Photos sync--can I merge what is on iPhone/iPad with what is on MBP?

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Setup: Mid-2015 MBPr, Mojave 10.14.5 with Photos 4.0, iPhone and iPad with iOS 12.3.1. On the iPhone and iPad I have set up iCloud for Photos with iCloud Photos ON, Download and Keep Originals, Upload to My Photo Steam ON, Upload Burst Photos ON and Shared Albums ON. On the MBP, in Photos/Preferences/iCloud I have My Photo Stream and Shared Albums checked, but iCloud Photos NOT checked (I'll say why in next paragraph.). On the iPad and iPhone, Photos indicates 8,666 photos and 327 videos. When I log into iCloud.com I see the same stats. However on my MBP Photos reports 9.741 photos and 354 videos. The most recent photo on the MBP is dated May 11, but on the iPad and iPhone, there are pictures from as recent as yesterday, June 13.

Why not turn on iCloud sync in the MBP? Because it says on the prompt for the check box "Automatically upload and store all your photos and videos in iCloud so you can access them from an of your devices and on the web." Note that it does NOT say "merge," just "upload and store." Similarly the Apple document at Keep your photos safely stored and up to date on all of your devices - Apple Support says nothing about how to merge Photos across devices and pretty clearly says that if I turn on iCloud in Photos on the MBP what is on the MBP will be uploaded to iCloud Photos and from there down to my iPad and iPhone. But there are pictures on the iDevices that are NOT in Photos on the MBP and clearly there are photos on the MBP that are NOT on the iDevices or iCloud because the counts are over 1000 different.

So, other than going through the images one at a time, is there any way to merge these various Photos so that all pictures are on all devices and that they stay in sync? Any idea why Photo Stream isn't streaming? I find the documentation at Apple curiously inadequate on this one product. Usually I can find out how things work at Apple.com/Support, but this one is stumping me.

TIA.
 
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Any idea why Photo Stream isn't streaming?

TIA.

I've had this issue several times. Switching Photostream off and back on again sometimes forces it to sync. Other times I send some via Air Drop and the rest follow. I have the same set-up as you BUT do not have iCloud enabled on my MBP.

Would backing up your other devices to your MBP via iTunes sync the photos?
 
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Sue, I just tried turning Photostream off and on on all devices and nothing changed. Also did a full backup of the iPhone using iTunes and no change. What is curious is that the storage bar on the Summary page about the iPhone says that there are 10,416 photos on the iPhone, which is yet again another number different from the rest.

I think I'll look at what iMazing has to say about photos.
 
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Just thought I would report back. iMazing didn't have an easy way to get a count, so I downloaded ALL of the images from iCloud as a backup (took 9 downloads because you are only allowed 1000 images in a single download), then backed up my MBP, iPad and iPhone and finally opened Photos Preferences on the MBP and enable iCloud. Photos reported that it was uploading about 1450 images, which sounded right, so I let it run. At the end, nothing was deleted from iCloud, the images on the iPhone that were missing from the MBP showed up on the MBP and the images missing in the iPhone/iPad showed up from the iCloud. So now all four locations are in sync. Would have been slightly more stress-free if Apple's documentation said that they would merge, but hey, it worked!
 
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That's good news. I'm trying to come to terms with @25% of my photos not being in any album on my MBP (discovered after contributing to another thread about organising!) How did that happen - 12,000 out of 43,000...??? :Oops:
 
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That's good news. I'm trying to come to terms with @25% of my photos not being in any album on my MBP (discovered after contributing to another thread about organising!) How did that happen - 12,000 out of 43,000...??? :Oops:

iCloud has to be on. On all machines being synced. And can take a day or so to... sync.
However, I’m not sure albums are synced. Don’t quote me on that though.
Also, if you look at All Photos on each device the count should match. If it doesn’t you may have phantom images. Images deleted from an album on one and not synced on another.


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