Transferring photos from iPhone to Mac

Hi Ben,

Welcome to the Apple Community, where some of us do our best to help each other troubleshoot.

Sorry I'm no expert with all the know-how on transferring captions intact, or if it can be done (also curious, now).

A bit more info. may attract such an expert to contribute here..

Wondering where you looked for the captions for the photos now on you Mac.

In this Apple Support article:

Add titles, captions and more to photos using Photos on Mac

https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/photos/phta4e5a733f/mac

Says" You use the Info window to view information about photos".

1. In the Photos app  on your Mac, double-click a photo to view it,
2. then click the Info button  in the toolbar or press Command-I.

Guessing this was where you discovered there were no captions ?

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Wondering in which way you transferred the photos:

Eg:

• Did you import the iPhone Photos into Mac using the "Photos". app

(or maybe "Image Capture" / sync via iCloud ? or AirDrop etc.)

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Overview of importing photos and videos into Photos on Mac

https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/photos/phta58cd90d3/6.0/mac/11.0

Change preferences in Photos on Mac

https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/photos/pht5156cc968/6.0/mac/11.0

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So, that's a lot of photos!

These article may be useful:

View photos by location in Photos on Mac

https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/photos/pht4c00b8ddc/6.0/mac/11.0

Find photos by keyword in Photos on Mac

https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/photos/pht8d0ad5198/6.0/mac/11.0

All the best :)

With apple photos, when you add metadata (eg captions), it is added to the database, not the original image file which is left unmodified.

Transferring images to your mac via USB only copies the original files. It doesn't copy the database - so the metadata can't be imported via file transfer methods such as USB, airdrop etc.

The only way to transfer the metadata is to use iCloud photos, which syncs both the image files AND the database with your mac and other devices.

Thank you Ben,

You are welcome!

Thank you for completing the details so we have the full picture.

If caption transferring is really not possible,

and if you would like caption transferring to become a feature for iPhone to Macs,

you could always send feedback to Apple, to those who may effect some changes.

Feedback on Photos:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/photos/

All the best :)

PS:

Found this discussion thread about Photos metadata very interesting ...

Post by léonie says (near the bottom page) :

"Photos is including the original EXIF and IPTC tags, when exporting a photo with File > Export > Export ...photos."

"Just open any photo you export this way in Preview and look at the embedded metadata

(use the command "Tools > Show Inspector" and check the embedded tags.

You should be seeing the original capture date, the lens,

the camera make, all titles, captions, keywords you added. "

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7961572

Seems like there;'s a method there for future use, at least.

Cheers :)

PS:

When you deleted the photos from your iPhone, they would have gone into a "Recently deleted" folder,

and be still available for 30 days from deletion (unless you permanently deleted them) ?

Cheers :)

That only relates to export from the photos app on the mac to a jpg, tif or png file in a folder on your mac - not related to transfer from phone to mac. In that case the metadata from the database is added to the exported file. This does NOT happen with export unmodified original - which always exports the file exactly as it was when it was imported to photos (or taken on an iPhone).

Thank you for your interesting input, TonyCollinet.

Good to know!

Cheers :)