ICloud – Subscribing to a Photo Stream in iPhoto 11

icloudiphotophoto-stream

I've been struggling to view photos from a subscribed photostream in iPhoto 11.
I'm running OS X 10.7.5 and iPhoto 11 9.4.3 and I've been following this guide:

To subscribe to a shared photo stream:
To subscribe to a shared photo stream, all you have to do is accept the invitation. Invitations to a shared photo stream are sent by email and notifications.

In the Source list, select Photo Stream.

In the lower portion of Photo Stream view, move the pointer over the shared photo stream’s key photo, and then click the Accept button.

If you don’t want to subscribe to the shared photo stream, click the Decline button.

Photo Stream invitation buttons
Shared photo streams that you subscribe to appear in the lower portion of Photo Stream view. A blue dot next to the shared photo stream’s name indicates that new photos have been added to the photo stream or new comments have been added to one of its photos. In addition, a number appears above the iPhoto icon in the Dock to indicate that new photos and comments have been shared with you.

I don't have a lower portion of the screen.

I've checked with multiple Photo Streams but nothing show's up. How do I regain my lower portion?

Best Answer

Edit: I failed to notice that the poster is on OS X 10.7.5, and Shared Photo Streams require OS X 10.8.2 or later. Therefore it will not work unless the OS is updated. I am leaving the below answer for others to reference.

The lower portion of the screen is the section under "Family and Friends' Photos". It's just lower than the "My Photos" section.

Assuming you're already subscribed to the other person's Photo Stream, you would just double-click on the shared stream to open it and view photos.

iPhoto showing the Photo Stream source

If nothing appears here for you, ensure that you have Photo Stream turned on in iCloud settings. Go to Applications > System Preferences and click on iCloud. Check the box for Photo Stream. Click the Options button and check box boxes on this screen.

System Preferences, iCloud pane, Photo Stream Options

To turn Photo Stream on, go to iPhoto menu > Preferences and click on the Photo Stream tab. Check all applicable boxes.

iPhoto Preferences showing the Photo Stream tab

Related Solutions

How to force iPhoto to download new photos in the Photo Stream

I have found a better way. One that doesn't involve resync'ing the entire stream.

Quit iPhoto
Open up Activity Monitor
In the search field enter: photostreamagent
Select all the PhotoStreamAgent processes listed
Click the Quit Process button
In the confirmation dialog that pops up click the Quit button
Confirm that all the PhotoStreamAgent processes are no longer alive by waiting for the Activity Monitor window to show no processes with that name
Re-start iPhoto

When you restart iPhoto it will re-start the PhotoStreamAgent process for your iPhoto session and kick off a new Photo Stream sync. You'll get your lastest pictures updated and you won't have to sit through a full re-sync of all your Photo Stream.

Activity Monitor

Update for Yosemite where the process name has changed to iCloud Photos. This is the what you want to kill:

Activity Monitor

Update for Yosemite 10.10.4 where the process name has changed to Photos Agent. This what you want to kill:

Activity Monitor

You can also do this, quickly, from the command line like so:

sudo pkill cloudphotosd
sudo killall cloudphotosd

Understanding Photo Stream

How Photo Stream Works

If you have Photo Stream enabled on both iPhone and iPhoto, any picture you take on iPhone is automatically uploaded to Photo Stream, and the automatically downloaded to iPhoto. iPhoto must be open for this to occur (but don't worry, the photos stay in Photo Stream for 30 days or until 1000 more pictures are taken, whichever comes first, so you don't have to have iPhoto running constantly).

Uploading Photos to Photo Stream

Photo Stream only uploads from iPhone while connected to WiFi. Occasionally a picture is missed, and as of now (August 2013) videos are never uploaded. There is no way to trigger an upload later if a photo fails to upload to Photo Stream. You can, however manually sync iPhone with iPhoto to sync videos as well as any missed photos.

Syncing iPhone with iPhoto Manually

Plug iPhone into your Mac then in iPhoto, click on your device in the left sidebar. There will be an Import button. It will automatically skip any photos previously imported from Photo Stream. Once imported you can choose whether to remove them from Camera Roll on the phone. If you do this, make sure you are syncing them back to iPhone in iTunes if you want them on the phone in albums.

Deleting Photos

Deleting from Photo Stream

When you delete a photo from Photo Stream, it removes it from Photo Stream entirely. If it was already downloaded into iPhoto it will remain there under the (MonthName Year) Photo Stream album, but not in Photo Stream itself.

Deleting from Camera Roll

When you delete a photo from Camera Roll it removes it from that area but does not delete it from Photo Stream.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

How to force iPhoto to download new photos in the Photo Stream

Understanding Photo Stream

How Photo Stream Works

Uploading Photos to Photo Stream

Deleting Photos

Related Question