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MacOS and iPhone Apple Photo Albums

G'day all,

I am getting frustrated that the albums on my Mac Apple Photos don't appear in my iPhone albums.

I can't work out what is happening.

I sync everythis via iCloud, yet they won't appear on the phone.


What am I doing wrong?


I don't know what other info you'd require so hit me up.


Thanks.


Gav

iPhone 12 Pro Max

Posted on May 8, 2021 12:18 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 8, 2021 12:53 AM

If you are having more photos on your Mac than on the iPhone the upload may not yet have finished. Or you are having more than one Photos Library and are currently viewing a different library from your iCloud Photos Library.

You can check the library you are working with in the Photos Preferences > General. If you are using your iCloud Photos Library, the "Photos Preferences > General" should be showing "Use as System Photos Library" as greyed out. And in the "Photos Preferences > iCloud" the option "iCloud Photos" should be checked. Is it, when you look in your current library?

7 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 8, 2021 12:53 AM in response to Gav092

If you are having more photos on your Mac than on the iPhone the upload may not yet have finished. Or you are having more than one Photos Library and are currently viewing a different library from your iCloud Photos Library.

You can check the library you are working with in the Photos Preferences > General. If you are using your iCloud Photos Library, the "Photos Preferences > General" should be showing "Use as System Photos Library" as greyed out. And in the "Photos Preferences > iCloud" the option "iCloud Photos" should be checked. Is it, when you look in your current library?

May 8, 2021 12:40 AM in response to Gav092

What kind of albums are you creating on your Mac in Photos? Standard albums or smart albums?

With iCloud Photos enabled the standard albums should appear on your iPhone, but not the smart albums.

The standard albums should appear in iCloud, once all photos have been uploaded to iCloud Photos.

What is the status bar below "all Photos" album showing? Is it still showing "Uploading"? Then it may take a while longer until you will see the albums.

Uploading to iCloud is not just a data transmission - Photos needs to sync the library and it may take several days for a moderately sized library. For example, the upload of my 50000 photos and videos took ten days on a fast Wi-Fi network.

To check the status bar see: Check the status of your library in Photos for macOS - Apple Support

Which system version is running on your Mac?




May 8, 2021 12:48 AM in response to léonie

Hi,

Albums I am creating are on the Mac and are just the homogenised standard album in the drop down side bar My Albums.

None of the standard albums are appearing in iCloud or the phone. Should I turn on 'use as system photo library' would that do anything?

On my phone I have ghost albums which are named as per albums on Mac, but they have zereo images therein.

All uploading has been completed and still the same situation.


Thanks for taking time out to help. Much appreciated.


Gav

May 8, 2021 1:01 AM in response to léonie

When I go to "Photos Preferences > iCloud" the option "iCloud Photos" there is no option to click. It just says, 'iCloud feature for Photos are only available in the System Photo Library'

In "Photos Preferences > General" should be showing "Use as System Photos Library" it is greyed out. If I click on it it says, 'Switching the System Photo Library will turn off iCloud Photos'.


Thanks


Gav

May 8, 2021 1:21 AM in response to Gav092

Righto, an update.

My laptop was showing the same libray as my phone, I then realised that the "greyed out" button in preferences Show System Library WASN'T greyed out. It looked liked it at first. I have clicked that and now there appears to be some syncing occurring among the 3 devices. D'uh :-)

Thanks léonie for your help and hopefully this fixes my problem.


Gav

MacOS and iPhone Apple Photo Albums

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