Use iCloud Photos to link to images on the web—edit: nevermind, it doesn't work ;<

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Update: this doesn’t work universally for some reason. It was too good to be true :disappointed:

I just discovered a neat trick: you can use iCloud as an image host. Just in case I’m the second-last to find out about it, here’s how to do it.

  1. In Photos, context-click or share sheet on the image you want hosted → tap “Copy iCloud link”
  2. Paste the link into a browser, and hit Download
  3. On iOS/iPadOS, tap View to get an in-browser tab with the photo
  4. Copy the link in the new tab—that’s your hosted link!

![Some image](https://cvws.icloud-content.com/B/Ac7sq4Rxvgje7wocYLb-iFpeS8f8Ae4PjwBGv7vaKrxabcD7GciVA-Np/IMG_0436.PNG?o=AlznAX-7MIDtx9fYF53OBomAzmfIWeQJ_GjuH8vVMA4v&v=1&x=3&a=CAog6oKsjAHXgimy3fMgF05ngBlLSWArAJ2733UqUaUqM-kSaxDZ192lrC8Y2bS5p6wvIgEAUgReS8f8WgSVA-NpaiV3eSa-fGFxNN8fDxuNYBboqap30jgm5v54FX7bG8_8y8e159YQciW_MOrnYfsKA55v_V9ZJPm-yK-89UGykT0LY1AZV7tM3dyWgJlF&e=1626801592&fl=&r=29c509af-1083-40bf-92bd-69c66a39b182-1&k=F5hFKFIhT-OpT_esw5Bjtw&ckc=com.apple.photos.cloud&ckz=CMM-DF36F0F5-2598-4B93-AE5A-90B33B62567D&y=1&p=45&s=etaDm85S_X6wtUTU4DaTyXFeNzc)
…turns into…

Some image

The link doesn’t have a file extension, so I’m not sure it’ll work everywhere. But it seems to work here on MPU!

I don’t host images very often. When required, I’ve uploaded them to any of the usual web hosts. This usually requires almost more trouble than it’s worth, typically because I need to navigate logging in and/or traversing a set of steps in order to finally get the thing uploaded and linkable. This approach seems to be quicker. Maybe there’s even a way of Shortcuts-ing it…

(Does anyone know if the link will expire? It seems like it won’t.)

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I’m seeing a broken link (blue ?) - perhaps b/c I’m not authenticated as you?

I tried opening the link directly on my Mac and got a page with the text “Gone” & nothing else.

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Dang. I knew it was too good to be true… I would’ve thought a copied link wouldn’t require authentication.

I’ll investigate to see if this can be made to work.

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Alas, it was too good to be true. You can’t get a direct image link via this route whatsoever. No idea why it displayed on MPU for me.

I’ll delete this thread tomorrow. :cry:

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I’m seeing his screenshot in the post, but pasting the link into Safari just returns an empty image.

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How odd. I can’t even see the image on these posts anymore, hah!

I’ll edit the post and leave this up for posterity. Maybe someone else will have better luck someday.

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:scream:

hic sunt leones

:smiley: