Q: How do I get Faces from my Mac to show up on my iPhone
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Jun 7, 2015 9:07 PMby markwmsn,HelpfulApple explicitly documents that in the current implementation of iCloud Photo Library the Faces information created in one Photos library stays in that library and is not shared across iCloud Photo Library to other Macs. By experiment, they do not even appear on iCloud.com's Photos app. As you say, Photos on the iPhone doesn't even have Faces. Each Mac is an island for Faces; iPhones just don't have them.
If you want Apple to support Faces across devices across iCloud Photo Library, submit that suggestion through Apple's formal feedback mechanisms. They won't reply, and they may not give you what you want, but that's the way to tell them it's what you want.
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Jun 7, 2015 9:15 PMby Tompert,So it seems. Weird though that when I first made the switch Faces was indeed present on the iPhone... and certainly before when there was still iPhoto on the Mac side and Photos only existed on the iPhone. I specifically remember the upgrade that threw Faces out of alphabetical order on the iPhone. Then they seemed to disappear after another upgrade, i.e. no photos within Faces albums and now they seem to be gone altogether. I can understand if it's simply not possible for Apple to do this in conjunction with iCloud, there might be some technical limitations, but Apple also says specifically that the Faces Tiles and Names are synched across devices. But what happens when I search for one person it offers that Persons' name and "Faces" in the search results but when I click on it I only get a fraction of the photos that have the persons name in Faces on my Mac. Do you run into this too?
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Jun 8, 2015 7:27 AMby markwmsn,HelpfulWhere do you see Apple saying "specifically that the Faces Tiles and Names are synched across devices"? The closest I can find is the mixed message they give in Tag faces in Photos to find people on all your devices - Apple Support where they say both "When you use iCloud Photo Library, these faces automatically update on all your devices." (hopeful) and "iCloud doesn't automatically update changes to the names associated with Faces or the contents of the Faces photo album in the Photos app. You can tag people's faces with names on multiple Macs, but the face tags and Faces photo albums will remain unique to each computer." (discouraging). It's almost as if they intended to do it but had to back off for some reason. (We aren't allowed to speculate on reasons here.)
I choose to be optimistic that this feature will become available at some point. It just makes sense.
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Jun 8, 2015 10:25 AMby Tompert,I took the listing of "Keywords from Faces Tiles" on this page to mean that:
Use Photos and iCloud Photo Library on multiple Mac computers - Apple Support
And I as I mentioned it does indeed offer "John (Faces)" in search results when I search for "John" except it does not show all the photos tagged with John in Faces on my Mac, but only about 20%. I haven't tagged John on my MacBook so it must take it from somewhere, presumably from my main Mac (Pro).
And yes, I will again make a request, for both Faces (show Faces album on IOS with ability to display in alphabetical order) and Places (ability to location tag photos without a location or change location of a scan / or photo from photo for example). Both of these things were features that were offered before although I know Places had its problems.
My question is really one of ... is this working for anybody (maybe it's because my library is unusually large or old) or is there a workaround I am not aware of.
I would love to be able to have Faces again on my phone which is where I need to find a photo fastest and the ability to assign places to photos that I have scanned or digital photos that came from a camera without location tagging.
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Jun 8, 2015 12:49 PMby markwmsn,OK. I missed that "Searchable keywords based on Faces tiles" bullet point. Like you, it works in a very limited way for me. In one case, the iPhone shows me both of the 2 photos for one of my family members; in another, only 2 of 45 (the same 2 as the first family member); in another, only 2 of 36 (again, the same 2); in yet another, none of the 44 pictures my MBP shows (and his face isn't even shown as a search hit).
Still needs some work. Sadly, improvements to Photos didn't seem to be among the changes scheduled for OS X El Capitan or iOS 9 mentioned in today's keynote. (I say "didn't seem" because my Apple TV stuttered over parts of the presentation.)
