SkyDrive

[x SD Plissken x]

Under settings, application, photos+camera, I have enabled the auto upload feature under SkyDrive.
When I take a picture, it does not upload automatically. Uploading manually works just fine. Is there something else that needs to be done for this to work?

 

[12Danny123]

it usually takes time to load up to skydrive. Same with every other cloud service

 

[x SD Plissken x]

Thanks for the reply.
I am not sure what the allotted time would be, but I have to guess that it would be less than two hours, especially since I can upload manually in a few seconds.

 

[DaveSC]

Honestly the skydrive sync is a bit slower than you would expect it to be. I think they have some work to do there as other image sync services seem to outperform it including both Dropbox and Google+. Having said that I still prefer skydrive.

FYI: I have noticed that opening the actual skydrive app on the phone seems to speed up the process.

 

[nathanb131]

I think the default setting is to upload over WiFi, not cell data. Could that be your issue?

 

[x SD Plissken x]

I guess I'll wait until tomorrow to see if it works. Manually works just fine, but it would nice if this can be done in case I forget.

 

[x SD Plissken x]

I think the default setting is to upload over WiFi, not cell data. Could that be your issue?

I am on WiFi right now.

 

[nathanb131]

I am on WiFi right now.

Strange. I've never paid attention to how fast it goes. Always seems to be within the same day (assuming I was in WiFi at least once).

Have you looked at your photo hub right after taking a pic to see if it shows that 'x uploads waiting' note at the bottom of your album list? I wonder if that still shows for you while on WiFi and therefore maybe there's some other setting that determines aggressiveness of WiFi syncing?

I really like the download pending status indicators in photos/store/music hubs while on cell data. It reminds me of how much more data considerate wp8 is with data compared to android.

Hope you can get to the root of this. You shouldn't have to sync manually while on WiFi!

 

[x SD Plissken x]

Have you looked at your photo hub right after taking a pic to see if it shows that 'x uploads waiting' note at the bottom of your album list? I wonder if that still shows for you while on WiFi and therefore maybe there's some other setting that determines aggressiveness of WiFi syncing?

I appreciate the assistance here.
I just took another pic to verify...There is no indication of a pending sync.
EDIT: Further investigation shows that the pic shows up on the SkyDrive album on the phone. However, it never shows up on the PC even with a refresh. All the pics that I manually upload are there with the green check.

 

[nathanb131]

I'm sure you've checked this, but just to verify:

When in photo room I select 'settings' in the '...' menu (which is same as photos/camera settings from elsewhere), then after some checkboxes I see an 'auto upload' section with 'skydrive: turned on' under it. Popping that open shows the options. I have 'best quality: needs WiFi' chosen.

 

[x SD Plissken x]

Yup, that is what I have.

 

[GreenScrew]

On the PC side, your looking in \Pictures\Camera Roll? If so and they are not there, check your skydrive online using your browser to find out exactly where the sync process is.... are the photos only on your phone or on your phone and online but just not synchronized down to the PC? The problem could be on the PC side...

<edit>
I just verified that if by "manual upload" you're referring to browsing your camera roll (or other pictures) and in the app list choosing to "save to Skydrive" it will save to the \Mobile uploads folder whereas the automatically synchronized photos will be saved to \Pictures\Camera Roll. Seems plausible to me that this different storage location could be the source of what you're seeing.

 

[x SD Plissken x]

I do not have Camera Roll on the PC side. The manually uploaded pics go to \SkyDrive\Pictures, which was created on installation. After not changing anything, manual upload goes to the "Camera Roll on SkyDrive" folder on my phone, but no longer gets to the PC or the Pics folder online. So it seems that the phone never uploads to the server.

 

[nathanb131]

So even after manual upload your pics don't show up on the web or PC access to SkyDrive? How about the other way around? Is it possible that you have two MS accounts and are accessing different skydrives?

With Xbox live accounts, outlook.com, hotmail.com, live.com, msn.com, or just using Gmail as a login, and the inability to merge if created separately, having multiple accounts without realizing is an easy mistake to make.

 

[x SD Plissken x]

"So even after manual upload your pics don't show up on the web or PC access to SkyDrive?"
Correct

"How about the other way around?"
No go.

You may be on to something here, although it is strange how manually uploading worked fine. I have an outlook.com account and a "Microsoft Account" which is different. I am going to play for a bit. I will post my findings.

 

[x SD Plissken x]

Multiple accounts was it. My Microsoft Account was different than the outlook.com account that I was using. I prefer to use the outlook.com account and I did not see a way to change the Microsoft Account so I just reset the phone and started over. No big deal really as I did not have much that could not replaced. Anyway, after the setup with the correct account, it all works as is should. Thanks for all of your help.

 

[nathanb131]

Glad its resolved. I'm a bit frustrated with how ms manages accounts. I was lucky to just add my new outlook, Xbox, SkyDrive, and WP to my existing @live.com account. So I'm unified.

But since we got our winphones a few weeks after establishing Xbox live accounts....since that was my wife's first ms account now her UNCHANGEABLE username is that stupid initial random one that Xbox live starts everyone out with. Yeah they say you can change the randomly created Xbox live name once but don't make it clear at that time that 'GiftedSilver04@xboxlivefamily.com' is now her permanent log in credentials for all her MS accounts for now on. Sure we can set up aliases so that isn't her email address but ms makes you type the full address at every log in because of all their different domain names. I cringe every time she has to type that full username in because it was me that assured her that MS is now doing things right in terms of making a good family ecosystem.

For the most part it is and I'm glad she doesn't seem to mind but this 'unable to change main username' rule is super annoying when coupled with starting with an Xbox account!

 

[x SD Plissken x]

Yeah I'm with you. I originally setup my phone with my Xbox live account, then I got the outlook account sometime later which is what I wanted to use. But of course, the default on the phone was the xbox account which I never use for anything.

 

[GreenScrew]

Nice call Nathanb131. I keep separate accounts one associated to work/business and one personal. Get hung up on that from time to time but it didn't dawn on me that this might be the problem here.

 

[x SD Plissken x]

To matters worse, setting up the phone with my newly created outlook.com address, so I can use SkyDrive, I click the Xbox tile to setup it with my gamertag which has the other email address. So what happens? A gamertag was auto-generated and associated with my outlook.com address.

I didn't think much of this until I went to change the older email address with my gamertag to the outlook.com address. I get an error saying that I cannot change it because the outlook address already has an xbox live account associated with it, the auto-generated one no doubt. So I call Xbox Live support. They tell me the only way to change the email addresses is to create a new dummy email account them move the auto-gen ID to the dummy account.

I understand what he is saying and it is easy enough to do, so I hang up. I go through the process of "recovering" the auto-gen tag so I can move the email address. I immediately get an error saying that it cannot be done at this time. Looking up the error, I find out that I have to wait 30 days to make changes to newly downloaded profile. I will then need to wait an additional 30 days to make additional changes. So all-in-all, I need to wait 60 days to change an email address because MS did not give me a choice of what Xbox account I wanted to sign as on my phone, and, provides absolutely no way to delete it or un-associate an email address.

Pretty pathetic Microsoft.