Photo Management

[m1maverick]

Late last year I cracked the screen on my Android phone. I decided to give the iPhone a try and so I picked up an iPhone 12 Pro. In order to do some of the things I was used to on my Android device I ended up purchasing iMazing which is a nice little program. After using the iPhone for a few months I have encountered a number of annoyances with the most prevalent being the inability to move pictures in the Photos app.

With my Android phone I would take pictures and then move them to other albums. With the iPhone I am unable to do so. All I can do is copy them into a different album. This is quite annoying as my "Recents" album continues to grow without organization (except for the time the picture was taken). Thus when I have new pictures to add to one of my albums I have to search through the Recents album for the pictures I have yet to copy and then copy them to the new album. This is annoying.

I am not sure what the logic is behind having every picture left in the Recents album but whatever the reason it is how Photos works. Picture management in Photos seems to be a afterthought so I am wondering if there are any replacement apps for Photos and, if so, what are some recommended ones? Or is there a way to accomplish what I am trying to do in Photos?

 

[now i see it]

It’s a design choice that certainly irritates people but there’s logic to it.
Think of the photos Library that contains all the photos not as an album but as a Search parameter that gives you the ability to find ALL your pictures in one place.
If you could actually move pictures out of the library into albums, finding a particular picture would be a lot of work. You’d have to open each album and scroll through it.
iOS photos app definitely doesn’t work like normal computer apps do and I’m definitely not a fan of it, but once you get over the apparent weirdness of it, it’s actually kind of functional.

 

[Harmonious Zen]

I like the Apple implementation better. It keeps your library from getting too fragmented. Albums act essentially like tags and one photo can be in multiple albums. Makes a lot of sense to me. I think this is how Google Photos works too.

 

[mrochester]

To this day it amazes me how many people want to treat digital photos like physical photos still when it comes to albums! Not a criticism just an interesting observation.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

iPhone is neither “moving” nor “copying” photos into albums. It’s “linking” them.

Any album can have whatever photos you wish, and any photo can be in as many albums as you wish. I might have a photo of my wife in a “Wife” album, a “Vacations” album, a “Funny pics” album, and a “Favorites” album. But that picture only exists once - there aren’t 4 different versions of the photo; the one photo is still in my “All Photos” grouping and is simply “linked” to those albums so it doesn’t take any significant additional storage.

 

[HDFan]

All I can do is copy them into a different album.

As above.

You actually aren't copying them to album but are just creating a link to the file in the album. That way you can delete a photo from an album without deleting the original file wherever it may live. Much safer and easier system.

If you want to actually move photos between albums you might want to look at Lightroom.

 

[m1maverick]

As above.

You actually aren't copying them to album but are just creating a link to the file in the album. That way you can delete a photo from an album without deleting the original file wherever it may live. Much safer and easier system.

If you want to actually move photos between albums you might want to look at Lightroom.

I did research this before posting and I saw this explanation several times. However, it is a distinction without a purpose as the result is the same: The picture still appears in the Recents album. I am surprised that moving a picture from one album to another appears to be impossible in the Photos app. Given the research I did it looks like a feature many people want yet there doesn't appear to be a solution.

 

[mrochester]

I did research this before posting and I saw this explanation several times. However, it is a distinction without a purpose as the result is the same: A copy of the picture remains in the Recents Album. I am surprised that moving a picture from one Album to another appears to be impossible in the Photos app. Given the research I did it looks like a feature many people want yet there doesn't appear to be a solution.

There’s no solution because you are not actually moving anything. All you are doing when you add a photo to an album is adding metadata to the photo to indicate it belongs to that album. One photo can belong to multiple albums. The recents folder is an ‘all photos’ album so there’s no way of removing any photos from it, other than deleting them.

 

[eyoungren]

I like the Apple implementation better. It keeps your library from getting too fragmented. Albums act essentially like tags and one photo can be in multiple albums. Makes a lot of sense to me. I think this is how Google Photos works too.

I do not and never have. I'd much prefer them to be handled in the same way they are on a Mac or PC. How Apple handles photos on iOS was one major reason I was jailbreaking for years. Jailbreak tweaks fixed what Apple would not.

 

[eyoungren]

There’s no solution because you are not actually moving anything. All you are doing when you add a photo to an album is adding metadata to the photo to indicate it belongs to that album. One photo can belong to multiple albums. The recents folder is an ‘all photos’ folder so there’s no way of removing any photos from it, other than deleting them.

I've heard this described as a 'pointer' or a 'shortcut' to the photo in the Camera Roll itself. Albums are just a collection of pointers/shortcuts then, making finding those photos in the Camera Roll more direct.

 

[mrochester]

I do not and never have. I'd much prefer them to be handled in the same way they are on a Mac or PC. How Apple handles photos on iOS was one major reason I was jailbreaking for years. Jailbreak tweaks fixed what Apple would not.

Photos on macOS works in exactly the same way as iOS.

 

[eyoungren]

Photos on macOS works in exactly the same way as iOS.

The photos app or photos as files in the file system?

I work with TIF, PSD, PDF, JPG, PNG, EPS, AI and a bunch of other graphic formats every day on a work issued M2 MBP running Sonoma. I can copy files (photos) or move files (photos) in and out of folders and they only exist in two or more places if I copy them. I move them and they exist in the place I put them. That's the way the Mac OS file system works and has always worked. Windows/PC too.

If you're talking about the Photos app on Mac, I've used it maybe three or four times, most of that last year. I primarily use Photoshop to view photos.

 

[mrochester]

The photos app or photos as files in the file system?

I work with TIF, PSD, PDF, JPG, PNG, EPS, AI and a bunch of other graphic formats every day on a work issued M2 MBP running Sonoma. I can copy files (photos) or move files (photos) in and out of folders and they only exist in two or more places if I copy them. I move them and they exist in the place I put them. That's the way the Mac OS file system works and has always worked. Windows/PC too.

If you're talking about the Photos app on Mac, I've used it maybe three or four times, most of that last year. I primarily use Photoshop to view photos.

The Photos app.

File system is a different thing entirely. You can't access the file system on iOS or iPad OS.

 

[m1maverick]

There’s no solution because you are not actually moving anything. All you are doing when you add a photo to an album is adding metadata to the photo to indicate it belongs to that album. One photo can belong to multiple albums. The recents folder is an ‘all photos’ album so there’s no way of removing any photos from it, other than deleting them.

I fully understand it's not making a copy but rather adding a pointer to the picture in the new album. I get it and it's a distinction without a purpose. Whether it is making an actual copy, adding a new pointer to the new album, or something else is irrelevant. The end result is I have an album which contains all of my pictures. That wouldn't be an issue except for the fact that all new pictures end up in this album. Frankly, it's stupid and I cannot for the life of me fathom why Apple would not allow the user to move the picture (yes, I know the actual implementation is done through pointers but I am using Apple's terminology) from the Recents album to a different album.

 

[eyoungren]

I fully understand it's not making a copy but rather adding a pointer to the picture in the new album. I get it and it's a distinction without a purpose. Whether it is making an actual copy, adding a new pointer to the new album, or something else is irrelevant. The end result is I have an album which contains all of my pictures. That wouldn't be an issue except for the fact that all new pictures end up in this album. Frankly, it's stupid and I cannot for the life of me fathom why Apple would not allow the user to move the picture (yes, I know the actual implementation is done through pointers but I am using Apple's terminology) from the Recents album to a different album.

I agree with you, but this is one of those things Apple still has locked down unfortunately. It goes way back to the original iPhone and as I understand it, you (the customer/user) weren't allowed to even change wallpaper at that time.

 

[eyoungren]

The Photos app.

File system is a different thing entirely. You can't access the file system on iOS or iPad OS.

Yeah, I avoid the whole thing on Mac as I don't use Photos.app. The only reason I used the Photos app last year was because I needed to get photos from my Mac to my iPhone after an iCloud restore failed to include all of them.

 

[mrochester]

I fully understand it's not making a copy but rather adding a pointer to the picture in the new album. I get it and it's a distinction without a purpose. Whether it is making an actual copy, adding a new pointer to the new album, or something else is irrelevant. The end result is I have an album which contains all of my pictures. That wouldn't be an issue except for the fact that all new pictures end up in this album. Frankly, it's stupid and I cannot for the life of me fathom why Apple would not allow the user to move the picture (yes, I know the actual implementation is done through pointers but I am using Apple's terminology) from the Recents album to a different album.

Because it’s a photos app, not a file system.

What you’d need to do is copy the photos from your phone to either a Mac or Windows PC and then create a folder/album structure there using the file system.

 

[adrianlondon]

The photo app on the Mac and the iPhone are not the same.

Mac Photos is a good app. You can view and edit IPTC info, export photos with custom dimensions, and create smart albums (such as “not in any album”).

iOS Photos is a simplified imitation. You can set a caption but not a title. On the Mac, titles show under each photo but you can’t see them on the phone. You can search for them though.

There’s no way to control the exact size of an exported photo and, as I finally get around to answering the OP, there are no smart albums so there’s no way to get a list/grid of photos which have yet to be placed into an album.

If you don’t have a Mac or don’t want to wait until you get to one, you’ll need a third party app.

Apple have generally been simplifying their apps over time (think of their office suite) or kill good apps such as Aperture.

 

[TracerAnalog]

I did research this before posting and I saw this explanation several times. However, it is a distinction without a purpose as the result is the same: The picture still appears in the Recents album. I am surprised that moving a picture from one album to another appears to be impossible in the Photos app. Given the research I did it looks like a feature many people want yet there doesn't appear to be a solution.

Well, it is not a distinction without purpose. Regardless, you’re not the only one confused by Apple’s paradigms. It’s the same for music btw.

Your library contains all your photo’s, and they are tagged in multiple ways: time, location, etc. An album is just another tag. That’s why it makes no sense to ‘move’ a photo to another album. It’s still part of your library.

Tip: tag the photos you intend to add to an album as favorite until you have added them to an album.

Tip 2: you can actually save a photo as a file and really move it around to folders if you would be so inclined. Cumbersome for sure but then you are really moving it.

 

[m1maverick]

Well, it is not a distinction without purpose. Regardless, you’re not the only one confused by Apple’s paradigms. It’s the same for music btw.

Yes, it is. The underlying details of how Apple manages pictures in Photos is completely irrelevant to the question I asked. Please stop derailing my thread explaining something that is irrelevant.

 

[BugeyeSTI]

Yes, it is. The underlying details of how Apple manages pictures in Photos is completely irrelevant to the question I asked. Please stop derailing my thread explaining something that is irrelevant.

The question you asked is irrelevant because Apples photos app doesn't work like Androids offerings. If you can't adapt to it and it's a deal breaker you should consider moving back to the platform that allows you to do what you need it to do

 

[Altis]

Apple could just add another "Album" that of photos that aren't in other albums.

Kind of like when they removed the "All Songs" from artists in the music app, forcing you to look through each album for specific songs rather than just an alphabetical list of all the songs from that artist.

 

[mrochester]

Apple could just add another "Album" that of photos that aren't in other albums.

Kind of like when they removed the "All Songs" from artists in the music app, forcing you to look through each album for specific songs rather than just an alphabetical list of all the songs from that artist.

All photos are in at least one album (the recents album). There’ll be no photos in no album.

 

[TracerAnalog]

Yes, it is. The underlying details of how Apple manages pictures in Photos is completely irrelevant to the question I asked. Please stop derailing my thread explaining something that is irrelevant.

Hmm. I think you asked what the logic was behind Apple’s way of organizing photo’s. I also gave you a tip how to deal with it. If that’s derailing the topic, I’m out…

 

[BLtheP]

I despise this about the photos app. To me, having both the library and recents is very redundant. The library is "all photos" in and of itself and it should stay that way, with ways to change the order (by date taken, date added, file name, etc). Recents is simply another form of "all photos," but organized by the date they were put in the library - not very helpful. To me the recents should be an album for everything that isn't in an album. There are some things I want to keep but never see (vacation trips, photos for a project, etc). The ability to move those out of the main view (but stay in the library) would be super useful. Simply putting them in an album does nothing helpful because they just end up in the album but still cluttering up both library and recents. And if you aren't able to spend tons of effort sorting photos into albums, you end up putting them in albums multiple times and it's hard to remember what is in what. Can end up with one photo in an album multiple times.

The only time "recents" for me is ever useful, is when selecting photos to put in a text/FB post/etc. But in that case, it could just bring up the library view and then give you a toggle for date taken, date added, etc, so that you could search your own "recents" on the spot when needed. Especially in a pinch like when putting photos into a message.

I've written to Apple many times practically begging them to update the way all this works, but I doubt anything will ever change.

OP - for what it's worth, I use the app "Slidebox" to manage my library. No, it doesn't fix the problem by moving things out of recents into albums. However, to me, it provided the best option for sorting all my photos into albums and making sure everything has a place. It basically scans your library for new photos (since the last time you opened Slidebox), and asks you what album each needs to go in, or gives you the option to skip over it if you don't want to put it in an album or delete it if it was something like a screenshot that you used once and forgot to delete after the fact. It is a helpful tool for doing about as much as you can with the stock photos app. But, like you, I would still MUCH prefer to be able to truly move things. Like I've said, the library tab is all photos. We don't need two different places to see all photos. Recents should be changed to something else, such as everything not moved to an album.