iCloud Photos in iCloud - managing a family

[chadbillington]

Okay, I'm trying to figure out what to do. I'm a dad with a full Apple Family (my wife and 4 kids).

I got my children iCloud accounts because I like the privacy of Apple Mail (no ads, and google not snooping on them from their youth).

The problem is iCloud mail stops working when I each of them hit 5 GB, and photos fill that up fast. I was paying for 200 GB iCloud+, but I've been trying to cut costs and don't want it. When I cut iCloud+, my 2 older kids 50GB photo libraries filled their 5 GB quota and their email quit.

My 2 older kids each have an iPhone, and an older MacBook Air. I'd like to clear out their online iCloud Photos but don't want to lose what is on their phones / computers. (And I'd eventually like them to be able to sync them to their devices the old fashioned way, manually with a cable).

I just find it hard to figure out how to do this step by step, and I'm not normally a tech slouch. I just seem to find all the nuances of iCloud Photos hard to work out in my head.

Thought I'd ask for help, I'm sure I'm not the only person who has had to deal with this problem.

 

[aajeevlin]

Assuming you have enough offline storage.

You can say log into Kids A, icloud with their computer and do Photos sync photos and download original (this should pull EVERYTHING that is in their icloud online photos/videos), do the same for the other kids you can just make another account on the Mac laptop and pull all the photos off. This will ensure that you have gotten all the photos that they have stored online, then the ones from iPhone (or any other device can be easily download using Photos app on the laptop).

I will caution you doing this way, saving photos on the phone directly or as the only source is not a good way to go about this, if the phone is destroyed or if you lost the phone all of your photos/videos are gone. I'd suggestion if financially allow, you can consider getting larger stores say the 2TB (it will cost you ~$120 a year). If money is not that much of an issue, I'd honestly recommend just pay the $120, put them under your icloud fmaily account and everyone can share the 2TB going forward.