iCloud.com Photos App Gains New Uploading Capabilities - MacRumors
Skip to Content

iCloud.com Photos App Gains New Uploading Capabilities

by

Following two weeks of testing on the iCloud beta site for developers, the consumer-facing iCloud.com site has gained support for uploading images to iCloud Photo Library (via iFun.de [Google Translate]).

Before the addition of the new uploading tool, the standard iCloud.com site allowed users to view all of their iCloud Photo Library images, as well as download and delete them, but it did not have a tool to allow users to upload photos captured with non-Apple devices.

icloudbetasiteuploadtool

New toolbar with upload support on iCloud.com site at top, previous iCloud.com toolbar on bottom

The new uploading feature on the iCloud.com site makes it possible to upload JPGs, but as with the beta feature, other image and video formats like .PNG, .MOV, .AVI, .MP4, and more are not supported. When a file is uploaded to the site, it syncs instantly to all of a user's iOS devices, much like a photo taken on an iPhone or iPad or added to iCloud Photo Library via the iOS Photos app.

Currently in beta and introduced alongside iOS 8.1, iCloud Photo Library stores all of the photos and videos that a user takes in iCloud, making them available on all iOS devices and Macs. iCloud Photo Library images can be viewed in the Photos app on iOS or through iCloud.com on the Mac, and the upcoming Photos app that Apple is creating for Macs will also work with iCloud Photo Library.

Users should be aware that photos uploaded to iCloud Photo Library use iCloud storage space. Apple offers 5GB of storage space for free, with additional plans ranging from $0.99 for 20GB of storage space to $19.99 for 1TB of storage space.

Popular Stories

Apple Event Logo

Apple to Release These 15 New Products Later This Year

Friday June 12, 2026 7:45 am PDT by
Apple's annual WWDC developers conference is drawing to a close, but there is still a lot to look forward to in the second half of the year. Apple is expected to release at least 15 more products later this year. Now that the more intelligent and personal version of Siri has finally arrived in beta, a full two years after Apple first previewed it at WWDC 2024, we should begin to see some new ...
Read Full Article • 48 comments
iCloud iPhone 17 Pro

iPhone Users Who Pay for iCloud Storage Get Two New Perks on iOS 27

Tuesday June 9, 2026 11:29 am PDT by
If you pay for extra iCloud storage on your iPhone, beyond the 5GB included for free, you might receive two more perks on iOS 27 at no additional cost. First, Apple said there will be daily usage limits for some of the new and enhanced Apple Intelligence features on iOS 27, including image generation. However, the company noted that "increased access" is available with "most" iCloud+ storage ...
Read Full Article
Chase Sapphire Reserve Apple Perk Feature

Chase Sapphire Preferred Card Introduces New Perk for Apple Customers

Monday June 15, 2026 12:07 pm PDT by
Chase this week announced new perks for its Sapphire Preferred credit card, and one of them is a complimentary one-year Apple TV streaming subscription. To get the free year of Apple TV, which typically costs $12.99 per month in the U.S., you must activate the card by December 31, 2026. If you are already subscribed to Apple TV directly through Apple, the complimentary subscription from...
Read Full Article • 39 comments

Top Rated Comments

I
iphone495
151 months ago
Still waiting for the new Photos app.

----------

Jennifer Lawrence can't say the same.

Sorry, I had to say it.

Any update to iCloud is a good one. In the last few weeks I've looked into using it more due to its security.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
P
proline
151 months ago
Where is the Photos app for OSX??? :eek:
In 2015, right where you were told it was.

----------

WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY must you force syncing photos to all devices?!?!?
I don't want all my devices to have all the exact same content on them.

The whole point of storing my photos in iCloud Photo should be to NOT HAVE TO STORE them on my mobile devices and free up space.

I want to store photos in iCloud and then be able to access them from my phone or tablet through a browser or app when I want, and then choose whether or not I would like to upload chosen photos to be stored on the device that I want.

iCloud Drive is a joke as well, and from the beginning was incredibly misleading as to how it functions, especially with the photos of the iCloud main folder screen shown on the iPhone.
I asked an apple employee how to access that screen on my iPhone and none of them could figure out how...... because, you can't.

It is not at all a true "cloud storage drive" à la drop box, google drive, etc with direct folder/file access and customization to stored content.
Only specific apps can access / use it.

Why not create a native "iCloud app" to access / manage etc.. iCloud content?

Apple's got this all wrong IMO.
You are incredibly ignorant, please stop talking about this. iCloud photos requires zero local storage to display your entire library, and uses local storage to cache photos only when free local storage is available. Turn on the 'optimize local storage' and grow up. Nobody needs to delete photos from iCloud to free up device space.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
L
luchid
151 months ago
So the choice is degradated copies of everything or original copies of everything? :eek:



That's just not going to work for a lot of people.
As soon as you view an image it is downloaded in full quality. So you're wrong.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
M
metfuel
151 months ago

The whole point of storing my photos in iCloud Photo should be to NOT HAVE TO STORE them on my mobile devices and free up space.

That is what I thought as well, but I have heard more than one person talk about freeing up the storage on your devices using iCloud Photos and they seem to think that your devices will have lower res thumbnails (even though iCloud will have the full resolution picture) and when when you access the thumbnails it will load the full resolution picture. Not sure if that is what they plan on doing but it would make sense.


I have some deeper concerns about switching over to iCloud Photos.

I do not want ALL of my pictures automatically uploaded. I just don't. There are times I save pictures from safari for one off uses, screenshots that I take.

I have all of my family's pictures in an iPhoto library right now and every so often I offload the pictures that are family related only onto my mac and use an automator workflow to tag the file names with the date created and who is in the picture. Then I import them to iPhoto where they live. This is the library that I would want to access anytime and anywhere. If I am automatically uploading pictures straight to iCloud I am junking up my family photo album with all kinds of stuff, and we have no idea how the metadata is handled.

I wish that they would make a separate "camera roll" for screenshots, and the same goes for saved safari (or insert app name here) pictures that would not be automatically included in this.

This is a huge change and they should at least start detailing how the conversion from iPhoto/Aperture is going to happen to Photos for people who have years invested in organizing their photos in Apples ecosystem. It is absolutely insane to me that they aren't coming out with these at the same time (for iOS and the Mac), yes I am the guy you previous posts were talking about. The release of iOS 8 and iCloud Drive separate from Yosemite screwed enough people over and I am sure there are people who don't know what they are doing will turn this on iOS 8 first and then when they turn it on their computer they will have all kinds of duplicates from having imported the pictures from their camera roll and never deleting it off of their phone.

I have used iPhoto since it was introduced and have multiple libraries. I understand that iPhoto will be able to be used for awhile but eventually everything will have to be migrated out of iPhoto to be used either in Photos or an Alternative like Lightroom. I would like to continue to use Apple's software, but I will have to wait on this to see how much of a disaster or how well it goes.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
topherdesign Avatar
topherdesign
151 months ago
no sense at all

WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY must you force syncing photos to all devices?!?!?
I don't want all my devices to have all the exact same content on them.

The whole point of storing my photos in iCloud Photo should be to NOT HAVE TO STORE them on my mobile devices and free up space.

I want to store photos in iCloud and then be able to access them from my phone or tablet through a browser or app when I want, and then choose whether or not I would like to upload chosen photos to be stored on the device that I want.

iCloud Drive is a joke as well, and from the beginning was incredibly misleading as to how it functions, especially with the photos of the iCloud main folder screen shown on the iPhone.
I asked an apple employee how to access that screen on my iPhone and none of them could figure out how...... because, you can't.

It is not at all a true "cloud storage drive" à la drop box, google drive, etc with direct folder/file access and customization to stored content.
Only specific apps can access / use it.

Why not create a native "iCloud app" to access / manage etc.. iCloud content?

Apple's got this all wrong IMO.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
M
MacVault
151 months ago
Asside from its feature-vacuum, here's (https://www.icloud.com/#photos) what I hate about iCloud...

To use Photos, go to iCloud Settings on your iOS device, tap on Photos, and turn on iCloud Photo Library.

I love Macs and iOS devices but I refuse to be locked to a certain device or platform. I refuse to use services which don't utilize all the AMAZING web app goodness available.

Why, with Apple's resources, is iCloud such a joke?
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments