Closing the gap between overwhelmed and organized. As it did with photo editing, A.I. makes photo management more accessible to average users and it showed up last year in a collection of new and updated apps for mobile and desktop devices. Apps that feature object recognition, smart tagging, decluttering assist, “best shot” evaluation, auto grouping, and more.
Thank you for this article. I’m all apple and have used the search option for objects or places often. I try to manage my 34k photos by pulling up photos by date /daily and deleting. Of course one event or vacation just adds more photos. I do find the folders a challenge to navigate on my iPhone so bought an iPad to more easily manage.
Are there other apps you would recommend that go a step further? To retouch backgrounds etc.
My Mac laptop houses another 100k photos and multiple folders. I have tried to keep names consistent. Do you know what would happen if I merge these 2 libraries via the could. This seem to be an elusive question even for Apple experts. Thank you
Navigating Apple Photos on the iPhone can be a challenge. It's the price one pays for using a small always-with-you device. And it's a prime reason I highly recommend using iCloud to sync your Photos library to all devices as you suggest. Being able to use a Mac-sized monitor makes any photo editing task much more efficient and enjoyable. Not only that, but having your whole library duplicated on multiple devices adds a layer of security against device failure or loss.
Merging your iPhone library with your Mac via iCloud should be an easy process. iCloud's job is to make sure the content on all Photos Libraries is the same, so turning on iCloud Photos syncs will create one combined set of photos and then distribute them back to each device. Once done (and it may take a few days depending on your Wi-Fi connections) then any additions or deletions from any device will be mirrored everywhere. And you won't have to manually duplicate naming. I always recommend doing a backup (iPhone to iCloud & Mac to Time Machine) of every device before merging "just in case" but it's rare to see any issues with what you're describing.
The one thing to watch for is that you have enough space on each device to hold original sized photos of the entire combined Library. If you don't, (generally a consideration on iPhones) then you can turn on Optimization to save downsized previews on the devices with inadequate storage.
As for your photo editing question, to take the next step from Apple Photos own editing features, take a look at Photomater. It works seamlessly with Apple Photos and is available on iOS and macOS.
Hi Laura - Yes. That's the beauty of the Apple Photos ecosystem. When you choose to Optimize the Library on your iPhone, new photos get uploaded to iCloud Photo Library and are stored there in full size. They also live on your iPhone for awhile until the system decides it's not being actively used and then iCloud replaces it with a smaller Preview sized file. The cool thing is, though, that when you need the full size image again - for a book design, to share, or for editing - iCloud will replace the preview temporarily with an Original. It's a slick system.
In order for the system to work, though, you have to understand that it is a single Photos Library that is synced across iCloud and all your devices. Any action on one device is duplicated everywhere. So be very careful when deleting photos/videos that you don't need them anymore. They will be deleted everywhere. It's very important, especially with iPhones, to buy them with more than enough storage to last for the life of the device.
Thank you for this article. I’m all apple and have used the search option for objects or places often. I try to manage my 34k photos by pulling up photos by date /daily and deleting. Of course one event or vacation just adds more photos. I do find the folders a challenge to navigate on my iPhone so bought an iPad to more easily manage.
Are there other apps you would recommend that go a step further? To retouch backgrounds etc.
My Mac laptop houses another 100k photos and multiple folders. I have tried to keep names consistent. Do you know what would happen if I merge these 2 libraries via the could. This seem to be an elusive question even for Apple experts. Thank you
Great questions!
Navigating Apple Photos on the iPhone can be a challenge. It's the price one pays for using a small always-with-you device. And it's a prime reason I highly recommend using iCloud to sync your Photos library to all devices as you suggest. Being able to use a Mac-sized monitor makes any photo editing task much more efficient and enjoyable. Not only that, but having your whole library duplicated on multiple devices adds a layer of security against device failure or loss.
Merging your iPhone library with your Mac via iCloud should be an easy process. iCloud's job is to make sure the content on all Photos Libraries is the same, so turning on iCloud Photos syncs will create one combined set of photos and then distribute them back to each device. Once done (and it may take a few days depending on your Wi-Fi connections) then any additions or deletions from any device will be mirrored everywhere. And you won't have to manually duplicate naming. I always recommend doing a backup (iPhone to iCloud & Mac to Time Machine) of every device before merging "just in case" but it's rare to see any issues with what you're describing.
The one thing to watch for is that you have enough space on each device to hold original sized photos of the entire combined Library. If you don't, (generally a consideration on iPhones) then you can turn on Optimization to save downsized previews on the devices with inadequate storage.
As for your photo editing question, to take the next step from Apple Photos own editing features, take a look at Photomater. It works seamlessly with Apple Photos and is available on iOS and macOS.
Thank you for your thoughtful & informative response!
Hi Laura - Yes. That's the beauty of the Apple Photos ecosystem. When you choose to Optimize the Library on your iPhone, new photos get uploaded to iCloud Photo Library and are stored there in full size. They also live on your iPhone for awhile until the system decides it's not being actively used and then iCloud replaces it with a smaller Preview sized file. The cool thing is, though, that when you need the full size image again - for a book design, to share, or for editing - iCloud will replace the preview temporarily with an Original. It's a slick system.
In order for the system to work, though, you have to understand that it is a single Photos Library that is synced across iCloud and all your devices. Any action on one device is duplicated everywhere. So be very careful when deleting photos/videos that you don't need them anymore. They will be deleted everywhere. It's very important, especially with iPhones, to buy them with more than enough storage to last for the life of the device.