Today I was just about to update firmware on my DJI Mini 3 Pro. And on my iPad Pro (256 GB) I was going to update to a new version of DJI Fly App. - BUT I can see in update comments for the Fly App for iPad that the Fly App album will disappear. And that all movies/photos will go directly to device album = Apple Photos.  This simply does not work for Apple users who have more than just one Apple device.

My Ipad Pro, My iPhone 13 Pro and three Macs and my wife's iPad Pro and iPhone 13 all use the same Apple-ID and therefore also the same Apple Photos.  On top of this there are our Time Machine backup from the two Macs to make matters even worse. Because the Time Machine backup will backup all those data TWICE as our Apple Photos are stored locally on both Macs.)

I use a 128 GB mini SD card in my drone. And by downloading into the DJI Fly App local album on my iPad (over local wifi) I can keep up to 128 GB raw movie/photos locally on the iPad. Then I can pick one movie at a time, edit it and then myself transfer it to Apple Photos. I can also review the raw stuff and delete what ought to be deleted.

But if/when all movies/photos automatically goes to the Apple Photos album on my iPad it will then automatically be synchronized to all our devices immediately. Because Apple Photos is designed to “synchronize” all photos and movies to iCloud and from there to all devices at once. Things do not stay “local” as they probably in all “Non-Apple” environments. And they cannot be made to stay local when you use Apple Photos and iCloud.

So in the extreme case I will get 128 GB synchronized via iCloud to 8 Apple devices and twice onto my Time Machine backup as well.

This places a tough burden on the need to pay for enough iCloud storage. And it can be hard on a data plan to synchronize up and down to all those devices for no good reason. - And if I then start editing and deleting, then all those changes also have to be synchronized to all devices.

I even have to make sure that there is enough free space on all those devices to handle up to 128 GB raw movies/photos. In a situation where our normal, total collection of movies/photos are a mere 76 GB. So our whole setup is simply not made to handle 128 GB extra on 8 devices.

Our setup is not unusual. It is how the Apple Eco System is designed to work and be used.

I cannot update to the newest DJI Fly App for this reason.  Apple users need some solution which can keep all those raw material local on my iPad. So I can work with it there and then transfer some of the results to Apple Photos. - I did not even plan to move all that stuff into Apple Photos. All those drone movies do not have to be on all devices, and certainly not without my control over how and when it happens.

About Apple Time Machine backup:  It does not work like other “backup solutions” either. So without the local album feature we really cannot use DJI Fly any more. - Time Machine (app) is the default way to take backups from a Mac. The backup is INCREMENTAL. That means that even if I delete something (like 128 GB drone movies) from my Mac it will still be in that backup. So I can go back later and retrieve some data which should never have been deleted. I can do that for any day/week/month/year as long as there is available space on the external harddisk And for any file. - Imagine how much backup space is required if just a few cases of 128 GB mini SD card data enters my Apple Eco system. - And in our situation all this will happen twice because we take a backup of both iMacs.

So, please, please give us the “local album” back in one way or another. The way it worked before this change was perfect.

Sounds like you need to setup individual accounts like apple intends and then use family sharing.

DAFlys Posted at 8-21 23:21
Sounds like you need to setup individual accounts like apple intends and then use family sharing.

We have used the one-Apple-ID approch since iCloud was invented. So several years before Family Sharing was invented. We share everytning (apps, data, music, photos, movies) via this Apple-ID on all devices including two Apple TV 4K boxes. Splitting It up is next to impossible.

Last week we had this wonderful "local folder" in the DJI Fly App. Now we don't. So for me it sounds like DJI should be so kind to give us this option back. They have the source code to do that, so a little bit of programming to make the continued use of "local folder" an option would not be a big thing to make.

Even if we imagine that we did split things up, it would not really undo the disaster. I personally use iPad 12.9" Pro, iPad 11" Pro, iPhone 13 Pro, iMac, MacBook Pro, an Apple TV 4K and an old iPhone 6S for external offline backup. And there would still be a Time Machine incremental backup from which it is impossible to remove data which are already there. No matter if they are deleted on the iMac. And there is also the iCloud problem. It will still be the same. Because all the drone data would still go from my iPad to iCloud (and take up space there) and then to all the devices I just listed.

So in my real life the situation is closer to sell my wonderful DJI Mini 3 Pro and move to another manufacturer. There are competing drones available in my region in the world.

There are sold 500 million iPads around the world. And there will be quite a lot of DJI Mini 3 Pro because of the 250 g rule. All over Europe this will have a huge effect on DJI sales. So we can expext a ton of Apple users with a problem like mine. Even if they use Family Sharing. The amount of data and the size of the disaster is the same.

Torben Ibsen Posted at 8-21 23:48
We have used the one-Apple-ID approch since iCloud was invented. So several years before Family Sharing was invented. We share everytning (apps, data, music, photos, movies) via this Apple-ID on all devices including two Apple TV 4K boxes. Splitting It up is next to impossible.

Last week we had this wonderful "local folder" in the DJI Fly App. Now we don't. So for me it sounds like DJI should be so kind to give us this option back. They have the source code to do that, so a little bit of programming to make the continued use of "local folder" an option would not be a big thing to make.

Apple never intended for account to be shared.

DAFlys Posted at 8-21 23:57
Apple never intended for account to be shared.

I made my post to ask DJI to return to the way their app worked last week. And only that.

Discussions about how to use Apple products, Apple apps and iCloud and how internal setup is in my household are much better held in forums for Apple stuff.

DAFlys Posted at 8-21 23:21
Sounds like you need to setup individual accounts like apple intends and then use family sharing.

This is not an Apple account setting issue, this is a significant behavior change that very negatively affects user experience on iOS. I have 3 devices (and use family sharing for other devices owned within the household) but would be just as upset at this new approach if I had just 1! I too used the app cache as local device repository so that my iCloud usage wouldn’t be burdened with raw footage. The app used to ask whether it should download full quality photos & videos to its cache, device album, or both. This was perfect & worked well for people in both camps. Can it be brought back, please?