How does iPhone sort photos synced to it? (WinXP)

I don't think there is a way to do what you are asking in iTunes. For PC users I think you'll need a third party app. The only way I've discovered to sort the photos is through the use of albums. I put the photos in albums and they stay in the order I import them.

I see what you mean now by "camera roll" "photo library" and them albums. Still doesn't work for me. I tried putting all my albums in 1 folder in iphoto (mac user here), still didn't matter when I went to sync. My newer albums are at the bottom of the list. Seems like this would be an easy fix for the wizards at apple. After I called apple support they refered me to;
http://www.apple.com/feedback/
If everyone here sends them an email I bet it gets fixed.

No way, REALLY? You have a mac, you organize your albums in alphabetical order, you sync to your iphone. You then ADD additional albums to iphoto, alphabetize them, sync to your iphone and the new albums are in alphabetical order? There must be another step. This is what I'm doing and it aint workin

FINALLY!
I have solved the sorting problem and my photos are now all sorted exactly like I want them. I realized that the iPhone sorts photos chronologically _based on the optimized version it creates_. What you have to do to get your photos sorted the way you want them is the following:

1) Uncheck the "Sync Photos" box in iTunes and choose to delete all pictures from your device
2) Go to the folder that your pictures are in
2) Find the folder called "iPod Photo Cache"
3) Delete that folder
4) Go back to iTunes and recheck the box to sync photos
5) iTunes will optimize your photos again and they will be sorted the way you have them in the folder

It is not the cleanest way to get your photos in the order you want (especially if you have like 1,200 photos), but it gets the job done. You will have to do this every time you add new photos, but I would rather take a few minutes every time I sync my iPhone and have my pictures sorted correctly rather than look at my pictures out of order.

Just registered to help you with this.

No need to delete all photos and resync them.
On iTunes, just rearrange manualy (Drag and Drop)the order of the album you want to sync.

Hope it helps

Thank you. With 12K+ photos, this is truly the best (albeit slow) way to make sure your albums are sorted. I really hope iTunes/iPhone improves photo management b/c it's sad to see only one folder deep and no other way of sorting these albums.

Unless there is a utility out there that I am not aware of.....
Anyone?

Hi, Alan. If the iPhone optimizes the photos in its particular order, shouldn't it repeat that order in re-optimization? I followed your instructions but the photos still show up in the wrong order. My photos are in the exactly same wrong order like before. Am I missing something?

You have to unsync your photos and have it remove them from your device, delete the folder called "ipod photo cache," make sure the photos are in the folder in the order you want them, and then resync your photos. It should put your photos in the exact order that you have them in the folder.

Hope that helps,
Alan

PROBLEM SOLVED! - I had this problem with a large PowerPoint presentation - the best way to get a PowerPoint to work on an iPhone with an external projector I've found is to use PowerPoint to export the slides as JPG or PNG files, to save these as a folder on your PC, then sync them to your iPhone using iTunes. The single biggest problem was logical (not intuitive) file numbering, meaning the slides were wildly out of order. I fixed this using a freeware 'bulk file renamer' using the convention aaaa.png, aaab.png - aaaz.png - aaba.png, aaca.png and so on until all 154(!) slides were renamed. Getting rid of the files and the cache and re-syncing fixed the issue once and for all!

In my case, I was syncing photos from an album in Aperture to my iPhone. Initially, the photos appeared on my iPhoto in seemingly random order. Pretty annoying.

Here's how I solved this problem.

First, back in Aperture, I displayed the photos by sorting by image date, which is the order that I'd expect to see on the phone. Next, and this is the key... I dragged the first image and swapped its position with the second image. I then swapped the order of the first two images again. This little trick creates a "custom" sort order within Aperture. It essentially fixes the places of all images in the album for good.

Now, I just synced with my iPhone again, and presto! All the images are sorted exactly as in Aperture (by image date).

There was no need to delete any photo caches or anything. I just re-synced and it took a few seconds.

For those using iPhoto, not Aperture... I'm not sure whether the same trick will work but there's a good chance. Someone want to try?

Thanks Alan. Problems solved for me.

My two cents for those who are still have problems on that....

1) Now i organised pictures into different albums (limited to around 200 photos so as to minimize the need and the time required to sync all photos everytime). For examples,
2006 Family Album
2006 Wedding Album
2006 xxx Album
2007 xxx

2) Then all photos are then renamed using YYYYMMDD-original file name format using batch rename software (capture NX2 can do that as well). iphone will then sort these photo by date taken accordingly.

Hope that helps.

Thank you!!!

Tried most of the suggested solutions and nothing worked. Here's one that did work for me on the Windows platform...

First, sort the photo files in a folder on your PC hardrive in the order you want them to appear in the iPad album.

Next, open the first file you want to appear in the album with a photo edit program. I used Picassa, but I assume that Photoshop Elements or similar programs would do the same. After opening the file, then simply click "save as" and rename the file (not even sure if the renaming is necessary). Direct the "saved-as" files to a new folder.

Next open the second photo you want to appear in your iPad album and do same. Continue with all the photos which apparently automatically resets the date/time stamp upon saving the file.

Now open Itunes and sync to the new folder you created with the re-dated photo files.

You now should have a photo album on the Ipad exactly as you want.

Unfortunately, to add another photo means you will have to repeat the process from the new photo insertion point. Which there was something a bit more elegant but this is the only solution I found that works.

James

It's frustrating. I created a folder on Windows for my photos, then created sub-folders named cats, personal, and jokes. I put photos in these grouped as I want them. When I sync'd, the iPhone created the sub-folders with the photos in them on the phone, but it also put ALL of the photos in the Photo Library folder on iPhone. The sub-folders were sorted properly on the first sync.
Try renaming your folder on the computer, sync, (photos should be removed from phone), then name the folder back, sorted as you want it and try syncing again.

I thought the cache folders probably had the key to how everything was being sorted and any new additions were simply dumped into the end of the cache. I was afraid to delete the cache, but now I will try it. Thanks.