Recommendations for photo organization

[MacInWin]

But that's only available on the Mac, not the iPhone.

You connect the iPhone to the Mac, start Image Capture, tell it to put the images into Photos and it does so, on the Mac.

 

[MacInWin]

Perhaps it's just a matter of turning on iCloud storage for Photos periodically, let it sync, then turning it off again,

Not the same. iCloud Storage and iCloud for sync are two different things. I've invited Ian to this thread to see what he can suggest for you. If you turn on sync through iCloud on the iDevice, it will sync. That means ALL of them will sync. So, unless you want them all. don't do that.

 

[MacInWin]

Make one and it should become apparent. You define "criteria" for which photos are to be included in the Smart Album. The criteria and the comparison varies by what attribute(s) you want to use to define the album. See the screenshots below...
View attachment 37880 View attachment 37881 View attachment 37882 View attachment 37883

Good reply, and in addition, note that any given image may be in more than one album, smart or not. So, for example, if I have an image of my wife from one of the times we visited England, I could have it in a calendar -base album, or location-based, or a smart album where I've selected her as the criteria. And in all of those albums, there is just ONE image involved, the one in the main database in Photos. So, I don't have to have just ONE album for any image. That is a huge feature, for me.

 

[SteveSawyer]

Not the same. iCloud Storage and iCloud for sync are two different things. I've invited Ian to this thread to see what he can suggest for you. If you turn on sync through iCloud on the iDevice, it will sync. That means ALL of them will sync. So, unless you want them all. don't do that.

Yeah - I mis-spoke. It clearly says that "When syncing is off, your Photo Library is included in your device backup." So yeah, two different things. And iCloud Drive is something else entirely...

 

[MacInWin]

I got a note from Ian that he is a bit under the weather, so it may be a while before he can get to this, but he is the real expert on how sync and uploads work in Photos on both Mac and iDevices. So, wait for him, if you can.

 

[ferrarr]

Do you ave the option for My Photo Stream? You might have to turn off iCloud Photos for the option to show up?

 

[SteveSawyer]

Do you ave the option for My Photo Stream? You might have to turn off iCloud Photos for the option to show up?

I was just looking at that yesterday. By its description that might do the trick. I just have to make sure that anything I want to keep gets saved to my photo library. But the upside is all the “junk” (90%) goes to the bit-bucket!

 

[SteveSawyer]

Bob @ferrarr - I turned on the Photo Stream option. Weird. I can see the My Photo Stream album on my iPhone. But it doesn't show up in my iCloud.com/Photos, nor (as expected) does it show up in the photos app on my Mac. I noticed that this album on my phone was empty, so I took a new pic, and as I expected, it immediately showed up in the My Photo Stream album on my phone - the notation in System Preferences does indicate that once Photo Stream is turned on, only new photos are pushed to the Photo Stream album. But neither the album nor the photo are showing up in iCloud.com/Photos.

Hopefully, I'm doing something wrong. This seems like a really good solution to the use-case I'm trying to address.

 

[MacInWin]

Ian has been under the weather, but I did a bit of searching to find these two threads with his expertise documented:

Photo Management

The issue in that thread is different, but there is a lot of background on how PhotoStream works and what settings do what.

Also,

Photo Stream won't do its thing

That second thread is long, but the most applicable may be post #37 and #41

As I said, Ian is indisposed temporarily, but maybe those two might help? If no, I would suggest you use the search function on this site to search for Photostream and peruse the hundreds of posts that it returned to see if there is a better match.

 

[SteveSawyer]

Ian has been under the weather, but I did a bit of searching to find these two threads with his expertise documented:

Photo Management

The issue in that thread is different, but there is a lot of background on how PhotoStream works and what settings do what.

Also,

Photo Stream won't do its thing

That second thread is long, but the most applicable may be post #37 and #41

As I said, Ian is indisposed temporarily, but maybe those two might help? If no, I would suggest you use the search function on this site to search for Photostream and peruse the hundreds of posts that it returned to see if there is a better match.

Thanks, Jake. I thought that Ian had the "fix" when I saw his comment in that thread that you have to turn on My Photo Stream on the Mac for it to be available/visible. But I searched through every possible setting (I think) and couldn't find any reference to Photo Stream. Then I started web searches to find out how to turn it on, and ran across this article from a year ago. If this is true, then it looks like Photo Stream is being deprecated and may simply not be available on the Mac, at least on this latest update of Monterey (12.6.3)

Too bad, because like I said to @ferrarr, this would have been perfect for what I'm trying to do...

 

[MacInWin]

Thanks, Jake. I thought that Ian had the "fix" when I saw his comment in that thread that you have to turn on My Photo Stream on the Mac for it to be available/visible. But I searched through every possible setting (I think) and couldn't find any reference to Photo Stream. Then I started web searches to find out how to turn it on, and ran across this article from a year ago. If this is true, then it looks like Photo Stream is being deprecated and may simply not be available on the Mac, at least on this latest update of Monterey (12.6.3)

Too bad, because like I said to @ferrarr, this would have been perfect for what I'm trying to do...

In Photos, Help, I found this longish article from the Photos User guide. I'll post it, but then after it give you a link to the whole Photos User guide so you can study for yourself.

Sync photos between your Mac and iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch​

You can sync photos on your Mac to your device. You can sync all or a selection of photos from your Photos library on your Mac. For example, you can sync a selection of favorite albums or photos of people.

You can also sync photos from your Pictures folder or another folder that you organize to hold photos. For example, you can import photos from a camera into a folder in the Finder. You can organize your photos in multiple folders within a folder and sync the folders to a device.

Synced photos appear in the Photos app on your device.

Important: If you already use iCloud Photos on your Mac and devices, your photos are updated automatically. You can’t use the syncing method described here unless you turn off iCloud Photos in Photos settings on your device. See Use iCloud Photos to store photos in iCloud and What is iCloud?

Sync photos to your device​

1. Connect your device to your Mac.
   You can connect your device using a USB or USB-C cable or using a Wi-Fi connection. See Sync content between your Mac and iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch over Wi-Fi.
2. In the Finder
   
   on your Mac, select the device in the Finder sidebar.
   
   
   
   If you connect your device to your Mac using a USB cable and don’t see the device in the Finder sidebar, see If your device doesn’t appear in the sidebar.
3. Click Photos in the button bar.
   
   
   
   Note: When iCloud Photos is turned on, no photo syncing options appear when you click Photos in the button bar.
4. Select “Sync Photos to your device from” checkbox, then choose Photos, Pictures, or a folder from the pop-up menu.
5. Do one of the following:
   • When syncing photos from the Photos app: Click “All photos and albums” or “Selected albums.” If you click the “Selected albums” button, select the checkboxes of the albums you want to sync in the Albums list.
     
     
     
     Click Photos or People to see your photos organized by that category.
   • When syncing photos from a folder: Click “All folders” or “Selected folders.” If you clicked “Selected folders,” select the checkboxes of the folders you want to sync in the Folders list.
6. Select syncing options:
   • Select the “Include videos” checkbox to include videos when syncing from a folder or Photos library.
   • When syncing from the Photos app, select the “Only favorites” checkbox to sync only photos specified as favorites.
   • When syncing from the Photos app, select the “Automatically include photos from” checkbox and choose a time period from the pop-up menu to sync only photos taken within that period.
7. When you’re ready to sync, click Apply.

You can choose to sync your Mac and your device automatically whenever you connect them. See Turn automatic syncing on or off on Mac.
Before disconnecting your device from your Mac, click the Eject button

in the Finder sidebar.

Remove automatically synced photos from your device​

To remove an unwanted folder of photos from your Mac and device, delete photos from the Photos app or delete the folder from your Mac and sync your device.
To remove a an album or folder of photos from just your device while keeping it on your Mac, follow these steps:

1. Connect your device to your Mac.
   You can connect your device using a USB or USB-C cable or using a Wi-Fi connection. See Sync content between your Mac and iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch over Wi-Fi.
2. In the Finder
   
   on your Mac, select your device in the sidebar, then click Photos in the button bar.
3. In the folders list, deselect the checkbox of the albums or folders you want removed.
4. Sync your Mac with the device.

WARNING: If you delete an automatically synced item from your Mac, the deleted item is removed from your device the next time you sync.
Before disconnecting your device from your Mac, click the Eject button

in the Finder sidebar.
See alsoIntro to syncing your Mac and your devicesSync content between your Mac and iPhone, iPad, or iPod touchSync content between your Mac and iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch over Wi-Fi

Here is the full link to the Photos User Guide: Photos User Guide for Mac

Basically, the sync of photos NOT using iCloud is through Finder. You can connect either by cable or WiFi. If sync by iCloud is OFF, there will be Photos options in Finder. If you turn on Photos sync through iCloud, that option won't be there. Not named Photostream and not automatic, but you can still do it.

In addition, you can add images from the iPhone to Photos using Image Capture, which is in your Applications folder.

 

[SteveSawyer]

Thanks Jake. I'm good with syncing between my Mac and iCloud Photos. I'm just trying to get photos off my iPhone (or less frequently, iPad) into iCloud photos. And yeah, automatic is nice, but with Photo Stream apparently being deprecated, that isn't available. I think I've settled on a good method, which actually should work well as a huge percentage of the photos I end up with on my phone aren't anything I want to keep. Screenshots, product pics to show the wife, etc. All I have to do (and I can have my wife do the same) is to send the "keepers" to a Shared Album in iCloud Photos, and move those into appropriate folders. Once I've done that I can safely delete all the other junk and keep my photo storage on the phone to a minimum. iCloud Photos is readily available via the web, so if there is anything I need to pull down to the phone for any reason it's there.

I've bookmarked that link to the Photos User Guide. Thanks.

 

[MacInWin]

Do take a look at Image Capture, it's pretty useful for moving images/videos quickly. You can send them directly from iPhone to Photos, or to a file folder.