Merging Mac and IOS photos

[tobindia]

Between my wife and myself, we have 2 iPhones, an iPad and a Mac. All of them are running up to date software. The 3 IOS devices sync their photos through iCloud, but they do not sync with the Mac. They used to sync with the Mac, but for some reason, long since forgotten, I stopped that a few years ago. The IOS devices have 19,000+ photos and a few videos. The Mac has 34,000+ photos and a few videos. There are many duplicates between the IOS and Mac libraries, but there are also many non-duplicates (probably a few thousand).

I had hoped to consolidate everything, eliminate the dupes, and reestablish the syncing, if — and I recognize that it’s a big if — space allows on all devices. My plan:

1. Backup Mac to Time Machine. (The IOS devices all use automatic backups.)
2. Export all of the Mac photos to a folder on a remote hard drive.
3. Create a new, empty .photoslibrary on the Mac.
4. Connect the iPad to the Mac.
5. Sync the photos between the iPad and the Mac.
6. Export these “new” photos from the Mac to another folder on the EHD.
7. Run Cisdem to identify and eliminate the 2 folders on the EHD.
8. Create another new, empty .photoslibrary on the Mac.
9. Import the remaining, unique photos to the Mac.
10. Delete all photos from iCloud, leaving photos only on the Mac.
11. Reestablish the syncing between all devices.

I did the first 4 steps, but on the fifth, I got an error telling me that the iPad was “using iCloud Photos. You can access every photo and video you take from any device. To sync photos from this Mac, turn off iCloud Photos.”

If I (and I don’t know how) turn off iCloud Photos on the iPad, will the 2 iPhones continue to sync photos (while I continue to do the next steps), and will the existing photos on the iPad load as photos in full resolution on the iPad automatically? If the answers to these questions is “yes” (especially the 2nd question), then I’ll continue as planned, otherwise, I think I’m stuck.

Any ideas?

 

[IWT]

I'm sorry that no one has yet taken up your post.

My first thought, and indeed question, is this: Apple IDs - do you and your wife share the same ID or do you have individual ones? Very important question.

Following on from that: the 3 iOS Devices sync with each other, but not with your Mac.

Reasons could be related to Apple IDs again - hence my question above - or it might be that you've not yet given permission for photos syncing on the Mac.

Each Device has to be authorised to sync with iCloud and for each Device, you have to determine what apps and others will sync.

For example, you could select that photos was synced with iCloud on some device(s) but not all; whereas you could allow syncing of other apps or, say, Mail or Passwords & Keychain to all devices.

Point I'm making, is that on each Device, you have to select exactly what you want to sync.

Depending on your answers, we can take things forward.

Ian

 

[Howard Brazee]

My wife doesn't take photos. We have separate AppleID accounts (but have family sharing). But I share my Photos library with her. All of my photos are visible on her iMac & iPhone. Most of them are on her iPad, but it doesn't have enough space for all of them.

 

[tobindia]

do you and your wife share the same ID

Yes, my wife and I share one Apple ID. I've known for some time that my Mac does not sync photos. As I said above, I turned it off some years ago for some forgotten reason. I'm reluctant to turn it on now, for fear that it will use up all available space on one or more IOS devices when they receive the new photos from iCloud.

 

[tobindia]

If I now turn on syncing to iCloud on my Mac,
1. Will the full resolution photos on my Mac be synced onto my IOS devices/iCloud in "compacted" form (I forget the proper terminology.)?
2. Will the "compacted" photos on my IOS devices/iCloud be synced to my Mac?
3. Will duplicate photos be ignored?
4. What happens if one or more of the IOS devices runs out of storage?

 

[IWT]

Here are my answers as far as I understand things:

1. Full resolution will be synced across all devices from your Mac
2. Not sure what you mean by "compacted" photos on iDevices - but syncing through iCloud means that all Devices should end up with near identical content.
3. Duplicates will usually be synced
4. If an iOS Device runs out of storage - this Apple based link may help you:

how do i fix running out of iphone storage - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

I hope some of my reply helps you. Syncing Photos across any/all Devices means that each device shows up the same thing by definition, but if you know that one device has limited storage - ie storage space less than the amount needed to include all these photos, then you should exclude that device in the syncing process.

That's my take on the situation. Best I can do; sorry.

Ian

 

[tobindia]

Let me now revise my plan:

1. Export all of the Mac photos to a folder on an external hard drive. (I’ve actually done this.)
2. Backup Mac to Time Machine again. (The IOS devices all use automatic backups.)
3. Create a new, empty .photoslibrary on the Mac.
4. Enable syncing of Mac photos to iCloud. All photos on iCloud should then be “copied” to the Mac, right???
5. After all photos have synced to the Mac, export these “new” photos from the Mac to another folder on the EHD.
6. Run Cisdem to identify and eliminate duplicate photos in the 2 folders on the EHD.
7. Delete ALL photos from iCloud by deleting them on the Mac. There will now be no photos on any device.
8. Import the remaining, unique photos from the EHD to the Mac. As the photos are imported (or shortly thereafter) the photos will be synced to all IOS devices. (I’ll try to do this selectively, while I monitor the storage on me IOS devices.)

How does that sound?

 

[tobindia]

Before I proceed, I would like to know, as I asked in step 4, above, when I enable syncing of Mac photos to iCloud, will all photos on iCloud then be “copied” to the Mac, so that I'll have the same photos on all of my devices. I'd appreciate your advice.

 

[tobindia]

I've been out of town for a week or so, so I didn't do anything on this for a while. Now that I'm back... I haven't heard anything, so I decided to try my plan above. I reached step 4, "Enable syncing of Mac photos to iCloud." To do this, I did: System Settings > Apple ID. When I clicked on the Photos toggle switch, a popup window asked for my password, I entered this and got this window:

It opened Photos, but nothing happened and the Photos toggle remained off. What am I doing wrong?

To refresh, photos are synced thru iCloud on my several IOS devices but not on my Mac. I now have a new, empty .photoslibrary on my Mac and would like to synd the photos on all devices.