11 features I wish iCloud Photos had
In this opinion piece, I talk about things I don’t like about iCloud Photos and potential new features that would improve my experience many times over. While I appreciate that iCloud Photos is a seamless, activate-once, use-forever background feature (of course, until you run out of iCloud space), it still misses a few things I…
In this opinion piece, I talk about things I don’t like about iCloud Photos and potential new features that would improve my experience many times over.
While I appreciate that iCloud Photos is a seamless, activate-once, use-forever background feature (of course, until you run out of iCloud space), it still misses a few things I think Apple should add in future updates.
Here’s a list of gripes I have with iCloud Photos, along with some feature requests.
Option to keep some photos offline on the device
Unlike the Apple Notes app, which lets me have a local, on-device folder for offline notes, the iOS Photos app doesn’t. This is annoying, to say the least, because there are times when I take a screenshot and wish it were saved only to my iPhone, not pushed to my iPad or Mac.
One way to prevent immediate upload to iCloud Photos is to enable Low Power Mode to suspend iCloud sync temporarily, but that’s not a proper solution, since Low Power Mode comes with compromises like downgrading from a 120Hz smooth ProMotion display to 60Hz, and slowing down the device significantly.
For now, I’m choosing to store these items in the Files app, but it’s not as intuitive for visual media as the Photos app. So, I hope Apple adds an offline local feature to the Photos app sometime in the near future. Otherwise, people will have to keep relying on third-party photo locking apps.
Ability to delete a photo only from a particular device
iCloud Photos is a syncing service, which I understand. Still, there are situations where I want to delete a photo from my iPhone but keep it saved to iCloud and my Mac for the future. If Apple wants, it’s an easy thing to implement.
Create locked folders with a custom password
The Photos app supports iOS’s native app locking, but it locks the entire app, which raises more suspicion with people like family members who may also use the device occasionally.
Then there is a hidden folder that’s locked, but only via Face ID, Touch ID, or the device passcode, which isn’t a barrier for close people like a spouse who already knows the passcode or is added to Face ID as an alternate appearance.
So, like the Apple Notes app that lets us lock notes with a custom password instead of the device password, I hope a future version of the Photos app does the same. Or, even better, let us lock certain albums or album folders with different custom passwords for a true vault like experience.
Stop enabling it by default!
I talked about this in my list of 19 things I dislike about Apple. So, keeping it brief here.
I have heard from multiple new iPhone users who get surprised by the “iCloud storage full” banner. And in nearly all cases, it’s either iCloud Photos or device backups – both of which Apple enables by default, while still giving just 5 GB of free space!
So, instead of asking them to increase the 5 GB limit (that has stayed the same since 2011), I just want Apple to give users the option to disable iCloud Photos and device backup options when setting up their new phone, instead of turning it on without telling them and then surprising them with an ‘iCloud storage full’ message a couple of weeks later!
Extra info: iOS lets you exclude certain apps from iCloud device backup to keep the backup size small. But you can’t exclude apps until you have a full backup. And you can’t have a full backup in most cases if you’re on the 5 GB plan or have limited iCloud space available!
Multiple account option
The thing I love about Google Photos is multi-account support. Just by tapping the profile icon, I can select another Google account or add a new one and see the items saved there. iCloud Photos offers no such effortless option.
Choice to exclude screenshots from iCloud Photos
I would love an “Exclude Screenshots from iCloud Photos” toggle in Settings > General > Screen Capture, or an “Exclude Screenshots” toggle in Settings > iCloud > Photos, with an option to override on a per-item basis.
Most of the screenshots I take on my devices are for temporary use. Seeing them uploaded to iCloud Photos and syncing to my Mac and iPad is annoying. That said, a few screenshots are worth saving for the future, and for that, I should be able to swipe up on them or select multiple and tap Upload to iCloud.
Android app
Apple Music and TV are already available on Android, so why not Apple Photos? It would be nice to access iCloud Photos in a native Android app, instead of a mobile browser.
Plus, iCloud Photos show up inside the Microsoft Photos app on Windows PC; a dedicated Apple Photos app would be better.
Easy option to select and download all photos and videos from iCloud web and iPhone
iCloud Photos functions as a sync service, meaning that if I sign in with my Apple Account on a new iPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro, or Windows PC, it fetches all my photos from the cloud and shows them there. I can also log in to my account in a web browser to access all photos.
However, when it comes to downloading them all to take with me, iCloud.com only lets me select up to 1000 photos at a time. And even if I select 1000 and download them, there is no way to tell in the library view that those 1000 have already been downloaded, so I have to guess before selecting and downloading the next 1000.
Next, I can instruct my iPhone to download all original quality photos and videos from iCloud locally to the app, but it doesn’t offer a Select All button (more on it below) to mark them all and export them elsewhere.
This leaves me with just two options:
- If I have a Mac (which I do), I can have it download all originals to the Photos app and then export them all to Finder or an external drive (it’s a slow process). Or, copy the entire Photos Library.photoslibrary file to an external disk (but this library file will only open on a Mac, not a Windows PC or elsewhere).
- The second option is to download all iCloud Photos in one go, which involves requesting Apple for my Photos archive data. But this can take up to a week!
Select All button in the iOS Photos app
This isn’t a flaw of iCloud Photos, but rather the iOS Photos app. Still, I think it’s related, so I have included it here.
I don’t understand why the Library section of the iPhone Photos app doesn’t have a Select All button! I’m sure the powerful A20 Pro chip can handle basic delete, share, or export actions on several thousand photos in one go. Plus, iPadOS and iOS now also have better background task management, so even big exports shouldn’t be an issue.
I really hope Apple adds a Select All button to the Library view, but until then, you can tap the top of the screen to scroll to the beginning of the library and use a two-finger swipe gesture to select them faster than a single-tap gesture.
Note: Albums inside the iOS Photos app do have a Select All button.
Force a refresh on iOS or Mac
Tapping the profile icon at the top of the Collections tab in the iOS Photos app shows the upload status, and I can even pause or resume it if it has been paused to save battery. Additionally, iOS 27 has a Sync Immediately feature, which you can enable for the day to prioritize syncing photos on this device to the cloud.
All this is fine.
But I have still noticed many times that new photos I add on my Mac aren’t synced to my iPhone immediately, and I have no way to force this. I’m at the mercy of the iOS Photos app to sync it. And if that doesn’t happen within a reasonable time frame, I log into iCloud Photos in a web browser to ensure the new items have uploaded from my Mac. Then I do things like force-quitting and reopening the Photos app like a maniac, restarting the device, etc., and hope the photo syncs. I wish Apple would add a simple refresh button (like Safari) in the Photos app to force-fetch new iCloud Photos.
Option to temporarily skip certain large files
Video (or photo) size isn’t shown during uploads, and there is no option to skip one. If several items are syncing, I would like to see them all on a clear screen, along with their sizes, and be able to skip the (large) ones to be uploaded later.
What improvements do you want for iCloud Photos?
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