How To Get iCloud’s Photo Stream Working On A Windows PC
Now that you’ve downloaded iOS 5 to your iPad (well, hopefully…) you can sign up for an iCloud account and start syncing and backing up your data across devices. This includes Photo Stream, which automatically saves all the pictures you take on your iPad or iPhone to the cloud and to synced devices.
Though iCloud functionality is baked in to Mac OS X Lion, Windows users can get in on this, too (for free). Here’s how.
(Have a Mac? Read: How to Setup iCloud’s Photo Stream on Mac)
My first assumption was that iTunes would handle the syncing for iCloud, but that’s not so. Windows users must download the iCloud Control Panel, a free utility compatible with Windows Vista (Service Pack 2) and Windows 7.
The download page also lists Internet Explorer 8 and Outlook 2007 or newer as requirements, but that’s only if you want to sync bookmarks or mail/contacts/calendar data. You don’t need them if you just want Photo Stream.
While it’s downloading and installing, go to your iPad and/or iPhone and ensure that Photo Stream is on.
Once the iCloud Control Panel is downloaded and installed, open it from the install finish menu or go to Control Panel > Network and Internet > iCloud to get to the settings.
Check the box next to Photo Stream, then click Options. Here you’ll see where synced images will end up and where you can put images to upload to iCloud and any other connected devices. You can change it from the default — say if you want to sync all the images in your Pictures folder.
And that’s it. Once you start adding images to the folder for uploads, you’ll see them on other iCloud devices a few minutes later. When you take pictures or screenshots with the iPhone or iPad, they’ll also appear on other devices in a few minutes (as long as you’re connected to WiFi).
There does not appear to be a way to force iCloud to upload or refresh or anything on the PC. But you can go to the iCloud settings to jumpstart a backup on the phone or tablet.
Photo Stream Album on the iPad
My Photo Stream folder on Windows 7
Another note: Photo Stream will only sync the images taken on your iPhone or iPad after you set it up and turn it on. So if you have existing images, they won’t sync.
I find it interesting that Windows users can get this utility for free. Whereas on the Mac, in order to get iCloud syncing you have to upgrade to OS X Lion, which costs $30. One of the few times PCs get the advantage over Macs with iDevices.
hi , when i take photos with my iphone 4s the pics go straight to my camara roll and not to my photo stream i have checked all the settings and every thing is turned on HELP !
Hey Tonym65, normally when your iPhone is connected to whichever WiFi network and you get iCloud correctly setup, the pics go into the Stream…which is valid for any i-device,, but of course first the pics have to go from the iPhone to the cloud. hope this helps. Michel
old photos wont be uploaded?
[...] was trying to find out how to view the pictures taken on my ipad and found this great tutorial. Apple’s iCloud service syncs across all of you Apple devices. Well I’m a [...]
[...] Click here for step-by-step instructions for Windows PC setup [...]
I was exactly looking for this. Thank you so much. Hope it works :) let’s do it!
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Another note: Photo Stream will only sync the images taken on your iPhone or iPad after you set it up and turn it on. So if you have existing images, they won’t sync.’
All of my old photo’s synced up perfectly from my NEW iPad to Windows 7 :)
I am using Windows 7. Had the same problem. I create the exact same folders under Public Pictures. And I changed the icloud control panel settings. Now it is working.
HI I’m new to the iPad I have W7 on my laptop and have downloaded and installed iCloud for PC I tried to see if the idea worked by dropping some photos into the upload folder, when I then tried to see if they appeared on my iPad2 nothing there! What am I doing wrong?
worked great, thanks!
worked great, thanks!
[...] Since I’m using Windows, I’m stuck with a generic folder (“Pictures” on Windows 7) where we throw in all sorts of pictures into it without the simplicity and powerful tricks I came to know of with iPhoto on a Mac. In other words, it’s a dumb folder that stores pics. Learn how to manage Photo Stream here. [...]
This is why PC Fails.
This is why pc fails? Why, because it isn’t a mac? Have you ever realised you can “add” a folder to your pictures folder and actually catalogue your photos (or is this too much like hard work for the hard pushed apple fanboys). Lets face it apples idea of multitasking on the iphone and ipad are “close” an app to use another app! Even my nokia phone i could have several apps open and switch between knowing that when they came back on screen they were STILL open and i wont even start on about apples idea of no java!! Have i used a mac?….yes, did i like it? …no! horses for courses and each to their own.
Actually, the free utility requires Vista or above, so XP users are left in the dark… I have problems downloading my photos with the “USB camera” connection (all other cameras appear as a USB drive…. arg).. but that’s because my camera roll contains screen caps and video files unsupported by the photo apps.
So I just leave those photos in the phone…. and share on facebook those significant ones..