iCloud vs iTunes; How to use iCloud to add photos from computer to iPhone instead of iTunes.

Few days ago I came across a situation where I needed to add some photos in my iPhone from my computer. Countless searches led me to iTunes. Now the thing with iTunes is that its great for downloading files or music but with the images, backup (Read how to backup—HERE) and all the important stuff it starts acting up. The worst thing is that you need to turn OFF your iCloud photo library meaning, your pictures stop backing up to your iCloud for long term access and the pictures that are already in the iCloud won't show up in your camera roll. 

Now with icloud, everything is easy peasy lemon squeazy. You can add photos to your phone just by adding them to your icloud account. You can do this by accessing your iCloud account via www.icloud.com. Next, you need to enter your iCloud ID and go to "photos".

Then click on the upload button on the far right and select the pictures you want to add to your phone.

After some time (Note: it may take a day too, considering your wifi connectivity etc) you will realize those photos show up in your camera roll as well. iCloud is also great with backup since you don't have to manually backup like iTunes if you have the backup option in the iCloud turned on. Which you can either turn on through your phone or iCloud desktop app. Check our article on backu—HERE.

latest iPhones also give an option to optimize the storage by storing a low version of your photos in camera roll provided those photos are present in your iCloud photo library as well. By doing this, the image size in camera roll decreases and automatically takes up less storage than the full image version. This is also possible by enabling iCLOUD photo library -- BUT the caveat is that you need to load the images each time you are to view them or send them to someone. Which is still better than getting worked up on low storage each time you are saving a picture or downloading a new app.

Data Transfer to new ios device: iCloud saves you from transferring your old data from scratch to your new deivce (compatibly, an ios device). All you have to do is sign in to your iCloud account on your new device and voila, all your data stored in iCloud from the previous ios device will upload on your new one. In the meantime, iTunes makes you manually do all that which is frustrating and time consuming.