mode on/off. Occasionally it might do a couple more but then it would just stop.
So, I logged out of iCloud on my device and logged back in again. A long pause whilst everything resyncs and then the photo resync begins again... from the start... 4000 to go. It got further this time, to 800 and every now and then it would process a few more. I left it a week and a half to see what it would do but eventually sure enough it stalls again.
My first chat session with Apple support and the engineer suggests resetting the network settings... nothing.
So the a second chat session with Apple support and the engineer suggests logging out of iCloud on the device and turning it on again. I'm reluctant to go the start of the process again, but I do and overnight I'm rewarded by getting to about 1200 photos this time. And then it stops, so I reset the network settings. A few more and it stops again. By now, I'm pulling my hair out.
So another long chat session and after repeating all of the above an escalation is requested to a senior engineer. A call back is made to me and after a wait of 15 mins on the phone (Apple called me!) the senior engineer begins to lecture me on what beta software is (I know, it's software pre-full release with a few minor issues left to resolve). I politely ask what the next steps might be and the engineer explains to me that I should have no realistic expectations that it should actually work. Her experience is such that uploads may not register with iCloud, downloads may not register with my device and that I may LOSE photos! When I protest, again politely, that this might not be acceptable she hangs up.
The chat engineer who is waiting for my call promises to complain on my behalf to the management and offers a call rescheduled for later which I take up. That was 30 mins ago.
The call comes, I wait 15 mins in the queue again (it tells you a 2 min wait!!!) and then guess what, the call hangs up again.
So here what I am left with. A sync that has now taken 3 weeks and ultimately is no more than a quarter complete. No confidence in the sync process or any idea of what might be causing my connection to fail. 4 hours wasted this weekend with Apple support. The rudeness of staff hanging up on my calls and lecturing me on the merits of beta software. £3 a month paid for storage that I cannot fill.
I can only conclude that the iPhone photo cloud library is not ready and the support staff feel unable to offer any support on next steps. "Beta" or not, you really have to ask if this is good enough.
Apple - if you're reading, you still have my outstanding call back on ref:722150884 sceduled for 16:30 GMT on 11th Jan 2015. Your system says this is still outstanding. If you're ready to call back with a genuine bid to help and an acknowledgement of the problem please feel free. If the software just isn't ready, just say and we can all move on with our lives.

Beenst wrote:
Apple - if you're reading, you still have my outstanding call back on ref:722150884 sceduled for 16:30 GMT on 11th Jan 2015. Your system says this is still outstanding. If you're ready to call back with a genuine bid to help and an acknowledgement of the problem please feel free. If the software just isn't ready, just say and we can all move on with our lives.
This is a user-to-user support forum, not a way to communicate with Apple regarding a support call or issue. (Just trying to save you some more frustration when you don't get a response to this post from Apple).
As a user, I can note that it is beta software, I don't trust it with my photos and I'm not willing to spend the time dealing with issues that can be involved in beta software. There are a number of more proven 3rd party cloud storage options available.

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I have the iCloud Photo Library (Beta) turned on. The photos from my iPhone do get uploaded to the iCloud. The photos are then downloaded to my wife's iPhone (we share the iCloud account). How do I keep the photos from downloading to my wife's iPhone

I do not want all the photos from my iPhone downloading to my wife's iPhone from iCloud? We share an iCloud account. How can I prevent the download to my wife's iPhone from iCloud. .The "Upload to My Photo Stream" is turned off on my iPhone. . I am running 8.1.3.
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The way to keep the photos from downloading to your wife's phone would be for her to go to Settings > iCloud > Photos > and turn off iCloud Photo Library. If that isn't an option, the other option would be for her to have her own Apple ID ( and possibly explore the new family sharing options https://www.apple.com/ios/whats-new/family-sharing/ )
Regarding the "related question" see the quotes below from iCloud Photo Library beta FAQ - Apple Support
Deleting a photo or video from your Photos app will also remove the item from iCloud Photo Library and from your iCloud storage allocation. Photos and videos you remove can be recovered from the Recently Deleted album for 30 days. After 30 days, your content will be removed from the Recently Deleted album.
If you want to reduce the space used by photos on your phone, rather than deleting them see the following:
How does iCloud Photo Library save space on my device?
If you turn on Optimize [device] Storage, iCloud Photo Library will automatically manage the size of your library on your iOS device, so you can make the most of your device's storage and access more photos than ever. iCloud Photo Library stores the original, high-resolution photos and videos in iCloud and can keep lightweight, device-optimized versions on each of your devices. As long as you have enough storage, recent photos and videos that you access the most will stay on your device at full resolution.
You can turn on Optimize [device] Storage from Settings > iCloud > Photos or Settings > Photos & Camera > iCloud Photo Library on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. You need an Internet connection to access an original photo or video that’s stored only in iCloud.

ICloud Photo Library (Beta) - Can't view older photos from before 2014

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iCloud Photo Library keeps all of your photos in the Cloud which you then can selectively download. So, unless you download the iPad photos, they are not going to be taking up any room on your iPhone:
How does iCloud Photo Library save space on my device?
If you turn on Optimize [device] Storage, iCloud Photo Library will automatically manage the size of your library on your iOS device, so you can make the most of your device's storage and access more photos than ever. iCloud Photo Library stores the original, high-resolution photos and videos in iCloud and can keep lightweight, device-optimized versions on each of your devices. As long as you have enough storage, recent photos and videos that you access the most will stay on your device at full resolution.
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Here is a link to the FAQs page for iCloud Photo Library:
iCloud Photo Library beta FAQ - Apple Support
Cheers,
GB

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It can free up some storage but it doesn't work like Dropbox. See the following quotes from iCloud Photo Library beta FAQ - Apple Support
I personally don't use iCloud Photo Library as it is still beta. Additionally, I have a Mac computer and there is not yet a Mac Photos app that is compatible.
How does iCloud Photo Library save space on my device?
If you turn on Optimize [device] Storage, iCloud Photo Library will automatically manage the size of your library on your iOS device, so you can make the most of your device's storage and access more photos than ever. iCloud Photo Library stores the original, high-resolution photos and videos in iCloud and can keep lightweight, device-optimized versions on each of your devices. As long as you have enough storage, recent photos and videos that you access the most will stay on your device at full resolution.
To turn on Optimize [device] Storage on your device, tap Settings > iCloud > Photos or Settings > Photos & Camera, then select Optimize [device] Storage. You need an Internet connection to access an original photo or video that’s stored only in iCloud.
How does iCloud delete photos and videos from iCloud Photo Library?
Deleting a photo or video from your Photos app will also remove the item from iCloud Photo Library and from your iCloud storage allocation. Photos and videos you remove can be recovered from the Recently Deleted album for 30 days. After 30 days, your content will be removed from the Recently Deleted album. Photos are backed up on our servers for up to 30 days after they're deleted from the Photos app. If you need to recover these photos during that time, contact Apple Support.

ICloud photo library has not updated in 73 days

"Connect to wifi to update"
Phone is rarely not connected to Wifi, obviously.
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Hello Welles13,
Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities. iCloud Photo Library beta requires a Wi-Fi connection to upload photos and videos:
iCloud Photo Library beta FAQ - Apple Support
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT6378
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When you turn on iCloud Photo Library on your devices, your photos and videos will begin to upload after you connect to the Internet using Wi-Fi. You can see the status on the Photos tab and pause upload for one day from Settings > iCloud > Photos.
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ICloud Photo library storage optimisation

I cannot make this think work..! Open , close IPL buttons...! but ...! same storage in my iPhone and in my iCloud..!

See the quote below from iCloud Photo Library beta FAQ - Apple Support
That link has some other details but doesn't explicitly state (at least that I could find) how the situation where you have photos from other sources added to iCloud Photo Library are dealt with on your phone if you no longer have space.
How does iCloud Photo Library save space on my device?
If you turn on Optimize [device] Storage, iCloud Photo Library will automatically manage the size of your library on your iOS device, so you can make the most of your device's storage and access more photos than ever. iCloud Photo Library stores the original, high-resolution photos and videos in iCloud and can keep lightweight, device-optimized versions on each of your devices. As long as you have enough storage, recent photos and videos that you access the most will stay on your device at full resolution.
To turn on Optimize [device] Storage on your device, tap Settings > iCloud > Photos or Settings > Photos & Camera, then select Optimize [device] Storage. You need an Internet connection to access an original photo or video that’s stored only in iCloud.

HT6378 If I enable iCloud Photo Library beta on one device is it enable on all my devices?

If I enable iCloud Photo Library beta on one device is it enable on all my devices?

iCloud Photo Library beta FAQ - Apple Support
IF all your devices are using the same Apple id I belive it will.

ICloud Photo Library (beta) version?

I have an iPhone 5c that was recently repaired and upgraded to iOS 8.2. A new feature I noticed was the Photos setting in iCloud, where I have the option to "Optimize iPhone Storage" or "Download and Keep Originals." The wording doesn't make sense to me, and the little description below isn't exactly clear either--what's the difference between the two? I take a ton of photos, so storage is important to me, but does that mean I have lower quality photos saved to my phone only? Or are lower quality photos being backed up on iCloud, too?
Thanks!

See the quotes below from iCloud Photo Library beta FAQ - Apple Support
How does iCloud Photo Library save space on my device?
If you turn on Optimize [device] Storage, iCloud Photo Library will automatically manage the size of your library on your iOS device, so you can make the most of your device's storage and access more photos than ever. iCloud Photo Library stores the original, high-resolution photos and videos in iCloud and can keep lightweight, device-optimized versions on each of your devices. As long as you have enough storage, recent photos and videos that you access the most will stay on your device at full resolution.
To turn on Optimize [device] Storage on your device, tap Settings > iCloud > Photos or Settings > Photos & Camera, then select Optimize [device] Storage. You need an Internet connection to access an original photo or video that’s stored only in iCloud.
What happens if I turn off iCloud Photo Library?
You can turn off iCloud Photo Library for a single iOS device by going to Settings > iCloud > Photos and turning off iCloud Photo Library beta. If you turned on Optimize [device] Storage, you might not be storing all original photos and videos on that device. To download the original photos and videos, select Download and Keep Originals. Then you can turn iCloud Photo Library off. You can also select the items that you want to download within the beta Photos app on iCloud.com.
You can disable iCloud Photo Library (and recover iCloud storage) for all devices by going to Settings > iCloud > Storage > Manage Storage > iCloud Photo Library beta, then selecting Disable and Delete. Once disabled, you will have 30 days to download your library to at least one device. You can download your photos and videos to your iOS device by turning on Keep Originals or by selecting the items to download from iCloud.com/photos.

ICloud Photo Library - Are my camera photos being compressed?

When 'Optimize iPhone Storage' is selected, are the photos I take with the iPhone being compressed and the originals deleted locally after being uploaded, or is it just photos taken with an iPad which are then synced across other devices that are 'optimized'? I've searched online and can't seem to find an answer to this question.

Greetings Mac_Man_Dan,
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!
I understand that you have a question about how your photos are stored when you elect to optimize your iPhone storage. Please refer to the attached article for information on this question.
iCloud Photo Library beta FAQ - Apple Support
How does iCloud Photo Library save space on my device?
If you turn on Optimize [device] Storage, iCloud Photo Library will automatically manage the size of your library on your iOS device, so you can make the most of your device's storage and access more photos than ever. iCloud Photo Library stores the original, high-resolution photos and videos in iCloud and can keep lightweight, device-optimized versions on each of your devices. As long as you have enough storage, recent photos and videos that you access the most will stay on your device at full resolution.
To turn on Optimize [device] Storage on your device, tap Settings > iCloud > Photos or Settings > Photos & Camera, then select Optimize [device] Storage. You need an Internet connection to access an original photo or video that’s stored only in iCloud.
Cheers,
Joe

How to see my photos on iCloud Photo Library

I'm online in iCloud.com on my iPad Air 2 running iOS 8.1.3, with iCloud photos optimized. How can I see my photos

The following quote is from iCloud Photo Library beta FAQ - Apple Support
Where do I view photos and videos in iCloud Photo Library?
On your iOS device with iOS 8.1 or later, open the Photos app and tap the Photos tab. Photos and videos are organized by date, and listed by Moments, Collections, and Years. In iOS 8.1, you can also view your photos and videos by the date they were added from the All Photos album. Your entire library is also available on the beta Photos app on iCloud.com.

ICloud Photo Library - a really poor support experience (and still unresolved)

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