Import synced photos from iPad to Mac

I have an old iPad 1 where I have imported many photos from my mac computer. They are visible in the "Photos" app. My computer got lost and I have a new mac now and of course I want to import the photos from the iPad to the computer - a task which sounds very simple, but Apple makes it very difficult and I have not yet found a solution.

The only way I can see this is possible, is to select five images at a time and send them to my e-mail. Is this really the only possible solution or have I missed something?

Looking forward to your input!

Hi Jonas - well there may be a number of 'cloud' options, e.g. Dropbox or iCloud to mention a few; and there are Wi-Fi hard drives, such as Segate GoFlex (and others) that might be used for this purpose - also another option that I've used is PhotoSync (click on the name) - see if any of these suggestions help; if not, then please respond back to this thread - good luck!

Thanks for your reply. An hour after I posted, I actually found a way to do it through Dropbox. Not the most easy way, but it works which is great!

But I'm still wondering why Apple has made such a simple thing impossible through their own syncing methods. Found an Apple support case where they say, that photos synced from iTunes/iPhoto to your iPad cannot be synced back.

Jonas_h said:

Thanks for your reply. An hour after I posted, I actually found a way to do it through Dropbox. Not the most easy way, but it works which is great!

But I'm still wondering why Apple has made such a simple thing impossible through their own syncing methods. Found an Apple support case where they say, that photos synced from iTunes/iPhoto to your iPad cannot be synced back.

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Glad that you found a solution that works for you - PhotoSync might still be of interest, though?

Yep, the photo app on the iPad leaves much to be desired (I've been dealing w/ it for 2 yrs and have been involved in a number of threads on the iPad Forums) - once synced photos are on your iPad, they can be removed only w/ a further sync by unchecking in the appropriate place(s).

Now there are other 'photo managers' for the iPad that might provide more options for you - I use Private Photo Pro by Linkus (inexpensive purchase in iTunes) - check HERE, if interested. Images in the native iPad photo app can be imported into Private Photo and then deleted and manipulated and shared in a number of ways - password protection is also available.

Thanks for the tips. But I think this was my last "Why the he.. has Apple chosen to do things this way"-situation and I will slowly be getting rid of my iPad/Mac (My MacBook has already been running Windows the last two years ).

Yeah, it's the stupid iPad's fault you didn't keep a Time Machine (and/or bootable clone) backup of your Mac in case it was ever lost, stolen, or the HDD crashed.

Stupid iPad.

Stupid iPad.

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LOL. Another blame it on Apple because I didn't make a backup. However, Apple isn't the only one who takes it on the chin for user laziness or mistakes. Microsoft also gets their share.

Am I missing something? A new Mac comes with iPhoto pre-installed. When you hook up an iOS device to a Mac, iPhoto usually opens and asks to import photos from the photos app.

Doug

Definition of backup: A copy of a program or file that is stored separately from the original.

That was exactly what I did. But yes you are right - I should not have assumed that files could easily be synced back from an iPad and I should have taken a backup to a disc I knew I could easily restore from.

Doug b said:

Am I missing something? A new Mac comes with iPhoto pre-installed. When you hook up an iOS device to a Mac, iPhoto usually opens and asks to import photos from the photos app.

Doug

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iPhoto only ímports photos stored in a folder determined by Apple. All other albums created, will not be synced into iPhoto. According to other users here, this makes total sense of course

Jonas_h said:

iPhoto only ímports photos stored in a folder determined by Apple. All other albums created, will not be synced into iPhoto. According to other users here, this makes total sense of course

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I know it's frustrating but there's a reason for that. You sync them across. Next time, and every time, you connect it re-imports them, you now have duplicates. To prevent this the photos are copied into an area that is not auto-synced back to the machine.

It would be nice if there was a switch somewhere to override this but that can just add further complexity.

RadDaves PhotoSync suggestion is excellent, not just for this, but for handling the movement of photos in general. It's cheap, fast and overcomes all the other little bugbears of the photo handling.

Jonas_h said:

Definition of backup: A copy of a program or file that is stored separately from the original.

That was exactly what I did. But yes you are right - I should not have assumed that files could easily be synced back from an iPad and I should have taken a backup to a disc I knew I could easily restore from.

Click to expand...

Let's remove the iPad from the equation for a moment (because if you did your research before purchasing, you would know how iPhoto works)...

EVERY human being who owns a computer should have at least one form of backup - i.e. external hard drive, DVDs, flash drive. I just hope you learned the true lesson that hard drives will fail at some point and valuable/sentimental/important files can be lost if there aren't backups of those files.

I just wanted to stress the importance of a good backup regimen so you won't have this headache again some day. It will also remove any cause to erroneously blame the iPad, thus improving your experience with it.