Shared photo stream quality issue

Shared photo stream FAQ states that:
"Shared Photo Streams supports JPEG, TIFF, PNG, and most RAW photo formats. On your Mac or PC, your photos are downloaded and stored in full resolution. On your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple TV, your Photo Stream photos are delivered in a device-optimized resolution that speeds downloads and saves storage space. While actual dimensions will vary, an optimized version of a photo taken by a standard point-and-shoot camera will have a 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution when pushed to your devices. Panoramic photos can be up to 5400 pixels wide."
Since I'm a little OCD about photo organization, I collect and organize all the photos my girlfriend and I take. She shares all of her picture from her iPhone 5s on a shared photo stream and I import them to iPhoto on my MBP. However, I have just realized to my great surprise that all her picture were downgraded in 2048 x 1536, even though I have downloaded them to my Mac. Anyone has the same issue or has any idea what is going on? The FAQ clearly said that they would be downloaded in full definition, but they aren't, which is really annoying as we often do large books for which the higher resolution is necessary, not to mention my retina display screen and 4K monitor.
the FAQ

You should double check your and your daughter's icloud ID as currently set, because what you describe happens when two people share the same icloud account (and I assume you are talking about a "photo stream" and not a "shared photo stream").
Settings>icloud, be sure the accounts are different.

Similar Messages

HT5903 Are photos stored in Shared Photo Streams in full quality?

Does anyone know whether photos uploaded to Shared Photo Streams are stored in full (original) quality?
I'm interested to know whether Photo Streams can be relied upon for backing up photo collections (i.e. they can be downloaded again in original quality in case of loss from the computer/phone/iPad they were taken with), or whether it is only really for sharing.
Thanks

tomwood1981 wrote:
Does anyone know whether photos uploaded to Shared Photo Streams are stored in full (original) quality?
No. Not for shared streams
I'm interested to know whether Photo Streams can be relied upon for backing up photo collections (i.e. they can be downloaded again in original quality in case of loss from the computer/phone/iPad they were taken with), or whether it is only really for sharing.
My photo stream keeps photos at full quality in the cloud, although it only syncs lower resolution photos to an iOS device, but full resolution to your computer.

Photo Quality - Shared Photo Streams

Is there any method of changing the quality of photos within shared Photo Streams?
For example, there's a massive drop from 8MP to 3.1MP for photos taken with an iPhone 4S then added to a shared Photo Stream. This makes it pretty much useless if I want to easily share original quality photos with other family members.

Photos stored in 'Photo Stream' are uploaded to the server with the original photo quality (Apple: "On your Mac or PC, your photos are downloaded and stored in full resolution. On your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple TV, your Photo Stream photos are delivered in a device-optimized resolution that speeds downloads and saves storage space.")
When you access the photo stream with a Mac/PC, the photos will be at the same original quality, but on a device like the iPhone 3GS, however, the photos will be at a 'device optimized' resolution. So if you access the photo stream with an iPhone 3GS the photos will be a lower quality, but the photos on the server will still be at the original quality, which means you can retrieve the full quality photos if you have a Mac/PC.
With shared photo streams, however, the situation is a bit different. Apple states that "Shared Photo Streams deliver photos in a device-optimized resolution that speeds upload and downloads and saves storage space", and therefore the photos are not uploaded to the server in the original resolution.

How can I subscribe to a Shared Photo Stream from iPhoto 9.4 on OSX 10.7.5 ?

I just updated to iPhoto 9.4 on both my (just updated) OSX 10.8.2 MacBook Pro and my OSX 10.7.5 Mac mini.
For some mysterious reason Apple specifies that I can not subscribe to the new "Shared Photo Streams" from my OSX 10.7.5 Mac mini.
How could that be ?
How can I get around this ?
How can it be that Apple claims that 'Shared Photo Streams' can be shared to all my other devices, but it turns out that my major photo-database can't, even though it has a brand new version of last year's OSX running... ???!!!
This can't be a software issue...
because if that were the case Apple would be deliberately cutting off users of last year's operating system... (...I even think there is a law prohibiting that...)
so... can anyone tell me what the exact piece of hardware is that I am missing ?
or has anyone found a solution for this yet ?
Thanks !

The only hardware that's preventing me from upgrading to 10.8 "Mountain Lion" would be the fact that a Mid-2007 Mac mini doesn't have a separate graphics card...
...as all other hardware-components ar similar to the iMac Mid 2007... :
- at least 2GB of PC2-5300 (667MHz) DDR2 SO-DIMM RAM
- a 64-bit Intel Core 2 Duo "Merom" processor
- a WiFi-N compatible AirPort-card (I've upgraded the one in my Mac mini to an Atheros AR-9280...)
- OSX 10.6.8 or later installed (I have OSX 10.7.5)
- iPhoto 9.4
...so the only spec I not meeting hardware-wise is the fact that my Mac mini has a GMA950 shared graphics card...
but surely... that can not be the reason I can't subscribe to a Photo Stream...
why would that have anything to do with eachother ???!!!
[ I've even seen claims of tricked OSX 10.8 installers for the Mid-2007 Mac mini, so if that's my only option... ]

TS3989 I had photos on my camera roll on my old phone, bought a new one and selected those photos to be a shared photo stream but when I sent it to my wife and opened it on my new phone it says there are no photos shared - these photos are more than 30 da

Just bought a new iPhone 5 and wanted to send pics from my camera roll on my iphone 4 as a shared photo stream to my new phone and my wife's phone.
I selected the pictures and created the photo stream and it showed up on my new phone and she was able to accept invite, but when opened the stream contained 0 photos and a message that says "No Shared Photos"
These pictures were admitedly older than 30 days. Is that the rule that pictures from your camera roll older than 30 days cannot be shared as photo stream?
I apprecaite all guidance on this issue. For those answering - yes everything else photostream wise is connected and working so there's no issue with setup - my question simply is can a user upload photos older than 30 days from the camera roll to a shared photostream?
Thank you

Welcome to the Apple Community.
30 days is only applicable to My photostream and even then it applies from the time they were added not mwhen they were taken (unless it's the same time)
I'd be inclined to restart your wife's phone and see if that helps, otherwise you might try turning photostream off and on again on her phone.
Note: disabling photostream and re-enabling it will result in any photos that are currently in the photostream album on your device, that are older than 30 days old, not being added back.

Can't share photos using shared Photo Stream with iCloud Control Panel for Windows

BACKSTORY: My friend took pictures of my family. I want to see the pictures he took. We live about 2.5 hours apart by car. Gas prices are too high for me to just drive down with an external hard drive to get the pictures and I might as well throw my money out the window if I were to ship him a hard drive and he ship it back. SO. I ask him if he would share photos with me and he quickly agreed. He added me to a Photo Stream he has. ok cool. I recieve the invitation email just fine but this is the error I get when I click on the link:
ERROR MESSAGE:
Photo Stream
Follow these steps to join a shared photo stream
1.Make sure you have an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch running iOS 6 or a Mac running OS X 10.8.2 withiPhoto 9.4 or Aperture 3.4 or later installed.
2. Sign in to iCloud on your devices.
3. Open the invitation email on an updated device and tap the Join this Photo Stream button.
WHAT I NEED:
How can I view shared photo streams using iCloud Windows control panel 2.1.2.0? How can I work around this error message? I don't own any of these products that apple wants me to own in order to view these photos! I don't have the cash to go out and purchase them. What can I do to get "my" photos? Do I have to be signed into my friends apple id to see the shared photos?
What I've tried:
I already have the icloud control panel installed and updated to the latest version.
I'm signed into iCloud on the control panel. (no apple id password issues)
I have photo stream checked.
I have my photo stream checked
I have shared photo stream checked.
I have tried copying and pasting the link into the address bars of Safari for Windows, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Firefox respectively and pressing enter to load. all present the same error message.
I visited iCloud.com to see if there was anywhere to access the shared photo stream there... No option exisits
Checked my photo stream folder in windows explorer. it's completely empty. I haven't put any of my own photos there so nothings missing per se... I just can't see my friends shared photos.
MY SET UP:
Windows 7 64bit Home Premium
4gb of RAM
iCloud control panel version 2.1.2.0
I don't own any version of Outlook, (if that matters. I doubt that it matters at all in this case.)
I don't have any iOS Devices or a mac capable of 10.8. My MacBook is stuck at 10.6.8. It's a late mid 2008 just before the aluminum unibody computers came out. If I had only waited another month... sigh. Murphy's Law is alive and well.
any sugestions, especially correct answers, are welcome. please help me figure this out. Thanks in advance.
Desert_dweller5

Hello desert_dweller5,
It sounds like you art trying to access a Shared Photo Stream, but you do not have one of the devices to enable your Apple ID as an iCloud account. The following article provides information on how Shared Photo Streams work:
iCloud: Photo Stream FAQ
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4486
The article states that for privately Shared Photo Streams to work, the recipient will not only have to have an Apple ID, but it will have to be an iCloud account:
Friends and family with iCloud accounts can view your photos in the Photos app on any device using iOS 6 or later; on a Mac in iPhoto 9.4 or Aperture 3.4 or later; on a Windows PC with Windows Vista or later and iCloud Control Panel 2.0 or later installed; or on a second generation or later Apple TV with software version 5.1 or later installed. They can also view your photos on the web if you enable Public Website in the settings or options for your Shared Photo Stream.
Since you do not have an iCloud account and just and Apple ID, your friend can share the photo stream as a public website so that you can view it, as stated in the same article:
Can I share with people who don't have an iCloud account?
Yes. If you enable Public Website in the settings or options for your shared photo stream your photos will be published to a website that anyone can view in an up-to-date web browser.
To be able to change an Apple ID to an iCloud account, you would need an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 5 or later or a Mac with OS X Lion v10.7.4 or later as stated in the following article:
Creating an iCloud account: Frequently Asked Questions
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4436
Best,
Sheila M.

HT201077 Can I share all my photos with my wife without having to constantly add photos to the shared photo stream?

My family has an imac where we have a family photo library in iphoto. The iphoto library is under my wife's profile. My wife and I each have an iphone 4S. I'd like all the photos my wife and I take on our iphones to automatically upload to the iphoto library on my wife's imac account. I've tried a few different ways of doing this and none of them are ideal.
My current solution works, but has some unwanted side effects. Currently, my wife and I use the same main icloud account on our iphones. This would be the perfect solution if it didn't take up the same icloud storage (among other issues).
It'd be nice if you could have 2 photo streams linked to the same iphoto library on a mac. This way both my wife's photo stream and my photo stream would downloand to the same iphoto library. It doesn't appear that iphoto for mac allows this.
I realize I could do this the old fashioned way (outside of photo stream). But, it seems as though there should be a solution that works automatically.
Could there be a solution creating a shared photo stream on my iphone and sharing this photo stream with my wife? I've looked into this but can't see how it would work automatically. It looks like you have to manually add photos to a shared photo stream. I'd like the shared photo stream to update itself to include all photos I take.
Does anybody have a simple solution for this problem?

There is not (yet) an easy solution to use an an iPhoto library with two separate My Photo streams.
It might be easier to take the family photo library out of your wife's account and move it to a shared location, so boh of you can maintain it, see:
iPhoto: Sharing libraries among multiple users
This way, both of you could download automatically to My Photo Straem and your private iPhoto Libary, remove the worst pictures, and then export only the best shots to the shared library. This will make the shared library smaller and at the same time create a backup of the best pictures, and it will ensure that your family will never see a potentially embarrassing photo. Sharing My Photo Stream is really dangerous, because each and any picture you take will be added the PhotoStream, before you can delete it.
As you may have seen at Apple's WWDC keynote presentation the new MacOS X Maverick will bring more sharing options for Photo Streams: Watch the keynote
You may want to wait for the next software generation before doing any major reorgansition.
Regards
Léonie

How do I create a shared photo stream?

I see discussions regarding shared photo streams - all pertaining to issues with existing shared photo streams. I don't see anything that provides instructions on how to create a shared photo stream. How is this accomplished? And how do I allow someone access to my shared photo stream?

If you're creating it from iPhoto on your Mac this screenshot describes how;
OT

HT201077 Shared Photo Streams do not upload full sized photos!

Oh boy, so it seems that Apple's "optimized for your device" policy with photos has reared its ugly head again (PLEASE, just give us an option for optimizing the size or leaving it the original size like you do for compressing songs to 128kps on our devices!!!!)! The addition of Shared Photo Streams seemed a godsend to me, as prior to iOS 6, my wife's iPhone was stuck in this iCloud ID ghetto, where her device's main account was mine so that we shared the same Photo Stream. This way, when I went into Aperture on the Mac to process and import photos to our home library, all of our mobile pictures were in one place. This came with the consequence that the other "main" iCloud features, such as (inexplicably) Safari syncing, were unusable to her as they were from my personal settings. So once shared Photo Streams came about, I thought "Perfect! Now I can just share all of my photos to her iCloud ID, and then all of our combined pictures will show up in Aperture!" The problem is that, when I looked at the pictures on the Mac from the shared photo stream, they only were available at the "optimized" 3 megapixel resolution for iPhone, not the original 8 megapixel pictures are the photos from the main iCloud ID ones are. This is a huge deal for two reasons, 1. I can't import and process these pictures for saving permanently they're more than HALF the original resolution, 2. Anyone that I share photos to, friends, family, who want to maybe save those to their computer for printing and whatnot, are ALSO stuck with a halfbaked low resolution file!
I did have the a-ha idea, that perhaps if I shared photos from Aperture on my mac to my wife's Photo Stream, perhaps it would then share the full resolution photo as that's what Aperture gets from iCloud's servers. Alas, no, still the shared photo stream only gets the compromised file. There has GOT to be a way for the full resolution pics to be shared, otherwise the service is nearly useless to me! As far as I knew, shared photostreams just link to the original files, so it's not like this will take up any more space on Apple's servers. If someone has a solution, let me know!
The only other solution is to allow the use of more than one Photostream account on a Mac with Aperture. I feel that this is a no-brainer, and a little silly. Either you provide family style iCloud accounts for uses like Photo Stream, or you accept that every iOS user in a family will have their own Photo Stream. This means that they need to be able to be accessed on the same family computer.

I have this same issue except with iPhoto. We each have our own computers and I thought the shared photostream would allow us to each have all the photos, but they aren't full sized.

Is there a way to not have photo stream photos save to my iphone? i have many shared photo streams hoping to not bog down my iphone space. but alas the photos are are being saved on my iphone.

Is there a way to not have photo stream photos save to my iphone? i have many shared photo streams hoping to not bog down my iphone space. but alas the photos are are being saved on my iphone.
For example. When I share a photo stream with my dad and brother and mother all the photos they are putting in the shared photo stream are taking up space on my iphone! I'll be out of space in no time at this rate.

hi, this thread already deals with the issue:
How can I prevent getting calls from number that are not in my address book?

I have iCloud set up fine on Windows 8 and it pulls shared photo streaming great, The problem is that in My Photo Stream folder the photos doesn't charge automatically and is empty, how can I do?

I have iCloud set up fine on Windows 8 and it pulls shared photo streaming great, The problem is that in My Photo Stream folder the photos doesn't charge automatically and is empty, how can I do?

Hey appleIC!
Here is an article that will help you troubleshoot this issue:
iCloud: My Photo Stream troubleshooting
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts3989
Take care, and thanks for visiting the Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Braden

Windows 8.1 64 bit laptop will not let me accept an invite to a shared photo stream

I have downloaded and installed the uCloud Control Panel and made sure that Photos is ticked. I try to accept an invitation to view a shared photo stream but I get a message saying that it cannot be found. I know that this stream is still shared. Is it a 64 bit problem

Hi valeriefrompudsey,
Welcome to the Support Communities!
The article below may be able to help you with this issue.
Click on the link to see more details and screenshots.
iCloud: Troubleshooting iCloud Photo Sharing and Shared Photo Streams
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4379?viewlocale=en_US
Cheers,
- Judy

Shared Photo Streams not appearing in iPhoto.

I have a few Photo Streams that were recently shared with me. I can access them fine on my iPhone. When I am on my MacBook Air however, these Photo Stream folders are no where to be found.
I followed this article: http://support.apple.com/kb/ts3989 and more specifically double checked these instructions:
I don't see any photos or shared photo streams in the Photo Stream view of iPhoto or Aperture.
Check the following:
From your Mac, choose System Preferences > iCloud, and make sure the Photo Stream checkbox is enabled.
Open iPhoto or Aperture, choose Preferences > Photo Stream.
If you are using iPhoto 9.4 or later, or Aperture 3.4 or later, make sure that both the My Photo Stream and Shared Photo Streams checkboxes are selected. If you'd like all new photos that you've uploaded to your iPhoto or Aperture library to be uploaded to My Photo Stream, make sure that the Automatic Upload checkbox is selected as well.
If you are using iPhoto 9.2.2 through 9.3.2, or Aperture 3.2.3 through 3.3.2, make sure that Enable Photo Stream and Automatic Import are selected.
Make sure your Mac has an an active Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection.
Everything was set up as suggested above.
My Macbook is on iPhoto 9.2.3, with OS 10.7.5
My iPhone is on 6.1.3
Additionally, when i view photos from a shared photo stream folder on my phone and then select to save one of the photos to my Camera roll, the photo is still not syncing to my Photo stream on the Mac.
Any ideas?
Thanks

Larry,
Having a similar issue as the one described by kmacd... I'm trying to set up Shared Photo Streams between my MacBook Pro (Late 2009 13") and my iPhone 4, to essentially use them as streaming albums. Both devices are set up with iCloud with the same account, and both have all settings enabled for Shared Photo Streams, as I can create and modify streams in both. The problem is that when I create a new stream on one, it never shows up on the other! I never receive an invite, which I assume I wouldn't since it's all the same account. Just not sure why the Shared Streams don't sync over multiple devices when the normal My Photo Stream works perfectly fine. Any thoughts?? Thanks!
Hardware/Software Specs:
MacBook Pro 5,5 (Late 2009 13")
OS X Mavericks 10.9.1
iPhoto v9.5.1 (902.17)
Aperture 3.5.1
iPhone 4iOS 7.0.4
Note: I am currently in the process of downloading iPhoto 2.0 for iOS to see if there's any way to access the streams through that. Figured it's worth a shot!!

Shared photo stream not updating on ipad ios 7.1?

I have an iphone 4 and an ipad mini both on ios 7.1
I use them interchangeably to look at or add to shared photo streams. They have both worked great for some time although today the ipad is not showing about 30 photos/videos. An example is out of about 1300 pictures 30 of them were posted yesterday that are NOT visible on my ipad. They are however visible on my iphone. I can add NEW photos to the stream from either device and the other device updates accordingly but for some reason those 30 or so pictures will NOT show up on my ipad. What am I missing?

Hi Danelmanperry,
If you are having issues or inconsistencies with your Shared Photo Stream, you may find the troubleshooting in the following article helpful:
iCloud: Troubleshooting iCloud Photo Sharing and Shared Photo Streams
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts4379
Regards,
- Brenden

Shared Photo Streams - Some Pictures Will Just Not Share

I am using Aperture to create Shared Photo Streams.
I have created 20 or so Shared Photo Streams, many of which work as advertised.
But I have a couple of situations where certain photos just refuse to get shared in to any Shared Photo Stream.
I discovered the issue when I noticed that for a couple of my Shared Photo Streams, the count of the Share Photo Stream was not the same as the number of pictures selected.
When I started investigating, I realized that there are certain photos that simply will not appear in any Shared Photo Stream. I can't see any difference between these photos and the ones in the same album that share fine.
I have reparied the database and repaired permissions, neither helped.
Is anyone else seeing this?
Suggestions?
Best,
Robert

Quick update on this.
I tried sharing a couple of the problematic photos the next stay and still no luck.
Last night I tried again hoping that the bugs were more on the backend than in Aperture itself and lo and behold I was able to successfully share all the photos I wanted.
So that this point everything is working as expected.
I guess chalk this one up to growing pains of a new service.
All in all, Shared Photostreams are very nice.
-Robert

Shared photo stream quality issue

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