How to get a ALAssetRepresentation of a shared photostream ALAsset?

Question

When I try to access pictures from a photo stream, sometimes the [asset defaultRepresentation] method returns nil.

According to the documentation this c

Answer 1

I found the answer! It is not documented and therefor use the following answer with caution. (With caution I mean, Apple doesn't allow to use private API calls).

On the asset there is a method named - (void)requestDefaultRepresentation; you can use this method to trigger the Asset Library to download the shared photo. As stated in the document the ALAssetsLibraryChangedNotification will be fired to let you know the image became available.

No idea, why Apple didn't document it. Good luck have fun =)

You can avoid a warning with the following header:

ALAsset+RequestDefaultRepresentation.h

#import 

@interface ALAsset (RequestDefaultRepresentation)
- (void)requestDefaultRepresentation;
@end