A Better Photos App for organizing

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All,
Looking for a better Photo app other than IPhoto:

Features that Iphoto has that I'd like to get rid of:
Storing and original photo after the photo has been put in an album. Want the ONLY copy of the photo in the album. That way it's much easier to organize new photos as they are added. THIS IS MY BIGGEST PET PEVEE.... so every photo is still my camera roll, and horribly hard to manage.
A really easy way to down load all photos to my Mac (perhaps automatically), where I'd store the original. So, any photo deleted accidentley on the Iphone wouldn't be lost.
A way to mass delete photos, like 1000 or more, without clicking each one.

Thoughts?
Searay
Iphone 6, Mac OS El Capitan
 

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I have a few thoughts. Whether they help you or not is another matter.

I don't recall exactly when Photos replaced iPhoto, but Photos is a much enhanced version of its predecessor.

That said, you have the same problem - if a problem it really is. Albums contain "links" to photos and are NOT copies. The Album therefore cannot "store" the only version of a photo - the original is always in the main body of iPhoto/Photos app.

But the fact that the Album is NOT a copy means that are not duplicating the image and not taking up any more space on your Mac.

You can delete an image from an Album without detriment, but if you delete an image from the iPhoto/Photos main database, it is gone from there and the link to the Album is gone to.

There is at least one way of dealing with your issue. Use Image Capture to move images from your camera or iDevice to any place on your Mac that you wish.

Then create Albums ( actually a Folder) and move the original image into that Album/Folder. That way, you can organise your image library in any way you want - keeping all your images in dedicated Albums/Folders.
You can even move these Album/Folders into more Folders.

Think of it this way - it's just like a document. You can move a document into a Folder and move that Folder into another Folder, and so on.

For example: you could put your holiday images into Folders marked 2015, 2016, 2017, etc and move all these Folders into one Folder simply called Holidays.

How would that suit you? You would backup your photo Folders like anything else via Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC), or SuperDuper! (SD!) for example.

As for the pictures on your iPhone, you could back them up separately to iCloud (or to a third party like iMazing 2).

Ian
 
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Second Ian's suggestions.

I feel you haven't got the hang of how Photos works, or how Photos and other Apple devices work together. I started from scratch in 2011 with a MBP, sorting images into albums and folders in iPhotos straight away and these transferred seemlessly to Photos and a new MBP. There is NO duplication, however many folders you copy images into.

Buying my first iPad, then iPhone, I set up PhotoStream which automatically syncs to all Apple devices via wifi, with the master storage being on the MBP. I can delete photos on the phone or ipad without losing them on the Mac. Go to icloud, disable cloud storage and enable PhotoStream on all devices. The word from the Apple tree: My Photo Stream - Apple Support

Deleting images - how would the system know what you didn't want unless you selected them? You could select individually, but if there is a group you "highlight one, hold down the Cmd key and drag the curser through all the photos you want to delete". Release key and delete, OR scroll down to find others and repeat from " to ". It's the same process on iphone and ipad. In case you have second thoughts, Apple retains the deletions in 'Recently Deleted' for 30 days, after which they are permanently gone.

If you are concerned about true duplicates, there are free and cheap apps (Photosweeper £9.99) which will search and identify duplicates.
 
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I have a few thoughts. Whether they help you or not is another matter.

I don't recall exactly when Photos replaced iPhoto, but Photos is a much enhanced version of its predecessor.

That said, you have the same problem - if a problem it really is. Albums contain "links" to photos and are NOT copies. The Album therefore cannot "store" the only version of a photo - the original is always in the main body of iPhoto/Photos app.

But the fact that the Album is NOT a copy means that are not duplicating the image and not taking up any more space on your Mac.

You can delete an image from an Album without detriment, but if you delete an image from the iPhoto/Photos main database, it is gone from there and the link to the Album is gone to.

There is at least one way of dealing with your issue. Use Image Capture to move images from your camera or iDevice to any place on your Mac that you wish.

Then create Albums ( actually a Folder) and move the original image into that Album/Folder. That way, you can organise your image library in any way you want - keeping all your images in dedicated Albums/Folders.
You can even move these Album/Folders into more Folders.

Think of it this way - it's just like a document. You can move a document into a Folder and move that Folder into another Folder, and so on.

For example: you could put your holiday images into Folders marked 2015, 2016, 2017, etc and move all these Folders into one Folder simply called Holidays.

How would that suit you? You would backup your photo Folders like anything else via Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC), or SuperDuper! (SD!) for example.

As for the pictures on your iPhone, you could back them up separately to iCloud (or to a third party like iMazing 2).

Ian

Thanks Ian,

What I really don't want: An image in my Camera Roll that is the same as an image in an Album. The issue is that I've got several thousand images in my Camera Roll and there's just no way to keep that straight. There are many of them that I just don't want to put into an Album and will refer back to them occasionally and eventually delete them. But trying to sort thru over a thousand just doesn't work.

Sure, I download all of them to my computer for sorting. But I wish to keep some albums on the phone to show folks and there are a few albums that I really don't want everyone thumbing through, so I don't want those photos on my Camera Roll.

That's why I'm looking for another app.
 
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Second Ian's suggestions.

I feel you haven't got the hang of how Photos works, or how Photos and other Apple devices work together. I started from scratch in 2011 with a MBP, sorting images into albums and folders in iPhotos straight away and these transferred seemlessly to Photos and a new MBP. There is NO duplication, however many folders you copy images into.

Buying my first iPad, then iPhone, I set up PhotoStream which automatically syncs to all Apple devices via wifi, with the master storage being on the MBP. I can delete photos on the phone or ipad without losing them on the Mac. Go to icloud, disable cloud storage and enable PhotoStream on all devices. The word from the Apple tree: My Photo Stream - Apple Support

Deleting images - how would the system know what you didn't want unless you selected them? You could select individually, but if there is a group you "highlight one, hold down the Cmd key and drag the curser through all the photos you want to delete". Release key and delete, OR scroll down to find others and repeat from "to". It's the same process on iphone and ipad. In case you have second thoughts, Apple retains the deletions in 'Recently Deleted' for 30 days, after which they are permanently gone.

If you are concerned about true duplicates, there are free and cheap apps (Photosweeper £9.99) which will search and identify duplicates.

Susan,

Perhaps I don't understand it. However, I just don't want the same image in an Album as shows up on the Camera Roll (see response above).

BTW, what's a MBP??
 
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@SeaRay, MBP = MacBook Pro.
 

IWT


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As of 8am GMT this morning, 14 June 2019, I cannot post to the Forums at all - neither in reply to a post nor as a Personal Message.

I have tried on Safari, FF and Chrome.

Email links open the appropriate page, but anything I type causes the site to revert back to the Home Page.

Kind regards

Ian
 
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All,
Looking for a better Photo app other than IPhoto:

Features that Iphoto has that I'd like to get rid of:
Storing and original photo after the photo has been put in an album. Want the ONLY copy of the photo in the album. That way it's much easier to organize new photos as they are added. THIS IS MY BIGGEST PET PEVEE.... so every photo is still my camera roll, and horribly hard to manage.
A really easy way to down load all photos to my Mac (perhaps automatically), where I'd store the original. So, any photo deleted accidentley on the Iphone wouldn't be lost.
A way to mass delete photos, like 1000 or more, without clicking each one.

Thoughts?
Searay
Iphone 6, Mac OS El Capitan

Use Lightroom.



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IWT


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What I really don't want: An image in my Camera Roll that is the same as an image in an Album.

Sorry you've no choice there.

As with your Mac (iPhoto or Photos app), on an iPhone, Cameral Roll is where all your pictures are kept. Any pictures you put in an Album are linked to Camera Roll. You can delete an image from an Album without detriment, but delete an image from Cameral Roll and it is gone completely.

One option is to "Hide" all your Cameral Roll images that you don't want others to see. That's very easy to do.

The other method is to use Image Capture as I described in post #2 and create the exact Folder Structure you desire.

BTW you can delete any images in My Photo Stream provided you don't want them to sync automatically to any other Device - they will remain in Camera Roll.

That's the way it works.

Ian
 
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Sorry you've no choice there.

As with your Mac (iPhoto or Photos app), on an iPhone, Cameral Roll is where all your pictures are kept. Any pictures you put in an Album are linked to Camera Roll. You can delete an image from an Album without detriment, but delete an image from Cameral Roll and it is gone completely.

One option is to "Hide" all your Cameral Roll images that you don't want others to see. That's very easy to do.

The other method is to use Image Capture as I described in post #2 and create the exact Folder Structure you desire.

BTW you can delete any images in My Photo Stream provided you don't want them to sync automatically to any other Device - they will remain in Camera Roll.

That's the way it works.

Ian

Thx for the help, but not what I wanted to hear... so a question: How do you hide the camera roll?

And then how do you find a pix you've taken awhile back that you haven't put in an album?

And third, why couldn't I create an album for all my photos that i want to keep and delete what I don't want, and the camera roll would operate in the background.

Now, the vast majority of photos on my camera roll I'd like to dump as they are not needed and not in an album. Is there a way to search the camera roll and find photos that are not in an album?

Thx again for the help, it's appreciated!
 
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Can you confirm if you are using iPhoto, or Photos?
 
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I didn’t think iPhoto worked any more?


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How do you hide the camera roll?

To hide a photo or video, select it, then use the share icon to bring up the share sheet. Scroll through the bottom row of activities until you see "Hide." Tap that, then "Hide Photo" or "Hide Video" to get the job done. To view your hidden media, just open the new "Hidden" folder in the "Albums" tab.

And then how do you find a pix you've taken awhile back that you haven't put in an album?

Naming pix as you go helps but the app will search on relevant words in the search box - put in a key word (like cat, car, box), a location (London, Athens, New York...) or a month and the app will retrieve those which match. You could search in Years or create a smart album with your specific criteria. How to organize photos on Mac: Smart Albums and other tricks

Now, the vast majority of photos on my camera roll I'd like to dump as they are not needed and not in an album. Is there a way to search the camera roll and find photos that are not in an album?


Not on the phone. But you can on your Mac.
Choose File > New Smart Album.
Select from criteria > Album, Is Not, Any.
Name and click OK.

Screenshot 2019-06-15 at 14.20.45.png

Then sort what you don't want.

Loads of useful Photos info here:

Organize and find your photos - Apple Support
 
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Need a photo organizer, not an editor.

Well, even Photos and iPhoto does editing.
Lightroom is a superb organizer and not too expensive. Yes, it does do editing but the Mobile version, Lightroom CC is a very superior organizer and works across all your devices.
It can put individual images into individual folders as well as albums.
It does of course have the All Photos display, which will show all your images wherever they are?

Darkroom is a good alternative. Which doesn’t require a subscription. and also does editing.

The thing really, is that I’ve lost track of just what you are trying to achieve?

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Can you confirm if you are using iPhoto, or Photos?

I'm using the Photos app on the Iphone that came with it, whatever it's called, unfortunately there's no "about" on Iphone apps so I cant tell the version or the exact name.
 
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I'm using the Photos app on the Iphone that came with it, whatever it's called, unfortunately there's no "about" on Iphone apps so I cant tell the version or the exact name.

It’s called Photos and if you regularly update your iPhone you can see the version and update date in the Purchased or Updates display of the AppStore app.



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Well, even Photos and iPhoto does editing.
Lightroom is a superb organiser and not too expensive. Yes, it does do editing but the Mobile version, Lightroom CC is a very superior organiser and works across all your devices.
It can put individual images into individual folders as well as albums.
It does of course have the All Photos display, which will show all your images wherever they are?

Darkroom is a good alternative. Which doesn’t require a subscription. and also does editing.

The thing really, is that I’ve lost track of just what you are trying to achieve?





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rachalmers, Downloaded Lightroom on my Iphone and I don't see any organizing, but pretty neat editing. Am I missing something? Cant seem to find where you add albums, etc?
 
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rachalmers, Downloaded Lightroom on my iPhone and I don't see any organizing, but pretty neat editing. Am I missing something? Cant seem to find where you add albums, etc?

Just opened Lightroom on my iPhone SE Tap left arrow, to see

(outdated link removed)

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