iPhone 15 Pro Yearly vent - why won't Apple sync photo favorites from iPhone to Mac Photos??

[DrTwoFish]

Time for my semi-annual vent about this - when I upgrade phones I don't want to sync my entire photo library to the new phone or my storage will explode, but I do want to carry my hearted favorites (say, a few hundred family photos) over from one phone to the next. I use the Mac Photos app for backup - I don't want to use iCloud Photos - but when I upload them via USB it won't carry over my favorites tag. Besides being super annoying for transferring to my new phone, I *want* to be able to see my favorites on my Mac!

My current way around this for phone transfer is to make a new shared album and put my favorites in that which will then sync with the new phone, but that also strips the favorite tag and makes me either keep it as a separate album from current favorites, manually re-tag one by one, or lose the new favorites in the new library.

This really shouldn't be so hard and is a major fail of the Apple ecosystem. What am I missing??

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

What you're missing is Apple wants more services revenue. So decisions may be made to fuel iCloud subscriptions over what saves customers from needing iCloud.

Your workaround is THE best way. Have 1+ Favorites (photos) albums in Photos on your Mac and sync it to the phone. As you tag new photos as favorites, be sure to also add them to the FAVS album on your Mac.

In exchange for jumping through this hoop, you don't have to pay a monthly fee for iCloud to host your photos. On the other hand, if the workaround is too much trouble, Apple has an iCloud subscription to solve this problem.

Whenever an Apple decision seems to be anti-consumer, just think about the money. Maximizing revenue will trump customer-centered, decision-making in many cases (and that's not an Apple exclusive, but commonplace in all businesses). Consumers interested in not wasting money sometimes have to work around the $henanigan$.

 

[DrTwoFish]

What you're missing is Apple wants more services revenue. So decisions may be made to fuel iCloud subscriptions over what saves customers from needing iCloud.

Your workaround is THE best way. Have 1+ Favorites (photos) albums in Photos on your Mac and sync it to the phone. As you tag new photos as favorites, be sure to also add them to the FAVS album on your Mac.

In exchange for jumping through this hoop, you don't have to pay a monthly fee for iCloud to host your photos. On the other hand, if the workaround is too much trouble, Apple has an iCloud subscription to solve this problem.

Thanks - a frustrating confirmation. Besides the monthly fee, I just don't want all my photos on someone else's servers. I also don't use social media...I'm old and weird and cling desperately to whatever illusion of privacy I have left 😄

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I'm completely with you on this. I'm generally anti-cloud... especially if it's about paying for access to a hard drive in the sky. For what some of the larger tiers cost over even few months, one could own equivalent storage for years in ever-cheaper HDDs. For example, 12TB iCloud is $60/month. Spend 2 months of that to OWN a 12TB HDD that should provide 12TB for 5-10 years.

Put your age-related wisdom/experience to good use and take advantage of creative workarounds. No need wasting money if you don't need the service it buys. Just jump through an extra hoop or two to get the bulk of the benefit for free.

Do the same with Music if you have accumulated a good collection (I would guess on the age comments you probably have). Rip them, create FAV playlists in Apple Music, sync playlists to your iDevice and avoid paying a monthly rental for music. Even on a tight budget, one can buy used CDs for dirt cheap, RIP them and build up a collection of FAVS for not much money. I typically buy $3-$5 per CD (used), often as "greatest hits" and/or "compilations of hits from various artists" (I like). It doesn't take long to have a thousand songs, and then a few thousand songs of favorite music. Make playlists, sync, enjoy. Spend the monthly AM rental to add a few discs when you want some new tunes.

Else, Pandora (and similar) can deliver a lot of new music for free (the "workaround" to paying monthly is listening to some ads).