Order of Photos in iOS

By default iOS devices display pictures in Camera Roll and in Synced Albums by “date created” which is not necessarily the same as “date taken”. Date created and date taken are part of the picture metadata and are not easily edited. However, there is a workaround for synced photos from a Windows computer that allows a user to display synced photos on an iPhone or an iPad in any order the user wants.

Basically all pictures start with a creation date based on the date the picture was taken. However if the picture is saved under a different name or is copied, a new “date created” will be established in the metadata. This is also true if a picture is edited with software like Photoshop and then saved as a copy, not to the original.

Unfortunately iOS does not provide the options available in OS X or Windows to sort pictures for display. Albums can be created from Camera Roll and the pictures in those albums can be sorted however Albums synced from a computer cannot be sorted once they are synced to an iOS device. They remain in the "date created" order.

To display synced pictures from a Windows computer in the order one desires, try the following:

1. In the PC’s File Manager create a new folder under My Pictures and name it as you wish, let's say, Vacation. That name will be the name that will show up on the iOS device.

2. Delete the iPod Photo Cache folder (if there is one) under My Pictures (iPod is correct, not iPad). A new one gets created with every iTunes photo sync.

3. Copy, not move, the pictures into the Vacation folder one by one in the order you want them displayed in your device. By copying each picture in the right order, a new “date created” with be established in the metadata of the photos.

3b. This step is not necessary, it is for info only. Ignore as desired. If you want to see the pictures in your PC's File Explorer in the new order, select View > Details > and sort by “date created”. If “date created” is not shown on the header, right click on the header and select “date created” in the drop down menu. Go back to "View" and select “Icons”. You will see the pictures in order.

4. Open iTunes and sync the Vacation folder to your device. Make sure previous folders are not also selected, that way they get deleted as desired.

The pictures will now show up in the order desired, essentially any order one choses if they are copied in that order. This works on all iOS devices.

This User Tip was created from the following thread: Re: How can I sequence photos in an Pad album? The photos are sequenced by file name (e.g., C 10, C,20, CN) within their folder (album) in Photoshop Elements on my Windows 10 PC, but the sequencing is disrupted upon import/synch to the iPad via iTun