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Syncing iphone photos and Mac photos

I am trying to organise and consolidate my photos on both iPhone and Photos app on Mac.

I already use iCloud on iPhone to upload photos, and currently trying to do same for Mac (but uploading 200gb of photos I'm sure will take a very long time).

I assume at that point I will be then able to see both sets of photos in combination on iCloud on my internet browser.

But what I want ideally is for there to be one set of photos, rather than two. Or even for my iPhone photos to automatically be added to Photos on Mac (rather than having to manually import them periodically).

Can anyone offer any suggestions/solutions?

As a note - my Mac is running an older operating system that won't let me connect via cable, and I am very reluctant to upgrade at the moment as last time I tried it really tipped my Mac over the edge - and would rather avoid doing so if possible!


I hope the above makes sense.

Thank you!

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.12

Posted on Sep 30, 2020 6:51 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 12, 2020 2:23 AM

iCloud Photos is convenient once it is up and running, but the initial upload is very slow, so I would bear with it.


If you go into the 'Photos' view which is at the top of the sidebar and then go across to your photos and scroll to the bottom you should see a status bar, like below.



Another way to check on progress is to log onto www.icloud.com


Regarding your older precious photos, unfortunately you are not able to pick and choose which photos to sync. One idea though is to simply create another library on your mac and copy all of those photos in to it and remove them from your main library. I have a couple of these archive libraries. If you hold down Alt when you open Photos you can then select which library you want to open.


Obviously make sure you have plenty of backups of both libraries.


Thanks

Russ

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 12, 2020 2:23 AM in response to ellie903

iCloud Photos is convenient once it is up and running, but the initial upload is very slow, so I would bear with it.


If you go into the 'Photos' view which is at the top of the sidebar and then go across to your photos and scroll to the bottom you should see a status bar, like below.



Another way to check on progress is to log onto www.icloud.com


Regarding your older precious photos, unfortunately you are not able to pick and choose which photos to sync. One idea though is to simply create another library on your mac and copy all of those photos in to it and remove them from your main library. I have a couple of these archive libraries. If you hold down Alt when you open Photos you can then select which library you want to open.


Obviously make sure you have plenty of backups of both libraries.


Thanks

Russ

Oct 1, 2020 1:52 AM in response to ellie903

Assuming that you are logged into the same Apple account on both your phone and Mac, then iCloud Photos will indeed create a single merged library containing all of the photos from both your Mac and iPhone which you'll be able to view on both devices. 200gb is a quite a large library so just leave it to do its thing and your patience will be rewarded. Part of the reason it takes so long is that iCloud will also de-duplicate photos across both devices.


Given you will now a have a large, single library make sure you have taken all necessary precautions re backing up your library - there are quite a few discussions here on the topic, a recent one was quite detailed. Remember iCloud is a syncing service, not a backup service.

Oct 12, 2020 1:58 AM in response to Russ New Boy

Many thanks for your reply.


Yes I am still waiting on upload to complete (almost 2 weeks later!) - none of my iPhone photos have yet shown on Mac photos - I’m assuming it’s just a matter of waiting?


Is there any way to select which Mac photos are displayed on iPhone? Or is it a case of all or none? I have thousands of old photos that I don’t necessarily need to see on my phone. I am also worried that if I accidentally delete / or somehow photos are lost on one device and then they are gone everywhere. Seems quite vulnerable for such important items.



And thank you for note re back up - I have an external back up drive that I use through TimeMachine and try to do use frequently. 



I would be fine not to use iCloud for Mac photos but it is a bit of a faff to get photos onto Mac via importing them so seemed worth a go. 



Would be interested to get other’s thoughts on this and what they have found the best solution is!



Thanks,

Eleanor

Syncing iphone photos and Mac photos

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